Putting all the pieces together into one cohesive fabric is how Jay Brodie, president of Baltimore Development, describes one of the city?s successful redevelopment strategies.
While it?s easy to attract developers to invest in more affluent sections ofthe city such as Federal Hill and Canton, the city had to find a way to attract investors to redevelop other areas dominated by vacant houses and abandoned industrial sites.
“Instead of waiting for developers to approach us, we began bundling 10 to 15 properties together in a package,” Brodie said.
The packages are then presented to the development community in the form of a request for a proposal, with a general description of what the city would like to see developed.
The long-term goal of the packages is to eventually reconstitute and connect all the pieces into one vibrant metropolis more than rivaling the Baltimore of glory days.
“We want to make the city even better than it was,” Brodie said.
The possibilities of the packages is attracting seasoned developers such as Mitch Gold, principal of Mt. Washington Business Real Estate Partners. Gold recently won a bid to develop 17 acres of city land located in the Brooklyn-Curtis Bay area of south Baltimore.
Named the Brooklyn Town Center, the present site needs some major improvements.
“We need to move an existing channel,” Gold said.
The channel of water was created by storm drainage, but Gold said he believes it can be moved to a four-acre portion of the site that would eventually become a park and walking trail.
“It?s complicated, but we can solve this puzzle,” Gold said.
This can-do spirit is a trait all the developers of these sites seem to possess.
“We are ready to apply the innovative approach to land reclamation,” Gold said.
Within three years, Gold hopes to transform the once discarded site into a community boasting 300 moderately priced homes and an anchor grocery.
“Everybody is going upscale, but we intend to price our town houses and condos reasonably in the $200,000 to $300,000 range,” Gold said.
Manekin Corp. is the retail consultant on the project and hopes to eventually bring an anchor grocery store to the site.
Still, there are many challenges in redeveloping such a site, said Dicky Darrell, senior sales and leasing associate with Manekin.
“It?s a risky business,” Darrell said.
