The city and private developers have partnered to jump-start East Baltimore?s revitalization.
Baltimore-based real estate developers H & H Rock Cos. and The Shapiro Co. will develop the Hollander 95 Business Park on the site where the Hollander Ridge public housing complex previously stood.
The 10-building, 50-acre business park is expected to bring about 460 new and relocated jobs to Route 40 and 62nd Street in East Baltimore.
“The time for tearing down is over, and the time for building has arrived,” Mayor Sheila Dixon said Tuesday morning at a groundbreaking ceremony at the business park site. “This business park is a key piece of East Baltimore?s revitalization.”
The Hollander Ridge public housing complex, a 1,000-unit complex, was demolished in 2000. The developers purchased the site from the city for $4 million in 2005.
Mark L. Levy, president of Elkridge-based H & H Rock Cos., said many people said he and his partners were “crazy” to want to develop in East Baltimore.
“When I first looked at the site, this area looked unutilized and undeveloped ? it looked like Route 1 in the mid-1990s,” Levy said.
Hollander 95 will include more than 611,000 square feet of retail, office, flex and industrial-warehouse space near interstates 95 and 895 as well as the Port of Baltimore and downtown Baltimore.
“All of us have to keep Baltimore City in our minds,” Levy said. “None of us can be successful without the success of Baltimore City.”
Mark Shapiro, president of Baltimore-based The Shapiro Co., commended the city for putting the site up for bid for industrial development.
“This is a true public-private partnership,” Shapiro said.
M.J. “Jay” Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said the city needs to find and make the most of redevelopment opportunities.
“With 80 square miles in Baltimore, we can?t expand and we can?t fill the water,” Brodie said. “You?re going to see people with jobsin these buildings and people who are paying taxes to the city of Baltimore.”
Now Leasing
» The Hollander 95 developers are leasing space at two soon-to-be-built buildings at the business park ? two 82,000-square-foot warehouse-distribution buildings.
» Rental rates for Class A properties in Baltimore were about $25 to $30 per square foot at the end of 2006, according to the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
