One of Baltimore?s pre-eminent residential developers, Pat Turner has watched the city change and grow. Sales at Turner?s latest project, Silo Point, are set to begin in two weeks.
How much has Baltimore changed since you got your start?
The city looked completely different than it does now. Baltimore is probably growing faster than any other [East Coast] town. You have jobs here with Base Realignment and Closure … with the University of Maryland, a lot of job growth. You actually have things that make the city grow.
There?s some new projects, like yours, that look good. But there?s still some neighborhoods around the city with serious issues.
You?re always going to have issues. But there?s a ripple effect. If you remember, in the ?70s it wasn?t “Federal Hill,” It was South Baltimore. If you go to some of the toughest areas in the city now, it was like that. It was a rough, rowdy neighborhood.
They said that the Federal Hill part of that area would never jump, Cross Street, but it did. Over the years Federal Hill has grown and changed. If someone in the ?70s said the president?s daughter would live there, I?d have said they were insane.
It seems like there?s a core group of developers that are pushing the city in this new direction. Do you see the others as competitors?
I don?t see us as competitors. We?re all doing our own things. … Bill [Struever of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse] with Tide Point and Harbor Point, what The Cordish Company has done with retail, what Ed Hale is doing over in Canton.
Everyone has their own territory, everyone is carving out their own areas. But working in concert, we?re changing the city.
