Downtown landowners are mulling their options. Space will be available only at a valuable premium in Baltimore City, with an estimated 7,000 new jobs and 17,000 new residences hitting the downtown area between now and 2012, according to an outlook report officially released this month by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.
“Lombard Street is hot for development, and the [hot] properties are located on two different sides of Lombard Street,” said Kim Clark, the director of economic development for the Baltimore Development Corporation?s east side team.
The first site is on the 600 block of East Lombard Street, where the downtown campus of Baltimore City Community College is located.
Local real estate experts consider the college?s property extremely valuable.
A BCCC spokesperson refused to comment on the possible development or sale of the property.
Making a move to use its prime downtown real estate, however, is not an unprecedented move for BCCC.
“I think that their downtown location could attract a lot of attention from developers, and certainly the current building has probably outlived its usefulness,” Downtown Partnership President Kirby Fowler said. “But certainly from Baltimore City Community College?s handling of the Lockwood Place project by opening up additional sites for development, it can transform sites for the downtown.”
Developed in 2003, the Philadelphia-based Parkway Corporation proposed a $150 million urban, mixed-use office, retail and parking garage project across from the National Aquarium. The project was constructed where the BCCC?s Lockwood building used to be located.
According to Parkway?s Web site, the venture has paid off for the college, with the ground rent paid to the college booming from $400,000 per year before the development to more than $1.2 million since.
A little farther down the street facing the 1100 block of Lombard Street is the property that formerly housed the old Saval Food Corp. building. The parcel of land is primarily located at 1010 South CentralAvenue.
Earlier this week, the BDC board project committee voted to make a recommendation to the full BDC board to enter into a 90-day exclusive negotiation with a company headed by local developer Larry Silverstein.
In a $500,000 bid from one of Silverstein?s companies, he proposes turning the building into a seven-story mixed-use facility, featuring about 40 condominiums and retail space on the ground floor.
“The development reflects the contenting ripple effects from the heart of downtown extending across traditional borders,” Fowler said.
Thursday, the BDC?s board of directors will meet to vote on whether the proposal will be advanced to Mayor Sheila Dixon.
