Legg Mason is getting a new address. The asset management firm announced Tuesday that it signed a 15-year agreement with H&S Development Corp. to lease up to 400,000 square feet in a proposed complex in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor East.
The new Legg Mason tower in Harbor East will be home to the majority of the firm?s Baltimore-area employees, beginning in the summer of 2009, when the company plans to move.
“It’s going to be brand new, state-of-the-art space that we can customize,” said Mary Athridge, spokeswoman for Legg Mason.
When Legg moves, it will leave behind its iconic home at the corner of Pratt and Light streets that bears its name. A standout along the Baltimore skyline, the building was constructed in 1973 and is the tallest in Maryland, according to Emporis, an international building and real estate data base.
The current Harbor East development covers eight square blocks ? more than 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space and 1 million square feet of new Class-A office space.
The developer estimates the entire space will create more than 4,000 new jobs for Baltimore City, H&S said in a news release.
Legg Mason employees are looking forward to the new complex.
“There are pictures posted around of the new building, and people are saying, ?this looks really nice,?” Athridge said.
As for Baltimore, the city is glad that Legg Mason is staying in Charm City.
“I think it?s great news,” said Kirby Fowler, president of The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. “We are glad to see that they are staying in Baltimore City and expanding.”
Athridge said the move isn?t that big of a deal, but the company is excited.
?It’s not that we’re leaving,” she said, “but that we’re taking advantage of the new space.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
This is an artistic rendering of Legg Mason’s new home in Harbor East.
