The parties will return to the Fells Point Recreation Pier.
Once a hot spot for Fells Point?s Polish community, and more recently known for its role in “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” the pier will see new life as a hotel and conference center when J.J. Clarke Enterprises completes its renovation.
Originally built by Baltimore City and opened to the public in 1914, the pier was used to unload produce from the Eastern Shore.
Produce merchants and farmers used the large shed with oversized garage doors, and the adjoining masonry building on Thames Street was home to a ballroom, which hosted generations of Polish weddings and community events, according to a history of the structure.
When Clarke is finished with the project sometime in 2008, the ballroom will be restored, an upscale hotel will take over the former shed building and the pier, where tugboats will continue to moor, will be rebuilt.
Moran Towing of Maryland, the sole surviving tug operation of four that once tied up at the pier, will continue operations at the site once the pier is rebuilt.
“We have approval by the National Park Service to accept our plan for this structure for historic tax credit purposes,” said Joseph Clarke, founder and principal with the development and finance company.
Clarke is teaming with H&S Properties Development Corp., which has developed more than $300 million in multi-use projects along Baltimore?s Inner Harbor, to bring a hotel with the brand name aloft to the Recreation Pier location.
The hotel brand, part of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., features loft-like guest rooms.
Clarke said public use of the pier and ballroom is paramount in his plan for the site.
“The public will always have access to the end of the pier, which is open space,” he said. “We have to figure out how they will get out there, and we are currently studying that. The public also will have access to and free use of the ballroom on a limited number of dates annually.”
The redevelopment announcement is being greeted with applause from Lori Guess, a lawyer with the Defense Contract Management Agency and former chairman of a neighborhood task force that addressed the needs of the Recreation Pier.
“We always hoped that the community would have more involvement and there would be more community use in the building,” Guess said.
“A hotel did seem to be the best approach. I think considering all the history that the answer is yes, it?s a good thing.”
