Warm up the moving vans.
On Thursday, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development announced that when its lease expires for its offices on East Redwood Street, it will relocate to the World Trade Center Baltimore in the Inner Harbor.
As a result of the move, DBED hopes to not only save more than $100,000 in leasing costs, but also position itself in a premier downtown location, DBED Secretary David Edgerley said.
“We have had great experiences at Redwood Towers, but the opportunity to move onto the harbor is one that we as a marketing organization can?t turn down,” Edgerley said. “We think that we make up one of the best tenants that could be part of the buildings.”
The DBED lease at Redwood Towers is set to expire in the fall of 2008 and the department is slated to move into its new home in October of that year. Initial plans have seven floors leased under a seven-year deal, with an option for extension. About 250 of the department?s 322 employees will make the move.
Earlier this year, Gov. Martin O?Malley announced that the World Trade Center would not be sold and will remain property of the state. With the addition of DBED to the tower, run by the Maryland Port Administration, 70 percent of the building will be occupied.
“Acquiring DBED as a tenant is a major step forward in our aggressive effort to return the World Trade Center Baltimore to its position of prominence in the Baltimore office market,” Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said in a statement. “For an agency responsible for marketing Maryland to the world, there is no better address to have than that of the World Trade Center Baltimore.”
