A local business owner doesn?t want to give up his waterfront West Covington location to Baltimore City for redevelopment.
Schuster Concrete totaled about $100 million insales last year. About $70 million of those sales were made in the city, says owner Daniel Schuster, thanks in large part to his West Covington site.
The industrial site is located just south of Interstate 95 and west of Hanover Street, with easy access to Baltimore. The site also has excellent signage along a major highway, Schuster said.
For those and other reasons, Schuster doesn?t want his business relocated so the city can turn the industrial Middle Branch waterfront area of West Covington into a mixed-use development. He made his case Thursday to the city?s Planning Commission.
“I would ask you have the courage to look to protect my company and other companies who need to be in close proximity to the city,” Schuster said to the commission. “This building is perfectly situated to our needs.”
The city is looking to acquire several parcels of land in the West Covington area, either by purchase or condemnation, for redevelopment. In addition to the Schuster Concrete site, the city hopes to acquire the Atlantic Forest Products and BFI Waste Services sites, along with land that contains seven homes along McComas Street.
The city would work to relocate the three businesses and people living in the seven homes.
“This is, in my judgment, one of the most important economic proposals dealing with the future of the city,” M.J. “Jay” Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said at the meeting. “The future of this city … is taking former industrial properties on the water and changing it to a mix of uses.”
Brodie acknowledged “controversy is something we have to deal with” when undertaking such aggressive redevelopment plans.
“We understand this is a sensitive and sometimes painful experience to go through,” Brodie said.
The commission received input from representatives of the other businesses and homeowners and discussed environmental remediation that would likely have to occur at the sites before any redevelopment occurred.
