At a time when elected officials in Maryland are contriving to convert almost any available public policy issue into a partisan battleground, they are managing to work together on at least one key strategic effort ? the initiative to nurture bioscience industry growth in the Baltimore region and Maryland.
This model bipartisan, public-private effort gained attention on April 17 when ground was broken in East Baltimore for a life sciences building on Wolfe Street north of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
The building will house the first of a planned 2 million square feet of wet lab space and other bioscience facilities in the Science and Technology Park at Johns Hopkins. Expected to generate more than 6,000 jobs, the biopark will be the linchpin of a massive neighborhood revitalization on 80 acres in one of the city?s most blighted areas. The initiative will also include more than 1,200 new and renovated housing units ? to be sold at both market rates and “work force” price points ? as well as more than 150,000 square feet of retail and office space, a new school, and three acres of parks.
Projects of this magnitude don?t happen without a high degree of cooperation. The recent groundbreaking was preceded by five years of extraordinary teamwork between governments at the city, state and federal levels, private business, Baltimore area foundations, civic leaders and the East Baltimore community.
Not always agreeing, but working together, this diverse coalition accomplished the planning, organizing, coordinating, legislating, financing, assembling of resources and intense community involvement required to move the project forward.
Government at all levels pitched in. To date, Baltimore City, the state of Maryland and three federal agencies have provided $75 million in funding.
Johns Hopkins is a major partner. Business leaders from the Greater Baltimore Committee played a key role in facilitating the formation of East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI) and in providing the nonprofit with operational funding to oversee the project.
Led by the Annie E. Casey Foundation?s $10 million commitment, more than a dozen foundations and other nonprofit institutions are supporting the effort.
A comprehensive program for minority inclusion has been an important element in every phase of this initiative. For example, the team that converted a former school into a community resource center and offices for EBDI consisted entirely of minority contractors.
The development team for Phase One of the project, headed by major national developer Forest City Enterprises, includes a consortium of six local minority-owned developers as equity partners.
East Baltimore community organizations have major project planning and oversight roles.
Maryland?s U.S. senators, our congressional delegation, the governor, Baltimore City?s mayor, state legislators and City Council members provided consistent, strong support.
Elected leaders have also supported government investment in the UMB BioPark on Baltimore?s west side, the UMBC Research Park and Technology Center, and many other projects to nurture bioscience business growth in Baltimore and Maryland.
They realize that there is a lot at stake, including jobs, positioning our region as a leading life sciences center, attracting national interest in Maryland as a place to do business and building minority business.
Examples like this serve to reassure those of us who get discouraged by election-year disharmony, political fragmentation and the kind of legislative volatility that inhibits business growth. It reminds us that in Maryland, we know how to get important business development initiatives accomplished by working together.
It?s a sharp contrast to that overdose of political posturing we witnessed during the recent Maryland General Assembly session.
Maryland could benefit from less of that and more of the kind of teamwork taking place in East Baltimore.
Donald C. Fry is the president of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
