We’ve got some things we want to say about living in Baltimore. In fact, we’ve got quite a lot to say about what it means to live here in 2015. It’s entirely too much to fit into a single post. But a lot of what we have to say involves urban development, and when we say development we want to be very clear about what we mean. Below is a partial list of building projects that are either under construction, being actively planned for or recently completed. We take recently to mean within the last year or two, not say, 2003 or 2008 or 2011, which are all also fairly ‘recent’ in the grand scheme of things. If we listed all those projects the list would be at least twice as long.
Before we get started we’d like to call your attention to a very well-reported story in the Sun recently about apartment development. Specifically, we’d like to note these important statistics:
The average price of apartment rents in Baltimore is $1285/mo.
The median rent for a one bedroom apartment is $985/mo, meaning that half of all one bedrooms are more expensive than $985.
Rents in the ‘central’ neighborhoods have increased by 6.3% in the last year and 16% in the last five years while wage growth has been very slow at only 2% over the last year.
And these paragraphs directly from the article: “More than 5,360 homes in projects with 15 or more units have been completed in Baltimore in the last five years, according to the city’s Planning Department. Another 3,232 are under construction, including 948 that got underway last year. And 2,825 more have been approved, including 1,233 last year.
The Downtown Partnership is tracking about 7,000 homes for sale or rent in Federal Hill, Fells Point and downtown to be completed by 2017. The number outstrips the demand predicted in a 2012 study for the group, which forecast a market for 5,800 units through 2017.”
The list below is limited to what’s come to our personal attention and to projects of fairly large scale. It doesn’t include things like rowhouse renovations by developers or the house-to-apartment conversions which are so numerous and popular in Central Baltimore. It also doesn’t include individual restaurants and other small businesses like Handlebar Cafe, Pen and Quill or Crossbar. A third important omission is massive scale projects that are obvious targets for redevelopment for which no plans currently exist such as the Baltimore Arena, Superblock, and Crown Cork & Seal building. It doesn’t include a multi-acre plan for Old Town Mall which is in its very early stages. It also does not include some institutional expansions at area colleges. But even so the list below represents what is effectively building a brand new city. Please note: This post will update periodically.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Inner Harbor Master Plan. Too much to list here, including redevelopments of Rash Field and demolition of McKeldin Fountain.
325 W Baltimore St. 30 floors, 229 apartments, 100,000 ft office 7,700 ft retail 400 space parking.
Mechanic Theater 30 floors, 250 residential units, 160 hotel rooms, 107,000 ft retail.
220 W Baltimore St. 16 apartments.
1 Light St. 340 apartments, 10 floors offices, 646 space parking.
414 Light St. 44 floors, 392 apartments.
300 E. Pratt St. 430′ tower, 600 residential/hotel units, 20,000 ft retail.
801 Eastern Ave 240 apartments, 7000 ft retail.
225 N. Calvert St. 350 apartments.
25 S. Calvert St. 149 room hotel.
612 Washington Blvd. 32 apartments, 1000 ft retail.
20 E Franklin St. 41 apartments.
Mulberry at Park 68 apartments.
200 W Saratoga St. 42 room La Quinta hotel.
Lexington Market. $26 million in renovations.
Stadium Square. 293 residential units, 14,000 ft retail, 450 space parking plus two more entire city blocks of development at $250 Million.
Anthem House 275 apartments.
Hammerjacks. 2000 person concert venue near the casino.
Cross St. Market. “A full-blown Proposal.” By Caves Valley Partners.
The Pinnacle* an 18 story ultra-luxury condo tower at Harbor View along Key Highway.
1100 Key Highway* 305 Class A apartments.
Sagamore Distillery. 90 acres highlighted by 3 Million ft offices, a whiskey distillery and 10,000 ft restaurant.
Poppleton. 14 acres, 1600 homes, a school, 150,000 ft retail.
MLK at Baltimore Street. 30 floors, 300 apartments.
Harbor Point. 27 acres. Phase 1: 277,000 ft offices (completed), Exelon HQ- 20 floors and almost 1 million ft offices, 40,000 ft retail, 103 residential units, 750 car parking. 298 additional parking spaces and other improvements. Phase 2: a 16 floor 285 unit apartment building and 20,000 ft retail. Buildings totaling 337,000 ft offices and 30,000 ft retail. Phase 3: 222,000 ft apartment/hotel, 12,000 ft retail, 438,000 ft office with 16,000 ft retail, 346,000 ft apartment building with 10,200 ft retail.
Hendler Creamery Building. 276 apartments, 11,000 ft retail.
Johns Hopkins Science and Technology Park. 80+ acres featuring 1200 homes, a school, 80,000 ft retail and more.
Recreation Pier. 128 Room hotel.
Aliceanna at Central 350 residential units, 60,000 ft retail.
601 S. Eden St. 8-10 floors of retail and office space.
Canton Crossing. Four additional office towers with 200,000+ ft retail each.
4701 O’Donnell Street* A BJ’s, a Taco Bell and a gas station in the former Lenmar Building.
Pemco Redevelopment* a multi-acre site that is likely to include massive retail, including a possible grocery store, around 250 apartments and hotel.
Our Lady of Pompeii (Highlandtown) 28 apartments.
State Center. 28 acres, 2,000 residential units, 2 million ft offices, 250,000 ft retail, 300,000 ft Armory building grocery store, 550 space parking.
816 N. Calvert St. 50 apartments.
814 N. Charles St. 8 story apartment/retail building with underground parking. Also a possible second building at 1010 N. Charles.
Lovegrove St at Lanvale 85-95 apartments plus retail and parking.
Parkway Theater. 3 Screen theater and live performance space.
Penn Station. 7 acres, 1.5 million ft residential and development.
3200 Saint Paul St. 12 story, 157 apartment building with 31,500 ft retail and 162 space parking.
Northwood Plaza* Hard to find much info on this but it does appear to be happening.
Remington Row. 15,000 ft retail, 30,000 ft offices, 108 apartments, 200 space parking.
25th Street Station. Yeah, your guess is as good as ours but Seawall is serious and whatever ends up there is going to be big.
Skyview Towns* Although stalled during the recession, we’ve heard this subdivision of 42 large $300k+ houses for Hoes Heights is still intended to be built.
Cairnes Lane*, Hampden, a ‘major subdivision’ of 29 large townhouses (of the type seen lately in Greektown and near the B&O Museum).
RECENTLY ANNOUNCED (BETWEEN SPRING 2015 AND FALL 2016)
602 N Howard 100,000 square foot self storage/mixed use.
400 W Franklin 15,000 square foot office.
Congress Hotel Apartments.
Victory House 15 Apartments.
Highland Haus 57 Apartments in Highlandtown.
Fox Industries Building Apartments and yet another Makerspace.
3400 Boston Street 241 Apartments.
North Barclay Green 89 Townhouses and retail.
1000 Eastern Ave Six Story Apartment Building.
Flats at Eutaw Place 62 Apartments.
9 E 33rd Street 31,500 sq ft Apartments, 3 restaurants and a CVS.
McHenry Row expansion 224 Apartments.
Hoen Lithograph 75,000 sq ft light industrial including Spike Gjerde’s food production operations.
Schenuit Tire in Woodberry “Nothing with 18-wheelers”
Gampy’s Apartments and a restaurant.
Shofer’s Clearance Center 10 Apartments and retail.
Anthem House 2 52 Apartments. Because one Anthem House just wasn’t enough.
408-412 N Howard Street A theater incubator, cafe, retail, and 57,000 square feet of apartments.
Totman Building Downtown apartments.
Howard Station 15 story apartment building at Howard and Saratoga.
Baltimore Country Club Probably some mansions for rich people.
Apartments in Roland Park Next to Belvedere Towers.
2000 W Cold Spring Lane 16 Acres for possible development.
417-421 and 423 N Howard Street Large Scale office and Mixed use.
Pepsi Plant in Woodberry large scale apartments and retail.
PROJECTS COMPLETED BETWEEN MARCH 2015 AND NOVEMBER 2016
10 Light St. 455 apartments
115 N Charles St. 3700 ft retail/apartments.
10 N. Calvert St. 189 apartments.
26 S. Calvert St. 200 apartments.
700 Portland St. 32 condos.
7 W Mulberry St. An unknown number of apartments in a 3 story building.
505 Park Ave. 10 residential units and 7 parking spaces from converted office building.
Hotel Indigo* A $20 Million renovation to the Mount Vernon Hotel which will more than double room rates at what was the city’s most economical place to stay.
Heath St Lofts. 60 apartments.
Federal Place* 23 new townhouses on Key Highway.
Phillips HQ* Nearly 100,000 feet of commercial space.
Marketplace at Fells. 160 apartments, 27,000 ft retail.
Saint Patrick’s School (Fell’s Point) 11 apartments.
Highlandtown Middle School. 140 apartments.
Open Works. a 34,000 ft ‘makerspace.’
Centre Theater. Home to film programs of MICA and JHU as well as other creative agencies.
Motor House. A gentrified version of Load of Fun Studios.
The Rotunda Hampden, 379 apartments, 130,000 ft retail, 140,000 ft office, 1100 space parking.
613 Portland Street Apartments marketed to UM students.
Cardinal Gibbons 80 Affordable Apartments.
RECENTLY COMPLETED PROJECTS (Before March 2015)
We’re not going to provide links for these but you can easily Search them because they already exist:
Highland town Middle School (aka 101 Ellwood)*
Union Mills
1100 Wicomico St
520 Park Ave.
The Lenore
101 Wells Street
2 E. Wells Street.*
Pabst Castle
1111 Light St.
City Arts Building
That other building between Lafayette and Lanvale
Baltimore Design School
Land Bank Apartments
The Fitzgerald
Public Comfort Station, Fell’s Point
521 St paul St.
The Zenith
McHenry Row
Canton Crossing
301 N Charles St.
The Fred Lazarus Building
Union Wharf
King Cork and Seal* (Baltimore and Haven Streets)
Riverside Wharf*