The long-awaited plans for a reimagined Harborplace intended to rejuvenate Baltimore’s downtown and waterfront include four new buildings that contain nearly 1,000 new residential units — including two towers — and two large commercial buildings, adding office space, restaurants, a park and an amphitheater to one of the city’s most well-known destinations, according to details released Monday.
MCB Real Estate unveiled the design plans at a news conference featuring state and local government and business leaders, including Gov. Wes Moore, state Comptroller Brooke Lierman, state Sen. President Bill Ferguson and Mayor Brandon Scott. During a series of remarks, all pledged to throw their full support behind the vision.
“There’s so much more work that’s going to have to be done: legislative work ... zoning, permits, and even more community engagement, which has already been tremendous, that has to continue,” Scott told the crowd, which packed into the second story of the Light Street pavilion. “But it is so welcome when we have a home team like MCB leading the charge, who have not only assured us but proven that they are dedicated to this project, and this project in the right way.”
The Baltimore-based company acquired the rights to Harborplace in April after a receivership court battle and is led by a West Baltimore native, co-founder and managing partner P. David Bramble, whose portfolio contains other high-profile city projects including Yard 56 in Canton near Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital, The Rotunda in Hampden and Arundel Plaza in Glen Burnie. Bramble has said it will take years for the firm to fully overhaul the complex.
Among the featured components of the project is a large new housing development consisting of two towers in a “stepped down” design, one tower rising 32 stories and the other 25 stories. In all, the complex would deliver as many as 900 housing units, along with retail and commercial space.
The developer’s plans also describe two, 200,000 square foot buildings, one commercial property on Pratt Street that would include an open ground floor with publicly available meeting spaces, and another “retail and commercial” space with dining options and a 50,000 square foot rooftop park, also on Pratt Street. The designs also make way for a smaller retail building within a 30,000 square foot park along with an amphitheater, all bounded by downtown’s Light and Pratt Streets.
The story continues at The Baltimore Banner: Harborplace developer pitches 900 residential units, rooftop park at Inner Harbor
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