Construction of the Port Covington Business Park entered a new phase yesterday when workers began a $5.5 million reconstruction of Cromwell Street, the gateway and main artery of the $500 million waterfront development in South Baltimore.
Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new road with representatives of CSX Realty Inc., the lead developer, and Locke Insulators and The Baltimore Sun Co., the first two users in the 135-acre business park.
CSX Realty used the occasion to unveil its latest rendering for the park, showing where it envisions construction of close to 2 million square feet of Class A office space, a 450-room hotel and conference center, shops, restaurants, health club and 800-slip marina over the next 10 years.
Under a master plan by Wallace, Roberts and Todd of Philadelphia, Cromwell Street will be extended more than 4,000 feet from Hanover Street to McComas Street and will be widened from two lanes to four lanes by late 1991 to become the main spine of the business park.
"With this project getting under way, Port Covington takes another major step forward," Mayor Schmoke said. "When Cromwell Street is completed in 1991, we will have improved access for The Baltimore Sun and Locke Insulators, as well as enabling developers to begin development on the rest of the site."
A subsidiary of NGK of Nagoya, Japan, Locke Insulators manufactures porcelain insulators and em ploys 500 people. It is building a new warehouse distribution facility next to its existing plant.
The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Co. subsidiary that publishes The Sun and The Evening Sun, is nearing completion of a $165 million complex that includes a 375,000-square-foot printing, packaging and distribution facility and a 47,000-square-foot office building on a 60-acre parcel.
The printing facility, called Sun Park, is being constructed to supplement the current printing plant at 501 N. Calvert St. It will be fully operational, with 500 employees, by early 1991.
Initially, it will house three Goss Colorliner presses that will give the newspaper maximum flexibility to print high-speed, high-quality color throughout its pages. The building can accommodate up to four presses, and the size of the site gives the company room to expand it to contain up to eight presses if production levels warrant it.
