The National Aquarium is on the verge of purchasing 20 waterfront acres in South Baltimore to build a $110 million campus that could transform the largely industrial shoreline of the Patapsco River's Middle Branch.
According to a draft of the deal, the aquarium would pay the city as much as $8 million to buy the land and help move the city's central repair garage from the site to a location in East Baltimore.
By 2008, officials plan to clean the polluted "brownfield" site, convert its vacated 140,000- square-foot garage into an animal-care facility and build a public park and conservation area. That would complete the first, $35 million phase of the complex to be known as the Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation.
The land deal, which needs city approval, goes before the Board of Estimates tomorrow.
The new facility and park on the South Baltimore site are not designed to replace the Inner Harbor aquarium. There was no mention in the draft version of the expansion plan about how many visitors would be expected to come or how much they would be charged.
Instead, aquarium officials outlined a facility more focused on caring for marine animals and serving as a launching point for ecological explorations extending into the Chesapeake Bay. Nearby wetlands would also be restored, officials said.
"I do think it's ambitious but it's such a great opportunity," David M. Pittenger, the aquarium's executive director, said yesterday.
A spokesman for Mayor Martin O'Malley, who sits on the Board of Estimates and has great influence over its decisions, said the aquarium project already has O'Malley's support.
The aquarium's proposed Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation would have sweeping views of Hanover Street's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge to the east and the Middle Branch Park to the south.
As its core, the former city garage would be transformed into a 50,000-square-foot home for marine animals waiting to be displayed at the Inner Harbor aquarium. Remaining space may be used for indoor and outdoor education programs, officials said.
Over the next 10 to 15 years, other projects - an animal rescue facility, walking trails, a fishing pier, a research lab and possibly a hotel or conference center - could be added onto the 19.6 acres along the northern shoreline of the Middle Branch.
"We're going to phase it in over time," Pittenger said.
