Developers of two major projects in Baltimore are asking the city for about $250 million in aid to cover infrastructure costs, the city said yesterday.
Turner Development Group is requesting $90 million in tax increment financing for Westport, a mixed-use development set to bring homes, offices, shops and a hotel to an old industrial area on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.
The partnership developing Harbor Point, another mixed-use waterfront project on formerly industrial land near Fells Point, is asking for $163 million, most of it in tax increment financing and the rest from parking revenue bonds.
The requests are the largest yet for tax increment financing in the city and much larger than the highest amount approved previously, $15 million for an expansion of Mondawmin Mall.
The proposals are part of an emerging trend as big redevelopment efforts get under way. An $85 million request for the huge East Baltimore redevelopment near the Johns Hopkins medical campus appears to have nearly universal support from the City Council.
Tax increment financing, referred to as TIF, is a way to use future taxes to build roads, sewer and water lines and other infrastructure that must precede development. The city government issues bonds to pay for the work, then repays the borrowed money with property taxes generated by the development. The developer, not the city, is on the hook if revenues fall short, Baltimore Development Corp. said.
Deputy Mayor Andrew B. Frank said the Dixon administration will wait for BDC - the city's economic development arm - to make its recommendation before deciding whether to support the two requests.
"In general, I think the administration is enthusiastic about the investment that the developers want to make," Frank said. "They're asking for a significant amount of assistance and we expect them to go through the process that any developer would go through."
The proposals, if Dixon gives her initial endorsement, would also have to be approved by the 15-member City Council and the Board of Estimates. Several council members said yesterday that they had not been briefed on the deal - not unusual, given its early stage - but said they would keep an open mind.
"I need to judge it based on what is going to be gained and what we're giving up," said City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran, filling in for President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, who is overseas for a conference. "What you gain may be equal or more than what you're going to give up over a period of time."
