Developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse hopes to transform 17 acres in South Baltimore's Port Covington into a community that could include homes, shops and offices, along with a promenade and even a trolley.
Struever Bros., working with the owner of the adjacent Tidewater Yacht Service Center, envisions a 2 million-square-foot development with 2,010 housing units, some of which could be built on reconstructed piers.
Early concept plans, presented yesterday to the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel, shows three residential towers, one as tall as 38 stories, as well as smaller housing units that wrap around parking garages. The project also includes retail outlets on the street level and a waterfront promenade for pedestrian and recreational use. The yacht service center, with its 400-slip marina, would remain.
The developer also re-imagines Cromwell Street as a four-lane boulevard with parking on both sides and a median for a transit line, possibly a trolley.
"We believe Port Covington is an absolute jewel for Baltimore's future and a key to revitalization," said Tim Pula, senor development director at Struever Bros. "Port Covington is a magical site in Baltimore."
City officials have been pushing to transform vacant or unused swaths of the formerly industrial Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. A master plan for the Middle Branch, adopted late last year by the city's Planning Commission, designated Port Covington as a high-density development area. Projects along the Middle Branch include a massive mixed-use redevelopment of the Westport waterfront, on the opposite side of the water, with the first buildings to get under way next year.
Struever Bros. owns about 10 acres at Port Covington, while Tidewater's owner Bob Brandon owns 7 acres south of Cromwell Street and east of a faltering shopping center where a Sam's Club recently closed and a Wal-Mart remains.
Other property owners at Port Covington include Locke Insulators Inc., a manufacturer of porcelain electrical insulators; Tribune Co., which owns the 60-acre site of the Baltimore Sun's printing plant, and Finmarc Management and Kodiak Properties LLC, which is seeking to redevelop the shopping center.
Finmarc and Kodiak hope to remake their 56-acre retail site into a $2 billion Harbor East-style community and want to work with adjoining property owners on a cooperative plan.
