Fifteen teams, including some of the country's top urban designers, sought the work after Amtrak issued a request for proposals in April. Amtrak has narrowed the list of candidates to three and is in the final stages of selecting a design team. All work by the winning team is scheduled to be completed by mid-September.
Revitalization of the train station at 1515 N. Charles St. and the 1.5-acre parking lot, known as the Lanvale site, were identified as top priorities in the vision plan that Dixon unveiled on Oct. 30, 2008.
The renewal area is centered on the intersection of Charles Street and North Avenue and includes the state-designated Station North arts and entertainment district. The vision plan calls for transforming the district into a $1 billion "cultural crossroads" over the next three decades. Components include 1,900 residences, 557,000 square feet of shopping space, 300,000 square feet of office space and 4,700 parking spaces in the area roughly bounded by St. Paul Street on the east, 20th and 21st streets on the north, Howard Street and Falls Road on the west and the Jones Falls Valley on the south.
According to Amtrak, Baltimore's Penn Station is the eighth busiest in its system, with about 90 trains passing by every day and more than 1 million passengers a year.
The city's vision plan called for it to be expanded to include a hotel and shopping arcade on Amtrak's property north of the train tracks, with a link across the tracks to the station itself. Suggested elements include an underground garage for several hundred cars, a hotel and conference center, shops, a park and band shell for outdoor concerts. The entire project could cost $100 million or more.
Brodie said Amtrak's study is a logical follow-up to the city's planning effort. "It's their property," he said. "They're certainly entitled to explore it on their own. That lot is one of the most critical lots in the area."
The lease with Hospitality Partners, meanwhile, marks an end to years of effort by Amtrak to find a way to reuse the train station's vacant upper floors, which previously housed offices for Amtrak police, customer service and maintenance workers. In 2002, Amtrak was working on a hotel plan with a Columbia-based group, James M. Jost & Co., but the project never materialized.
Under a plan endorsed by the Maryland Historical Trust, the hotel rooms will line the station's perimeter and will be reached from corridors overlooking the main concourse below.
Jim Glennon, president of the development division for Hospitality Partners, said the company intends to comply with federal standards for historic preservation. While room rates have not been set, he said, the inn's prices will be "mid-scale."
Founded in 1986, Hospitality Partners is headed by Michael M. Dickens, John A. Vernon and Frederick J. Palloni Jr. Its portfolio includes nearly a dozen hotels, in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and California. It also will manage the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott that is opening this summer on President Street in East Baltimore.
Brodie said he thinks The Inn at Penn Station will be especially beneficial to the nearby University of Baltimore, which is building a $107 million law center one block south.
"I'm pleased that they're moving forward," he said.
Sun assistant chief librarian Carol Julian contributed to this story.
