A pep rally for Port Covington (Baltimore, Catonsville: real estate, 2014, apartments)

[Infinite_heights77]

*Interesting! Did anyone attend this event? I see a few familiar faces while reading the article.


https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2016/0...gton/#comments


A pep rally for Port Covington

“Let’s not sweat it,” says Port Covington supporter who lives in Catonsville


peakers, many wearing matching yellow tee shirts, lined up to praise the Port Covington project yesterday at a meeting of the Baltimore Planning Commission about the massive development proposed on Baltimore’s south shore.
There was international sailing consultant and aspiring America’s Cup competitor Lynn Fitzpatrick, who said her team “eyes the two miles of waterfront with envy.”
There was Wayne R. Frazier, of the Maryland-Washington Minority Companies Association, who called it “the most transformative project ever to revive an American city.”
Yet another supporter was Kimberly Kacik, conservative commenter on Politichicks.com and a beauty pageant winner (Mrs. Baltimore 2014), who said, “This is going to bring lots of jobs to Baltimore, and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Kevin Plank created Under Armour because he was tired of sweating,” added supporter Ray Bennett, a resident of Catonsville. “The man has vision. He speaks with clarity and he’s inclusive. . . So I say, even though there are issues here that concern many of us, let’s not sweat it.”
But even at this upbeat gathering, some of those “issues of concern” surfaced.
Ray Bennett, of Catonsville, speaking at yesterday’s hearing. (Fern Shen)

Graziano Explains

Planning Commission chairman Bill Cunningham said several times, “I notice a lot of housing advocates here,” perhaps referring to Jeff Singer and Lauren Siegel of Housing Our Neighbors who stood in the doorway looking into the crowded room.
For the benefit of the advocates, Cunningham said, he had summoned Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano to explain why the project is getting an exclusion from Baltimore’s Inclusionary Housing law. Graziano noted that, given the scope of the project, $183 million in city funds would be required .
“Clearly the city doesn’t have $183 million,” he said.
“Whoa, that TIF is $535 million!” a man in the back said, prompting a rebuke from Cunningham, who told him to “take it outside.”
Graziano was ostensibly referring to the city’s chronically anemic Inclusionary Housing Fund, which has about $70,000 in its coffers at present.
He went on to explain a Memorandum of Understanding that Plank’s real estate company, Sagamore Development, signed with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake that specifies a 10% voluntary goal of affordable housing.
The scope of the new-city-within-the-city that Sagamore envisions on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco did come up for discussion and the numbers tossed around were staggering.
“Probably about 14,000” units are anticipated, said Sagamore vice president Caroline Paff.
Asked by Cunningham, Paff said she couldn’t say what proportion would be rented vs. owned. (Sagamore’s application to the city says that 98.5%, or 5,252, units, would be rented and 1.5%, or 77, would be condominiums.)
“This is a 25-year project, right? So as we bring on each phase it all goes into the TIF underwriting process and everything else so we have to very carefully plan the phasing for the residential, the commercial, the infrastructure,” Paff said.
“We want to build the market in Baltimore. We don’t want to get over our skis on this and to cannibalize the market.”
Paddock for Police Horses

Paff, along with a Planning Department staffer, led the audience through a Power Point presentation of the master plan, pointing out the seven tall buildings that dominate schematics of the future development.
“I joke about – those are our Easter island buildings,” Paff said.”We want tall buildings, but we want them to be iconic.”

[pwduvall]

I don't mind having the citizens and government of Baltimore "partner" with Under Armor in this venture. My worry is that it looks like the public is taking a lot of risk and not putting any money whatsoever in the general fund for a very long time. There will need to be some rich people living in the apartments and paying piggy back taxes in order for the city to see any money at all out of this.

On a totally unrelated note, I can't stand the idea of "iconic" disconnected skyscrapers. That idea seems to combine high construction costs with very little street life. While the 1950's high- rise housing projects failed for a whole host of reasons, there disconnection to the street didn't help. While the Port Covington high-rises won't fail, will they really succeed as well as other building schemes might have? Will people look at these buildings in 50 years and think that the whole thing was some kind of ego trip?