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Harbor Point

Baltimore, Maryland

As the City of Baltimore has lost industries, many of which have left the country, and businesses and people have moved to the suburbs, the City’s economic development strategy has sought to take advantage of redeveloping its waterfront with vibrant urban communities, which most surrounding suburban communities cannot provide. The redevelopment of the former Allied Signal’s chrome ore processing plant is one of these developments. This brownfield site was redeveloped into Harbor Point, a 27-acre, mixed-use waterfront development project that will include over 900,000 sf of residential development, 1,600,000 sf of Class A office space, 220,000 sf of retail space, 220,000 square feet of hotel space, and structured parking to serve the project. The City authorized $125,000,000 of bonds, of which $90,000,000 have been issued and another $35,000,000 of bonds are to be issued this year to fund construction of a 4.5-acre waterfront park, Central Avenue Bridge, a central plaza, improvements to the Living Classrooms school building, roadways, utilities, and parking. The bonds are secured by real property tax increment revenues with a back-up special tax to ensure there are sufficient revenues to repay the bonds. The project has proved to be an attractive location for corporate space, with significant office tenants including Morgan Stanley, Exelon, Transamerica, and with T. Rowe Price set to make Harbor Point its new corporate headquarters. The City of Baltimore will have no liability for the repayment of the bonds other than the pledge of the incremental real property taxes.