Stop if you’d heard this one before: the state plans to find a developer to create a massive transit-centered new development at State Center with new office buildings, townhouses and apartments (some affordable, some market-rate), a hotel and – oh, yes: a new supermarket. But don’t hold your breath.
Plans to revitalize and transform the 28-acre site just south of Bolton Hill have been bubbling since 2005. State and local officials hosted a sparsely attended meeting on Eutaw Place on the emerging “vision plan” in mid-October.
Presenters admitted that while this was a wish list plan to guide the eventual search for a developer to get the project off the ground, it was not binding and likely would not lead to actual construction for years to come. The one seeming certain fact: no one thinks the existing buildings are worth saving. They’ll be demolished to give the builders greater freedom to imagine something great. But the Armory building, built in 1903, has been fenced out of the process and will remain.
No date for demolition was mentioned.
Ed Gunts’ story on State Center in Baltimore Fishbowl gives the highlights of this latest vision. BHCA’s president has assembled a task force to communicate with the state planners as the process moves forward.
