Shopping Center Business

MAY 2017

Shopping Center Business is the leading monthly business magazine for the retail real estate industry.

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BALTIMORE 178 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • May 2017 Madison Marquette and Metropolitan Partnership Ltd. have begun development of a 28-story, 780,941-square-foot tower that will have nine floors of office space and 280 units of luxury apartments. The $175 million tower is scheduled for deliv- ery at One Light Street in 2018. A $23.5 million redevelopment proj- ect designed to connect East Baltimore to the regional food economy, the Balti- more Food Hub will restore five historic buildings on a 3.5-acre site, formerly a city water pumping station. Set to open its first building this summer at 1801 E. Ol- iver Street, the adaptive reuse project will create approximately 160 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs through the co-location of food production, manufac- turing, retail and education. Developed by American Communities Trust, which has partnered with the Historic East Bal- timore Community Action Coalition and Humanim, the project is slated for com- pletion in late 2018. "The Baltimore Food Hub is that rare win-win that can help both businesses and residents in a community that has suffered from decades of neglect," says China Boak Terrell, CEO of American Communities Trust. "The food industry can be an economic engine for Baltimore City and the Baltimore Food Hub will help show that." In their first full year, R House and B-More Kitchen also feed the city's ap- petite for chef-driven startups and local- ly sourced foods. Opened last summer, B-More Kitchen is billed as Baltimore's first commercial communal food incubator. To retain and attract supermarkets, Baltimore City offers a 10-year, 80 per- cent credit against the personal property tax — typically on furniture, fixtures and equipment — for supermarkets locating in or making significant improvements in food-desert incentive areas. The city works proactively to eradicate food des- erts through the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI), a cross-agency collabo- ration to increase access to healthy and affordable food. "A quality grocery store can transform a neighborhood," says William H. Cole, president and CEO of the Baltimore De- velopment Corporation, which serves as an economic development agency of the city and part of BFPI. "Grocery stores are often a catalyst for increased economic development in the community. When a grocery store comes into an area, there is increased retail activity, greater communi- ty engagement and most often, additional private investment in the neighborhood." PwC and the Urban Land Institute ranked Baltimore No. 34 nationally com- ing into 2017, but their annual report on the top real estate trends painted a rosy picture of the city's future. Growth in Baltimore's higher-paying professional and technical services sector — WalletHub recently ranked Maryland the most inno- vative state — along with some federal job growth, "will have a positive impact on downstream industries such as leisure and hospitality, retail, and construction." PwC and ULI also predicted an "immedi- ate boost" from major infrastructure proj- ects, such as Port Covington, which will elevate both Baltimore's development and connectivity. SCB

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