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Condo Tower Would Dominate Baltimore Skyline

POSTED: 7:03 am EST February 17, 2006

UPDATED: 11:01 am EST February 17, 2006

BALTIMORE -- A city panel has approved the concept for a 59-story glass skyscraper that would become Baltimore's tallest building.

The proposed downtown tower would be built in the shape of a parallelogram and contain luxury condominiums and a boutique hotel atop street-level shops, restaurants and parking. The tower would be nearly 200 feet higher than the Legg Mason Building, which is now the city's tallest.

Some experts say the $300 million project, planned by Philadelphia developer ARC Wheeler, shows the strength of the city's revitalization.

The proposal is the latest example of a surge of redevelopment that has begun transforming downtown into a residential and entertainment hub, boosting demand for amenities such as hotels, restaurants and shops.

The 2-acre site, one of the last undeveloped parcels in the Inner Harbor, has been used as a parking lot since a McCormick spice plant was demolished in the late 1980s.

"Many across the nation continue to view Baltimore as a below-average performer with Rust Belt characteristics, so this will be an important marketing symbol for the city," said Anirban Basu, chairman and chief executive of Sage Policy Group Inc.

"It will be seen by anyone traveling along I-95. This building will do much to reposition Baltimore's skyline in people's minds and reposition the city itself in people's minds."

Rick Abbruzzese, a spokesman for Mayor Martin O'Malley, said the mayor is glad to see the project moving forward.

"It's a $300 million private investment on a long-vacant piece of property in downtown Baltimore," Abbruzzese said. "It's great to see this kind of investment coming back to our city."

The first eight floors of the tower would contain a 192-room boutique hotel. The base would include 74,600 square feet of ground-level and second-floor shops, including a restaurant, possibly a gourmet grocery store and about 800 above-grade parking spaces.

Harold B. Wheeler, a principal with ARC Wheeler, said he expects to sign up a hotel operator within the next month and to close on the purchase of the McCormick lot from owner Central Parking in the second quarter. He said the company is in the advanced stages of acquiring financing.

"We're confident that financing is there for us," he said.

The design is subject to approval by the city's Planning Commission. After the nine-story McCormick building was razed in 1989, the city agreed to allow a taller building on the site if it met other standards, including one that restricts a building's height based on the area of its base.

Development of hotels, condominiums, shops and restaurants is booming downtown, especially around the waterfront.

Hilton Hotel Corp. announced Thursday that work had begun on a 756-room convention hotel adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

A Ritz Carlton condominium is under construction on Key Highway on the Inner Harbor waterfront, and a Four Seasons is being built in Harbor East.