Here are the top projects, deals and individuals being honored in this year’s BBJ Best in Real Estate Awards
By Ethan McLeod – Associate Editor, Baltimore Business Journal
Not even a pandemic could slow the roll of real estate development in and around Greater Baltimore last year.
This year, the Baltimore Business Journal is honoring 11 real estate projects and deals in the city and surrounding counties, including big plans on the waterfront, industrial building sales and construction, and treasured historic renovations. From more than 50 submitted nominations, we’ve selected a short list of projects that stand alone as some of the best from calendar year 2020.
We’re also celebrating 10 real estate professionals in the Baltimore area who have helped make their mark on the city’s built environment. These developers, brokers and industry leaders come from a wide array of career backgrounds and are helping steer landscape and neighborhood-shifting projects in the region.
Here are the winners, to be profiled in a special print edition on April 16, as well as at a virtual awards event the day before. We’ll also be honoring some superlative awardees at the event — register here so you won’t miss it.
PROJECTS AND DEALS:
- A new, 450,000-square-foot headquarters planned for T. Rowe Price Group Inc., made up of a pair of modern, green glass buildings in Harbor Point to be built to the firm’s specifications. The money manager announced in December that it had signed a 15-year lease for the planned development at the water’s edge.
- The Woodberry, a 284-unit luxury apartment building at the intersection of Interstate 83 and Cold Spring Lane. Klein Enterprises developed the transit-oriented project, which sits next to an MTA Light Rail stop and began leasing to new residents in May.
- Juniper, a 382-unit apartment complex in Downtown Columbia’s burgeoning Merriweather District. The five-story building developed by the Howard Hughes Corp. was completed last February. It also includes nearly 57,000 square feet of street-level retail.
- SoHa Union, a 16-unit, mixed-use apartment building at the intersection of Harford Road and Southern Avenue in Northeast Baltimore. The project from Property Consulting Inc. is the first of its kind for the Lauraville neighborhood. Commercial and residential leasing kicked off last July and August, respectively.
- Towson Station, a conversion of a 95-year-old former police station that had been serving as office and commercial space into an apartment building with seven units. Bayview Management served as the developer and began leasing to tenants last summer.
- Hunt Valley-based spice maker McCormick & Co. Inc.’s $300 million distribution center at Tradepoint Atlantic, which broke ground in November. The company committed further to Baltimore this past fall when it announced plans for the sprawling, 1.8 million-square-foot distribution center in Southeast Baltimore County.
- Ministry of Brewing, SAA | EVI Development’s $2.4 million redevelopment of the former St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Upper Fells Point into a working brewery with seating for 200 people. The project adjoins the 37-unit Ministry Lofts apartments, spread across three buildings next door.
- Wills Wharf in Harbor Point added two high-profile additions last year, signing on Foreman Wolf restaurant group’s newest addition, Cindy Lou’s Fish House, and debuting a 156-room Canopy by Hilton hotel on its top levels.
- The sale of the fully leased Port 95 industrial complex on Holabird Avenue for$101.5 million. Seattle-based investment group BentallGreenOak purchased the warehouse property, which has a newly constructed Class A portion and a renovated Class B warehouse, and counts Amazon and Johns Hopkins as tenants.
- Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation’s $17 million rehabilitation and repurposing of the historic Hebrew Orphan Asylum in West Baltimore. Formerly an orphanage and later a hospital, the nearly 150-year-old structure is now called the Center for Health Care and Healthy Living at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, serving as an opioid treatment center and community health program hub.
- The ratification of a deal reached between state, local and private partners to
rebuild Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park through legislation approved by the Maryland General Assembly last spring. The measure authorized $375 million in bonds to rebuild the historic, but decrepit racetrack near Park Heights as well as its counterpart in Anne Arundel County, ensuring the Preakness Stakes will remain in Baltimore.
INDIVIDUALS:
- David Bookhout, vice president, Real Estate Development, AvalonBay Communities
- David Bramble, managing partner, MCB Real Estate
- Terri Harrington, senior vice president, MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services
- Dana Henson, principal and vice president, Henson Development Co.
- Bree Jones, founder, Parity Homes
- Jim Lighthizer, principal, Chesapeake Real Estate Group
- Gary Rodwell, executive director, Coppin Heights Community Development Corp.
- Bill Struever, principal, managing partner and CEO, Cross Street Partners
- Ernst Valery, Principal, co-managing member, SAA | EVI Development
- Stephanie Williams, president, Bozzuto Management Company and operating partner, The Bozzuto Group