Developer wants derelict city plant, but zoning is obstacle

8.27.2004

Baltimore Business Journal

A local developer who successfully fought to convert the decrepit Locust Point granary into swanky waterfront residences has his eye on the vacant Chesapeake Paperboard Co. plant in South Baltimore.

Patrick Turner says he is scouting the property -- empty and choked with overgrown weeds -- on Woodall Street for possible redevelopment.

"We're not under contract," he said. "It's complicated."

By complicated, Turner is referring to rezoning -- practically a dirty word in this neighborhood once filled with the fumes of factories.

As more industry pulls out of Locust Point, leaving outdated and obsolete buildings on the market, the possibility of any rezoning has touched off a tug of war among commercial developers and longtime residents hoping to preserve the character of the area. The opposing sides have left Baltimore City planners and elected leaders in a predicament over how to reshape the future of a neighborhood -- long intertwined with the Port of Baltimore -- through rezoning.

Turner, who needed to lobby for the rezoning of the Archer Daniels Midland grain operation off Fort Avenue, isn't sure he's ready for another potential battle -- not even a skirmish -- over Chesapeake Paperboard.

C. William "Bill" Struever, CEO of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., said his Baltimore development firm had the 18-acre Chesapeake Paperboard plant site under contract until about two years ago.

"We were told by an elected official that the zoning would never be changed to residential," Struever said. "So we abandoned that. Life is too short."

Struever navigated the sometimes rough battleground of Baltimore City Hall skillfully enough in 1999 to have the industrial zoning of the former Procter & Gamble plant off Hull Street in Locust Point changed. The result is a bustling waterfront office development called Tide Point, where many of Baltimore's elite companies, including Under Armour, are located.

But then in January 2003, the city denied an informal request by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. and a partner to build a smaller office complex on an industrial site at 1020 Key Highway.

And that's the problem when a redevelopment hinges on rezoning -- you just never know how the residents or the city will respond, developers said this week. In short, there's no guarantee the project will work out.

Andrew B. Frank, executive vice president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said the "Industrial Land Use Analysis," released in February, was expected to cure that problem and act as a guide for redevelopment.

But that very study, although not binding, advocates for keeping the Chesapeake Paperboard site in the industrial zone. "We recommend retention of the site in industrial use so as to protect Phillips and PQ Corp. and, as importantly, protect the long-term truck access for other Locust Point industry dependent on Fort Avenue," according to the document.

Conversion to a "nonindustrial" use would only be justified if environmental cleanup costs or other costs associated with the industrial buildings were excessive or if a new mixed-use development would have economic benefits outweighing those resulting from industrial uses.

Turner declined to discuss his ideas for transforming the property, which is east of the new Phillips Foods headquarters. But if his most recent projects are any indication, Turner is likely interested in some sort of mixed-use redevelopment, with a heavy emphasis on residential uses.

Besides the ongoing granary redevelopment, Turner recently completed the conversion of a school into condominiums at West and William streets in Federal Hill. He is undertaking another similar endeavor with a former convalescent center on Light Street, also in Federal Hill.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said Turner has not contacted him or his organization regarding any plans for the Chesapeake Paperboard property.

Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation records show the property still belongs to Chesapeake Paperboard Co. of Charlotte, N.C. The property is assessed at $212,500, the records indicate.

Caraustar Industries Inc. completed its acquisition of Chesapeake Paperboard in 1998. The Locust Point plant closed about five years ago.