Developer 'optimistic' Silo Point will buck market trend

12.15.2006

Baltimore Business Journal

Despite a nationwide slowdown in the housing market, Baltimore developer Patrick Turner believes the city, and South Baltimore in particular, remains a fertile place for new development.

His Turner Development Group expects to complete its $128 million, 228-unit condominium project at Silo Point by spring 2008, and Turner said he is confident housing demand and the uniqueness of his project will be welcomed by Charm City residents.

"I'm one of those optimistic types that doesn't see Maryland as being that bad off," he said. "We see a steady growth."

Bill Cassidy, sales manager of the Long & Foster office in Fells Point, said there have been a large number of new residential developments in the city over the past year, nearing an "oversupply." But within that, the condominium market has been underserved and is still in high demand.

Cassidy said there has been an increase in the number of young professionals and empty-nesters looking for places in the city, making developments like Silo Point ideal for those groups of potential buyers.

Construction at Silo Point started earlier this year and is on schedule, Turner said. When finished by March 2008, the redevelopment project in Baltimore's Locust Point neighborhood will include 228 condominium units divided between a 300-foot grain elevator and an accompanying 13-story building connected by a glass bridge.

The project also will include about 25,000 square feet of retail space and structured parking integrated into the grain elevator.

There will be 24 stores built into the grain elevator, and Turner said it will likely be one of the only residential developments in the city where people will be able to watch the sunrise, and sunset, from the confines of their living room.

"You can live anywhere in the world, but you can only live in one grain elevator," Turner said. "We already had the existing tower there, and what we're doing is building within it."

MacKenzie Capital LLC has arranged financing for the project. Turner said the lender is Fremont Investments of California. He said he is not pre-selling any of the units, which are expected to sell from $400,000 to more than $1 million, and that he believes word-of-mouth advertising will work to his advantage once he begins to market the project to potential buyers.

"You build more excitement up that way," he said.

Turner also has been contacted by restaurants interested in moving into the development's retail space, but he said he will not select specific retailers until around the time the work is expected to be completed. At that time, he said, he also will consider filling out the rest of the site, which has enough room to develop another 150 residential units, 150,000 square feet of office space and another 25,000 square feet of retail space.

In addition to its plans, Turner sold a portion of its 7.5-acre property to Pulte Homes in March 2005 for a combined $3.6 million, according to state assessment and taxation data. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based home builder has already constructed 97 of its planned 121 townhouses at 1900 and 1902 Fort Ave. The McHenry Point homes entered the market at more than $600,000, but the advertised asking price has since been reduced and now starts in the upper $400,000 range.