BRAC Invasion
Baltimore & Jay Brodie offer Corridor's Housing Solution

By Amrit Dhillon

8.2007

Corridor Inc.

Shooting up over 100 feet in the air and less than a mile from where the national anthem was scribed, a remnant of Baltimore's industrial past is in the midst of a flip.

Soon, an old grain elevator will be open for business again, fully converted into uber-modern condos with floor-to-ceiling views of the Inner Harbor and Fells Point.

That mix of history and urban amenity is what some people are counting on to attract thousands of new residents to Charm City.

A location central to two military installations providing Maryland with the single largest employment growth activity since World War II thanks to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision doesn't hurt either.

"There's potential, not a guarantee, but the potential is wonderful" said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., on what BRAC means for Baltimore.

With or without BRAC, the city faces challenges from crime and escalating property taxes to a bevy of school system woes. How Baltimore chooses to deal with issues that have plagued it in the past may determine how much of a windfall BRAC really is.

The realignment process is expected to bring more than 45,000 federal and private sector jobs to the state, the majority at or around Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County and Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, according to the Maryland Department of Planning.

More than 25,000 households come with those jobs and most are expected to land in an eight-county radius, with Baltimore at the epicenter.

While the bulk of the residents will likely be in Harford and Anne Arundel Counties, the other Baltimore-Washington Corridor counties- Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's - should cumulatively corral about 24.2 percent of the newcomers, according to the state.

But, the department of planning anticipates at least 10 percent of the new residents will relocate to Baltimore City.

According to Andrew B. Frank, Baltimore's deputy mayor of neighborhood and economic development, the city can comfortably accommodate 170,000 new people, while some of the counties have barriers to increasing population.

"We have the infrastructure in the city," he said. "We can relieve pressure on areas challenged by growth."

To understand the opportunity the realignment poses and to prepare for it, the city has developed a blueprint dubbed "BRACtion."

The draft plan outlines improvements to transportation and infrastructure as well as marketing and policy efforts to accommodate population growth. Also included are various workforce development initiatives to prepare city residents for up to 3,000 potential new jobs. Reaching out to new businesses and contractors are also central to the city's vision.

"We want to position the city so it's a viable choice," Frank said.

Part of the reason Baltimore City is so eager is because over the last 15 years, there has been an exodus. The population has dropped from 736,014 in 1990 to an estimated 635,815 in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Preparing Baltimore for BRAC isn't much different from growing the city in general, said Frank, noting the master plan already accommodates impending growth.

"We didn't know BRAC was coming, but we knew the future was coming," Brodie added.

Projects like Silo Point, the grain elevator conversion that will result in about 550 residential units and 200,000 square feet of commercial space in South Baltimore, and Harbor East, a mixed-use development off Fells Point with hundreds of apartments and condos plus retail and office space, are already underway.

In Westport, off the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, another project will add 2,000 new apartments, condos and townhouses, all convenient to a light rail station. Along the harbor, the Ritz-Carlton Residences will offer 178 new luxury condos. There are also the hundreds of independent rehabilitation projects happening to the city's existing homes.

The combination of the city's central location and a national trend of people wanting to come back to urban environments is making a huge impact, said Patrick Turner, president of Turner Development Group, the company building Silo Point and Westport.

"BRAC wasn't a driver, but it's certainly a bonus," he said of the two projects.

The diversity of housing stock is critical to attract BRAC households, said Frank.

"We know BRAC is going to exacerbate affordable housing issues by virtue of the fact that it's going to put an increasing demand on the market," said Kent D. Menser, executive director of Howard County's BRAC office.

According to Maryland Association of Realtors, the average price of a home in Baltimore City as of June was $200,250, compared to an average of $584,878 in Montgomery, $487,667 in Howard, $442,397 in Anne Arundel and $335,020 in Prince George's.

"We want these folks, the counties are ambivalent," said Brodie, whose quasi-city corporation helps spur economic development in Baltimore. "We have the room, the infrastructure."

But over the years, various high profile problems have detracted from Baltimore's attributes.

"The biggest obstacle for the city is perception," said Ilene Kessler, president of the Maryland Association of Realtors.

BRAC is a wonderful opportunity for the city if it can realistically overcome some obstacles and launch a positive public relations campaign, she said.

To do just that, the city has signed a $280,000 contract with the Live Baltimore Home Center, a non-profit organization that promotes city living, to market Baltimore to potential new residents.

One of the goals is to put the true face of the city out there, said Anna Custer, executive director of Live Baltimore.

"We're doing what we can to get factual information out there on crime and schools," she said.

Brodie, a high school graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, isn't worried.

"If we were in denial about schools or had no good schools and didn't see positive trends, it would be bad," he noted. "We know we need work."

Custer said it's also important to market strategically.

"A lot of efforts are buckshot versus one single bullet at one target," she said. "BRAC workers are almost an affinity group that we are marketing to and targeting."

Because many of the military and contractor jobs coming to Maryland are highly technical, Custer's team is focusing on electronic marketing tools.

One is an interactive mapping system of city neighborhoods that show where schools, restaurants, major roads, grocery stores and more are. The organization is also focusing heavily on mapping out commute paths from various neighborhoods to both Fort Meade and Aberdeen.

Areas in southwest Baltimore, within a 25 minute drive to Fort Meade, and those in northeast and east Baltimore, which are closer to Aberdeen, are neighborhoods the city is investing in, said Frank.

Deciding who is likely to choose to live in Baltimore is important too, he said. For now, the consensus seems to be young professionals and baby boomers.

"The unattached and the empty nesters don't want to live across from a Ruby Tuesday's," pointed out Christopher P. Moyer, a senior economic development officer for the Baltimore Development Corp. "They want to walk to the game and to Canton."

But all this effort and analysis isn't underway simply because of BRAC.

"There's a significant amount of investment already being made here by businesses, but [BRAC] could be the extra vitamin that speeds development along," noted Custer.

Brodie is willing to use whatever he can to boost Baltimore's appeal.

"We're business people and Baltimore is a good place to put a business," he said. "We're not overregulated, there's opportunity for renovation and new construction. Smart people are making the rounds and learning to spell BRAC."