MCB Real Estate announces design team for Harborplace redevelopment project
Gensler Baltimore will lead the design team for the Harborplace redevelopment project, MCB Real Estate announced Thursday.
Gensler, a global architecture and design firm, will lead the design team implementing the Harborplace Master Plan, which was approved by Baltimore voters last November with over 60% support.
The team includes landscape architects Hoerr Schaudt of Chicago and Baltimore-based firms Floura Teeter, Mahan Rykiel Associates, STV, and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.
History of Harborplace
Harborplace opened in July 1980, serving as one of the first waterfront malls of its kind. Developed by The Rouse Company, it initially thrived with local businesses and became a national model for urban renewal. However, by the 2010s, the complex fell into decline under New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisitions, which acquired it in 2012. By 2019, the property entered court-ordered receivership due to Ashkenazy's loan defaults and failure to maintain the site.
In 2022, Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate acquired Harborplace through a court-approved deal, pledging to revitalize the struggling complex.
The redevelopment project
The developer, MCB Real Estate led by David Bramble, plans to replace the mostly vacant pavilions at the Inner Harbor with a mixed-use complex including a park, residential buildings, and retail space, with an estimated cost of around $1 billion.
The proposed redevelopment would create a 4.5-acre space with restaurants, commercial uses, multifamily residential development, and off-street parking.
News of the redevelopment project was met with mixed reactions from the public, however.
Former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley opposed the redevelopment, calling the project "a terrible developer grab of public waterfront parkland."
Some residents expressed concerns about "unlimited height, unlimited use, unlimited residential" and that the plan "was just handed to one developer."
