Baltimore — Weller Development Co. plans to break ground on what it calls Chapter 1B of Port Covington in Baltimore in February. The development team, which also includes Goldman Sachs and Sagamore Ventures, received $650 million in financing for this phase, including $137 million in tax increment financing (TIF) bonds. In conjunction with the closings, the Port Covington development team funded more than $9 million to the South Baltimore 7 Coalition as part of its Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), which is the largest CBA payout in the history of Baltimore.
The latest phase will comprise five buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet that is expected to start delivering in late 2022. The planned buildings in Chapter 1B include:
- Building E1: 162 residential units and 40,000 square feet of retail space;
- Building E5A: 212,000 square feet of office space and 9,500 square feet of retail space;
- Building E5B: 40 residential units, 81 extended stay rooms and 6,000 square feet of retail space;
- Building E6: 254 residential units and 16,000 square feet of retail space; and
- Building E7, dubbed Rye Street Market: 228,000 square feet of office space and a 45,000-square-foot retail market.
In addition, 89 of the residential units in Chapter 1B will be reserved as affordable housing. Life sciences REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities is actively marketing a 170,000-square-foot laboratory building for lease within Port Covington. At full completion, Port Covington is planned to include up to 18 million square feet of new mixed-use development, with 2.5 miles of restored waterfront and more than 40 acres of parks and green space.
The development team broke ground on Chapter 1 in May 2019. Chapter 1 is expected to comprise 3.4 million square feet of commercial space. Current tenants signed on at Port Covington’s Chapter 1 include Under Armour, The Baltimore Sun, City Garage, Sagamore Spirit Distillery, Rye Street Tavern, Nick’s Fish House and Impact Village.