Port Covington Development Plans Filed with City Offer Glimpse of Project's Timeline

Sagamore Development Co.'s plans for the first subdivision at the $5.5 billion Port Covington project are designed to allow the Baltimore Sun's printing plant to continue operations while new development begins around it.

The plans are detailed in documents recently filed with city planners.

In addition, a timeline released by the planning department Tuesday show that infrastructure of Phase I of the project is expected to break ground in the summer, or third quarter, of 2018. Following that, 1,111 units of housing and 700,800 square feet of retail at the development is slated to break ground in summer and fall of 2019, the documents show. About 2,900 parking spaces will also be built during that phase.

Those parcels are located to the east of The Sun's printing plant, located along Cromwell Street and visible from Interstate 95.

The Port Covington planning documents also show that a 280-room hotel and 934,000 square feet of office space are planned to break ground in the second quarter of 2019 with a completion date of no later than 2024.

The Department of Planning received the plans on Friday as work on the massive development continues from Sagamore's offices in Locust Point. The documents will be considered in the coming months by the Planning Commission.

The plans center on subdividing into three parcels land near the printing plant of The Sun that would be broken down into 14 acres, 19 acres and 25 acres in size, the documents show.

Matt DeSantis, a planner in the department who oversees subdivisions, said Tuesday the documents are "the first of many sub-developments as part of the overall development" at Port Covington. The project is expected to be built out over two decades.

DeSantis said the plans center on development located along Cromwell Street, a main artery in the heart of Port Covington.

"It is to set things up for development [under] the master plan," DeSantis said.

Sagamore Development, owned by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, unveiled plans last year for the 266-acre redevelopment of Port Covington. Under Armour has plans to build a new 50-acre waterfront headquarters at the site.

Plans for the project, the largest in the city's history, call for up to 13 million square feet of office, residential, retail, restaurants, entrepreneurial maker space and entertainment venues. There is also 40 acres of public parks and green spaces planned for the space and along the city's waterfront of the Middle Branch.

In a statement, Steve Siegel, executive vice president of Sagamore Development, said the plans reflect some of the early plans for the project.

“We are just beginning the process of identifying the most appropriate and strategic equity and development partners who share our vision and passion for Port Covington and Baltimore," Siegel said. "Early infrastructure work is already underway with the construction of the first phase of the bike path expected to accommodate visitors by bike this summer to Port Covington. Additional, privately-funded infrastructure, landscaping and remediation work will continue through 2018 with public infrastructure construction expected to begin in late 2018. In addition, the Sagamore Spirit distillery will open its doors to the public later this month and City Garage has proven to be a key asset in accelerating the development and success of our workforce development program.”

Public hearings on the master plan for the development began last June after other presentations before the city's design panel, the Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. The hearings attracted dozens of perspectives from community representatives and business leaders. The Planning Commission approved the plan within three weeks, setting up a working document to be used as a planning and zoning tool to craft legislation for the project by the City Council.

In addition, the City Council this summer approved a $660 million tax increment financing request by Sagamore Development for infrastructure at the site. The first batch of TIF bonds for Port Covington is expected to be sold by the end of the year to private investors, a city finance department official said last week.

Last June, Sagamore said it was seeking to build "close to 14,000" housing units at Port Covington in testimony before the Planning Commission, an increase from its original estimate of 7,500 units.

Plank's whiskey distillery, Sagamore Spirit, is scheduled to open April 21 at Port Covington.