Maryland Board of Public Works approves $1.4B State Center project - Baltimore Business Journal:

iqukikofor.wordpress.com
billion and to take at leastt a decadeto complete. The board votedf 3-0 to approve a master development agreement forthe project, clearing the way for a private developmenyt team to begin designn work on the project’s first The board includes Gov. Martin O’Malley, Treasurer Nancyh Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot and weighsz all major statespending projects. The vote was not as O’Malley has supported the projecrt since he was mayor of Baltimore and Kopp hassaid thath, despited financial concerns, she believes the project shoulrd move forward.
As the state would lease the land off Martijn Luther King Boulevard to StateCentet LLC, which would redevelop the site into a mixed-usew complex with homes, offices and commercial space. The state woulds then lease office space from the developers for use by itsstatre agencies. The development team includes McCormack, Baron & Salizar, a national housing developer, and PS Partnerse LLC, led by Linden Associates Inc. President Christopher Kurz. Struever Eccles & Rouse Inc. and Doracon original members ofthe team, have since withdrawn but Struever will remain part of the projectf as a consultant.
A third equitg partner will also be brought on to State Centerf LLC to replace Doracon as aminoritty business. in the final days of the General Assembly’s last Their efforts failed, but they succeeded in hinging the projecg on an analysis of by Kopp and Franchotr focusing on whether undertaking the redevelopmeng would hurtthe state’s ability to borrow moneu for other capital projects.
Kopp’s issued May 15, The distinction means the statre would be required to list the projects costs on its balancs sheet as assets and liabilitieds rather than just listing its costs for rentinfg the office space from the developers asan That, in turn, could max out the state’s ability to borrow money. The statwe budget committees met May 28 If all goes as the developers could breao ground onthe project’s first of four phases in June 2010. But for that to the developers will have to come back to the statee with morespecific designs, project and lease terms.