Proponents of a multi-faceted redevelopment of an abandoned military site in Pikesville believe it could infuse new vitality and substantial foot traffic into a struggling retail strip.
State and community leaders began assessing alternate uses for the 14-acre Pikesville Armory site after the National Guard stopped using the facility 12 years ago and announced its willingness to sell the property. A commission created by then-Governor Larry Hogan led to the creation of the nonprofit Pikesville Armory Foundation, which drafted and advanced ambitious plans for a multi-use, public complex.
Through the commission and additional public hearings, area residents expressed strong interest in transforming the property to serve a long list of needs, said David Ginsburg, Executive Director of the Foundation. Those included the need for public parks and green space, athletic fields, playgrounds, indoor recreation facilities, event space, veterans’ facilities, a military/community museum, a senior center, and an arts center.
“Instead of doing a project that would solve a couple of needs, we decided to make this project big and create an opportunity to rejuvenate the entire area,” Ginsburg said.
Initial discussions of a redevelopment, which might have cost $20 million, evolved into a $95 million project. That plan includes restoring and repurposing three historic buildings onsite, building the largest senior center in the county, an indoor recreation facility with basketball/pickleball courts and an indoor walking track, an arts center that includes performance and exhibition space, a maker space, co-working space, and a café and/or restaurant. It includes creating multi-purpose sports fields, an outdoor walking path through gardens, building a massive ADA-compliant playground, and transforming several garages into artists’ studios.
The Foundation estimates that that collection of facilities will ensure that 500 people will be onsite at any given time once the redevelopment is complete in 2027.
Ginsburg, a native of Pikesville and lifelong resident of northwest Baltimore County, predicts the facilities will attract visitors from other communities and create business for retailers and restaurants on a stretch of Reisterstown Road that has long struggled.
“Pikesville has been slowly declining for 70 years,” he said. “With this $95 million development, local businesses will do better and more businesses will actually move to the area rather than out of the area. We think this project has the potential to rejuvenate the entire northwest corridor from Pimlico to Owings Mills.”
To support that revitalization goal, the Foundation made the strategic decision to contract Seawall to complete the development.
“Transforming the community is what we are going to be graded on so we felt that Seawall was a perfect match because of what they have accomplished in Remington and Lexington Market,” Ginsburg said.
Late last year, the Foundation cleared several hurdles in moving the development forward. It concluded two years of negotiations with Baltimore County and secured commitments from the county to develop recreation facilities onsite and contribute $15.5 million to the project.
The project received the first-ever, multi-use zoning approval in the county and the Foundation purchased two adjacent properties on Milford Mill Road to create the primary entrance to the complex and house a multi-story parking garage.
To date, the Foundation has secured $30 million in funding commitments for the redevelopment and expects to qualify for more than $20 million in tax credits when major construction starts in 2026, Ginsburg said. Due to a vigorous fundraising campaign, Ginsburg expects to have secured $70 million for the project by the time the Foundation issues its construction RFP in late 2025.