Port Covington has entered “leasing mode,” according to Maryanne Gilmartin, Founder and CEO of MAG Partners. Gilmartin described the status and potential of the mega project at last month’s NAIOP Maryland Summer in the City networking event, held at 2455 Banner Street in Port Covington. The New York-based company, together with San Francisco development firm MacFarlane Partners, recently assumed master planning and development activities from Weller Development. The NAIOP-MD Developing Leaders group toured the 235-acre, mixed-use development prior to the networking program.

“We’re obviously in leasing mode. We’re going to lease half a million square feet of commercial space and we’re going to invite people to come to live at Port Covington, to fill the half a million square feet of residential that we have to offer our community,” Gilmartin told the sold-out audience. “We have 100,000 square feet of retail and we’ve got lots of activity on all fronts, so that is what you can expect in the months to come.”

Port Covington has the power to make a positive impact on all of Baltimore, she said. “I believe that Baltimore can become a model for the great rebirth of the American city.”

“Many people think that it doesn’t have money or income, but it does,” Gilmartin said, noting that Baltimore has the sixth-largest median income in the United States. “It’s just that it’s not equitable and it’s not been evenly distributed across the community. This project, for lots of reasons, has the ability to change that. And now more than ever, customers, consumers, boardrooms all want to invest responsibly in the communities in which we live.”

MAG Partners, Gilmartin said, is designed to deliver both a successful real estate venture and broad-based impact.

“When we started MAG Partners, we wanted to prove that you could build beauty through high performance and you could do that to deliver value, not just for the investors and the partners, but for the communities in which we build,” she said. “We, as builders, should look like the people we build for and Port Covington can be that. If everyone wins, the project is a true success.”

With more than 14 million square feet of space planned across 45 city blocks, Port Covington is considered one of the largest urban revitalization efforts in the United States. The development will feature 40 acres of parks and green space and currently has access to more than 42 million cars annually.