Could a cluster of real estate investment and redevelopment initiatives fuel an economic turnaround in a long-struggling stretch of Baltimore County?
Faced with abundant under-performing properties in Woodlawn and Randallstown, shortages of retail offerings and community amenities, and a long history of under-investment in the region, Baltimore County created three economic development programs targeting the West Side.
“The county is at an inflection point for growth,” said Sameer Sidh, the county’s Senior Deputy Administrative Officer and Director of Economic Development and Infrastructure. “Coming out of the pandemic, we have seen stagnation in our population growth. There is a national decline in the office real estate market and building permit activity has been declining over the past few years.”
With limited green space to develop, “we have focused instead on redevelopment as a way to balance our interests in economic growth and land preservation,” Sidh said.
“We have looked at policy measures to encourage market-based redevelopments, specifically by increasing flexibility in uses of existing shopping centers that might include residential. We have looked at areas that have historically been under-invested in and are ripe for revitalization, and we have put our own skin in the game, making targeted investments that we believe can revitalize whole communities.”
To date, the Security Square Mall redevelopment initiative has included an extensive charette process and produced a master redevelopment plan, authored in part by JMT | Architecture. That plan envisions a mixed-use development on the 88-acre site that would include residences and workspaces, retail and restaurant offerings, entertainment and activity centers, and a greenway network of outdoor amenities, such as trails, fields and public gardens.
The county and state have funneled $30 million into the redevelopment effort, and Baltimore County has purchased two parcels of mall land and contracted to purchase a third for a total of 39 acres.
Although Security Square is largely vacant and decaying, economic development professionals believe a bold plan could reinvigorate the property and Baltimore County’s west side.
This spring, the county “hired a consultant to define the path to redevelopment,” Sidh said. A key next step will be “determining a way to position the properties the county has assembled to go back onto the market. The county acquired parcels in a way that there is some connectivity and contiguous land so it would be attractive to a developer.”
In addition, the county has created two organizations to pursue redevelopment and investment opportunities on the west side. Funded with $600,000 in American Rescue Plan funds, the Greater Randallstown Community Development Organization is tasked with developing plans to revitalize the retail corridor on Liberty Road. Meanwhile, the West Side Development Authority was established to identify other properties within a 12-mile radius of Security Square that present promising redevelopment opportunities.
“Baltimore County has spent little effort and resources on economic development in recent years,” said Anirban Basu, Chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group.
The county, however, has enabled several remarkable redevelopments, including the Foundry Row and Metro Centre projects in Owings Mills, major growth in downtown Towson, “and, of course, the redevelopment of Hunt Valley Mall, which was once called Death Valley Mall, into a thriving live-work-play area,” Basu said.
Security Square, he added, has the potential to be a highly successful redevelopment and even serve as “a catalyst to revitalize the balance of Woodlawn.”
Security Square’s location, Basu said, “is simply fabulous.” It has ready access to I-695, I-795 and I-70, putting it within easy reach of some of the region’s most wealthy communities, including Ellicott City and Columbia. If constructed, the Red Line would provide transit to Security Square. The site is also close to major employment hubs — more than 12,000 jobs at the Social Security Administration and 3,000 at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
To succeed, however, the Security Square redevelopment needs to become more than a local destination, Basu said. It needs to be a high-quality project with sought-after restaurants, retail stores, amenity spaces, housing and more that will make it a regional destination.
“This will have to be a really superb development. It can’t go half-way, it can’t be so-so,” Basu said.
“These redevelopment opportunities don’t come along too often and when they do, you better swing for the fences. Hit a home run. I hope, as a community, we don’t settle because we settle for so-so too often. This is the time to embrace amazing. Our policymakers in Towson need to think about this from a very ambitious perspective, understand how much private capital they will need to attract to the project and what incentives will accomplish that.”
Similarly, Basu believes the Greater Randallstown and West Side development organizations have significant potential to fuel redevelopment and economic growth.
“The amount of income and spending power in Woodlawn and Randallstown and other areas in the western part of the county is badly misunderstood,” Basu said. “Woodlawn is a community that has a lot of homeowners, a lot of people who have entered the middle class and are striving from something even better. Randallstown is a very middle-class oriented, reasonably high-income place so there is spending power there. There is an opportunity here to reimagine the western part of the county.”