Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

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GRID
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Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by GRID »

Baltimore has landed a few major companies in recent years and with those have come new office towers.

Here are some new projects for Harbor East, an area that barely had anything on it when we moved out here.

Baltimore has a lot of problems and yet they still have a large corporate presence downtown. If downtown KCMO could get a fraction of this civic corporate investment, the sky would be the limit there.

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AlkaliAxel
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by AlkaliAxel »

It’s possible we something like this come when 1400 KC starts leasing in April. And if it does, then it will kick off the other projects.
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by FangKC »

Does Baltimore have cheaper office rents than in DC, or Virginia, but it's close enough for companies doing business with the federal government? Does that explain the growth there?
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

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FangKC wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:18 pm Does Baltimore have cheaper office rents than in DC, or Virginia, but it's close enough for companies doing business with the federal government? Does that explain the growth there?
I think that's some of it. Let me be clear. Baltimore has some serious problems. It seems to be the problem child of the Northeast corridor. For a coastal city it seems to really struggle in many areas especially for it being part of the very affluent and fast growing Washington DC region.

However, Downtown and many surrounding districts like Fells Point, Federal Hill, Inner Harbor, Harbor Point etc are thriving urban areas despite massive crime issues etc. Tons of growth and development. I do know people that commute from central Baltimore to DC and DC suburbs (many of which are also Baltimore suburbs). MARC trains go directly between DC and Baltimore and it is cheaper, but I'm not sure how much that really drives growth.

I really don't know. I just find it interesting that downtown Baltimore is still very much a corporate and employment center and there are some large companies there. Even companies that are not right downtown are at least close to downtown. Under Amour is building a new campus near downtown for example.

You see the same thing in Richmond and Philly and Boston and of course DC and NYC. Still tons of companies investing in big urban office projects etc. Even now. Some are downsizing since covid, but still seem committed to urban areas, or at least urban suburbs like Silver Spring, Bethesda and Alexandria. As big as this region is, there is very little suburban office construction like you see in KC. if it's suburban, it's generally dense type development near Metro stations.

I just wish KC companies would step up. The problem now is there are not many local companies left to step up. So I wonder when and how KC can start competing for relocating companies. They can't all go to Austin, Nashville, Denver etc.
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by dukuboy1 »

Great to hear, and I've always enjoyed visiting Baltimore. It has a KC feel and an East Coast vibe as well. It is in that 1-95 corridor that connects to DC and fills in a lot as you get outside of downtown proper. But I think they never really lost that focus on downtown business district and the suburbs were mainly for housing and communities. Yes there are companies and such. But here we see how mass transit has shaped development along the East Coast. Major business districts and such located in a Central City/downtown area. People commute in on trains and such and return home to the suburbs of mostly "bedroom communities". Makes a little difference.

Plus I'll always say the biggest issue with KC development is knowing that their neighbor to the West is looking out for their state's best interest & MO having 2 major Metros in STL & KC makes it harder on KC to get the focus/attention at times. At one point STL was a powerhouse city for the US. Like the 4th or 5th largest city in the US and biggest thing outside the East Coast behind Chicago. They were the West coast for a long time as far as the East Coast elites were concerned. Then in the 1930's the depression & dust bowl hit forcing people to move around, especially from the Midwest. They either went West to CA and such, & South to TX to keep working as farmers, or they went to the cities and went to whatever cities could provide the best opportunities. Then after WWII, STL began it's slow and steady decline as the West Coast blew up & the Central Midwest kind of maintained. KC prospered some during this time but only slightly above par to the rest of the region.

Baltimore is the biggest player in MD & is 30 miles from the state capital. So they are working in tandem. Biggest city of influence get the full attention from the state government. Denver, Nashville, Indy, Minneapolis, all have the same setup if not the biggest city and state capital. That all makes things a little easier as you have that laser focus for the most part.

KC benefits from the KS side of the metro being the largest population and economic powerhouse for KS. Plus located close to Topeka somewhat. But that Metro gets a lot of the focus from KS leaders. But as it can help us it hinders us, draws companies to the KS side who setup shop in suburbs. MO side has had their share of that as well and KC never really recovered all that well from suburban flight. Imagine if Garmin, Cerner, Sprint/TMobile, AMC, Burns & Mac, Black & Veatch, Populus, etc. all would take up residence downtown through the Crossroads and into Crown Center area forming a massive business district from downtown to Crown Center basically bordered by Grand on East and Broadway on West and filled in North to South.

That would be amazing but it did not work out that way. I hope that the next generation of companies to grown large and become major players look downtown and stay there. Then maybe attract some others from out of town. That would be awesome.
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by GRID »

^ yes, being the major city in Maryland is a big part of it as well.

Maryland is interesting since much of the population is actually in suburban DC. But yet I think MD works with DC just as much, if not more than it does with Baltimore on many issues. For example, the huge purple line light rail project is a beltway transit line. It does not go into a center city. It only connects many suburbs of DC together. Yet the Red Line LRT in central Baltimore was canceled.

The Purple line is a great project, but I'm surprised they didn't find a way to do the Red line as well.
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by normalthings »

GRID wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:53 pm Baltimore has landed a few major companies in recent years and with those have come new office towers.

Here are some new projects for Harbor East, an area that barely had anything on it when we moved out here.

Baltimore has a lot of problems and yet they still have a large corporate presence downtown. If downtown KCMO could get a fraction of this civic corporate investment, the sky would be the limit there.
Give us stats on that development. SQFT, height, developer, tenants, etc
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Re: Baltimore landing two more corporate HQ

Post by bspecht »

normalthings wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:10 pm Give us stats on that development. SQFT, height, developer, tenants, etc
It's Harbor Point, currently moving to Phase 3 of 4 (4 being the largest tower). Many of financial tenants (Morgan Stanley, RBC, T Rowe, EY) + ~20 story Exelon tower.

3M SF total: 1.6M SF office, 250K SF retail
2,500 units, 600+ hotel keys, 3,300 parking
https://www.harborpoint.com/overview

Also might be interested to check out a project slight further from downtown, but just off I-95, Port Covington – plans of up to 14M SF underway: https://portcovington.wpengine.com/development/
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