The bad news first: We won’t be getting our Four Seasons condos anytime soon. Plans for the luxe Four Seasons Hotel and Residences originally called for a 44-story waterfront building; lower floors would serve as a hotel and upper floors would be sold as condos. As you’ve probably heard, the new, scaled-back plan instead offers 21 stories with no condos. But the original concept is being put on hold, rather than scrapped; the new strategy calls for a top floor that will temporarily host a $4.5 million “preview gallery” and sales office for the condos, which will be priced and built at a later date. The nearby 24-story office tower, future home of Legg Mason’s world headquarters, is still moving forward as originally scheduled.
Things aren’t looking good for Edwin Hale’s Canton Crossing, either. Once touted as “the biggest single residential development in recent memory,” the project has been running into difficulties as of late. Recently, Hale defaulted on a $10 million loan taken out to finance the waterfront venture.
So are these worrisome events merely temporary setbacks, or are they signs of things to come? We’ve decided to be cautiously hopeful; after all, though some projects are floundering, some seem to be making the best of a bad economy. Turner Development’s Silo Point condos in Locust Point (pictured to the left) are selling well for the market, a representative tells us; 50 of the building’s 222 units are under contract so far. And there are no plans to delay or scale back the Westport Waterfront, Turner’s next big project. Plus, as Baltimore Grows recently noted, Forbes just named Baltimore one of the top-10 cities for job growth in 2009.
So while the economic slowdown is definitely making itself felt downtown, the sky isn’t falling. Which projects do you think have the best chance of being completed?
Posted in: Canton, Inner Harbor, Neighborhood NewsNo Comments
[...] we noted last week, the hour is tense for Baltimore developers, but things, against the odds, seem to be happening. [...]