Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) is looking for a developer to partner with to turn its defunct Bard Building in Downtown into a parking lot. The developer would demolish the building and build a parking lot in its place.
The Bard Building sits adjacent to the Power Plant Live! complex and the Baltimore Holocaust Memorial. BCCC was previously looking for a developer to build on the site and had a memorandum of understanding with Power Plant Live! owner The Cordish Companies to build a 45-story tower at the site, but BCCC pulled out of the agreement last year.
BCCC is partnering with CBRE to find a partner for the parking lot. A webpage for the project says:
Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) requests expressions of interest (REOI) from qualified teams to 1) demolish the Bard Building located at 600 East Lombard Street (Site) and 2) design, build and operate a surface parking lot (Parking Lot) in its place. Under a concession agreement between BCCC and the selected firm, revenues from the Parking Lot will be used to fund the costs associated with the demolition of the Bard Building and construction of the Parking Lot. BCCC believes the concession agreement offers a substantial cashflow opportunity for the selected team.
This REOI is the first step in a multi-step process to select a qualified team to demolish the Bard Building and design, build and operate the Parking Lot in its place. In accordance with Code of Maryland Regulations, Title 21 State Procurement Regulations, BCCC will select a Reduced Candidate List (RCL) from qualified respondents to the REOI to participate in a Request for Proposal (RFP) in order to finalize an award.
The webpage also says:
The Site has several competitive advantages as a surface parking lot:
proximity to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
accessibility to I-83
competitive pricing versus garage parking
strong existing demand from commuters and day rate customers who visit local attractions in the Inner Harbor (National Aquarium, PowerPlant Live, and Port Discovery)
opportunity to replace the only competing surface parking lot (300 East Lombard Street) that is currently planned for redevelopment.
REOIs are due by tomorrow.
CBRE and BCCC did not return SouthBMore.com’s request for comments regarding why a parking lot was chosen over vertical development for this Downtown site.
Overhead shot courtesy of CBRE
