A jazz band, heated tent and rows of white chairs gave the Harbor Point construction site the air of a wedding Wednesday as the project was praised as a model for turning an industrial site to new use.
The redevelopment of the 27-acre waterfront property is expected to bring roughly 1,000 apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail, 1.6 million square feet of office space and 9.5 acres of open space over the next 10 years. The development team, business leaders and officials celebrated the next step in the project, a $270 million phase that includes a 20-story tower that will be the regional headquarters for Exelon Corp.
The first floors of that building have just started to rise out of the ground, but preparation for the site dates back nearly three decades, when workers performed a $100 million environmental cleanup of the former Allied Signal chromium factory.
More recent milestones include the 2013 fight to secure $107 million in city financing for infrastructure, expected to be valued at $1.8 billion once complete. In total, Harbor Point is set to receive about $400 million in public subsidies.
State and federal environmental regulators signed off on construction plans for the Exelon tower in May, allowing crews to start driving piles for the foundation. The process involved piercing the protective cap that had been placed over ground contaminated with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium. Environmental regulators say months of testing on air and dust have revealed no serious problems.
"I think a lot of people thought that the environmental was going to be the challenge on this project, but I can tell you it wasn't the chromium," said developer Michael Beatty, whose Beatty Development Group controls the site. "It was getting through the City Council."
The Exelon tower was originally scheduled to open in 2014. The project, which includes about 100 apartments, a central plaza and parking garage, is now expected to open in 2016.
It will be Harbor Point's second building after the Thames Street Wharf, completed in 2010. Beatty Development hopes to break ground this spring on a 289-unit, $90 million apartment building on the site.
The city, which has estimated the cost of the full project at $1 billion, predicted new tax revenues of more than $17 million annually over the next 30 years. The Exelon Tower phase is expected to create about 1,000 construction jobs.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she expects jobs and tax revenue generated by Harbor Point to make the city stronger.
She compared the disagreement over Harbor Point to debates that preceded the creation of the Inner Harbor and Harbor East. She said support for waterfront development does not hurt other areas.
"When we think in those ways, that it's an either/or decision, I think we as leaders can miss out on opportunities," she told the crowd of more than 200 people.
There were 192 people working on the project, including 52 from Baltimore, according to the last monthly report Beatty Development filed with the city, in January. Of 43 new hires on the project since last April, 32 were from the city.
Both figures exceed the minimum percentages set in the local hiring law, which went into effect last year.
Beatty agreed to adhere to local hiring goals before the law went into effect to secure the support of City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young during the financing fight.