Fort Howard, the once-bustling military hub on a Baltimore County peninsula, saw its last major activity end nearly a decade ago, when the veterans hospital there closed in 2002. Aside from a still-operating outpatient clinic, the 95-acre expanse has been left to time and the elements, and today is a rundown, desolate site — if one with stunning views of the Chesapeake Bay and the Patapsco River.
But if plans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which owns the site, and private developers come through, Fort Howard will become a veterans community with mixed-income housing, health care and amenities such as restaurants and museums.
"It really takes a marvelous piece of property and continues its veteran use," said Dennis Smith, director of the Maryland VA Health Care System. "We're delighted that even though it's taken a while, that our dream for the Fort Howard property is really now coming to reality."
Earlier plans for a VA center just south of Edgemere collapsed in 2009 after the former developer, Federal Development LLC, had disputes with county government over zoning restrictions and property taxes. The VA canceled the contract with the developer, and veterans looking forward to spending their retirement within view of the bay had to scramble to recover deposits they paid to reserve spots.
Now, the VA has chosen Maryland developers Tim Munshell and Carl Williams, who have presented a $500 million project that would be financed with private equity, loans and tax credits for restoring historic buildings.
Munshell said they plan to break ground this summer and eventually to build 1,300 to 1,500 homes, including apartments and waterfront cooperative housing.
A new, expanded veterans health clinic will be the first structure completed in the development, Munshell said, about 18 months after construction begins.
"The VA gets a 10,000-square-foot community clinic that replaces the existing 7,500 square-foot [clinic]," Munshell said. "The VA pays for nothing on the site. This is all private development."
The developers are also in talks with a "major health care provider," whom they declined to name, to use the old hospital building to house a rehabilitation clinic that would be open to Fort Howard residents and the community at large.
Smith said that with this project, the VA seeks to offer affordable continuing care and housing to elderly veterans.
"This community will give discounts and priorities to veterans, which will hopefully allow it to be affordable to veterans who can't afford these kinds of arrangements now," Smith said.
Besides housing, the new Fort Howard will include a museum displaying military artifacts, an indoor swimming pool, restaurants and stores, and a boardwalk along parts of the waterfront, Munshell said.
Several three-story houses dating from the early 20th century stand next to a grassy expanse where military parades once were held. Pounded by decades of wind and storms, the houses have peeling paint and porch screens full of holes.
The homes, which once served as officers' quarters, will be renovated, Munshell said. The first residents will likely move in 12 to 18 months after the start of construction.
Munshell said he was attracted to the project partly because of his family's military background. His father served in the Marine Corps and suffered from health problems, Munshell said.
"He and his whole battalion ended up dying of cancer," Munshell said. "He could never find good health care."
The area now known as Fort Howard played a key role in the War of 1812. About 4,000 British troops arrived at the peninsula in September 1814 and began to march toward Baltimore, intending to burn it to the ground, said Burton Kummerow, president of the Maryland Historical Society.
A smaller group of American soldiers repulsed the British at the Battle of North Point, which historians believe actually occurred near present-day Dundalk.
"Baltimoreans basically did what Washington couldn't do, and they stopped the British in their tracks," Kummerow said. "When you look out at the bay and think about all those ghosts out there, it's really just an amazing story."
Later in the 19th century, the U.S. government acquired the property and commissioned it as a fort. The VA gained title to the land and established a hospital there in 1943.
A 1951 report from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission mentioned that doctors at Fort Howard conducted research projects on human beings using radioactive materials, at a time when the U.S. government regularly carried out radiation experiments on humans, as revealed later by medical historians and journalists.
The site became a recuperation spot for veterans nursing injuries from the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the walls of the waiting room at the VA clinic are lined with black-and-white photographs from that era. Jesse Chambers, a Navy veteran who volunteered at Fort Howard after World War II, said he and other volunteers would push veterans in wheelchairs to church on Sundays.
"Anybody that had to be recuperated and what have you, that was a perfect spot to do it," Chambers said.
Lessons learned
Many veterans also thought the site was a great place to live and tried to reserve housing after Federal Development was awarded the project in 2004.
William J. Pearson, a Baltimore resident and Vietnam War veteran, said he and his wife hustled to put down a deposit. They were drawn to the site's natural beauty and the VA health system, he said.
"I'm considered a disabled veteran, so from that standpoint it was attractive," said Pearson, 69.
But in 2008, Federal Development LLC and Baltimore County officials disagreed over whether the developer would be subject to county zoning rules and property taxes. The VA sided with the county and terminated the contract in 2009, when it became clear that "no progress" had been made in construction, officials said at the time.
Federal Development's chief executive, John Infantino, told The Baltimore Sun in 2009 that in addition to county building requirements, a slack real estate market and demands from the VA made the project unprofitable.
This time, Smith said, the VA has included contract provisions requiring Munshell and Williams to follow a specific timeline that is designed to prevent major delays.
County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said he is encouraged after hearing from the new developers that they will accommodate any veterans who may have lost deposits the last time around.
"Those folks who put deposits forward, we are going to either pay those deposits back with no obligation on the vets' end at all, or we'll apply those deposits to new units," Munshell said.
The developers have also indicated that they will pay county property taxes, Kamenetz said. Because Fort Howard is federal property, the county currently receives no taxes from it. Kamenetz said the amount of taxes that will flow into county coffers as a result of the development will be "quite sizable," though the exact amount will depend on the value of improvements to the land.
"Right now there's no one down there really taking care of the property the way they should be," said John Olszewski Sr., the County Council chairman. He believes Munshell and Williams will abide by county zoning rules and avoid the disagreements that scuttled the previous project.
Though the 95 acres at Fort Howard are zoned to include only about 540 housing units, the developers plan to make their case in coming months for more flexible requirements that would allow 1,300 to 1,500 units.
Some local residents are concerned traffic might overwhelm North Point Road, the main artery serving the peninsula.
Russell Donnelly, who lives in Sparrows Point and used to work with veterans at Fort Howard, said the developers are "trying to fit too many houses in one area" and are endangering Fort Howard's historic character.
Harry Wujek, president of the North Point Peninsula Council, said his group plans to raise concerns in meetings this summer with the developers about how the new buildings and residents would affect the area's already strained infrastructure, including sewage and water. "We have problems with those two particular utilities at this time and we don't have this development there," he said.
The Fort Howard proposal is subject to County Council approval, which also must ensure compliance with environmental and traffic regulations.
"This project has many miles to go to secure financing, gain county approval and community support," Kamenetz said, "but I think as presented, it's a very intriguing reuse of the land in a way that would be consistent with goals of the county and certainly provide needed, quality veteran housing."
While the VA and the developers look forward to a vibrant Fort Howard, some veterans who thought they would be living there by now are skeptical.
Evelyn C. Orsini, a 78-year-old Air Force veteran, had planned to move to Fort Howard years ago to be closer to family in Baltimore and to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she receives medical treatment. But the Delmar resident said she has no plans now to move there.
"It's a little bit too late for me now," Orsini said. "I was very disappointed, and I'm not the only one."
After it became clear that the previous developers and the county were locked in dispute, Pearson and his wife looked elsewhere for housing. "We were very concerned that something that we thought was going to be a good deal turned out to be just a dream that would not be fulfilled," he said.
Munshell acknowledged that many veterans may have become embittered by their past experience, but he is confident that once construction starts, pessimism will fade.
"When that happens," he said, "all that mistrust goes away because they'll know it's a real project."
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Earlier versions of this article mischaracterized the housing options planned for Fort Howard. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.