The state Board of Public Works has placed the 70-acre Henryton Center on the market, and says it is willing to consider any offer for the property. Once the site of a tuberculosis hospital and last used as a facility for the developmentally disabled, it has been mothballed since 1985. Yet Henryton holds great promise to be reborn as a business or research and development park.
Surrounded by Patapsco State Park, in southeast Carroll County, the Henryton Center could offer a superb opportunity for a creative commercial developer. Many high-tech businesses have been migrating to rural areas to build offices on campus-like settings.
With acres of thick woods and grassy meadows, the Henryton Center offers some of the most attractive topography in the region -- and it's near a major interstate to boot.
While the former hospital is located on the Carroll side of the Patapsco River, Howard County might also benefit from its development, at least as an employer for county residents. It might also relieve some pressure for development around the Route 32 exit of Interstate 70, helping to maintain the rural ambience in western Howard.
For Carroll County, which lacks first-class office parks, the Henryton Center availability also offers a means to jump-start its economic development program. With some improvements and the proper zoning there, Henryton could be a first-class business park.
"The sale of this property will not only eliminate thousands of dollars in security and maintenance [costs], but has the potential of returning it to the tax rolls through private-sector ownership," Gov. William Donald Schaefer said in announcing the offering.
Admittedly, the Henryton Center is not without problems.
It is an isolated site. Road access needs to be improved. There are also 18 buildings, some of them constructed in the early 1920s, containing 228,000 square feet of space that would have to be demolished. Asbestos insulation in some of them must be removed.
After offering the site to a number of state agencies who turned it down, the state's Department of General Services seems content to give it away. It's a state property that holds great potential for private re-use.