An Anne Arundel County foundation that arranges for foster families and other support services for troubled youths announced yesterday that it will move to the city-owned Brokerage complex in Baltimore.
The Martin Pollak Project signed a 10-year lease for 20,000 square feet of space and is expected to move 80 full- and part-time employees to the Brokerage, said Brian E. Messaris, an attorney representing the group.
The lease is subject to approval by the city Board of Estimates and calls for a rent of $6.60 annually per square foot of space, rising to $10 a foot by 2005. Its total value is $1.6 million.
The move would take place by midyear.
"The vast majority of families they serve are in Baltimore City," said Mr. Messaris, who said the foundation works on a contract basis for the state Department of Juvenile Services and has an annual budget of about $3.8 million. "Baltimore City also has a lot of the mechanisms in place to serve our kids."
Mr. Messaris said the group originally planned to move its headquarters to Annapolis from Millersville, but began looking hard at Baltimore at the urging of U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and City Council President Mary Pat Clarke. He said the deal was sealed with the help of an Abell Foundation grant to help offset renovation and moving costs.
"The city was willing to make a deal for the right tenant," Mr. Messaris said. The Abell grant "was what made the deal work."
David Downey, a broker for Colliers Pinkard in Baltimore, the real estate firm that represented both the city's economic development agency and Pollak, said Baltimore Development Corp. wants to lease the Brokerage to nonprofits serving families and children, a use that complements the city's plan to move its children's museum to the Brokerage.