Two run-down piers in Baltimore Harbor that once played a role in preserving liberty are being retooled for the pursuit of luxury.
Developer Richard Swirnow is moving ahead with a $60 million plan to put 88 four-story townhouses on and near the piers, which must be rebuilt. The fanciest homes - 5,200 square feet - are expected to sell for more than $1 million when they are done in two years.
Though the piers will be private, the public will not be totally shut out. A brick promenade and bulkhead will be built, thanks to $10 million from the city and state. It will turn 565 feet of drab shore off Key Highway into a place to stroll.
But the focus is clearly on the houses. The project, a northward extension of Swirnow's HarborView housing complex, is part of a trend that has seen well-appointed waterfront homes in Canton, Fells Point and elsewhere sell in the high six figures.
Sales prices at HarborView's townhouses have ranged from $400,000 to $1.1 million, said Frank Wise, vice president of the development. Most new buyers have come from outside the city. The piers were once part of the old Bethlehem Steel Corp. shipyard. During World War II, Liberty ships were repaired there before leaving with troops and cargo.
The piers long ago fell into disuse, but the $1 million-plus townhouses should be open by August 2004, Wise said. The city Design Advisory Panel wants minor changes, and the Planning Commission appears ready to sign off next month. According to Wise, the Maryland Department of the Environment also has given its approval. The rebuilding of the piers should start in the spring and should last a year, he said.
Wise has no doubt a market exists for more upscale urban living. "It's one of a kind," he said yesterday of the new project.
Some of the 36 houses will face the water and some will face busy Key Highway.
The other 52 will be on the gated piers. Residents will get the safety and detachment of suburban cul-de-sac living. But when they look outside, they may see the skyline, the harbor or the Domino Sugars sign.
The piers will be 500 and 430 feet long and 80 feet wide. Drawings show brick houses lining either edge divided by a road. Each home is planned to have a two-car garage and rooftop deck, said architect Paul Marks. Owners may be able to moor boats in back.
Allowing public access to the piers would pose a "marketing issue," Wise said. "People paying that much for a house don't necessarily want the public right outside their door all the time."
There will not be enough room for a sidewalk near the piers because of the size of the houses, which will start at 2,700 square feet, he said.
John Kellet, director of the Baltimore Waterfront Promenade Partnership, said the new promenade would be welcome. The state is paying HarborView $5 million for use of the land, and the city is selling $5 million in bonds to pay for most of the work. The developer will contribute $1.3 million. The city will use property taxes created by the townhouses to repay the bonds.
Kellet questioned the public ban on the piers. He said he knew of no waterside developments in Baltimore that aren't open to the public, at least during the day.
But Susan Williams of the Planning Department said the piers were always meant to be private under an urban renewal ordinance passed in the mid-1980s.
"They were never envisioned as public," she said. Instead, that role fell to the pier where HarborView's 27-story apartment tower stands.
The tower opened in 1993 with 248 condominiums, but sales were slow and Swirnow benefited from millions of dollars in tax breaks from the city. Occupancy rose when the units were rented as apartments.
More recent HarborView projects include the five-story Pierside apartments and 76 townhouses. HarborView also owns the nearby site long eyed for a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominiums.