A $50 million redevelopment project for Edgewood's Washington Court has hit a dead end, at least for the foreseeable future.

Harford County Executive David Craig unveiled plans for a major revival of the 26-acre ghost town of brick apartment buildings just two years ago, in August 2009.

But those plans have since fallen quietly by the wayside, even though the county government secured some $5.7 million in state and federal grants and loans for the redevelopment and has already spent much of it.

Baltimore-based developer The Shelter Group, which set out to build 41 single-family homes, 146 townhomes and an apartment building for senior citizens on the property, let its contract with the county expire last summer, Executive Vice President Jeffrey Hettleman said Wednesday.

The company had planned to offer market rate housing in the midst of an area that has historically been home to one of the Baltimore region's highest concentrations of low income, rent subsidized housing and former government sponsored projects now under control of private landlords.

Washington Court, which was originally developed by the federal government as housing for military families and federal workers at the former Army Chemical Center at Edgewood Arsenal, now sits as a collection of aging driveways with overgrown trees, and Harford County Councilman Dion Guthrie said its revival isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

"As far as buildings are concerned, it's all on hold now," Guthrie, who represents the Edgewood area, said. "It's stalemated right now. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel."

Although no work is moving forward, Guthrie said he was glad the dilapidated buildings were at least torn down.

"I am very happy the buildings are torn down. That was a goal of mine," he said. "They are not moving forward with [building] for a while. I think they are going to wait until the economy goes up a little."

Guthrie said Washington Court has fallen prey to the recession in general.

"You don't see any building going on anywhere," he said.

Elizabeth Hendrix, director of the county's Department of Community Services, said the county spent most of its grant funding and federal loans for the redevelopment on the demolition of the old buildings and to buy the land.

In 2009, the county's Department of Community Services received a $3.5 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, $1.5 million in Neighborhood Conservation Initiative funds and $450,000 in Community Legacy funds from the state Department of Housing and Community Development; and $285,179 in Community Development Block Grants.

"We feel optimistic because the slum and blight from the buildings are gone," Hendrix said.

But she said there is also nothing new on the horizon to redevelop the property.

"We're just kind of on hold because the real estate market and the economy hasn't been so great," she said. "The residential market was not that great."

Washington Court, located behind Edgewood Elementary School, was bought by the U.S. government in 1941 for military housing and other federal worker residential uses.

In 1994, the U.S. Army decommissioned the property, removed appliances from the buildings and boarded up the windows.

The county bought the 55-unit property in 2000, and it has sat vacant since.

For a while, the area became popular with drug dealers, an Edgewood Community Council representative told The Aegis in 2006, and Guthrie said it was used at night by vagrants.

Residents seemed excited about The Shelter Group's promises of transforming the area with senior housing, upscale townhomes, a community green area and a baseball field.

Sam Gibson, who at the time was chairman of the Safe and Secure Neighborhoods committee of the Edgewood Community Council and a longtime leader in the Edgewood community, said in 2006 the Washington Court redevelopment was supposed to be the future of Edgewood, according to published articles.

"I see Edgewood coming back," he was quoted then. "It's going to be a big, big plus."

Five years later, the community has little show for its optimism.