Global real estate asset manager Hines said it’s been selected to oversee one of Baltimore’s largest redevelopments, a roughly 1.1 million-square-foot mixed-use venture, as ownership of a future phase of the project gets reworked.
This project, anchored by sportswear giant Under Armour’s headquarters and backed by its CEO Kevin Plank, was once pitched as a potential second headquarters for online retailer Amazon. Now Houston-based Hines, in its role as asset manager of the Baltimore Peninsula development on the southern edge of the city, will represent owners and investors and work to maximize the project’s value.
The development’s transformation of an industrial hub is one of the prominent examples of how the city is reimagining and modernizing waterfront areas to better generate economic activity through office tenants, residents and shoppers.
The selection of Hines comes as Sagamore Ventures investment group led by Plank, the founder of Under Armour who moved the company to Baltimore in the late 1990s, and its partner, Goldman Sachs, have decided to not extend or refinance current debt on undeveloped land at the site.
“While I remain invested, it’s our partners who will take the lead in carrying forward the next chapters of Baltimore Peninsula’s development,” Plank said in a statement.
As a result, that portion of the property is being taken over by the pair’s lender, Little Rock, Arkansas-based Bank OZK, but the Sagamore-Goldman Sachs partnership is retaining ownership of the section of the project that has already been built out.
Next chapter of development
More than 500 families live at Baltimore Peninsula, formerly named Port Covington.
More than 2,000 people work throughout the development that contains office properties, a pair of multifamily buildings, a joint hospitality-multifamily building and several retail shops.
Hines replaced the project’s former developer, MAG Partners, a New York firm that said it was exiting earlier this fall.
“We are committed to building on the strong foundation established during the first phase and driving continued success for the district,” said Andrew McGeorge, a senior managing director at Hines, in a statement.
Sagamore and Plank continue to be in conversation with OZK about a potential role in future development.
OZK did not immediately respond to an email request to comment.