For Amazon: The best of Westport and Port Covington

The Amazon is wide, as both its namesake waterway and cyber-marketplace. So both sides of Kevin Plank's real estate empire need to be put in play to attract Amazon to Baltimore. Both Port Covington and Westport can accommodate major developments, so there's no sense in attempting to confine Amazon to one or the other. Let Amazon have maximum flexibility to create their own ideal plan using both sites. Biggest is best.

Former developer Patrick Turner's Westport waterfront plan on the Middle Branch,
 with downtown to the upper right and the I-95/395 interchange in between.
 Port Covington is on the opposite shore of the Middle Branch, beyond to the lower right.

Turner's Westport plan as it would have been seen from Port Covington.

Unlike Under Armour, for which Plank has planned a large self-contained "company town" environment for Port Covington, Amazon's ambitions have virtually no boundaries, so none should be imposed. What other potential site in North America can devote both sides of an entire waterway to the cause?

Westport also has some obvious advantages over its sister site, Port Covington. It's more connected to the rest of the city and it already has light rail service with great access to BWI Marshall Airport and downtown with its Amtrak and MARC Stations. Westport is the best port for Amazon's east coast headquarters, especially if it also spreads north, south and eastward into Port Covington as well.

But there's no reason to commit to one over the other. Amazon's domain can and should extend all the way southward from downtown through the entire Middle Branch shoreline encompassing both Westport on the west shore and Port Covington on the east shore, both owned by Kevin Plank. And even with all this, the mouth of the Middle Branch northeast of the Hanover Street Bridge can still be devoted as planned to Kevin Plank's Under Armour campus.

But that's not all... as the infomercials say. The Amazon empire can still spread southward from the Hanover Street Bridge to the waterfronts of Cherry Hill, Brooklyn and Masonville. Amazon particularly prides itself on its spin-off benefits to other economic generators such as small businesses and their attendant employment. These working class communities, and indeed the entire city of Baltimore, would experience the benefits of Amazon's presence.

It's likely that the new development in Port Covington and Westport would include less housing than had previously been planned. The extent of inclusion of lower income housing had reached an impasse anyway. That's a major opportunity for these surrounding communities.

Evolving development climate

Baltimore, Under Armour and its Sagamore development company do need to stay flexible and adapt with needs. Last year, the city approved a plan and a $660 Million Tax Increment Financing package for Port Covington as if the plan was some kind of immutable cosmic force that would simply take over. But this year, that plan is already languishing. 

Development doesn't work that way. Development is incremental and iterative. Political, business and media leaders are now conveying the impression that Amazon can simply just come in and buy into the existing Port Covington plan. That's just deceptive hype.

Amazon has its own continually evolving needs. Amazon will want its own plan. The current Port Covington plan is mere prelude. Its certainly no coincidence that Plank's latest deal to bring in Goldman Sachs for a $233 million investment infusion was announced just after Amazon's.

The need for massive liquid capital is crucial. Just ask Patrick Turner, who assembled and prepared the adjacent Westport waterfront properties a decade ago, developed his own plan, and then proceeded to go bankrupt waiting for it to be built. 

Turner envisioned a "new downtown" in Westport, conveyed in architects' renderings which were perhaps too realistic looking for their own good. The "new downtown" paradigm is useful in conveying the magnitude of the development, but the whole existence of a "Downtown Baltimore" appears to be fading as the existing downtown is being transformed into more of a specialized neighborhood than a regional center.

At the same time, the entire Baltimore metropolitan area is repositioning itself as an integral portion of the northeast U.S. corridor from Washington to New York and Boston. It is the location of this kind of mega-region which is undoubtedly attracting Amazon in the first place. Instead of downtown being a regional center, it is simply one of many activity and development nodes.

Turner's Westport plan as seen from the Cherry Hill waterfront, with downtown in the background to the right.

This model also helps explain the phenomenon of "Two Baltimores" and how the city finds itself able to effectively attract dynamic corporations like Under Armour and Amazon at the same time that much of the city is in social and economic turmoil and neglect. These companies are being attracted to a place in the larger region, not just the city.

It is also this dynamic that is simply not available in many more prosperous, but free-standing cities like Seattle (Amazon's home base), Denver, Chicago and Atlanta. It's not a contradiction - it's simply a fact of life that the city needs to use to its advantage to help all of Baltimore.

An alternative geopolitical rationale is that Amazon wants to go to Toronto, which offers the entire country of Canada as its region, albeit politically far more than geographically. That would also explain Amazon's national publicity blitz to vet this process to prepare the country before moving north and trying to minimize the negative "economic nationalism" fallout. We shall see.

Evolving development plans

In the meantime, existing site plans for Port Covington and Westport cannot just be grabbed off the shelf for presentation to Amazon. The two sites and their surroundings must be considered and planned together.

For example, concepts for a roadway connection between the two areas across the upper Middle Branch should be drawn up. Two obvious options are extensions of Monroe or Bush Street eastward from Westport to Port Covington, or perhaps a combination of the two. Monroe has the advantage of a bridge over the north end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, while Bush is the first intersection as the parkway turns into Russell Street, which means more access but more congestion. The Middle Branch is very shallow in this area so a low bridge should be no problem. The old freight railroad trestle bridge can also be rehabilitated for maximum use for people, bikes and/or light rail. The multi-level I-95/395 interchange hovering overhead can be lit and painted as a kind of sculptural backdrop.

Possible Connector in orange through Westport and across Middle Branch
from Monroe Street (left) to McComas Street (right) in Port Covington.

The city also needs to do a far better job of planning for the gateway casino area along the Middle Branch just to the north. It needs to confront the previous planning that led to giving the isolated Greyhound Bus Terminal and the 3500 parking space casino garage such critical waterfront sites apparently only because they were on the paths of least resistance.

Planning must be expanded to include Camden Yards and the Sharp-Leadenhall area which is currently experiencing a building boom. The environmental and regulatory issues surrounding the BRESCO waste incinerator need to be resolved. If it can only remain as an unacceptable polluter, it must be closed down.

Of course, all of this needs to be done anyway whether Amazon comes or not. "Divide and conquer" development tactics won't work in the long run. There will be other companies to lure to both Port Covington and Westport, and all the resources of both sites and their surroundings must be made available.

Turner's Westport plan and its relationship to the existing rowhouse neighborhood to the west.

But up until now, what's most glaring about Port Covington is how its inherent geographic isolation has been so cynically used. When development first took place in the 1980s, The Baltimore Sun was simply given an extra huge plot of land, a sort of modern version of "40 acres and a mule". Then any semblance of rational planning was then thrown out when Wal-Mart came along, and its buildings were turned toward its sea of asphalt parking and away from the water.

So it as disturbing when Tom Geddes, CEO of Plank Industries, explained it this way last year before Amazon came along: "Westport will come next... Today there is no plan. It's too early for us to know or to have planned it."

By "next", did he mean Westport would have to wait out the planned 25 year build-out horizon for Port Covington? How can you plan one site, oblivious to the other? That would be absurd, especially since it's already behind schedule.

The best thing about the current lure of Amazon may end up being that it wakes the entire city up to the need to focus on a continuous effort to market and promote the best aspects of all of Baltimore.

Top ten sites for Amazon's East Coast Headquarters

Amazon just announced its intention to build a second corporate headquarters to mirror its giant west coast campus in Seattle. So now every economic development officer in the country is salivating. But Baltimore has the ideal Amazon campus site for every corporate taste. Here are the city's ten best (in no particular order).

A skyline for a Cherry Hill Amazon campus as seen across the Middle Branch from Under Armour's

Port Covington, with Harbor Hospital in the middle and the Hanover St. Bridge to the right.

Acreages are approximate, and include permanent open space, which in itself should be a vital tool in promoting adjacent urban development. All sites have been covered in previous blog posts, some of which are linked and noted. (No link to State Center - enough has already been said.)

Playing with Plank

Baltimore's wooing of Kevin Plank's Under Armour corporate campus to Port Covington was a mere dress rehearsal for Amazon. So is Amazon's Jeff Bezos willing to submit himself to a Kevin Plank marriage? How submissive is Plank willing to be in what would certainly be a marriage of unequal corporate titans? Is Port Covington big enough for the both of them? Answer: There's plenty of room for both campuses, but perhaps not as much room for both egos. Fortunately, there's a choice of two alternative marriage vows here:

1 - Port Covington: The grand Plank/Sagamore plan has been languishing lately, so Amazon could simply come in and take over possession of a lion's share of the already negotiated plans, subsides and TIF bond revenue, and then add its own imprimatur and even more massive subsidies. After all, major tweaks to the plans were inevitable over the years anyway. The recent closure of the vast Locke Insulator complex, the only Port Covington parcel that Plank does not control, is an opportunity to grow the pie to accommodate both of them, but Locke is in a far better bargaining position than Plank's previous suitors like the Baltimore Sun. (280 acres)

2 - Westport: Plank and his Sagamore development company also own the major property on the other side of the Middle Branch, for which they currently have no apparent plans or motivation. Plank could sell it to Amazon and profit handsomely (perhaps more by association than by payment) while the companies coexist on opposite shores and stimulate their mutual growth. Westport already has light rail service to downtown, BWI Marshall Airport, Penn and Camden Stations and is attached to a real neighborhood which should welcome Amazon with open arms. (90 acres)

Competing with Plank

Since competition is the essence of capitalism, both companies should ideally have full leeway to flourish and forge their own identities to better serve the city's economy. Two additional major waterfront sites are available on the opposite shore of the Middle Branch from Port Covington which, like Westport, are also adjacent to working class neighborhoods. Amazon could lay claim to one site or both, creating a huge continuous waterfront campus. If Port Covington doesn't reap the benefits as well, Plank could surely sell out to someone who for whom it would.

3 - Cherry Hill: This site surrounds Harbor Hospital and includes its sprawling parking lots and overdesigned Hanover Street which could be converted into a light rail corridor and development spine. It would then promote working class Cherry Hill as being Amazon's neighborhood. And Amazon would become Cherry Hill's company. (70 acres)

A skyline for a Brooklyn Masonville Amazon campus as seen from the Masonville Cove nature preserve. The trestle in the upper left is the Harbor Tunnel Thruway (Interstate 895)

4 - Brooklyn Masonville: Just across the mouth of the Patapsco River from Cherry Hill is the grossly underdeveloped waterfront of the Brooklyn neighborhood, which extends eastward along Frankfurst Street to the Masonville Cove nature preserve. All this is separated from most of the neighborhood by the Harbor Tunnel Thruway, but it's close enough to have a major impact. The already proposed Port Covington light rail spur could be extended to both the Amazon waterfront and the Brooklyn community via the Hanover/Potee corridor. (130 acres)

Suburban / Urban Splendor

Baltimore also has three major sites with a suburban atmosphere, but aside from all being located along commuter or light rail lines, they couldn't be more profoundly different from each other.

5 - Patapsco Hill: Believe it or not, there is a huge, totally free-standing waterfront site with direct light rail access to the airport, as well as frontage upon a huge two hundred acre park. Patapsco Hill could be the site's name, bounded by the widest section of the Patapsco River on the east, Southwest Park in Baltimore County on the south, light rail on the west and Patapsco Avenue on the north. (80 acres)

6 - Bayview: Perhaps Amazon would like to have its own Amtrak station in the middle of a free-standing campus, for easy access to New York and Washington. Norfolk Southern's intermodal freight railroad yard across Lombard Street from the Hopkins Bayview Research Park is obsolete and ripe for relocation to the working harbor. A new MARC/Amtrak rail station is already planned there. (70 acres)

7 - Roland Park Cylburn Pimlico: Straddling the Jones Falls Valley and Cold Spring Lane is a potentially gorgeous sylvan sprawling hilly campus that could respectfully embrace and encompass the Poly-Western High School campus and Baltimore Country Club in elite Roland Park to the east, the Loyola Athletic complex to the south, Cylburn Park Arboretum to the north and extend all the way to the Lifebridge Sinai Hospital Health campus to the west. At that point, it would create the impetus to reinvent the adjacent iconic Pimlico Racetrack, enabling Amazon to join Sagamore as sponsors of thoroughbred horses. (400 acres)

Inner City Embrace

Baltimore is perhaps the best place in the country to dive into the waters of social consciousness. Here are three major sites that would enable Amazon to locate in the heart of the inner city and create its own corporate identity and culture while being the catalyst to raise the surrounding struggling communities.

Jeff Bezos' Office? The stately Mitchell Courthouse on Calvert Street could be converted
 into the Downtown Gateway to Amazon's Old Town corporate campus 

8 - Old Town: The gateway to Amazon's campus could extend all the way into the heart of downtown on Calvert Street, announced by the 1812 Battle Monument flanked by the city's twin historic courthouses which could then be transformed into Amazon's top executive offices. Proceeding northward, the campus would encompass the recently sold Baltimore Sun site at the south end of the Mount Vernon neighborhood. The campus would then shift eastward with a transformation of the Jones Falls Expressway, which could be realigned, lowered into a boulevard or given a revitalized underside. (It's now a Farmer's Market.) Farther east, the campus would become the west anchor of the new Old Town corridor, now under development by Michael Beatty, which would be oriented eastward to the iconic historic Dome building of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Old Town has been waiting for this transformation since an ill-fated shopping mall was built in the wake of the riots of 1968. (130 acres).

9 - State Center: This site, served by both of the city's rail transit lines, has been a development battleground for over a decade. Raising the ante with Amazon could break the impasse. The surrounding communities of Upton, Bolton Hill, Seton Hill and Mount Vernon have mainly wanted a supermarket, but what they'd get is the world's largest retailer, and no doubt a flagship outlet of their newly acquired Whole Foods brand. The University of Baltimore and Maryland Institute College of Art are also nearby. (60 acres)

Amazon's campus inside the "Highway to Nowhere" could resemble a "transit village",
here shown at the proposed Harlem Park Red Line Station (Marc Szarkowski)

10 - Highway to Nowhere: The huge free-standing corridor of an aborted 1970s highway is anchored on its east-end downtown gateway by the empty million square foot former offices of the Social Security Administration, now owned by Caves Valley Partners, and on its west-end by a MARC railroad station to be completely rebuilt as part of Amtrak's new West Baltimore tunnel project. In the mile between, the Amazon campus would be completely free of traffic conflicts as the obsolete expressway is replaced by new development, pedestrian and bike paths and a reconceived light rail Red Line. The adjacent Harlem Park, Lafayette Square, Heritage Crossing, Poppleton and Franklin Square neighborhoods, catastrophically cut-off for the highway, could finally be reunited. And the University of Maryland Baltimore campus is also adjoining. (90 acres)

In sum, Amazon would have a profound impact wherever it goes: Jobs, jobs and more jobs. It would be especially profound for working class neighborhoods like Westport, Cherry Hill, Brooklyn, Old Town, Upton, Poppleton and Harlem Park. Some already suggested high-end site locations, such as in Harbor Point or Canton, are too small or are already being crowded out by recent development.

If Baltimore is prepared for this, as Mayor Pugh has already assured us that it is, then the entire city must embrace it. Having something truly bigger than each of us is the best way to make us "One Baltimore" again.