Calling The Daily Record’s series of stories on its “New East Side” redevelopment project “unfair” and “inaccurate,” East Baltimore Development Inc. this week published a lengthy response to the Record’s five-day “Too Big to Fail” project.

In a post on their website, the developers rebut the series’ reporting and conclusions about the the decade-old, $1.8 billion effort to transform 88-acres near Johns Hopkins Hospital into a world-class biotech park and urban community.

The five-day series painted a devastating picture of millions of public and private dollars spent, with scant government scrutiny, for a project that has fallen far short of its promises after clearing whole city blocks and relocating poor, mostly-African-American residents.

“We were disheartened by the failure of your series to reflect the depth of the problems EBDI was created to address and the real, substantive and substantial progress that has been made in addressing them,” wrote Douglas Nelson, Chair, Board of Directors, East Baltimore Development Inc. and former President and CEO, The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The statement is also signed by Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels and other members of EBDI’s Board of Directors.

* They point to the construction activity that has taken place or is planned, including a 572-bed graduate student housing project and two projects they expect to break-ground on this year, the Maryland Public Health Laboratory and a $30 million, 1,500-space parking garage with street-level retail. They say that 39 former residents (of the Middle East neighborhood) will be returning: “They have received funds to move into a newly renovated row home or to renovate their own.”

* They argue that it’s unfair to say the idea of making the project a biotech park have been “shelved” or “abandoned.”  They acknowledge that “The development strategy has evolved,” but argue that’s “reasonable” for a 20-year Master Plan, which they said still calls “for the same eventual total life-sciences build out as originally planned.”

* They charge that the authors misunderstand tax increment financing (TIFS) and say that government oversight of the project has not been lacking: “True, its finances are complex, but complexity does not equal impropriety.”

* They offer relocation and other statistics meant to rebut claims that the community benefit from the project was negligible.

” Homeowners (whose houses were worth, on average, $30,000 in Phase 1 and $50,000 in Phase 2) received replacement housing benefits averaging $153,000 and $175,000 respectively.”

“Fully 57 renters in the community used their relocation benefits to become homeowners, and all of the other relocated renters received either a Section 8 voucher which assures permanent affordability, or five years of rent differential payments. Today, 95 percent of all relocated households remain stably housed.”

* They say the series should have included more acknowledgment of the recession and that it failed “to describe honestly the conditions that existed in East Baltimore when EBDI was launched.”

* The comment by Columbia professor Mindy Fullilove — that the project represents “ethnic-cleansing, American-style” — they call “a smear.”

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To hear the authors, Joan Jacobson and Melody Simmons discuss the series with on 88.9 FM, WEAA’s Marc Steiner show, click here.

To hear CEO Christopher Shea and others from EBDI respond to the series on Steiner’s show, click here.

Simmons and Jacobson were also on WYPR 88.1 FM, on Dan Rodricks’ Midday show, on Feb. 4. You can find that show here.