Kevin Plank turns his attention to Westport
A company controlled by Under Armour’s CEO has applied to the state to clean up a 43-acre tract it owns along the Middle Branch waterfront.
Above: Notice is posted that environmental clean-up is sought on property owned by a Kevin Plank company.
After launching redevelopment projects in Locust Point and Port Covington, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank is turning his attention to Baltimore’s Westport waterfront.
One of the real estate entities that Plank controls, Westport Property Investments LLC, has applied to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to begin a voluntary program to clean up the contaminated soil on a 43-acre stretch of the Westport waterfront so it can be redeveloped.
The land that Plank wants to clean up is where developer Pat Turner once planned a $1 billion mixed-use community that he dubbed Inner Harbor West, but ran into financial problems. A large sign announcing the cleanup application was recently posted on the property.
Biggest Land Holder
The Westport property is part of a 240-acre assemblage that Plank controls along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, including a Port Covington parcel that will be the site of a new headquarters for Under Armour.
In addition, Plank has converted a former city garage into a design and manufacturing center at 101 West Dickman Street, and he is converting the former Sam’s Club at Port Covington to work space for Under Armour employees.
A mystery buyer representing Westport Property Investments acquired the 43 acres in Westport for $6 million at a public auction last January. Over the summer, Plank confirmed through an affiliate that he is the investor behind Westport Property Investments.
Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank. (Brew file photo)
The November 20 application to the MDE from Westport Property Investments is a sign that Plank is getting ready to redevelop the Westport property.
The state requires that the land be cleaned up before any construction can begin.
Westport Property Investments has applied to carry out the environmental remediation work under the state’s Voluntary Cleanup Program, which his Sagamore Development Company went through before creating its City Garage manufacturing hub on Dickman Street.
Plank is also working with the program as part of the conversion to offices of the Sam’s Club property.
Arsenic Beneath
The Westport property needs to be cleaned up because it has been the location for a number of industrial uses over the years, state officials say, and the soil underneath the businesses has been contaminated with arsenic and other chemicals.
Former occupants included the Carr-Lowrey Glass Company, Cockey’s Enterprises and the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company’s former power generating station, among others.
“We want to make sure that what they build is protective of human health and the environment,” said Barbara Brown, section head with the MDE’s Voluntary Cleanup Program “That’s the purpose of our program.”
The voluntary cleanup program also helps protect property values by providing “a level of comfort” to lenders, buyers and public officials that once-industrial properties are safe for redevelopment, according to MDE communications director Jay Apperson. The state currently has 879 applications from property owners who want to work with the program, he and Brown said.
According to its application, the Westport parcels targeted for clean up are 2001, 2033, 2099, 2101, 2201 and 2401 Kloman Street; 2841 Waterview Avenue, and a portion of the bed of Kloman Street next to 2101 Kloman Street.
The property is close to the Westport light-rail station and offers sweeping views of the Middle Branch, including the Hanover Street Bridge and Medstar Harbor Hospital in the distance.
The land is currently fenced off to prevent public access. The buildings that once occupied the land have been demolished, but some foundations are still visible along the perimeter of the site.
The state has set December 23 as the deadline for anyone to comment on the Westport application.
Complicated Clean-Up
The cleanup in Westport is complicated because this is not the first time that it was proposed.
According to Brown, Turner started the Voluntary Cleanup process in 2004 for the same property, but he never received a certification of completion showing that the work was carried out to the state’s satisfaction before he lost the property to creditors.
Turner’s clean-up program was tailored to a specific redevelopment plan that called for a mix of housing, offices, stores, restaurants, parking and recreational spaces.
Brown said Westport Property Investments has not submitted development plans for the site but is not necessarily expected to follow Turner’s plans.
If it doesn’t, she said, Westport Property Investments would have to submit a new “response action plan” for its cleanup, and the state would hold another public meeting. In addition, she said, the new team has to work with the land in the state Turner left it.
For example, she said, there is one part of the property where Turner brought in “fill dirt” to cover contaminated soil, but never put on the top layer of dirt and therefore never got a certificate of completion.
To satisfy state representatives, Plank’s group has to figure out what Turner did and what still needs to be done.
Brown said Westport Property Investments has indicated that it wants to clean up the Westport property to support possible residential development, and that requires the most stringent level of clean up. She said the team is not required to build housing just because it seeks to clean up the land for housing, but that is the category it asked to be in.
“Fill dirt” placed over contaminated soil by former owner Pat Turner was never topped and has not received a state certificate of completion. (Photo by Ed Gunts)
Turner had begun to assemble a world-class design team for his Westport Waterfront project, including James Corner Field Operations, one of the architects of New York’s much-praised High Line Linear Park.
Plank has not indicated who is designing his development in Westport, and representatives for Westport Property Investments did not answer questions sent to them this week.
Plank has made a strategic move with his choice of environmental consultants. To guide the clean up effort, Brown said, Westport Property Investments is working with the same consultant that Turner hired, Denise Sullivan of Urban Green Environmentals.
Sullivan also worked with Sagamore Development on the Voluntary Cleanup Program for City Garage, according to Urban Green’s web site.
Since Sullivan worked with the land before, Brown said, there presumably will be continuity of information about what has been done to clean up the site and what still needs to be done.
The state’s extensive files on the property, including results of soil testing and soil-gas sampling also are available to the new owners, Brown said. “We have a lot of background data. . . There’s been a lot of testing already.”
According to its application, Westport Property Investments has offices at 1000 Key Highway East in South Baltimore. That is the same address as Sagamore Development.
A timetable for the Westport clean up has not been established. Brown said the time frame will be more clear after Westport Property Investments submits a response action plan.
She said the company also likely will need permits from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers if it wants to make any changes that involve wetlands, promenades, piers or other construction where the land meets the water.