Mayor Brandon Scott has struck a deal with P. David Bramble, owner of Harborplace and a heavy contributor to his re-election campaign, to advance $16 million in city funds to help him erect an office building in West Baltimore.

The building would house the headquarters of a small city agency, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED), and help jump-start Bramble’s Reservoir Square project on West North Avenue.

“David first tried to do this with purely private money, but he had a gap in funding. He needs financing and tenants, and the city is giving him both,” a knowledgeable source told The Brew.

The Scott administration has championed Reservoir Square as the new gateway to West Baltimore, envisioning upscale townhouses, mid-rise apartments, retail space and a possible grocery store on Bramble’s eight-acre site, which infamously included a rundown apartment complex, now razed, known as “murder mall.”

Under the agreement, so far unannounced by the mayor’s office, the city would “contribute” $15 million toward the construction of a four-story building and cafe, and another $1 million for a surface parking lot.

The Maryland Economic Development Corp. (MEDCO) would provide a separate pot of money – $21.5 million in construction bonds – with another $4 million financed by New Markets Tax Credits.

“This is an insane amount of money when there’s so much vacant commercial space in the city, not to speak of vacant schools and other surplus property owned by the city. I don’t see any upside for taxpayers,” the source said.

Downtown Baltimore, already suffering from a severe 22.5% vacancy rate, is expected to become even more ghostly next year. That’s when T. Rowe Price Group makes its headquarters move from the 100 E. Pratt St. tower to two seven-story buildings at Harbor Point.

When that happens, the vacancy rate in the downtown business district will soar to 30%, the highest on record, according to data from JLL, a national real estate services firm.

In a statement in the Board of Estimates agenda, the mayor’s office says the funding agreement “catalyzes and supports the development of the Reservoir Square project” and consolidates MOED’s offices and operations.

MCB has not yet returned The Brew’s request for comment.

32-Year Lease

The city would lease – not own – the completed building, paying a base rent of between $17.95 and $24.23 per square feet (subject to the interest rate on the construction bonds) for a period of 32 years.

At the envisioned 63,000 square feet of space, the rent would come to between $1.1 million and $1.5 million a year over those three decades – plus “all operational, maintenance and insurance expenses incurred by P3 RS Office Holdings,” a Denver-based nonprofit foundation that will act as a middleman between the city and Bramble.

Only after 2066 would the the city be able to terminate the ground lease and assume ownership of the property.

Up for Approval Next Week

The contract is up for Board of Estimates approval next Wednesday, where all three elected official – the mayor, City Council President Nick Mosby and Comptroller Bill Henry – are recipients of Bramble cash.

Bramble, his company MCB Real Estate, his family, his partner Peter Pinkard and a host of LLCs contributed more than $30,000 to Scott during the current election cycle, according to Board of Elections records.

MCB’s director of government relations, Leland Shelton, was treasurer of Scott’s re-election committee for three years. Bramble was also the lead sponsor of a 2023 Mosby’s fundraiser, and he and his associates forked over $10,500 to Henry.

At next Wednesday’s meeting, the Board of Estimates will be asked to approve a series of leases with P3 RS Office Holdings and P3 RS Parking Holdings, including a ground rent lease, building improvement lease, option to repurchase agreement and a city parking ground lease.

More than half ($9.85 million) of the city’s financial contributions to the project will be made “at closing in August 2024,” according to board documents. The other $6.15 million is due in two installments in October 2025 and October 2026.

MOED is largely funded with federal and state dollars and offers job training, computer literacy and career counseling. It is also in charge of Youth Works and other summer jobs programs.

The main administrative office, with about 50 staffers, currently occupies a small portion of the former Goucher College dormitories on the 2300 block of Maryland Avenue. (The agency also has several satellite training offices.)

Its FY 2025 budget includes 12 new administrative positions for a Youth Opportunity Academy, a collaboration with City Schools to “provide an alternative education model for youth unsuccessful in a traditional school setting.”

The city appears to have no plans for reuse of the sprawling Maryland Avenue building if and when MOED moves to new quarters.