A former city planning director and onetime mayoral candidate is the leading candidate to become CEO and president of Baltimore’s economic development arm, The Brew has learned.

“Active conversations” are underway in the mayor’s office for Otis Rolley to take the reins of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), although “no final decisions or guarantees have been made,” said one of three sources, who all asked for anonymity given the sensitivity of the discussions.

The future of the BDC came into question last week after it was announced that Colin Tarbert, CEO since 2019, was stepping down, effective June 13, to pursue other lines of work.

Tarbert’s resignation had been expected by City Hall insiders. “Let’s just say the mayor wanted his own team,” said a source.

While the BDC board of directors officially conducts a search and formally votes on the CEO, the board’s membership is heavily skewed with appointees of Mayor Brandon Scott.

Calvin Young, the mayor’s senior advisor, has actively pushed for Rolley’s appointment, sources say.

Reached by phone today, Rolley declined to comment. “Obviously, I have a lot of love for the city. And I am a city resident,” he noted before ending the interview.

The mayor’s office did not respond to Brew questions about his candidacy.

If selected, Rolley will inherit one of the best-paying jobs in city government with a wide portfolio of economic projects and financing activities, including overseeing the proposed Harborplace office-apartment complex, revitalization of downtown’s West Side, salvaging the long-dormant “Superblock” along Howard and Lexington streets, and redeveloping city-owned industrial property.

Recently, the semi-independent agency was tasked with finding a new operator for the Baltimore Farmers’ Market following the mayor’s feud with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts.

Sidelined from Planning Commission

This is not the first time that Rolley was tapped for a high-level appointment.

He was Scott’s first choice to succeed Sean Davis, who stepped down as chair of the Baltimore Planning Commission in December.

His candidacy, however, sparked concern in the planning department, where Rolley had earned a reputation as a hard-driving and sometimes mercurial boss.

His appointment was scuttled, sources say, in favor of Jon Laria, whose smooth style and amiable presence as a lobbyist-lawyer for Harbor East, Port Covington and other projects won the favor of the business community and City Council, which unanimously confirmed Laria’s appointment earlier this month.

Described by a city official as “one of the smartest people I know,” Rolley was picked, at age 25, as deputy housing commissioner in 2000 and quickly rose to become director of the planning department under then-Mayor Martin O’Malley.

He later was chief of staff to Mayor Sheila Dixon, resigning after 10 months to become CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance. He then ran for mayor, losing by a landslide to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in the 2011 Democratic primary.

Wealth Creation

Since then, Rolley has taken on numerous jobs.

He was the president and CEO of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, head of the Equity and Economic Opportunity initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation and, most recently, chief of enterprise philanthropy at Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Rolley moved back to Baltimore in 2024, buying a townhouse near Federal Hill.

In 2022, he reflected on his upbringing in Jersey City, N.J., and its role in his future career:

“An urban planner by training, I am fascinated by the obstacles and barriers each community faces when it comes to equitable access to economic opportunity and how to remove them. I felt a need to take what I had seen and lived, and then learned in college, and put it into practice every day.”

He said his passions include driving wealth creation through small business expansion, entrepreneurship and expanding affordable housing.

His political campaign committee, Friends of Otis Rolley, is still active, but has not raised more than $1,000 in many years.