A noteworthy aspect of the vertical construction work now underway is that it won’t be incremental, the way Baltimore development traditionally occurs. When city and state leaders held their groundbreaking, they marked the simultaneous start of five separate projects. (A rough comparison would be if former Mayor William Donald Schaefer, back in the 1970s, had started work on Harborplace, the Hyatt Regency hotel, and three office buildings along Pratt Street, all at the same time.)
For Port Covington, a one-time railyard and industrial zone, this critical mass of construction will transform the area into a cohesive neighborhood designed for the 21st century—and made all the more distinctive because of its location along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.
The five parcels now under construction are mostly along East Cromwell Street, the main road that runs parallel to the…
