When University of Maryland, Baltimore, President Bruce Jarrell looks out the window of his office, he sees parking lots and the shadow of the city’s downtown.
But that could soon change.
The University System of Maryland Board of Regents voted on Friday to approve UMB’s plans to create a $300 million “college town” with high-rise residential buildings, restaurants and outdoor recreation spaces.
Jarrell believes the plan will make the downtown Baltimore campus “vibrant” and encourage students and city residents to eat, play sports and spend time there. The plan is to create a North Quad along Lexington Street and a South Quad along Fayette Street, which UMB leaders believe will be “transformational” for the public research university and downtown.
“Eutaw Street has had its share of problems, and it was important to us to somehow contribute positively,” Jarrell said in an interview.
The university doesn’t have a traditional college campus. Instead, its programs, which are mostly graduate-level and include the state’s public medical school and one of its law schools, are spread across downtown buildings.
Jarrell said he and Jim Hughes, the university’s chief enterprise and economic development officer and senior vice president, began discussing the project as students, faculty and staff returned to school and work after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two leaders felt that cultural institutions near campus, like the Hippodrome, were facing challenges post-pandemic, Hughes said in an interview.
So, the plan emerged.
“Let’s really be aggressive in changing our little corner of Baltimore,” Hughes said. “How do we make campus vibrant?”
And though the university has some financial hurdles to overcome — leaders estimate they’ve lost tens of millions in federal grant dollars and have laid off employees — the project will mainly be funded by private developer Wexford Science & Technology. UMB will spend about $36 million on the development, while Wexford will finance, own and operate the project, which is estimated to cost another $263 million.
Wexford developed the nearby UM BioPark, where it’s now headquartered. Hughes said the firm beat out five competitors that also submitted bids to redevelop the area.
The proposed development sits two blocks east of another residential development spearheaded by UMB, a 337-apartment complex formerly known as University Suites at Fayette Square.
The state issued $33.4 million in bonds in 2003 to finance its construction, and UMB was on the hook to repay that debt. But occupancy plummeted during the pandemic, and Fayette Square began bleeding money. In 2021 and 2022, UMB spent $2.9 million to cover the losses.
Last year, UMB sold the complex to Zahlco, a Baltimore-based real estate firm, for $22,250,000, according to public records.
“One of the lessons we’ve learned there is to have the private sector really driving [the project],” Hughes said.
The plans will also allow for the renovation of Pascault Row, eight historic rowhouses built in the early 1800s. UMB had been using them for student housing until repairs piled up. Wexford is expected to rebuild the interiors and turn them into apartments and lofts, Hughes said.
“We had a large, deferred maintenance problem with those buildings and would have required significant investment to get them up to any decent standard,” Jarell said. “This is a great solution.”
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