Today at the Baltimore Department of Urban Planning’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Committee (UDAAP), 28 Walker and its development partners, K. Hovnanian Homes and Greystar, presented a master plan for 814 accommodations in Port Covington. The development will replace Locke Insulators’ former 25-acre property at 2525 Insulator Dr.
The Locke Insulator Company built its Port Covington factory in 1920 and closed it in 2017. The property is adjacent to Under Armor’s 50-acre property on Peninsula Dr., which is the future site of the company’s headquarters. the company. Across Cromwell St. is the Chapter 1b underconstruction phase of the Port Covington development. The Port Covington development team plans a decades-long, multi-billion dollar development on 235 acres of property in the neighborhood led by development partner Weller Development Company.
In November, 28 Walker owner Mark Sapperstein told SoutBMore.com, “I would love to build something that complements Weller’s wonderful project.” He added: “I think I can add to that without doing a lot of the same things. I try to follow their example and make another successful project.
While the Port Covington development includes much of the office and retail space as well as apartments and hotels, Sapperstein said he is focusing on residential for this parcel. It will not add detail.
Today’s presentation showed a master plan with 425 apartments, 297 townhouses and 106 two-unit “2 over 2” townhouses. The plan includes two six-story apartment buildings on the north side of the development facing Cromwell St. and Insulator Dr. The “2 by 2” townhouses are five stories high and also on the north side of the development facing Cromwell St. ., W Peninsula Dr., and two new community roads.
Townhouses will take up about three-quarters of the property to the south behind the multi-family buildings. The master plan also includes a clubhouse with swimming pool, large green spaces along the entire waterfront of the property, pocket parks and four large green spaces between the rows of townhouses.
There will be three sizes of townhouses: 20′ by 40′ townhouses with rear loading parking, 16′ by 40′ townhouses with rear loading parking and 24′ townhouses with front loading parking. ft by 40 ft along the waterfront.
Apartment buildings will have parking garages accessed by Insulator Dr. The larger apartment building will have a courtyard at the rear of the building facing the townhouse development.
The development offers 797 parking spaces divided into 127 on-street parking spaces, 27 off-street parking spaces and 663 structured parking spaces.
K. Hovnanian Homes will be the townhouse developer and Greystar will construct the apartment buildings. The design partners for the project are Kimley Horn, KCI and Hord Coplan Macht.
UDAAP panelists wanted to see more of an urban feel to the development, particularly on the north and south streets that flow into the Port Covington development and face Under Amour’s future headquarters.
Sapperstein told SouthBMore.com in November that the schedule was “as fast as it gets.” He said step one is zoning changes and step two is closing the property. 28 Walker is working with Councilman Eric Costello and the Baltimore City Council to rezone the property from an I-2 industrial zone to a PC-3 zone district that allows for mixed use. This proposed zoning change will have its first City Council committee hearing in March.
28 Walker has focused on Locust Point for the past two decades and will now turn its attention to Port Covington, which is the next neighborhood to the south. 28 Walker’s projects at Locust Point include the Silo Point condominium and office building, the McHenry Pointe and Key’s Overlook townhouse communities, the McHenry Row mixed-use project and the ongoing Banner Row townhouse project of construction.
Screenshots from the presentation of 28 Walker, K. Hovnanian Homes, Greystar, Kimley Horn, KCI and Hord Coplan Macht
About the Author: Kevin Lynch
