| The region's epic BRAC move-in has been chugging along since Maryland won the Department of Defense sweepstakes five years ago. The official deadline is tomorrow, but plenty of domino-effect growth will follow, and that's why we're holding our Second Annual BRAC, Cyber, & Fort Meade Summit Sept. 29 with Konterra Realty's Tate Armstrong, Fort Meade Regional Growth Management Committee's Kent Menser, and others. (Psst, sign up here!) | |
| Jerry up there has an opinion on how Maryland can take advantage of the mouth-watering private development opportunities around Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground. So does Miles & Stockbridge's Larry Haislip, who's moderating our event: It's all about how quickly infrastructure paves the way. He tells us the MD Department of Transportation identified $8.5B of BRAC-related transportation projects in its '08 to '13 fiscal year capital transportation program, matched by $1.6B from the state. No one else has shown much money since. | |
| Larry champions public/private partnerships like tax-increment/ special taxing district financing to get those 26 projects and others moving. Earlier this year, his firm represented Harford County in issuing $14M in bonds for infrastructure for Clark Turner's $85M Beechtree Estates, just four miles from Aberdeen Proving Ground's gates (talk about smart growth). He also points out that nothing can get built without water and sewer going in first (gone are the days when indoor plumbing was a Class-A amenity). Leave it to the counties to fund that infrastructure on their own and those projects will never happen, he says. The obstacle with TIFs is educating the public that the money comes from new businesses and residents, not the ones already there. | |
| Take the 1,600-acre Odenton Town Center, delayed for years by lack of funds for sewer-capacity upgrades. The project finally broke its inertia this summer when Anne Arundel County and The Halle Cos (developer of the 300k SF Independence Park there, above) struck a deal that'll provide millions for a key roadway and utility upgrades. Miles & Stockbridge also repped East Baltimore Development Inc., which is leading the redevelopment of the 88-acre New East Baltimore Community. It just completed the first tranche of New Market Tax Credit funding to start building the East Baltimore Community Learning Center Campus, none of it possible, Larry says, without public/private partnership. |
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