Well.... its official. The semi mysterious land purchases of the former industrial land / non starter shopping center Port Covington has been to accumulate a large parcel for a future Under Armour headquarters campus. It will also include a whiskey distillery built by Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour.
Here's the scoop from The Baltimore Business Journal
And.... from The Sun
A recent phenomenon has been the steady expansion of the downtown core renaissance into nearby areas. Port Covington being transformed into a mixed use development anchored by Under Armour really takes things to another level. I remember clearly going to Harborplace when it opened in the summer of 1980 and back then the Hyatt hotel and Aquarium were the big deal developments. Since then waves of urban renewal have spread to the east through Harbor East, Fells Point and Canton. Federal Hill, South Baltimore, and Locust Point have been on fire to the south.
Perhaps this gentrification map I posted earlier will change again for 2010.
A quote from the BBJ article show why Mr. Plank gets a nod from this blog as one of Baltimore's most "UnWired".
"We could've gotten land for a fraction of the price if we just needed space, and people said you should look at the county or Pennsylvania," Plank said. "That's not really our bag. We're of this city, from this city and we're going to build something great in this city."Even more tantalizing.....
Plank declined to detail each property he's purchased in Port Covington because some are in the acquisition process. He would not discuss whether he is behind Westport Property Investments, the company that acquired a 43-acre neighboring parcel formerly owned by developer Patrick Turner and sold for $6 million in a foreclosure auction in January.
