FINMARC MANAGEMENT SELLS 58-ACRE PORT COVINGTON RETAIL DEVELOPMENT IN BALTIMORE FOR $35 MILLION
Posted on: 27/01/2014

Shifting retail patterns in City, combined with emergence of waterfront site as possible mixed use development, suggest potential for repurposing opportunity   

Finmarc Management, Inc., a Bethesda, Maryland-based commercial real estate firm, has announced the sale of the Port Covington property in the southern section of Baltimore City for $35 million to 2701 Port Covington Drive, LLC and their affiliates.  Since 2002, the 58.71-acre site has supported a 142,000 square foot Wal-Mart, which continues to operate, and a 130,000 square foot former Sam’s Club, which closed in 2008.

 

Finmarc acquired the Port Covington property in March 2005, which is ideally positioned off East Cromwell Street and the Hanover Road exit off Interstate 95, with initial plans to develop approximately 150,000 square feet of additional retail space.

 

“We realized the property was suitable for many different development options,” explained David B. Fink, Principal – Managing Director for Finmarc Management. “Given its strategic positioning on the waterfront, immediate proximity to the downtown core and large amount of available acreage, the site has long been considered ideal to support a mixed use of residential, retail and office development. It remains one of the largest urban waterfront development sites available in the Mid-Atlantic region and could easily support a user in need of several million square feet of new development.”

 

“With sale of this asset, over the last 18 months, along with our partners we have acquired or disposed of over $279,000,000 in assets and are actively seeking additional real estate investment opportunities,” Fink added.

 

The Port Covington retail development was part of a 130-acre assemblage formerly owned by CSX and used by Western Maryland Railway as a rail yard. The Baltimore Sun acquired approximately 60 acres in the early 1990s and subsequently constructed a state-of-the-art printing and distribution plant. The newspaper explored the possibility of re-locating its entire operations from its current site on Calvert Street to Port Covington, although the plan never materialized.

 

Finmarc Management, Inc. is a fully-integrated commercial real estate company that focuses on the real estate investment, management, leasing and development of retail, industrial/flex projects, and office buildings throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. The firm presently manages a diverse portfolio encompassing more than five million square feet of space situated in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For additional information, visit www.finmarc.com.