Baltimore Messenger
May 24, 2006

This Is What We Want It To Look Like
By Larry Perl

Hekemian & Co's redevelopment of the Rotunda would include a major bookstore and a health club, project point man Chris Bell told the Roland Park Civic League at its annual meeting.

A vacant office building (and one-time power plant) on the 11-acre site would be turned into a restaurant and a planned plaza that could accommodate concerts and a farmers' market, said Bell, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for New Jersey-based Hekemian.

The $100 million project also calls for a relocated, expanded Giant supermarket, 300 luxury apartments, 100 condominiums, a plaza, a boulevard, 50,000 square feet of additional retail, the repositioning of 140,000 square feet of existing retail and 1,600 parking spaces, twice as much as now.

"This is what we want it to look like," Bell said May 17, showing color slides of artist renderings to a civic league audience of 75.

Most of the housing would be in two towers, one 22 stories and the other 10. The announced height of the taller tower drew gasps from the audience.

The historic Rotunda building and its retail space and offices would remain. The stores and the two-screen movie theater will be repositioned to face outward, Bell said.

Most parking would be in an underground garage, but people could park outside stores, too.

The Giant is the centerpiece of the project, said Bell and land-use consultant Al Barry. The current, 58,000-square-foot store, which is small by today's standards, would be closed, and a 70,000-square-foot Giant would be built on what's now the back parking lot.

"In many ways," Barry said,"Giant is the foundation upon which the development will stand."

But Bell signaled there may be at least one other big anchor.

"We're working with a major bookstore," Bell said. He would not name the bookstore, health club or restaurant.

Bell said Hekemian's goal is to make the mall a pedestrian-friendly "work, live, play environment," accessible to Hampden's boutique-rich business corridor, 36th Street, also known as the Avenue.

With the Zurich insurance company next door and several assisted-living centers nearby, the area is an employment center, with about 3,000 workers who might shop and eat at the Rotunda, Bell said.

Construction is expected to start next summer and will take about two and a half years, Bell said.

Most residents who attended the league meeting appeared intrigued by Bell's presentation.

"I think it's wonderful. I'm excited about it," said Louise Phipps-Senft, new first vice president of the league's board of directors.

But some were concerned about the impact on traffic, just as their counterparts in Hampden are.

"I just can't understand how you can bring all those additional cars into the neighborhood and maintain the intersections as they are," without major road improvements, said Christine McSherry.

Barry said all 16 intersections in the immediate mall area are rated by the state as A's or B's, except one, according to a traffic study commissioned by Hekemian.

"Even D's are acceptable, and we're not even close to that," added Bell. But he said there's not much Hekemian can do to improve the corner of Falls Road and 41st Street, which is rated as an F-rated, or failing, intersection.

Resident Phil Spevak said he's afraid Rotunda traffic would make it more difficult for local residents to get around.

"I hope you will concentrate not on making it easier for people to drive there, but on making it easier not to drive there," he said.

Resident Lisa Boyce questioned the validity of last summer's traffic study, saying she saw a traffic surveyor sleeping in his truck.

Hekemian officials talked to the Maryland Transit Administration early in the redevelopment planning process "to lend our support to keeping the Hampden shuttle bus" as a way to ease congestion on area streets, Barry said.

The MTA considered eliminating the so-called "Shuttle Bug" or No.98 bus, as part of a consolidation of bus service in Baltimore, but decided to keep the shuttle after an outcry from riders.

Hekemian does not need zoning approval for the project as planned, but might make changes based on its own cost analysis and on concerns by area residents about traffic issues, Barry said.

The detailed renderings Bell showed of pedestrians and motorists in a re-imagined mall weren't just for the benefit of the community, but also for marketing purposes.

"They're going out to Vegas with me," said Bell, who planned to attend this week's spring convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas to recruit retailers to the mall.

Bell said he hoped to have a complete lineup of retailers by the end of this year.