No “Specific Timeline” for Under Armour’s Expansion of its Port Covington Campus

Under Armour has slowed down its plans to relocate its global headquarters from Tide Point in Locust Point to Port Covington. Under Armour announced in 2016 that it would start construction on Phase One, the first major phase of its new 50-acre Port Covington campus in 2017, but that still hasn’t taken place. Under Armour does currently have an office building located in Port Covington for 20% of its local workforce.

Under Armour announced in 2016 that the 50-acre former Port Covington Shopping Center site it acquired would be the future home of the company’s world headquarters. This location is 1.8 miles from Tide Point.

Under Amour renovated the former Sam’s Club at the former Port Covington Shopping Center into Building 37, a 170,000 sq. ft. office, cafe, and amenity space. It opened in 2016 and has been called Phase 0 of the new headquarters. The former Walmart has been painted and is used for Under Armour sample sales that take place yearly.

Phase One will be the first major round of construction for the Under Armour campus in Port Covington and its plan features buildings totaling more than 500,000 sq. ft. of space, a 1,500-space parking garage, and green parks and plazas.

Under Armour President and Chief Operating Officer Patrik Frisk joined the company in 2017 and has since helped it take on a two-year corporate restructuring plan. He sat down with SouthBMore.com on Wednesday and said the headquarters at Tide Point fits the company’s current needs. “There will be a time when that will happen,” Frisk said referring to the future Port Covington Campus expansion, but noted that Under Armour is “not ready yet” to move forward. There is no specific timeline at this point as to when Under Armour will begin construction on Phase One.

Under Armour has made improvements in recent months to its Tide Point campus which include office, cafe, and facade renovations at the Cheer building. Under Armour cut the ribbon on a 1.3-million sq. ft. distribution warehouse in Sparrows Point on Wednesday. Under Armour also has a distribution center in Curtis Bay.

Under Armour’s Master Plan for Port Covington includes 4 million sq. ft. of buildings, a sports stadium, a public waterfront promenade, and an indoor athletic complex.

Under Armour has approximately 3,000 Baltimore-area employees.

During the company’s corporate restructuring plan, Under Armour laid off 680 employees, 190 of which work in the Baltimore area. It has also scaled down some of its facilities around the country. This included a 42,840 sq. ft. office lease in The Liberty Building of McHenry Row, which is a few blocks from the Tide Point Campus in Locust Point. Employees from The Liberty Building were relocated to Tide Point and Building 37 at Port Covington.

While revenues increased over the last couple of years, Under Armour incurred $204 million in restructuring charges in 2018 and $124 million in 2017.

Following 2018, Under Armour Founder, Chairman, and CEO Kevin Plank said, “Our 2018 results demonstrate significant progress against our multi-year transformation toward becoming an even stronger brand and more operationally excellent company. As we look ahead to 2019, our accelerated innovation agenda, disciplined go-to-market process and powerful consumer-centric approach gives us increasingly greater confidence in our ability to deliver for Under Armour athletes, customers and shareholders.”

Under Amour had a strong first quarter of 2019, recording a $22-million profit and a 2% revenue increase.

While Under Armour’s Port Covington campus expansion is not moving forward at this point, a large Port Covington redevelopment co-owned by Plank is moving ahead. Chapter 1 of the 235-acre, $5.5-billion, multi-decade Port Covington project by The Port Covington Development Team will break ground on Monday.

The Port Covington Development Team is comprised of owners Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Development Company and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. Weller Development Company is leading the development and construction.

Chapter 1, which takes place along E. Cromwell St. on the eastern section of Port Covington and just northeast of the site of Under Armor’s future campus, will eventually have 3.025 million sq. ft. of new buildings across more than 12 city blocks. It will include approximately 1.38 million sq. ft. of office, 337,450 sq. ft. of retail, 976,667 sq. ft. of residential, and 285,000 sq. ft. of hotel space.

Eight buildings in Chapter 1 have been presented to the Baltimore City Planning Department so far that will total approximately 1,142,100 sq. ft. with 403,000 sq. ft. of office space, 166,885 sq. ft. of retail space, and 548 apartments on five city blocks. Six of those buildings are expected to break ground between late-2019 and early-2020.

This article has been updated.

Port Covington Under Armour Global Headquarters Phase One Renderings courtesy of Under Armour

Port Covington Under Armour Global Headquarters Master Plan Renderings courtesy of Under Armour

About the Author: Kevin Lynch

Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.