Stonewall Capital Closes on Westport Waterfront Parcel, Adds Three Development Partners

This month, Stonewall Capital closed on the 43-acre Westport waterfront parcel where it’s planning a $500 million mixed-use development with 1,547 housing units. The site was previously owned by Plank Industries, which is a partner in the Port Covington Development located across the Middle Branch from Westport.

Planning is underway for Stonewall’s project, which is named One Westport, and owner Ray Jackson expects construction on Phase One to begin in the next nine to 12 months. Jackson already announced Ryan Homes as a partner to build 247 for-sale townhomes at One Westport in Parcel B, and last week he said New Harbors will be Stonewall’s partner on a 300-unit affordable housing development at Parcel A, and North Carolina-based Woodfield Development will be the partner for a 350-unit apartment building with 40,000 sq. ft. of retail at Parcel C.

Jackson said he is in discussions with a few different groups for a parcel designated for a four-story, 100,000 sq. ft. innovation and office building with retail at Parcel D. He said one is Baltimore Corps CEO Fagan Harris for building an incubator for nonprofits and another is a data center developer. He said there are also discussions for a national nonprofit to relocate to Baltimore and put its headquarters at the building. Jackson noted he’d like to incorporate Baltimore Corps into all of the different possibilities in the building.

Parcel D will likely also have a free-standing waterfront restaurant in front of it. Jackson said he has been in conversations with a “national waterfront-oriented restaurant” for this parcel. He said it would be a similar concept to Nick’s Fish House.

A 14-acre public park will be constructed between Parcel B and Parcel C. This will be a public/private partnership between South Baltimore Gateway Partnership (SBGP), Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, and Stonewall.

Parcel A will be on 4.2 acres and there will be two five-story buildings. One building will have 100 senior units and the other building will have 200 affordable units. There will be surface parking and one story of structured parking. This parcel will also have a pocket park.

Ryan Homes will bring in a development partner to build a new street grid on 11.2 acres for the townhomes. Some of the new blocks will be directly on the shore of the Middle Branch and some will be facing the new 14-acre park.

Buyers will choose from multiple models with three- and four-story options. Home options will be 16 ft. wide and 20 ft. wide. Buyers can choose from three- and four-bedroom layouts and most homes will have bonus recreation rooms or lofts. There are one- and two-car garage options, as well as the option to opt out of garage for an additional storage or finished space. Homes will also have parking pads. Buyers can add second-story decks and rooftop decks to their homes.

The townhomes will start at around $350,000. Jackson said he has already seen a “tremendous response” for the homeownership opportunity at One Westport. He cited the waterfront and access to I-95, I-295, and the light rail as selling points for potential buyers.

Parcel C will be 3.7 acres. The retail on Woodfield’s 350-unit apartment building will face the new park and waterfront. There will also be an open courtyard facing the waterfront. It will have a parking garage in the building.

Parcel E, which will be a five-story, 250-unit apartment building, and Parcel F, which will be a five-story, 400-unit apartment building with possible retail, are both in Phase Two of One Westport.

One Westport also proposes green spaces along the waterfront with a .66-mile, 16 ft. wide pedestrian trail that connects to the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network. This would connect with a proposed pedestrian bridge between Port Covington and Westport on the northern section of the parcel. The Port Covington Development Team, SBGP, the City of Baltimore, and the Parks and People Foundation received a grant to begin initial engineering on the bridge last year.

Kloman St. on the southern half of the parcel sits in-between the light rail tracks and CSX tracks. Stonewall is proposing moving Kloman St. east and using the current section of Kloman St. as a future green space with a trail.

Northeast Maglev, the group looking to bring the Superconducting Maglev (SCMAGLEV) to the northeast corridor of the United States, wants to use a portion of the Westport parcel for its plan. This is a high-speed train project that hopes to eventually connect Washington, D.C. to New York City. Northeast Maglev aims to build a Baltimore station in Cherry Hill, just south of the Westport parcel, in Phase I. Phase II of the project will begin the connection to cities north of Baltimore and it will need a section of the Westport parcel to gradually get the train underground so it can tunnel under Downtown.

According to the FAQ on Northeast Maglev’s site, a viaduct when completed is 46 ft. wide and needs a 72 ft. wide work zone to build it. Most portions of the Westport waterfront parcel appear to be deeper than 400 ft. according to Google Maps.

Jackson said there has been communication with Northeast Maglev, however the conversations thus far have been “one way” from Northeast Maglev. When talking about future discussions, Jackson said, “My hope is that talks will be mutually beneficial and in the spirit of compromise.”

Baltimore City Department of Planning recently came out in opposition of the Northeast Maglev plan.

Jackson also said Stonewall is interested in seeing the existing Westport neighborhood get investment too, which is why he gave the development the name One Westport. He said Stonewall is supporting the Westport Community Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) “110 percent.”

Stonewall is working with the Baltimore Department of Housing to identify the owners of vacant and distressed homes. Jackson said they already identified an owner with more than 80 homes in the community and they are hoping to buy some of them.

Renderings courtesy of Ryan Homes

Rendering courtesy of WRT and Stonewall Capital 

Master Plan rendering for courtesy of Stonewall Capital and MRA

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.