Formal mediation between the developer of State Center and the state begin Thursday in an effort to resolve disputes over the long-delayed project.

The plan, in the works for more than 10 years, would redevelop a 28-acre swath of midtown Baltimore with homes and stores anchored by offices rented by the state. It has been stalled since 2014, when the Board of Public Works postponed a vote on a change to the size of of the project's state parking garage, deferring to the new administration.

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The benefits agreement is the first of its kind in Baltimore and is unique even at a national level. It defines the community support and cooperation between the parties involved, and it is something that we should all be proud of.

We are not alone. All the area neighborhoods, including Seton Hill, Mt. Vernon-Belvedere and Heritage Crossing, have repeatedly voiced their support for the redevelopment project.

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The state's annual cost of operating the complex in its current condition is almost the same as it would be to occupy new LEED silver state offices built to spec for their unique needs. Furthermore, there are no subsidies. The new State Center plan is 100 percent private investment, period.

Reverend Alvin Hathaway of Union Baptist Church reminds us, "before they came in and artificially changed the street patterns, this was all one community." The spirit of this project is to reunite neighborhoods, bring opportunity and improve walkability and the use of our underutilized mass transit system. It's in all of our best interests.

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In an attempt to stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods in West Baltimore during the 1950s, the Maryland developed the State Center campus, a poorly planned office park that failed to take into account the needs of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Over time the buildings have deteriorated and state employees have been left to work in substandard conditions. The proposed project will update the aging office buildings while providing a link between Midtown-Belvedere and West Baltimore.

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The state of Maryland and the State Center developers officially begin mediation this week aimed at resolving their long-held differences over proceeding with the redevelopment of the State Center complex in West Baltimore.

Our State Center Neighborhood Alliance, Inc. (SCNA) — composed of nine diverse communities working together — has been engaged in every step of this project for over 10 years, through three different governors. We were on board before there was a development team and even participated in its selection. We believe that the time for redevelopment is overdue, and we look forward to a positive outcome — positive for the state, positive for the project and positive for our neighborhoods surrounding the site.

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This project will transform an underdeveloped section of the city into a world-class business, entertainment and residential center. It will create, over time, tens of thousands of new jobs and tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenues and ground rents while eliminating the millions of dollars a year the state pays to maintain and operate the current campus.

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For years developers and community leaders have seen in State Center the potential to support shops and updated office space.  But the re-development has been stalled for various reasons – we’d like to understand why, and what’s happening now. So we invited John Kyle.  He has lived in nearby Bolton Hill for about three decades, and is President of the State Center Neighborhood Alliance, a coalition of a dozen surrounding neighborhoods.

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Residents throw a food truck rally to spark interest in the long-delayed Westside redevelopment project.

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State Center was a failed urban renewal project, and now we finally have the chance to correct it. This is a project that will benefit all, not just a privileged few. Peter Angelos and his cronies have been thwarting this project because they think it will take development away from downtown. So let him develop downtown and stop sitting on derelict buildings while doing nothing to improve them.

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The city's Board of Estimates, which is controlled by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, authorized Wednesday a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes deal for the project, which now generates no city tax revenue but could contribute millions of dollars if the tract is redeveloped.

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62%
No, the project already has been approved by both a Republican and a Democratic governor.

38%
Yes, Hogan was elected as a fiscal conservative and the project is too expensive to not have him look at it.

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For State Center — where plans were first approved in 2008, before the new stormwater rules went into effect — the delay caused by the lawsuit means rethinking the designs, Moore said. The suit, brought in 2010 by a group of business owners backed by attorney Peter Angelos, contends that the award of rights for the $1.5 billion project to build state offices, residences and stores on did not follow competitive bid procedures. The MarylandCourt of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit this spring.

"I want to be really smart in having State Center be able to crack that code on stormwater management," Moore said. "We could look district-wide for solutions. We should figure out how to do that incredibly well and do it economically and smartly and elegantly."

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Maryland's top court cleared the way Thursday for the long-stalled State Center redevelopment — a planned $1.5 billion "village" of offices, homes, a supermarket and shops on the site of a 1950s-era government complex in midtown Baltimore.

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