Pamela WoodContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
The redevelopment of the Sparrows Point steel mill may include retail shops and a community recreation facility — in addition to industrial, transportation and logistics uses already under consideration, officials said Thursday.
The retail areas would be along the Baltimore Beltway and Route 151, serving both the businesses at the steel mill site and the surrounding community, said Chuck McMahon, an official with Sparrows Point Terminal, the company that now owns the site.
McMahon and other Sparrows Point Terminal officials updated more than 200 people on their redevelopment efforts during an open house at the site on Thursday night.
“It’s quite humbling to have this many people show up to our open house,” said Michael E. Moore, the company’s new CEO.
The retail areas might include a hotel, a grocery store, a day care center and other shops, McMahon said. Retail is now being considered, he said, because the company’s research has showed that local money for retail spending “leaks” to other communities such as Canton and White Marsh.
The redevelopment also might include a community recreational facility, if environmental regulators approve, though details weren’t offered.
Sparrows Point Terminal paid $110 million last year to buy the property, which operated as a steel mill for more than a century until it closed for good in 2012 when its then-owner, RG Steel, declared bankruptcy.
Sparrows Point Terminal also has pledged $48 million toward environmental cleanup on the 3,100-acre property. Moore acknowledged Thursday the company may end up spending more than that.
Sparrows Point Terminal has touted a vision of an industrial complex that takes advantage of the property’s deep-water port and access to highways and two rail lines. The company has nearly finished demolishing most of the existing structures on the property, but it still will likely take a decade to finish the full build-out, Moore said.
twitter.com/pwoodreporter
