What will Baltimore’s Inner Harbor look like if the Harborplace pavilions are demolished and their owner doesn’t get financing to construct the replacement project it wants to build in their place? That’s the question asked by a Baltimore resident who is worried the city will be left with a gaping hole in its downtown shoreline, like the hole left when a developer razed the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Charles Center and never built anything to replace it. Bolton Hill resident Dolph Druckman sparked a wide range of reactions this month when he posted an AI-generated image on the Harborplace Forum Facebook page, presenting an aerial view of the area around Pratt and Light streets without the Harborplace pavilions that have anchored the intersection since the Rouse Co. opened them in 1980. The provocative image shows a vast expanse of land, with the two-story pavilions scraped off the property and tree saplings planted in their place. With the city-owned McKeldin Square included as the developer has proposed, the open space stretches for three city blocks, including the 100, 200 and 300 blocks along the south side of East Pratt Street. Privately-owned buildings along the north side of Pratt Street and the west side of Light Street frame the area. In its post-demolition state, with the water in the foreground, the parcel comes across as a blank slate, ripe for redevelopment, much like the area was in the 1960s. Back then, the area was all controlled by the public sector, with development guided by a city-sanctioned master plan. At present, it’s largely controlled by a private developer, MCB Real Estate of Baltimore, which is seeking financing to move ahead with a $900 million development for which it unveiled preliminary designs in 2023. In an interview with Baltimore Fishbowl last week, Mayor Brandon Scott said he was confident that MCB managing partner P. David Bramble will get the financing for the project. “Harborplace will be done. I know that he will get it done,” Scott said. Reactions to Druckman’s image ranged from concerns that the valuable waterfront property could sit dormant for years to enthusiasm about the possibilities for rethinking what ought to go there. “Make sure the project is fully funded’ The biggest fear voiced by commenters on social media is that the Harborplace pavilions will be torn down and then MCB won’t be able to obtain financing to construct the mixed-use project it proposed as a replacement. That’s what happened when developer Howard Brown proposed to replace the Mechanic Theatre at Baltimore and Charles streets with two apartment towers, received permission from the city to raze the theater after a prolonged preservation battle, and then never moved ahead with the apartments, saying he couldn’t get financing. Brown’s never-built apartment towers were designed by Shalom Baranes, the same architect who’s now designing President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom. MCB’s plan also calls for the Harborplace pavilions to be replaced with two apartment towers, as well as offices, shops, restaurants and open space. The city of Baltimore owns the land and MCB has a long-term lease and exclusive development rights. The developers originally said they wouldn’t tear down the pavilions until they obtained financing to construct the replacement project they proposed. But last month they said they planned to raze the pavilions as part of the first phase of development, which involves rebuilding the Inner Harbor bulkheading and raising the waterfront promenade to address rising sea levels and replace aging infrastructure. They said the Harborplace pavilions had to come down because they were constructed above key utility lines, storm drains and other underground infrastructure that is being rebuilt as part of the larger initiative, called the Inner Harbor Park and Promenade Project. Work will affect about 22 to 23 acres of waterfront and they’re aiming to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. The entire project is expected to take six to seven years to complete, leaving portions of the shoreline a temporary construction zone the same way portions of Rash Field have been a construction zone in recent years. One area that won’t be disturbed is the land around the World Trade Center Baltimore tower at 401 E. Pratt Street, property that is owned by the State of Maryland and not part of the scope of work in MCB’s Park and Promenade project. Hilary Ward, commenting on the image that Druckman posted, said she’d like the city to require MCB to obtain full financing for its replacement project before it grants any demolition permits. “The new director of the [city’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which issues demolition permits] should put a moratorium in that if the new project is not fully funded, then they cannot demolish what is in place,” she said. “Especially not to create another [M]echanic [T]heatre debacle…Make sure the project is fully funded even with a timeline so that when they take those buildings down, they pretty much are ready to turn around and…immediately start with the building phase.” “Without action by City Council and the Mayor to stop demolition we will have another big vacant site like the Mechanic Theater or Lexington Street in the old CBD,” warned James Prost. “This pic could very likely be where this all ends up,” agreed Curtis Alan Brown. “Maybe we could put a giant bean there like in Chicago!”— an apparent reference to Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture, nicknamed The Bean, in Millennium Park. As of last week, the housing department has not issued demolition permits for 201 E. Pratt St. or 301 Light St., the addresses of the two Harborplace pavilions, according to Tammy Hawley, the agency’s Chief of Strategic Communications. A preliminary redevelopment plan for Harborplace, which was unveiled in 2023. Rendering credit: MCB Real Estate/Gensler. ‘Let’s do this!’ Some commenters liked the image Druckman posted, saying it shows how much potential the area has. While some wanted to be sure MCB moves ahead with the buildings it has proposed, others said clearing the land would be an opportunity to think big and explore more options, including keeping most of the area as public park space if MCB can’t get financing for its project. Other ideas ranged from a market filled with locally-owned shops and restaurants to a Ferris Wheel and roller coaster. “You mean clear it all for open clear space?” asked Joey Bruce. “Like it was when I was a kid, going to the city fair at the waterfront? Let’s do this! We can have Artscape there, Afram, Polish, Italian festivals etc. Saves $600 million of taxpayer cash…Why waste $600 million on luxury apartments when our expressway needs MAJOR repairs.” “We need green spaces – real ones, not a dribble here and there,” said Vincent Peranio. Dan Prives said he found the image of the Inner Harbor without Harborplace to be “pretty appealing, to be honest…The center of Baltimore tourism shifted over to Pier 4 literally decades ago. The old folks can’t let go of their Rouse nostalgia, though.” “We need to force the city to rethink what the harbor should be not just for today but 50 years from now,” said Richard Pazornik. “How can we make it the envy of the east coast.” Pazornik said he thinks the Inner Harbor should be an amusement area, with “something like the Big Wheel and a roller coaster that would rival anything out there. Water activities. Retail and restaurants from fine dining to fast food focusing on the Mid-Atlantic. Nothing more than 3 stories to keep the openness of the harbor for all to enjoy even if it’s as we drive by.” ‘Arrested Development’ Still others criticized Druckman’s image, saying it doesn’t accurately depict what the area would look like without Harborplace. They noted that it leaves out the streets around Harborplace and the USS Constellation and its Visitor Center on Pier One. One commenter called it ‘AI Slop.” Another talked about “AI amateur hour.” “if yall spent half as much time in the GYM as you do using AI you’d probably prolong your lifespan,” said a third. Druckman admits his image has flaws and said he doesn’t mind the criticism. He said in a phone interview that he wasn’t striving for complete accuracy in all details. He said he just wanted to give a broad idea of what the Inner Harbor would look like if the pavilions are demolished and nothing is constructed to take their place due to lack of financing. He explained that he started with one of MCB’s renderings and instructed Google Gemini to “remove the buildings and remove the mature trees and replace them with open space and saplings.” He said the image does what he hoped it would do, depicting the area in a state that he calls “Arrested Development.” To him, he said, the image foreshadows a potential situation that would be similar to what’s already happened as a result of stalled development in parts of Poppleton; the East Baltimore Development area; the former Hendler Creamery site in Jonestown; the former News American site; the former Tower Building site, the former Mechanic Theatre site and numerous lots in Mount Vernon. “I accept the criticism,” he said. “It’s not a sin. I know people will quibble with details and say it’s inaccurate. Of course it’s inaccurate. It’s a sketch. But it gets the point across. It gives a picture of what can happen: Is this Baltimore’s future? Is this going to be Arrested Development?” Commenter Adam Blumenthal defended Druckman’s approach. “Sure it’s AI, but it’s not pretending to be real,” he said. “Dr. Strangelove wasn’t a documentary, but there’s more and more truth in it every day.” Druckman said he has questions about the process that led to the point where MCB is about to tear down Harborplace. Among them: How did MCB get the authority to make decisions about so much land beyond the current footprint of Harborplace, including West Shore Park and key stretches of the public promenade? What are the roles of the city’s Planning Department, the non-profit Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and stakeholders of the Waterfront Management District in determining how the public realm is rebuilt? What are the boundaries of the area that is being reconstructed in the name of resiliency and how was the new height of the promenade arrived at? How much money is being spent and what is the source of funds? When were the expenditures authorized and by whom? Why isn’t the state-owned land around the World Trade Center being reconstructed if the infrastructure is the same age? Why isn’t the World Trade Center being torn down? Druckman said he also wants to know when the city will have public hearings about the plans to close the Light Street-to-Calvert-Street “sweep” that MCB wants to include in the development area it controls. City officials ordinarily schedule public hearings about plans to close even the tiniest city alley before they’re sold or otherwise closed to the public.   Caitlin Audette, Downtown Planner with Baltimore’s Planning Department, told members of the Baltimore Tourism Association in May that preparations to close that five-lane spur and realign Light Street could begin as soon as November, though the planning department later told Baltimore Fishbowl that no specific date had been set. For that work, officials say, they don’t believe any additional public hearings are needed because the concept has already been presented to and approved by the city’s Planning Commission and others. The State of Maryland does not have any plans to alter the area around the World Trade Center because “the World Trade Center is already at a higher elevation than the surrounding Harborplace development to the east and west,” said Richard Scher, Director of Communications for the Maryland Port Administration (MPA), in an email message. The MPA has been coordinating with MCB since 2024 regarding its planned redevelopment of Harborplace and doesn’t anticipate that its project will significantly affect the World Trade Center plaza, which also includes the state-owned 9-11 Memorial of Maryland, Scher said. The Harborplace project will have to “effectively connect” with the existing World Trade Center elevation,” he added. ‘It’s seen better days’ MCB has selected the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company to be the general contractor for the work it plans to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. Last month, the two companies held a “Subcontractor Outreach Event” to inform subcontractors about potential jobs that will be created by the Harborplace project. Although there are no firm estimates, officials said, the work could create upwards of two thousand construction jobs. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company was also the general contractor for the Harborplace pavilions in the late 1970s. Its chief executive at the time, Willard Hackerman, was an ally of then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer just as MCB managing partner P. David Bramble is an ally of current Mayor Brandon Scott. Whiting-Turner’s other major projects in Baltimore include most phases of the National Aquarium (it didn’t renovate the aquarium’s rooftop pyramid in 2022); the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and key phases of the Baltimore Convention Center. It formed a joint venture with Mahogany Inc. to serve as general contractor for a new home for Johns Hopkins University’s Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute, scheduled for completion in 2029. The company announced plans last year to build a new corporate headquarters on the Goucher College campus in Baltimore County, even though it might have been an ideal candidate to anchor the 10-story office building planned as part of MCB’s Harborplace project. It’s also using the same architecture firm to design its headquarters that MCB has hired for its Harborplace project. During the briefing for 150 prospective subcontractors, Whiting-Turner president and CEO Tim Regan noted that his company “had the privilege” of building Harborplace and said it “changed Baltimore forever.” Forty-six years after it opened, he told the audience, rebuilding Harborplace is now the Number One job for his company. “It has obviously truly run its course,” he said. “It’s seen better days, and for years now, we’ve needed a greater, more modern, more vibrant version of Harborplace.” ...read more read less