Below is a communication from Harbel regarding the Real Estate and Economic Development Assessment of Belair Road:

As many of you may remember the Urban Land Institute (ULI) created a Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) of experts in the engineering, development, landscaping, architectural and real estate industries to evaluate the Belair Road commercial corridor. They recommended that the first step in redeveloping the corridor was to initiate a market study or a Comprehensive Real Estate and Economic Development Assessment of the Belair Road corridor. The members of the TAP made it clear that developers would not seriously consider investing in the corridor until such a study was performed.
Since the issuance of the TAP report, an ad hoc group of representatives from the Baltimore Development Corporation, HARBEL, Belair Edison Neighborhoods, Inc., the Gardenville Belair Road Business Association, the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Baltimore City Department of Planning, the Baltimore County Department of Planning, and the Urban Land Institute have been meeting to ensure this first step was accomplished. Largely through the efforts of 2nd District Councilman Brandon Scott, Kristen Mitchell of the Baltimore Development Corporation, Cathy Kratovil of the Gardenville Belair Road Business Association, and Naomi Benyowitz the Executive Director of HARBEL, HARBEL is now offering a Request For Proposal (RFP) that asks qualified firms and organizations to:
  • ·         Evaluate the current health of the business environment
  • ·         Determine the potential for retail, office, entertainment, institutional, housing, and mixed-use development
  • ·         Identify appropriate niche markets
  • ·         Specify the intensity and scale of uses for redevelopment
  • ·         Identify areas best suited for redevelopment opportunities in the near-term, mid-term and long-term, using the framework for nodes and opportunity sites laid out in the ULI tap report
  • ·         Evaluate the community perception of the retail environment through a consumer-intercept survey
  • ·         Explore existing public incentives that may facilitate economic development potential

This is great news, and it is the first step in revitalizing the Belair Road Commercial Corridor.
You can view the RFP at: