By: Melody Simmona
Plans for a 831-space parking garage to be added to the Stadium Square project in Federal Hill were presented Thursday to a city design panel.
The construction of the garage does not have a start date, said Arsh Mirmiran, a principal for the developer Caves Valley Partners. The design was presented to the Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel so it could move forward in the future.
After an hour-long presentation and discussion, the panel recommended approval of the schematic design.
"Our plan overall is for four office buildings and three apartment buildings," Mirmiran said of the development that broke ground in 2015 and today has one office building and one apartment building completed. "We want to get the design close to a complete stage for pricing and to get financing" in the future.
The $275 million Stadium Square project is envisioned to have a total of 375,000 square feet of office space, 75,000 square feet of retail and 650 apartment units when it is built out.
The first apartment building, 299-unit Hanover Cross Street, developed by the Texas-based Hanover Co., is completed and leasing.
The first office building, at 145 W. Ostend St. recently leased space to its first tenant, financial services firm Janney Montgomery Scott. That company has leased about 6,000-square feet or "just under a half floor" of the 72,000-square-foot building, Mirmiran said earlier this year.
The other office buildings will be six and eight level structures, architects from Design Collective told UDARP. Another building, the 32,000-square-foot former headquarters for packaging company Vac Pac at 150 W. Ostend St. will be renovated in the near future, Mirmiran said Thursday. Vac Pac moved to Baltimore County.
The seven-and-a-half story parking garage presented to UDARP showed a modern, cubic structure that would have a facade with possibly a design and the Stadium Square logo. The garage is also planned to hold solar panels.
A side of the garage would face Interstate 395 and be visible to thousands of vehicles daily.
The garage would be accessible from Leadenhall Street only, the designers told UDARP, and would cater only to office tenants.
Gary Bowden, a UDARP member, said the design was positive.
"I like the simplicity" of the design on the site and its location to a gateway to Baltimore, Bowden said.
Richard Burns asked to have a clearer picture of how the garage would fit into the master plan of the community.
Burns cited a portion of Symphony Hall, a development in midtown near the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall by David S. Brown Enterprises Ltd., as a model for the garage design.