3/10/2024 0 Comments Royal farms arena area hotels![]() In 2008, four developers responded to a request for proposals, but lack of financing doomed that effort. With the convention center site ruled out as a place for a new arena, a decades-long effort to replace what was originally known as the Baltimore Civic Center continues. The Royal Farms Arena opened in 1962 and seats 12,000 to 14,000 people, depending on the event. The study also explored construction of a 565,000-square-foot arena with room for at least 13,000 seats, depending on configuration. The other, the 757-room, city-owned Hilton convention center hotel, opened in 2008. It suggests replacing the 337-room Sheraton with a 500-room hotel that would be the second one connected to the convention center. The oldest portion of the convention center, the East Building, opened in 1979 the center expanded into its West Building between Sharp and Howard streets in 1997. The report calls for expanding convention center square footage from 1.2 million to 1.7 million, including an increase in exhibit space from 300,000 square feet to at least 400,000 square feet. The Maryland Stadium Authority commissioned the $460,000 study in May 2017, and tapped a team that included Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimore design firm LMN Architects of Seattle Clark Construction of Bethesda Populous, a Kansas City firm that designed Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Perkins Eastman, a New York-based design firm. The report released Friday was aimed at exploring the feasibility and the logistics of reviving such an idea. But that initiative stalled after Hackerman died in 2014. The idea of a renovated convention center combined with an arena and hotel originated in 2011, when construction magnate Willard Hackerman floated a $900 million proposal and offered his investment. Pugh spokesman Greg Tucker called talk of replacing the arena “another discussion at some point.” “Baltimore needs to stay competitive and investing in these anchor facilities will undoubtedly prove an investment in our future.” “I’m committed to ensuring that these important city venues are fully able to accommodate the increased demand for high quality sporting, leisure and business experiences,” she said. Pugh said in a statement that investment in the convention center - and another aged city property, Pimlico Race Course - are “top priorities.” The next step in the process will explore costs of the options under consideration. ![]() The analysis doesn’t estimate price tags for the various options, but says a new arena would require significant private investment. The most complicated plan architects and designers analyzed would include a 500-room hotel and an arena with seating for as many as 17,500 people.Īll scenarios that were studied call for demolition of the convention center’s aged East Building, bounded by Pratt, Sharp and Charles streets, and also suggests the convention center would need to take over the footprint of the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel at Conway and Charles streets to make room for adequate convention exhibition space. The study lays out a range of proposals, even the most conservative of which would take at least four years to complete and add hundreds of thousands of square feet of exhibition and meeting space. ![]() Baltimore Sun eNewspaper Home Page Close Menu
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