The future of the sprawling State Center site gained some momentum on Wednesday.
Top state officials told the state’s spending panel that Gov. Larry Hogan is eyeing declaring the 28-acre property surplus and turning the deed over to the city for redevelopment.
The announcement by Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford during the regular meeting of the Board of Public Works caught some stakeholders by surprise and raised more questions about the controversial property off Martin Luther King Boulevard in West Baltimore. Under a plan announced by Hogan three years ago, State Center offices are in the process of being moved into the downtown. But that initiative could take up to five years and would require the endorsement of the state’s new governor, to be elected in November.
“The surrounding communities and the entire city deserve a State Center site that lives up to its full potential,” said Jack French, a spokesman for Mayor Brandon Scott, in an email after the BPW meeting. “Mayor Scott’s administration will work with this governor, the next governor, the surrounding communities and their elected leaders to develop a plan for the site that we can all be proud of — a plan that fits into our shared vision for Baltimore’s renaissance.
