After suffering a series of delays throughout 2020, the sale of the first big tranche of bonds to fund the long-awaited development of Port Covington is moving forward.
Maryland’s state economic development agency on Thursday issued municipal bonds totaling $137.5 million in principal — in three segments of $13.3 million, $41.2 million and $83 million, per online records — that will jumpstart construction of Baltimore’s highest-profile development set to take place on the city’s southern waterfront. The sprawling effort, being led by Weller Development, is being financed with $660 million in tax increment financing approved by Baltimore’s City Council in September 2016.
Baltimore’s Board of Estimates this past June approved the sale of up to $148 million in private bonds — despite protests from local residents and organizations, including the ACLU — but delays ensued during the second half of the year as officials waited on three national underwriting agencies to assemble a package for their issuance amid a turbulent market for municipal bonds this year.
