Stephen Rice couldn’t gush enough about the $28 million construction of the Noah Hillman Parking Garage in downtown Annapolis.
The garage, along with the $50 million overhaul of Annapolis City Dock, will transform the historic state capital in so many ways, including saving it from the threat of climate change flooding, Rice, Annapolis’ economic development manager, told a panel during the Baltimore Business Journal’s “On the Road: Anne Arundel County” event at the Smashing Grapes restaurant in Parole.
“It will give Annapolis 40 years of resiliency,” Rice said of overhauling the dock to raise the sea wall by 8 feet. The Hillman garage will enable the city to replace waterfront parking with more festivals and parkland, he added.
Rice’s Annapolis boasts — he called it the “crown jewel” of the county — were met by equal bragging about the county’s other assets by the other panelists: Kate Jordan, principal, Lee & Associates real estate firm; Wes MacQuilliam, vice president of business development and real estate, Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp.; Kristen Pironis, executive director, Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County and Gina Stewart, executive director, BWI Business Partnership Inc.
