Unique Plan for North Point Government Center Seals Deal for Vanguard

Citing creative and innovative ways to finance new construction projects and the ability to return valuable government land to the tax rolls, Baltimore County officials have decided to sell three county-owned properties, including the North Point Government Center in Dundalk, and have announced the successful bidders selected to buy those parcels.

The sale of the properties reflects the county's effort to be "innovative, responsible and efficient" in its operations, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a press briefing Wednesday. 

"We have two police stations and one fire station that need to be replaced," he said.

The "old way" to finance such projects would be to borrow money at taxpayer expense, tear down the old buildings and construct new ones on the same sites.

After fielding "soft offers" for a number of county-owned properties in "heavily traveled commercial corridors" over a period of time, Kamenetz said it was time to see what kind of serious interest developers might have for properties with "obsolete" facilities that needed to be replaced.

"We issued the request for proposals to gauge the marketability of these properties," Kamenetz said.

After reviewing the proposals for six months, a county procurement committee has chosen Vanguard Commercial Development LLC as the buyer of the North Point Government Center. 

County leaders believe the selection satisfies their goal while also taking into consideration the concerns of surrounding residents who were passionately opposed to losing walk-to open space in the Eastfield-Stanbrook community.

Two bidders submitted proposals to buy the property at the corner of Merritt Boulevard and Wise Avenue. The other was Sollers Investors LLC, headed by John Vontran, who owns the former Seagram's Distillery property on Sollers Point Road.

Vanguard's proposal was chosen because of several key components, according to Kamenetz, when he briefed five members of the local media on the selections.

Vanguard partner Leonard "Len" Weinberg II told Dundalk Patch in May that he thought his proposal offered the best of both worlds and the county apparently agreed with his thinking.

Weinberg's company will buy 15 of the government center's 27.8 acres, leaving nearly 13 acres in place for recreational use, according to his proposal.

Vanguard will construct a 12-building shopping village on 12 acres while allowing the county to retain use of the ball fields and open space that will be upgraded at the company's expense, expected to be about $2.7 million.

The company bid just over $2.1 million for the 15-acre portion, and committed to building a 21,000 square-foot recreation center (to include a replacement theater), providing upgrades to the ball diamonds (including dugouts and bleacher seating), designing and building a tree-lined amphitheater and gazebo and creating an environmentally friendly playground, according to the selection report provided by the county.

"That the Offeror was willing to retain the current athletic fields  was a critical component of the proposal, given the community's desire to retain open space at the site," the report stated.

The competitive purchase price and Vanguard's ability "to move forward with the development in a timely manner" weighed in the company's favor as well, according to the report.

Kamenetz said he was excited about the uniqueness of the overall proposal, which would create a first-of-its-kind center that mixes retail opportunities with a family-oriented recreational complex while promoting walkability.

At the proposed "Merritt Pavilion," the executive said he envisions families being able to get an ice cream cone after  a ball game or dinner before walking to a theater performance.

The Sollers Investors team bid $5 million for the entire 27.8-acre North Point parcel, plus offered 5.2 acres of the former Seagram's property on which to build replacement recreation facilities.

While the county did find the land offered in the swap to be suitable for development, there was some concern that environmental remediation needed at the Seagram's site would delay construction, according to the report.

Also, the offered 5.2 acres was less than half the space the Vanguard proposal offered for community use.

Vontran proposed turning the entire government center property into a 260,000 square-foot commercial center that would have been developed by a different (and not yet created) entity to be known as Dundalk Investors LLC, with the same members of the Sollers Investors group that submitted the proposal.

The Sollers proposal said the center would have a "big-box" anchor, but no defined users or tenants were disclosed in the proposal.

With the sale of the North Point Government Center property, North Point Police Precinct 12 will move to the now-closed Eastwood Elementary Magnet School—which the December 2012 announced closing of kicked off the plan to sell the three county properties.

Kamenetz said Wednesday that the renovations needed to transform the Eastwood building into a police station will cost about $5 million. 

That project is now in the design stage, and Kamenetz said he anticipates police personnel making the move to the new station in the next 12 to 18 months.

The contract of sale between the county and Vanguard now must go to the County Council for approval, according to Kamenetz. That body, he said, is charged with ensuring the contract gives the county a fair market offer for the property.

Once the contract is approved, Vanguard will apply to have the property deemed a planned unit development, because the land needs to be rezoned to allow the proposal to proceed. The PUD process also ensures community input as to the final outcome, a process Weinberg has said he welcomes.

The PUD approval process could add as much as another 18 months to the project's timeline, Kamenetz said.

The council will discuss the contract at its Nov. 12 work session and vote at its Nov. 18 legislative session, according to the county's report.