Yes, Locust Point, there is a Harris Teeter

The little girl Virgina questioned whether there was a Santa Claus.  I've been questioning whether the upscale supermarket Harris Teeter will really be coming to Locust Point.  It was originally slated to open last month.  But with steel girders now rising 4-stories high on Mark Sapperstein's $120-million dollar McHenry Row development, there's some progress to report.

Girders Rising
First, the building in the photo here is not Harris Teeter.  It's an office building slated to open this September.  Among the first tenants, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which directs transportation policy in the region.  One-and-a-half floors out of a total of four floors of office space has been leased, according to Dominic Wiker, who's heading up the project for developer Mark Sapperstein. "People have been waiting a long time," Wiker acknowledges.  Construction has started and stopped twice, as we've all seen, because of the national credit crunch.  "But now we've got some traction and momentum," Wiker says. "It's a matter of getting the various lenders lined up."

So, what about Harris Teeter?
Wiker wouldn't give a timeline.  I got this email from Harris Teeter PR manager Catherine Reuhl:

"That store is currently scheduled to open in our third quarter 2011 

but I can not offer a specific opening date this far out."  

That means July 2011 at the earliest.   

In the meantime..
Wiker says after the office building is complete, and loans are secured, construction will start on apartments and retail/restaurant space.  This will be two "mixed use" buildings, that will rise on two sides of a plaza behind the fire station.   Remember the banner that proclaimed the apartments would open in Fall 2009?  Here's the new banner, which says "Coming 2011."

The list of restaurants/retailers going in remains the same: Green Turtle, Dunkin' Donuts, a nail salon, dry cleaner, and two banks: PNC and M&T [which btw will close its Fort Ave office on April 9].

Parking For Sale
We've been staring at two big parking structures for the past couple years.  Developer Sapperstein tells the Baltimore Business Journal he's trying to work a deal to free up some cash for the project by selling the garages to the city, which would then lease the garages back to Sapperstein.  Hmm.  Its evidence the city is trying to do what it can to boost economic development in our neighborhood.  Whether that's good for Baltimore taxpapers is another issue.  We've had a lull in growth, but it looks like 2011 may change that.