Days before the general election, a group of commercial tenants at the former MCB real estate development in Canton warned against approving a ballot question that would have given the firm the authority to renovate Harborplace on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
Experience Can Co. vet, located in the mall, and a group led by the current and former owners of Chesapeake Wine Co. said MCB Real Estate backed away from promises and prioritized national chains over local businesses. and finally sold the development at a loss earlier this year. Located across the street from the Boston Street waterfront in Canton, the mall once housed a cannery that closed in the 1980s and was later converted into an office park and shopping center.
The tenants, who spoke to reporters outside the shuttered Nalley Fresh restaurant, urged voters to “get all the facts” before voting on Question F, the ballot measure if approved. Allows residential development at Harborplace. Tenants representing the F-No coalition spoke up Surprised to see MCB Real Estate take control of the prestigious Inner Harbour real estate given its reputation among Canton store owners.
“I am ashamed of MCB Real Estate because they are a disgrace,” said Phyllis Werth, former owner of Chesapeake Wine Co. “People need to know what MCB is and what they are telling you, what they are selling and what they have sold us. And we have nothing.”
When the company bought Can Co., Wert said, it presented business owners with an exciting slideshow that promised to make upgrades and usher in a new, prosperous wave for the mall. But according to Werth, everything from security and maintenance to landscaping has gone in a different direction and looks nothing like what MCB Real Estate once guaranteed.
For example, Werth said MCB Real Estate originally said they would paint the facade blue and white to give the mall a “seaside” theme to match the nearby waterfront. Instead, Werth said, the company went with “battle gray” because the paint color was on sale.
A spokesman for the firm, who spoke on condition of anonymity, called the tenants’ comments “another desperate attempt” to resolve Question F. A spokeswoman said other commercial tenants at the company’s other properties had not raised similar concerns and blamed Monday’s allegations on a separate complaint for “lease violations.” »
Werth is the founder and managing partner of MCB Real Estate P. David said he never met Bramble, whom he blamed for never visiting the site or interacting with business owners while he was the owner. MCB Real Estate and Angelo, Gordon & Co. of New York. purchased the complex in 2017 for about $43 million and sold it last summer to Greenspring Realty Partners and Reba Holdings.
As it prepares for the Nov. 5 election, MCB Real Estate has stepped up its voter outreach campaign in recent weeks, with the company donating $240,000 to the ballot committee this month, according to campaign finance filings. This group, Baltimore for a new harbor Controlled by MCB staff and lobbyists and spent almost all of his money on advertising and paid canvases.
As of Monday, more than 55,000 Baltimore voters had cast ballots by mail or early voting, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Bramble and his team unveiled their proposal for the new Harborplace a year ago, which called for razing the existing two-story pavilions in favor of two adjacent 900-unit residential towers and two large commercial buildings. The projects include retail, restaurants, a park and an amphitheater.
The unveiling, staged at the Inner Harbor Pavilion on Light Street, featured speeches and accolades from Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Mayor Brandon Scott and other local lawmakers, who pledged their full support for the vision.
The project is expected to cost at least $900 million, and Bramble said at least $400 million will come from the public sector, but he said it will not come from city government. Pre-development legislation all floated through the Baltimore City Council earlier this year.
Thiru Vignarajah, a former Maryland deputy attorney general who ran for mayor in the 2024 Democratic primary, vowed to block the MCB real estate deal before dropping his bid two weeks before the election. He then filed a lawsuit against the state Board of Elections on behalf of a group of concerned Baltimore residents, arguing that Question F was deliberately worded to confuse voters.
Anne Arundel County Judge Kathleen Vitale, a former Republican legislator, was on Vignaraja’s side and suggested that the city had overstepped its bounds. Vitale allowed the question to remain on the ballot, but ordered that the votes not be counted. Supreme Court of Maryland changed the decision of the lower court earlier this month.
This article may be updated.