$700M Program to Transform Blighted Baltimore

BALTIMORE, MD — Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced a $700 million investment in revitalizing Baltimore’s blighted neighborhoods through a program they hope will transform the city inside and out.

“Fixing what is broken in Baltimore requires that we address the sea of abandoned, dilapidated buildings infecting entire neighborhoods,” Hogan said in a statement.

Through a program called Project C.O.R.E (Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise), city and state officials will identify dilapidated buildings for demolition.

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development will step in with more than $600 million in financing opportunities to spur redevelopment, according to a press release from the department.

Private investors will be encouraged to fund “projects like affordable housing, retail and other new businesses....[so] that Baltimore becomes a better place to live, work, and retire,” Hogan said.

The first transformation will occur in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, where the entire 1000 block of North Stricker Street is slated for demolition, according to the state.

State housing officials estimate that in the first year of the program, 20 blocks can be cleared of blight. Once a block is cleared, it will be converted into green space and assessed for potential redevelopment, officials say.

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The city-state partnership expands upon the Vacants to Value program that Rawlings-Blake has championed as a way to revitalize Baltimore through rehabbing houses or converting them into green space.

“Under my Vacants to Value program, I quadrupled Baltimore City funding for demolition to $10 million per year, and I welcome this significant new commitment from Governor Hogan,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Hogan and Rawlings-Blake announced at a joint press conference in Baltimore Tuesday that through Project C.O.R.E., the city will receive $75 million from the state toward demolition and in-kind administrative services from the City of Baltimore, equivalent to $1 for every $4 allocated by the state.

Project C.O.R.E. is a four-year program, with funds overseen by the Maryland Stadium Authority, which has most recently been at the helm of the Baltimore City schools’ revitalization program.

Photo Credit: Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.