Metro Center Development in 'Home Stretch' of Bidding Process

At first it might just sound like more of the same old, same old, for the Owings Mills Metro Center development. 

The project, which includes a new Community College of Baltimore County Owings Mills branch and library by 2012, has been substantially delayed since it was proposed more than 10 years ago.

A change to the schematics that added 20,000 square feet to the plans led to long, unfruitful negotiations, said Don Mohler, chief of staff to Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. 

Since the county and the developer, David S. Brown Enterprises, realized they would never agree on cost, officials opened the project up to competition, he said.

"We are in the home stretch of the bidding process," he said. "We have several bids … We should be completing the bid process in a few weeks." 

Another sign also points to progress. About $12 million dollars was moved from the 2012 capital spending budget to 2011 in anticipation of beginning construction, Mohler said. The total cost of the project will be determined once the winning developer's bid is in and combined with state funding, he said.

The original plan was 100,000 square feet and a cost of $16.4 million dollars. Due to the size of the building's infrastructure and space needs, the county decided it wanted to expand the project to 120,000 square feet and absorb the costs of building the school and library, Mohler said. 

The extra 20,000 square feet will provide more space for the common areas, school and library, he said. 

The community college will accommodate thousands of students with dozens of classrooms, as well as several floors for the library—and for now, that plan is on track. Owings Mills is located in the heart of one of the county's designated growth areas. The project will also include mixed commercial fronts, including shops and a café.

"I'm hopeful that we will be ready to begin construction of this by the fall," Mohler said. "I think it is a reasonable expectation that in the year 2011, you might actually see a shovel in the ground."

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the project was not expanded from 100,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet for mixed commercial fronts. Patch regrets the error.