TU Expanding Into Downtown Towson

Downtown Towson real estate now has one new major player: .

Earlier this month, they were in negotiations to lease space at Towson Commons.  James Sheehan, the university's vice president for administration and finance, told Patch those negotiations are still ongoing. The university would move some classes and offices there for its College of Health Professions.

Pending state Board of Public Works approval, the university is also leasing 46,000 square feet of space in the Towson City Center—nearly a third of the building—to use mostly for clinics.

Formerly known as the Investment Building, the now-deserted building overlooking York Road is undergoing a $27 million makeover by Pikesville-based Caves Valley Partners, the new owner. The lease is set to start when the revamped building opens in 2012.

The Baltimore Business Journal reported in 2010 that the City Center's other tenants will include Mile One Automotive's headquarters, a restaurant and several other office tenants.

A representative of Caves Valley Partners declined to comment.

The Board of Public Works' vote on the Towson City Center project had been scheduled for a meeting last week. However, since Sheehan was out of town, the vote was pushed back to April 6. The 10-year lease will cost the university slightly more than $1 million for the first year and will increase by 3 percent each year.

Sheehan said the university was not looking into any additional properties "at this time."

Local officials  to invest in Towson's core.

"It brings foot traffic into Towson and that's what we need," said County Councilman David Marks, who represents Towson. "I think, psychologically, it continues to bridge the gap between the university and the rest of Towson."

David Kosak, president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, said the communities are tentatively in favor of classroom and administrative space in downtown Towson, as long as it doesn't drive out ground-floor retail.

"The university has money and I'd like to see that money spent in downtown Towson. And once the university is vested in it, there will be changes," he said, suggesting that Towson University police could help patrol the area around Towson Commons and Towson City Center.

The clinics slated to move into the City Center space include the audiology clinic, an occupational therapy clinic, the wellness center and the Center for Adults with Autism. Most of the programs have outgrown their current space on campus.

The audiology clinic is housed in the basement of Van Bokkelen Hall. The autism clinic is in the Enrollment Services building on the west end of campus. The wellness center is in the basement of the administration building. The occupational therapy clinic is a new program.

"It doesn't exist now and we don't have any place on campus to put it," he said.

Most of the clinics' functions are not used by students, so officials said moving them off campus will be more convenient.

"This is kind of bringing those outreach clinics to the community," said university spokeswoman Marina Cooper at a recent meeting of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations.

, Towson's public radio station, is also a "very likely" candidate for a move to the Towson City Center, Sheehan said. The university has tried to find a new home for WTMD in the past, most notably with TU's bid—which was later withdrawn—to operate Baltimore's Senator Theatre.