Lender retakes Towson Commons

Posted: 3:05 pm Tue, September 21, 2010
By Melody Simmons
Daily Record Business Writer

Towson Commons, the 325,000-square-foot office and commercial development in the heart of Baltimore County, was auctioned Tuesday for $28.5 million on the steps of the courthouse in Towson.

The auctioneer, Paul Cooper, vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, declined to reveal the name of the buyer.

But Joan Wallace, vice president of operations for Western Development Inc., which owned Towson Commons, said Tuesday the building was bought back by Capmark Finance Inc., the lender, which likely will sell the mostly vacant retail complex, a 10-story office tower and an 880-space parking garage in the near future.

David S. Iannucci, executive director of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development, attended the auction and said the future of the development is back to square one.

“It is clear that this site can support a much stronger retail component on the upper floors,” Iannucci said, of the struggling development that county economic development officials have monitored over the recent years because of the high vacancy rates and the recession.

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Iannucci added that the price fetched at the auction was “higher than some of the prices and offerings I had heard two or three months ago.” He declined to reveal those prices, except to say they were nearly half of what the building sold for Tuesday.

Baltimore County’s government is willing to consider offering public support for the revitalization of Towson Commons, Iannucci said. New ownership may opt to demolish the structure that is designed around a multistory glass atrium in order to rebuild a more cohesive retail complex.

Under county law, revitalizations costing more than $10 million are eligible for tax incentives.

Georgette J. Sobel, an official of GENIH Properties and Interiors of Washington, said the Towson Commons development is the “mainstay and focal point” of Towson.

The Commons building is located near the Baltimore County government office and court complex, Towson University and Goucher College, and is less than a mile from the Towson Town Mall.

Sobel and her colleague Nicholas Kiltrie attended the auction and said GENIH is interested in ownership of the Towson Commons building. They did not bid at the auction.

“It’s a very important building to Towson, but nobody knows what to do with it,” Kiltrie said, declining to reveal development options if GENIH were to make a future offer on the Commons site. “One has to be creative.

“The whole neighborhood depends on what happens in that part of town.”