Sagamore names designer for first Port Covington intersection overhaul

Port Covington and an overview of some of the planned redevelopment.

Sagamore Development Co. hired a local engineering firm to design the first overhaul of an intersection on the main thoroughfare through its planned $5.5 billion redevelopment of Port Covington.

The developer of the 235-acre parcel of land in south Baltimore hired Williams and Associates to design an upgraded intersection at Cromwell Street and Insulator Drive, as well as a driveway to the north of the intersection serving The Baltimore Sun’s existing printing facility. Williams Associates, a Severna Park-based minority-owned engineering firm, will also be designing the associated widening of McComas Street.

Design for the project is already underway and Sagamore Development Co. expects it to be submitted to Baltimore city officials for approval by February of 2018. Improvements will include expanded bike lanes on Cromwell Street and a traffic signal to help trucks and employees entering and leaving the printing facility.

Sagamore Development Co. also named the Brigance Brigade Foundation to a task force examining how to make the development as accessible as possible. The foundation, named after former Baltimore Ravens player O.J. Brigance, advocates for people with disabilities, in particular Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Plans for the Port Covington overhaul include building 13,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 200 hotel rooms during the next 20 years. Under Armour also plans to independently build a 3.9-million-square-foot headquarters on Port Covington. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank financially backs Sagamore Development Co.

Some projects on the peninsula along Cromwell Street have already been completed, including the Sagamore Spirit Distillery and Under Armour’s Building 37. Rye Street Tavern at 13 Rye St. is expected to open this month.

Developing the peninsula, which is largely unused industrial property, will require major infrastructure upgrades.

The city of Baltimore last year approved up to $636 million in public financing to help pay for infrastructure projects at Port Covington. But those bonds haven’t been issued and Sagamore Development Co. President Marc Weller said there’s a “lot of work to be done” before taking the debt to market.

News of the intersection design follows a ceremony in late August when Sagamore Development Co. celebrated the unveiling of the project’s first named street. Rye Street is a 190-foot pedestrian street, which provides access to the waterfront near the Sagamore Spirit Distillery, a small but significant step in building new infrastructure benefiting the development.