Maryland to relocate agencies in cost-saving plan

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Maryland will be moving agencies out of several state-owned facilities in downtown Baltimore as part of a broader cost-saving plan that Gov. Wes Moore announced Friday.

Administration officials have said that they inherited a portfolio of facilities facing decades of underinvestment and neglect. Moore and his team have canceled planned renovations at several state-owned buildings in Baltimore, opting instead to move agencies to commercial leased space in the coming years.

The administration has estimated that relocating agencies, rather than renovating downtown office spaces, will save roughly $326 million over the next 20 to 25 years. Much of the savings, though, is tied to ongoing plans to move thousands of state employees from the State Center campus in Midtown.

The savings plan also includes spending about $250 million less over the next five years on procurements, information technology and state vehicles. The administration has outlined plans to spend less on shipping by mail, terminate underused phone lines, consolidate cybersecurity tools and purchase fewer vehicles each year, among other measures.

“While the federal government recklessly slashes budgets and lays off public servants, we are using data to save taxpayers money and modernize government in a targeted way,” Moore said in a statement. “This announcement is only the beginning of our efforts.”

Moore signed an executive order in January prompting agency officials to find ways to modernize government processes and save money.

The plan included entering a pay-for-performance contract with Boston Consulting Group, under which the company identifies and implements ways to make state functions and programs more cost-effective, and it receives a 20% share of the cost savings it helps to find, up to nearly $15 million.

More than one-third of the projected real estate savings comes from existing plans to relocate state employees from four buildings in the dilapidated State Center complex in Baltimore to office space elsewhere in the downtown area.

The next-largest savings amount, up to $80 million, is also tied to the State Center relocations. State officials in April approved a new capital lease for the Baltimore facility that will become the new headquarters for the Maryland Department of Health, which has been housed at the Midtown campus.

The department and nearly 3,000 of its employees are expected to leave State Center and move into their new offices at 300 N. Greene Street, formerly the Metro West complex for the Social Security Administration, by the end of 2026. The facility has been vacant since 2014.

The new capital lease changed how the state will pay for the relocation and renovations at the Metro West facility. The agreement will allow the state to finance nearly $45 million in costs that would normally fall to the agency that’s moving, provide more long-term control over the Metro West grounds, and support revitalization in the surrounding area, which includes the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Lexington Market.

Moore’s announcement Friday included plans to cancel renovations to state property at 2100 Guilford Ave., the William Donald Schaefer Tower at 6 St. Paul St., 310 and 311 W. Saratoga St. and the Nancy S Grasmick State Education Building at 200 W. Baltimore St.

The state will instead move the agencies at each of these buildings to commercial leased space, according to the Department of General Services.

The administration will also move the Office of the Public Defender from its offices at 201 St. Paul St. to commercial leased space. The public defender’s office had outgrown its office space, and state officials determined that a relocation was the “most efficient” option.