Port Covington or Baltimore Peninsula is a neighborhood in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

History

20th century

For much of the 20th century, Port Covington was a railroad terminal built by the

Western Maryland Railway The Western Maryland Railway was a small American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in 3 Southern United States, Southern US States, Maryland (Western Maryland, Western Region), West Virginia (Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, Easte ...

in 1904 on the Middle Branch of the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River ( ) mainstem is a river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore. With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howar ...

. The terminal facilities included coal, grain and merchandise piers, overhead cranes, 11

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

s, warehouses, a roundhouse, a

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

and a machine shop. In the 1920s rotary dumpers for coal and coke were installed, and a large

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

. Port operations ended in the 1970s and the site was abandoned in 1988.

21st century

The site has since been redeveloped for commercial use, and it currently includes a former

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

store that opened in 2002 and closed in January 2016.

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

serves Port Covington through Exits 54 ( Hanover Street) and 55 (

Key Highway Maryland Route 2 (MD 2) is the longest state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The route runs from Solomons, Maryland, Solomons Island in Calvert County, Maryland, Calvert County north to an intersection with U.S. Route 1 in Maryland, U ...

); through this area, McComas Street serves as a frontage road between the two exits and continues east into the Locust Point neighborhood. In January 2016, plans were unveiled by Sagamore Development Company, owned by

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and clothing, apparel headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. History 20th century Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a ...

CEO Kevin Plank, regarding the redevelopment of Port Covington in South Baltimore. The new plan for Port Covington calls for two proposed new light rail stations, along with new residential and commercial development. The first station would be located west of Hanover Street, and the other would be located at the intersection of East McComas Street and East Cromwell Street, just south of Federal Hill. This proposed extension would create a new spur from the Central Light Rail line by crossing the Middle Branch of the

south of

. Additional features of the proposed redevelopment include a new entertainment venue, new waterfront park areas, makerspace, as well as new offices for

and other industries owned by Kevin Plank. Sagamore Development has requested $1.1 billion in federal, state and municipal government financing, including $535 million in tax increment financing (TIF) from the City of Baltimore. The proposed TIF is the largest ever proposed in Baltimore, and would be one of the largest TIFs in the country. MuniCap, a financial consulting firm, projected that the Port Covington properties owned by Sagamore would be worth $2,608,900,706 at full build-out. Some local residents are concerned with the adverse environmental impact the project will have on an already unstable region. Other Baltimoreans are concerned that the economic impact of the development will only benefit a segment of the population, leaving behind the city's poorer, economically depressed communities. At an August 2016 city council work session to discuss the potential project, tempers brewed. A local clergy member and community organizer said, "The city really should not be in the business of subsidizing affluent enclaves, especially one year after the unrest." An attorney for Sagamore Development reportedly bristled, and later offered that the project, which would include "world class" kayak facilities, would be available to the black community as well: "I'm fairly sure that African-Americans kayak too." Another pastor and community activist shouted in response, "This is for rich white people! You want it, you pay for it yourself!" Community groups have called for public financing to be linked to guarantees for a public profit-sharing agreement and financing for schools to cover potential loss of $315 million in funding over 40 years for Baltimore schools. Advocates have also called for more affordable housing as part of the development, and lowering the size of the proposed TIF to cover only required infrastructure development, not additional amenities such as kayak landings. Construction officially began on the first phase of the development on May 13, 2019. The project is now overseen by Weller Development, headed by Marc Weller, a partner in Sagamore Development. In 2017, the New York investment bank

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

invested $233 million and became a partner in the Port Covington project.

References

External links

Baltimore Peninsula
at Visit Baltimore {{Authority control Historic American Engineering Record in Baltimore Ports and harbors of Maryland South Baltimore Transportation in Baltimore Western Maryland Railway