Redevelopment

About 25 people attended a public meeting Wednesday night to offer input and ask questions about a proposed redevelopment project in Hagerstown's East End that aims to create a new eastern “gateway” into the city. Meritus Health, which owns a large portion of the 15 acres of property between East Washington and East Baltimore streets that includes the former Washington County Hospital site, has been working with consultants for the past 10 months to develop a study and marketing analysis of the area.

A public meeting to gain input into the proposed redevelopment concept plan for the former Washington County Hospital properties in Hagerstown's East End will be held this week. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 1 E. Franklin St., city spokeswoman Erin Wolfe said in a news release. Wolfe said consulting partners of Meritus Health, which owns the largely vacant tracts of land between East Washington and East Baltimore streets, plus a large parking lot along Mill Street, will present their plan to the city's planning commission and the public to receive feedback from both groups.

Hagerstown City Council members on Tuesday discussed their next step in forging a public-private partnership on a long-term redevelopment plan for the city. During a 40-minute conversation at City Hall, Councilman Kristin B. Aleshire said it's “paramount” to first identify the players and stakeholders of such a project, stressing the need for a meeting between the city, Washington County Board of Commissioners, county Board of Education and the state delegation as soon as possible.

A planned $300 million downtown redevelopment project in Glassboro, N.J., currently being completed by Sora Development, a real estate development firm that's expressed interest in doing something similar in Hagerstown, has been well-received, an education official there said last week. “We give a lot of credit to Sora,” said Joe Cordona, vice president of university relations for Rowan University, which is involved in the Glassboro project. “People looking at Sora should take them very seriously.” The Rowan Boulevard revitalization project, a public-private partnership between Sora, the borough of Glassboro and Rowan University, contains several multistory mixed-use buildings, student-housing complexes and parking garages on 26 acres along a new one-third-mile corridor that connects Rowan and the heart of Glassboro's historic business district.

After a lengthy public discussion with an outside group of real estate development officials Tuesday night, Hagerstown Mayor David S. Gysberts and city council members spoke positively about the opportunities the group could present in terms of redeveloping various parts of the city. Represented by local attorney D. Bruce Poole, the group of officials consisted of Tim Elliott of the real estate development company Sora Development, Dane Bauer of the engineering firm Daft, McCune and Walker Inc., and Chuck Brawley of Skanska, a multi-national construction company.

The City of Hagerstown is considering buying the former Holiday Motel property, which has been vacant since the city shut down the motel on North Prospect Street in 2005 amid complaints of prostitution, drug use and vagrants on the property. Armed with search warrants, city and county officials inspected every room in the motel and found numerous health and building code violations, prompting its closure nearly eight years ago, according to Herald-Mail archives. In a Jan. 4 memo to City Administrator Bruce Zimmerman, John Lestitian, the city's director of economic and community development, said the blighted structure at the corner of West Washington and North Prospect streets has been vacant since October 2005.

The redevelopment of Fort Ritchie appears to be back to square one with the transfer of the former military base from Corporate Office Properties Trust back to PenMar Development Corp. “I would describe it as a new start,” said Dan Pheil, the chairman of the Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission. As the commission develops a comprehensive economic development plan for the county “the Fort Ritchie property will certainly be listed as an asset,” he said.

A Hagerstown redevelopment initiative that began a few years ago as a way to help revamp the city's struggling downtown is paying dividends for some property owners and developers, and tenants also can reap benefits by moving into their newly renovated buildings, a city official said. Started in 2009, the Partners in Economic Progress, or PEP, program was established to support private-sector investments that contribute to the revitalization of downtown Hagerstown, said Christy Blake, the city's downtown business recruitment and retention manager.

George Washington Carver said, “Where there is no vision, there is no hope,” a quote that is befitting the recent decision of the Washington County Commissioners and the Hagerstown Mayor and City Council to fund a multiuse sports and events center in downtown. Over the course of the last six months, there has been much discussion and uncertainty as to the future of Minor League Baseball in our community. And, as the council has had an opportunity to examine pros and cons of retaining baseball as an amenity to our citizens, they have determined that such an economic benefit is worthy of keeping.