[StevenW]

Here's the reason why:

Legg Mason leaving downtown home

(Chris Ammann/Baltimore Examiner)
Financial giant Legg Mason announced today it is leaving its downtown tower for new digs in Harbor East.
BALTIMORE - Legg Mason is getting a new address. The asset management firm announced Tuesday that it signed a 15-year agreement with H&S Development Corp. to lease up to 400,000 square feet in a proposed complex in Baltimore's Inner Harbor East.


The new Legg Mason tower in Harbor East will be home to the majority of the firm’s Baltimore-area employees, beginning in the summer of 2009, when the company plans to move.

“It's going to be brand new, state-of-the-art space that we can customize,” said Mary Athridge, spokeswoman for Legg Mason.

When Legg moves, it will leave behind its iconic home at the corner of Pratt and Light streets that bears its name. A standout along the Baltimore skyline, the building was constructed in 1973 and is the tallest in Maryland, according to Emporis, an international building and real estate data base.

The current Harbor East development covers eight square blocks — more than 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space and 1 million square feet of new Class-A office space.
The developer estimates the entire space will create more than 4,000 new jobs for Baltimore City, H&S said in a news release.

Legg Mason employees are looking forward to the new complex.

“There are pictures posted around of the new building, and people are saying, ‘this looks really nice,’” Athridge said.

As for Baltimore, the city is glad that Legg Mason is staying in Charm City.

“I think it’s great news,” said Kirby Fowler, president of The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. “We are glad to see that they are staying in Baltimore City and expanding.”

Athridge said the move isn’t that big of a deal, but the company is excited.

‘It's not that we're leaving,” she said, “but that we're taking advantage of the new space.”


http://www.examiner.com/images/newsroom/Image/rendering.jpg
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/_images/article/02_12_leggtower1.jpg

This is HUGE!!!
The Four Seasons tower is over 36 floors high. Clearly a new tallest for the Harbor East skyline. Leg Mason's new building looks good, too. :yes: :)
I can't wait till ground-breaking. :D
:banana: :banana: :banana: :cheers: :cheers: :tup:

[StevenW]

Another rendering:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2007-02/27898574.jpg

[James Bond Agent 007]

Holy towering structures Batman!! This is incredible!

[Visiteur]

Awesome! Great news for Baltimore!

[StevenW]

Here is some interesting development concerning the Four Seasons as well:

Four Seasons Hotels Inc. to be taken private by Gates, Alwaleed
Bloomberg
February 13, 2007
Four Seasons Hotels Inc., the manager of 74 luxury hotels, agreed to be taken private by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and the company's chief executive officer for $3.8 billion including debt.

[ctman987]

Where is this development in relationship to the inner harbor??

[StevenW]

click this link and watch the report and you'll see:
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_044155658.html

[StevenW]

Here's an older rendering of the original 4 seasons plan:
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/6705/image40lk.jpg
Notice how shorter it was. 24 story hotel and 18 story condo tower side by side.
Here is another rendering of a "Harbor East" rendering, in relation to the "downtown" portion in the background.
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/5764/image15kf.jpg

Hope this helps some. :)

[volguus zildrohar]

That's actually quite nice.

[Austinlee]

Hell yeah! Baltimore is booming like a mother... I'm jealous as hell. That plan looks awesome.Could anyone photoshop where exactly these will fit in with the other planned harbor east development? I'm confused about the placement and how much other developments are going on in thise neighborhood.

Also, is this horbor east not considered downtown? It looks like the two are practically connected or at least adjacent to each other. Is that just an optical illusion?

[marc1969]

The inner Harbour East is not considered part of the traditional central business district. It begins only about 1/2 mile away but it's only been recently developed. When I was in HS in the 80's, it was just an industrial site between downtown and Fells Point. Since then it has been transformed by the addition of condos, hotels, restaurants, and office buildings. The first to venture over there I believe was Slyvan Learning in the early 90's. It's almost becoming a 2nd downtown. The addition of Legg Mason is a HUGE score for the developers.

[JivecitySTL]

Great news, excellent design. B'more is on a roll!

[StevenW]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w137/ktulured55/4s-view01.jpg

Another rendering of the new Legg Mason tower. :)

[atlantaguy]

This is really beautiful. It's like Baltimore's own version of Canary Wharf!

[STLgasm]

Do you think the old Legg-Mason tower will have any trouble attracting new tenants? It is a big building, after all. Lots of square footage to fill.

[StevenW]

IMO, no. :previous:
Probably a lot of smaller firms will take up the vacaded space. :)

[Benhamin]

Very nice!

[marc1969]

Do you think the old Legg-Mason tower will have any trouble attracting new tenants? It is a big building, after all. Lots of square footage to fill.

This was in the Sun today:

Opportunity in Legg move
When money manager leaves downtown building, prime office space will open up
By June Arney
sun reporter
Originally published February 20, 2007
The high-profile office space that will come available at 100 Light Street when money manager Legg Mason Inc. moves to Harbor East in 2009 presents an unusual chance to lure new companies to Baltimore. But it also could put pressure on downtown's traditional core as it competes with newer areas such as Harbor East, experts say.

Legg announced last week that it would leave the landmark 1970s skyscraper - the first private office tower built in the Inner Harbor - and consolidate nearly all its 1,000 Baltimore area employees in a new 24-story office tower that will bear its name in the H&S Properties Development Corp. waterfront project at Harbor East. Legg currently leases 23 floors in the 35-story Light Street building.

It's not often that such a large amount of prime real estate becomes available in a signature building in a downtown setting.

"It's an opportunity," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm. "It's some nice space in an excellent building to offer that would not otherwise be available."

But Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research with the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute, said that even as the traditional business district is expanding with the development at Harbor East, there is a downside.

"You're hollowing out what is the traditional downtown," he said. "It's hard for the owners of the existing building, because it's always harder to fill yesterday's space than today's space. In many ways, Harbor East has built up a better downtown than downtown."

Given the new commercial space in Harbor East and the 2.5 million square feet of office and retail space that developer Patrick Turner plans for Westport, downtown space has competition, he said.

"The price of the Legg Mason space is going to have to fall," Clinch said. "Your old, traditional downtown office space is no longer the top address. That might be good for the city. As the price falls, people will move in who might have been in Columbia."

David Gillece, president of Colliers Pinkard, which manages the Legg property, said downtown is in far better shape to absorb the space than it was a decade ago, especially as older Class B buildings have been converted to other uses.

"I'm way less concerned than I would have been 10 years ago," Gillece said. "The answer now is that the properties that are being left are being converted to other uses."

A number of older downtown buildings have been turned into hotels or residences, including the Hampton Inn in the old USF&G Insurance Building at Redwood and Calvert streets and the conversion of the Jefferson Building on North Charles Street into apartments. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s former Charles Center building is being converted to apartments.

"The best news for Baltimore is the signal from Legg to not just stick around for the next 18 years but to make an investment and a visible investment in Baltimore," Gillece said. "Those are the kinds of moments that cities dream about."

In addition, two other former parts of Legg that sublet from their former parent also are moving. Stockbroker Smith Barney, which Citigroup acquired from Legg as part of a swap, will depart for Harbor East in May. The financial institution has signed a lease for 42,000 square feet, said Michael S. Beatty, president of H&S Properties. That office, at 800 Aliceanna St., will occupy the same block as a seven-screen multiplex cinema and a health club.

And a division bought by Stifel Nicolaus & Co. of St. Louis said in November that it would move to the 1 South Street building.

The types of companies that might find the Legg Mason building appealing range from Internet software developers to advertising and marketing companies, law firms and sports products companies, said Richard Kadzis, a corporate real estate industry analyst in Atlanta with CoreNet Global, an association for corporate real estate and related professionals.

"These are the type of companies that are attracting young, creative people," he said. "That young and restless generation likes the creative environment downtown."

And the space offers appealing infrastructure with public transit and nearby airport access, along with ballparks, hospitals and cultural attractions, he said.

With vacancy rates low nationally - in the 13 percent range for the first time since 2000 - Baltimore could benefit from having space in a prime location available, Kadzis said.

The Legg building, which opened in 1973, has floor plans that are smaller than those typical in offices being built today, Brodie said. Its floors are about 14,500 square feet rather than the 20,000 to 25,000 square feet that have become standard.

The space might therefore lend itself to multiple users rather than a single user who might not want to have employees on more than one floor, Brodie said.

Christian S. Johansson, president and chief executive of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, a public-private partnership that markets the region, said a delicate balance exists between having too much space and having enough to absorb the opportunities that come along.

"It's a premier property," he said. "It's going to attract a lot of excitement. I think there will be a number of companies that will put it on their list for consideration."

june.arney@baltsun.com

[Austinlee]

^So the Legg Mason move will clear up 333,000+ sq footage in that building... That is NOT very much in a city the size of Baltimore. In mid-sized cities, the average decent size company move is looking for 100-300 thousand sq ft at a time, so that would only be 2 or 3 nice sized tenants to fill that space; Considering the huge metro that Baltimore and DC make up, that should be easy to fill. Right?

[StevenW]

:previous: I would think so, yes. :yes:

:)