CASE STUDY
Clipper Mill
Baltimore, MD
About three miles north of Baltimore’s vibrant Inner Harbor, a new mixed-use redevelopment has been carved from the old structures and setting of the former Clipper Mill iron foundry. The 17.5-acre site features condos, apartments, 38 single-family homes, restaurants, office and artist space, all connected to transportation centers in the rest of the city by light rail and shuttle service. The site abuts a large park—an advantage the developers have reinforced with multiple trails and waterways throughout the site and connections to nearby parks and an arboretum. In fact, Clipper Mill is green in more ways than its park-like setting and its connections to transit: material reuse and LEED-certified building guidelines form the backbone of Clipper Mill’s ongoing plan.
The Clipper Mill Industrial Complex was an iron foundry built by Poole and Hunt between the middle of the 19th century and just after World War I. When the foundry closed its doors after WWII, it fell into episodic use by artists, ironworkers, and artisans until the 1990s. Without a strong sense of ownership, the buildings fell into disrepair. In 1994 a large fire burned two buildings to the ground, destroyed the artists’ businesses, and killed a fireman. Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse—a Baltimore-based but nationally known architecture and development firm—offered to buy the entire site from its beleaguered owner. The site was unlike anything the company had brought to the Baltimore housing market before, lending itself to a design that would accentuate its funky, industrial aesthetic, as well as offer an opportunity to recycle industrial materials creatively and employ green building techniques.
Process
Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse took the lead with Jonathan Rose Companies and others, buying the property in 2002 after the 1994 fire. The community members who lived on and near the site—a mix of long-standing families with a mill heritage and young professionals and artists—were intimately involved throughout the process. The developers knew that, among other things, safe and affordable artists’ live/work space was needed; the five buildings on the property were in immediate need of rehabilitation; the historic character of the site and its lush green setting were high priorities; finally, the developers sought ways to attract new residents to the site in order to make the project financially viable.
There were obstacles along the way that made the project more difficult than imagined, including the discovery of many underground obstructions that had to be mitigated and unanticipated structural problems in buildings. In addition, a neighbor of the site and a tenant brought a lawsuit against the developers on the basis of what turned out to be false deeds “proving” their ownership of land.
Innovations on this National Register of Historic Places site include imaginative reuse of old and antique industrial materials, such as steel beams, sprocket wheels, and other distinctive items from the original machine shop that were recycled, not just as utilitarian parts of the new renovated structures, but also in landscaping and as aesthetic centerpieces throughout the development. One of the residential buildings features an atrium with a green roof, which provides temperature control and filters stormwater runoff. Other green features include porous pavement in the parking areas and the nation’s first green wall, a “living” wall that uses plants to filter air before it returns to the HVAC system in a studio building that once houses a barn and now is the office and studio of an environmental consulting firm.
The total project cost was about $77 million and took three and a half years to substantially complete (parts are still under construction).
Leadership and Partners
Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse was key developer with Jonathan Rose Companies. Clipper For Sale, Clipper Mill Redevelopment, and Millrace Building were also significant partners.
Residents of the community were important partners, participating in active discussions about the physical appearance of the development and its impact on its natural setting. In addition to participating in the compliance with Baltimore’s requirements for rezoning approval as a planned unit development (PUD), the public was also involved in the design process. Although both these steps prolonged the development process, the community input led to a smoother overall implementation of this very complex, large-scale development.
Financing
The Clipper Mill redevelopment team utilized a variety of funding streams, including: tax increment financing (TIF), federal and state historic preservation tax credits, new market tax credits, developer and joint venture funds, partner equity, and grant funds from the Maryland Department of the Environments Brownfield Incentive Program. One specific financing challenge emerged when the state of Maryland capped the amount of state historic preservation tax credits that could be assigned annually, so the project was ultimately unable to use the credits as a funding source.
Successes
Clipper Mill has set a new standard of creativity and sustainability for mixed-use developments. In addition to effectively redeveloping a previously devastated site, the project has held its own in a tenuous market. As of last August, the Overlook Clipper homes—the first LEED-certified homes in Maryland—were at the 40 percent sold mark.
Contact
(443) 573-4000
Keywords:
art, live/work, LEED, iron foundry, Maryland, material reuse
The fire circle is one of many public features at Clipper Mill. Photo Credit: Patrick Ross
Reclaiming Communities through Vacant Property Revitalization
Last Updated 05/26/10Copyright 2009