Howard Hughes, the master developer for the downtown Columbia, MD revitalization plan will construction 13,000,000 square feet of commercial office space, retail and housing with assistance from the local government, Downtown Columbia Housing Corp, and the Kittleman administration.
The scope of this development project includes, 250 hotel rooms, 2,300 housing units, 314,000 SF of commercial retail space, 1.5 million square feet of commercial office, and 225,000 SF of civic and cultural uses. The first commercial office building is slated to be completed in December of 2016. The 200,000 square foot commercial property will be anchored by MedStar.
To finance the development project, Howard Hughes received $51 million in TIF to fund public infrastructure which includes a “parking garage for private and public use, public roadways, stormwater management, and other infrastructure in the Crescent, and undeveloped parcel of land that rests between concert venue Merriweather Post Pavillion and Broken Land Parkway.”
In addition, “several bond request of up to $170 million will follow over the next four years.” The developer will also provide $12 million to support other public infrastructure development components, and grant the county rights to a revamped public transit system in the future. $45 million will be set aside for a new elementary school over several bond issuances according to the Baltimore Sun, and Howard Hughes will provide $7.8 million to facilitate an 83-unit homeownership and “live-where-you-work-program”.
The Downtown Columbia Housing Corp and the Kittleman administration will construct “900 affordable housing units using a mix of tax credits, section-8 vouchers and other means. Kittleman hailed the plan, achieved through a 30-year binding agreement with the developer, as a guaranteed and consensus-driven strategy to include affordable housing in downtown. Around 400 units of the 900-unit plan will be financed using federal low-income housing tax credit programs (LIHTC).”
Howard Hughes will also commit to hiring businesses that are local and owned by minorities, women, and disabled veterans.