BREAKING: Developer pulls out of East Campus project

FP-Argo was unable to secure loans, Wylie says multiple developers will be used instead

Published: Friday, November 13, 2009

Updated: Friday, November 13, 2009

Foulger Pratt-Argo pulled out last week as developer of the university's planned East Campus redevelopment project because of the economic downturn, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said Friday. Instead, the university will hire multiple developers to move the project forward piece-by-piece.

Wylie said partnerships to build a Birchmere music hall and a 650-bed graduate student housing project are intact and the university could break ground on those projects as soon as January. East Campus, a $900 million, 38-acre mixed-use project that would transform the area on Route 1 between Frat Row and Paint Branch Parkway, has been stalled since earlier this year because FP-Argo was unable to secure loans.

The decision to break ties was a long time coming, Wylie said, and a is "relief" because now the university can begin on the project slowly, without waiting till the market recovers. The university might partner with FP-Argo on some smaller parts of the project.

Securing a loan of the magnitude it would take to start East Campus all at once was possible in March of 2007, when the university announced its partnership with FP-Argo, Wylie said. Now, only smaller loans are possible.

"The world has changed on us," Wylie said. "Doing the project all at once is like biting off a huge piece of steak -- it tastes good but you can't possibly swallow it."

cwells at umdbk dot com

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Uncle Rico

Sat Nov 14 2009 20:54

East Campus is going to be a very sloooooow, frustrating slog that takes over a decade to get done. Folks who live in any housing that eventually gets built over there will have to put up with probably 7-8 years of construction in their front yards before East Campus becomes a functional destination. From groundbreaking to completion, two full classes of students will come and go without seeing a functional East Campus.

The one thin silver lining for future students is that long term, East Campus will be able to evolve according to what's needed piece by piece, not according to some one-shot mega-development that takes huge guesses about future student desires all at once. But ultimately that won't be such an advantage: the piecemeal approach will yield a series of poorly integrated and scaled-back bolt-on construction projects, with priorities tipping alarmingly between projects. Incidentally, that's exactly how the curiously unsatisfying current state of Byrd Stadium came to be.

The University is going to milk the hell out of the East Campus project for a decade. It's their New Frontier. They'll go to Annapolis every few months with hands out and grandiose promises about what a major impact this will have for recruiting the best students, the best companies, the best donors, the best professors, etc. As state handouts are a near-zero-sum game, other campus funding needs will be represented proportionally less. And when East Campus is done someday, looking nothing like what it was originally supposed to be, it will be... a few additional acres of commercial development and housing. Not a panacea.

Of course, the rest of Route 1 and the entire area will be unchanged.

helpfulAlumni

Sat Nov 14 2009 15:32

"Doing the project all at once is like biting off a huge piece of steak -- it tastes good but you can't possibly swallow it."
Why did you originally bite off the steak in 2007 if it couldn't be swallowed?

Come on Annie, you know how to get the project started fast. Implement a mandatory 200% tuition increase.

Concerned Citizen that cant sell my house thank you

Fri Nov 13 2009 22:42

So let me get this straight, if we have rent control then we will get the students out of the neighborhoods. Great idea. But wait, what if we cant get developers to make high rises? FU to the cp citizens!!!! haha good luck selling your homes retarded people!!! Lets get the ex-mayor to tell us how we fix this mess now. opps ssees

CP Run

Fri Nov 13 2009 22:38

Oh nooos, better get more rent control so that these guys can get a better deal! Come on!

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