$30M Baltimore TOD Project Breaks Ground

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

After 20 years on the drawing board, held up by problems like cost or the economy, the Owings Mills Metro Centre finally broke ground last Thursday, July 28.  A six-story, transit-oriented town center will house the largest public library branch in Baltimore County. The project is adjacent to the Owings Mills subway station and Owings Mills Mall.

The building will go up on the grounds of the Owings Mills Metro station and is designed to meet LEED Silver standards for commercial construction. Green features include bicycle storage, a green roof, high-efficiency heating and air conditioning systems, and water-saving features such as low-flow lavatories. The new public library will have 70 computers and a 142,000-item collection, six self-service check-out stations, four study rooms, a children’s center, magazine lounge and a large community meeting room.

With the 27 new classrooms and specialized labs, the community college, which is now renting space in a small office building on Painters Mill Road, will be able to expand several programs. The project couldn’t have come at a better time, as enrollment at the Community College of Baltimore County has increased more than 40 percent. County executives hope that the project will help boost business at the Owings Mills Mall and in the northwest Baltimore County community.

This is the second phase of development at the Metro Centre, with the first being a parking garage finished in 2007. The third phase will include more than 1 million square feet of office space, 500 residential units, 300,000 square feet of retail space and a 250-room hotel.

CAM Construction Company is the contractor. The estimated cost of the 120,000-square-foot building is $30 million, including building construction, furnishings and opening day book collection for the library. It will create about 150 construction jobs.

Construction is slated for completion in the winter of 2013.