Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to Get New Tenant; Phillips Seafood to Get New Home
By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor Phillips Seafood announced last week that it will open a 500-seat restaurant by early October at the Inner Harbor’s Power Plant, in space left vacant last summer by ESPN Zone. By September 30, the restaurant in [...]
By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor
Phillips Seafood announced last week that it will open a 500-seat restaurant by early October at the Inner Harbor’s Power Plant, in space left vacant last summer by ESPN Zone. By September 30, the restaurant in the Light Street Pavilion will close and Phillips, one of the original tenants at the Light Street Pavilion, will move to Baltimore’s Power Plant after 31 years at Harborplace. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. will move into the Light Street Pavilion that Phillips vacates.
Phillips reached an agreement with Cordish Cos., the building’s landlord, to only lease the first floor of the ESPN Zone space, which takes up about 15,000 square feet. The restaurant will include indoor and outdoor seating for more than 300 people, a raw bar, two full bars and a 200-seat deck on a barge that will offer a more casual dining experience. With Turkish-style ottomans in an entrance lounge and decor including antique mirrors and stained glass, the new Phillips will have a more polished design than the Harborplace restaurant.
A city advisory panel approved the relocation, but its members expressed their concerns over the proposed new windows and signs. Phillips and its architecture firm, Design Collective, want to bring glass doors and windows to the brick-faced Pratt Street side of the building, in order to allow more light into the dining area. They also proposed placing a sign atop one wing of the historic Power Plant building, with “Phillips” spelled out in 15-feet-tall red letters and “Seafood” in white letters beneath. Panel members did not agree with this, saying that the panel would dwarf signs by other tenants, including Hard Rock Cafe and Barnes and Noble, making it look as if Phillips Seafood was the only tenant of the building.
The restaurant will need more approvals before it can open. The panel’s approval is just the first step in a city approval process that Phillips representatives hope to conclude in time to open this fall.
