December 20, 2004

EBDI Announces New East Baltimore Community Developer

The Board of Directors of East Baltimore Development Inc. announced today the selection of Forest City- New East Baltimore Partnership, LLC, to develop the first phase of an 80-acre mixed-use community adjacent to the Johns Hopkins medical campus. Additional information: http://www.ebdi.org/npdf/FINAL%20PRESS%20RELEASE%20DEVLPR%20EVENT.pdf

Remarks by Edward D. Miller for EBDI Master Developer Announcement

• Thank you. I send greetings from EBDI Board member Bill Brody, president of The Johns Hopkins University.
• He truly regrets that he can't be here - a prior commitment has him out of town.
• As EBDI's next-door neighbor, it's exciting to attend this event.
• I wondered occasionally if we'd ever reach this point.
• But we've surmounted barriers and overcome disagreements.
• Credit goes to Jack Shannon, Joe Haskins, Doug Nelson and Mayor O'Malley for sticking with this ambitious undertaking. . . . even when things looked bleak.
• Now the fun begins - as we watch a brand-new community emerge in East Baltimore. . .
• A community filled with hope and promise, housing and jobs.
• Johns Hopkins is a proud partner in this bold endeavor.
• We're committed to helping this initiative succeed.
• After all, your future is our future.
• We're all East Baltimoreans.
• At EBDI's request, Johns Hopkins Medicine will jump-start the Life Sciences and Technology Park - leasing 100,000 square feet of offices and labs.
• Our basic scientists can't wait for the doors to open.
• The truth is they've been so successful at competing for research grants that we're filling space on campus as quickly as another research building goes up.
• The Johns Hopkins Institutions now rank as Maryland's largest private employer, generating 1,000 new jobs each year.
• We account for $7 billion in economic activity.
• We're the city's economic engine - and proud of our historic location in East Baltimore.
• One of our assignments from EBDI is to help recruit tenants to the life sciences park -
• Companies that want their technology operations and labs next to America's best medical researchers, educators and clinicians.
• On the residential side, we've tried to ease the impact on families forced to move.
• Through EBDI, we've provided $5 million in supplemental relocation benefits.
• Once new housing is ready for occupancy, we'll offer incentives to our employees to live near your work. . . .
• We'll also be talking with the master developer about housing options for medical students.
• At the other end of the education spectrum, Johns Hopkins University is a partner with EBDI in planning a new pre-K through eighth grade East Baltimore community school.
• A well-conceived, well-equipped, well-staffed school will give children of this new neighborhood a solid learning foundation that will last a lifetime.
• Workforce development programs will be crucial for the Life Sciences and Technology Park. Thousands of laboratory and technology jobs will be available. . .
• If local residents have the necessary skills.
• Johns Hopkins Medicine already has a large number of workforce development programs in place. . .
• Such as our partnership with the Baltimore City Community College to train lab technicians through the Biotechnical Institute of Maryland.
• These graduates will have no trouble finding good jobs in the Life Sciences Park.
• Another venture, Project REACH, allows Hopkins employees to earn community college degrees qualifying them for better-paying positions and more career opportunities.
• We're hoping to have 400 Hopkins employees enrolled in Project REACH.
• As these individuals move up to more advanced positions, the plan is to reach into the community to fill many of the vacancies that are created.
• I'd be remiss if I didn't reference our own nearby building boom that will keep construction companies busy for quite some time.
• Next year, a huge parking garage on the south side of Orleans Street opens.
• This will trigger a chain reaction of demolition and construction on the north side of the street as we reorient our front entrance to Orleans Street.
• Two major clinical towers are planned
• One - for cardiovascular and critical care patients. . . the other - for children and for maternity patients.
• It's a $1.3 billion project.
• Will give us modern hospital buildings that match the brilliance of our faculty. More important, it's what our patients deserve.
• And it will be a perfect complement to the Life Sciences Park and the new residential community EBDI is developing.
• Let me end with a word about the synergy that will evolve as the Life Sciences Park fills with tenants.
• 21st Century medicine requires collaboration as never before. . .
• Among researchers in different fields and among skilled medical practitioners.
• Translational medicine - bringing discoveries and new technologies rapidly to the bedside - is the No. 1 imperative.
• The free flow of ideas that could be generated by our scientists and others in the research park - right next door to America's No. 1 hospital and the nation's No. 1 recipient of federal research grants - holds staggering potential to transform medicine.
• It could put Hopkins, Baltimore and Maryland on the cutting edge of medicine for generations to come.
• I'm proud that Johns Hopkins is a partner in the city's plans for East Baltimore.
• We think the research park will be a wonderful space for our basic scientists.
• The mix of residences, shops and jobs could become a model for other urban centers.
• I know from experience that to pull off something like this literally takes a village.
• So to the Casey Foundation, the Goldseker Foundation and the Abell Foundation. . .
• To the Greater Baltimore Committee, EBDI's hard-working board and staff . . .
• The mayor's dedicated crew, the governor's housing and economic development people, our wonderful Congressional delegation. . .
• And all the area residents who participated in the initial stages of this project:
• . . . . I say, Thank you.
• This is a great plan our master developer is now going to turn into bricks and mortar.
• It holds the key to East Baltimore's brighter future . . .
• It's a future Hopkins and the community will share together.