A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.
By: Adam Bednar Daily Record Business Writer July 11, 2017
The closing of Locke Insulators Inc.’s manufacturing facility – which is scheduled to take place over the next few months – could ultimately lead to the property’s inclusion into the $5.5 billion Sagamore redevelopment project on Port Covington. (File photo / Maximilian Franz)
Closing the Locke Insulators manufacturing facility in Port Covington opens the door for the property to become part of a planned massive redevelopment of the south Baltimore peninsula.
The property, at 2525 Insulator Drive, is the last large parcel of land in Port Covington not controlled by Sagamore Development Co., its affiliated LLCs or Under Armour. Sagamore, which is backed by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, plans a $5.5 billion overhaul of roughly 260 acres of mostly unused industrial property along the waterfront.
The project has been hailed by supporters as the biggest investment in Baltimore since construction of the Inner Harbor.
A spokesman for Locke, in an email, denied developer interest in the property played a role in the decision to close the facility and said the property’s future after manufacturing ceases at the site remains uncertain.
“A decade-long decline in market demand, coupled with the high non-labor costs required to operate the manufacturing facility, ultimately led to the decision to close Locke Insulators,” the spokesman wrote in an email.
Locke Insulators, affiliated with NGK-Locke Inc., made the announcement on Monday afternoon that it is closing the facility. The company makes high-voltage porcelain station post insulators used by electric utilities.
The plant is expected to be shut during the next few months and 24 salaried and 84 production workers will lose their jobs.
According to state property records, the Locke property consists of more than 24 acres of land valued at more than $6.9 million. Locke Insulators, according to the NGK-Locke Inc. website, was founded in 1893, was purchased by General Electric in 1920, which moved Locke’s corporate headquarters to Baltimore in 1922. General Electric sold a majority of Locke to Japan’s NGK Locke Insulators Ltd. in 1974, and it became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1989.
Representatives for Sagamore previously denied they were negotiating to purchase the property, and said the Port Covington overhaul could co-exist with the Locke facility in operation. Sagamore, via a spokesman, declined Tuesday to comment for this story.
Nonetheless, it has been widely assumed the Locke property would eventually be absorbed by the project. During recent Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel hearings, panelists made it clear they were reviewing Port Covington schematics with an eye to how they may impact future development at the Locke site.
Mayor Catherine Pugh, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this story.
Sagamore’s proposal for Port Covington includes building 13,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space and roughly 200 hotel rooms. Under Armour also plans to independently build a 3.9-million-square-foot global headquarters on the peninsula.
The project became a contentious political issue after Sagamore sought $636 million in public financing from the city for infrastructure work on the peninsula. Activists portrayed that as a give-a-way to a wealthy developer in a poor city. While supporters argued the money would be used for public infrastructure that would help lure $4.4 billion in private investment.
The city council and then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake approved the public financing proposal last year.
Tagged with: Baltimore Locke port covington
To purchase a reprint of this article, contact reprints@thedailyrecord.com.
Subscribers to Maryland Family Law Update can access the digital edition archive.
Subscribers to The Daily Record can access the digital edition archive.