Proposed Outlet Mall Draws Fire From Critics

WHITE MARSH, MD—Paragon Outlet Partners is hoping to break ground this summer on a mixed-use project that will include more than 100 outlet stores. However, adjoining property owners and a competing retail property are looking to block or at least postpone the groundbreaking ceremony.

Paragon Outlet Partners of Baltimore is proposing the project on 83 acres in White Marsh. The development would feature more than 125 stores totaling 568,000 square feet. It will feature 250,000 square feet of office space, 250 apartments and a 130-room hotel.

Corporate Office Properties Trust, a REIT, sold 56 acres of the development site to Paragon for $18.6 million last week.

Adjacent property owners and the competing White Marsh Mall are expected to argue before the Baltimore County Board of Appeals, which will consider whether to uphold, overturn or modify a county administrative law judge's decision to approve the project, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Nearby residents say White Marsh is over-developed, while officials with General Growth Properties of Chicago, the owner of the White Marsh Mall, argue the outlets would hurt area businesses and also would cause traffic problems around the development site located near the intersection of Interstate 95 and Route 43.

The project, if built, would be located approximately about two miles from the White Marsh Mall and The Avenue at White Marsh shopping center. If the current timeline holds, the outlet stores are expected to open in late 2016. See story in the Baltimore Sun.