| developer = The Rouse Company
| manager = MCB Real Estate
| owner =
| architect = Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc.
| number_of_stores = 28 (135+ at peak)
| floor_area =
| floors = 2 in both pavilions (with one basement level; Second level is restricted in the Light Street Pavilion)
| parking = Parking garage at The Gallery / Paid parking
| publictransit =
Harborplace is a largely vacant shopping mall and restaurant complex at the Inner Harbor in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland, composed of three retail structures: Pratt Street Pavilion, Light Street Pavilion, and The Gallery at Harborplace, all of which were developed by the Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland. Other adjacent structures include an office tower on 111 S. Calvert Street known as Harborplace Tower, and the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, both adjacent to the Gallery mall, which remains closed as of January 2022.
Harborplace was originally designed as a festival marketplace, featuring hundreds of local vendors and eateries and attracting multiple tourists throughout the 1980s, making it a flagship for James W. Rouse after previously developing Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts. In the early 1990s, national chains began taking over the pavilions, and by the early 2010s, Harborplace featured traditional tenants typically found in suburban malls, such as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Ripley's Believe It or Not!, The Cheesecake Factory, Five Guys, and Hooters, leading to the complex to be perceived as a tourist trap.
General Growth Properties (GGP) sold Harborplace to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation (AAC) in November 2012, which allowed the pavilions to deteriorate through a lack of basic repairs and maintenance. Ashkenazy defaulted on its loan on the property, and they lost control when it went into court-ordered receivership in March 2019. Problems were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, with popular chains, including Noodles & Co., M&S Grill/McCormick World of Flavors, Banana Republic, H&M, and Uno Pizzeria & Grill leaving, leading to Harborplace becoming a dead mall.
The Gallery at Harborplace, separately owned and managed by Brookfield Properties, closed permanently in January 2022.
In April–December of that year, the pavilions were acquired by MCB Real Estate, which has plans to demolish the facility in the fall of 2026 and replace it with a mixed-use development that is expected to be completed by the early 2030s. To keep Harborplace active while redevelopment plans are being finalized, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore's BOOST/LTP program allowed local businesses to open inside them, such as Soul Kuisine Cafe in the former Gump on the Run space, and Made in Baltimore, partially replacing H&M. Security concerns from crime in the surrounding area, and the rise of e-commerce has also made Harborplace's viability as a retail center struggle irrevocably.
Overview
thumb|A view of the complex in February 2009 at sunset
The property consists of two, green metal-roofed shopping mall pavilions, each two stories in height; one along Pratt Street, the other on Light Street, (hence the colloquial names "Twin Pavilions" and "Sister Pavilions"). In between the pavilions is an open-air amphitheater known as the Inner Harbor Amphitheater Outdoor Stage for community gathering events, such as Fleet Week. There is also a five-story mall adjacent to the Pratt Street Pavilion called The Gallery at Harborplace that has been closed and vacant since January 2022. Where the defunct Gallery mall is includes a 28-story office tower known as Harborplace Tower, and a 12-story Renaissance Hotel, formerly a Stouffer Hotel.
The pavilions housed a range of stores and restaurants, some of which once sold merchandise specific to Baltimore or the state of Maryland, such as blue crab food products, Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens merchandise, Edgar Allan Poe products, and University of Maryland Terrapins clothing. Portions of the interior of both pavilions would have waffle slab ceilings, and were designed to resemble historical market sheds, both having second-floor balconies. The Harborplace complex used to be a bustling tourist attraction.
History
thumb|Harborplace at night in May 2008
1964–1980: Planning and construction
In September 1964, in response to post-World War II suburbanization, then-Baltimore mayor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, in collaboration with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based architect Wallace McHarg Roberts & Todd (WMRT) initiated the first Inner Harbor Master Plan to clear out derelict piers and industrial warehouses, as downtown Baltimore has struggled, being largely neglected. Those warehouses have since been razed and replaced with mixed-use buildings, including the Baltimore Convention Center, which opened in 1979. The Maryland Science Center was completed and opened to the public in June 1976, with the Baltimore World Trade Center (BWTC) being completed in January 1977. That year, then-Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer hired the Columbia, Maryland-based urban planner James W. Rouse, who also developed West Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall and known for Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Massachusetts, to create a similar vibrant commercial hub, following his most recent major completion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (The Gallery at Market East). The concept chosen for the Inner Harbor project would be a festival marketplace, the same one used for Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which was a lively, European-style public space with locally owned restaurants, diverse small vendors and entertainment, including nightlife.
In 1978, because the land was owned by the city and was in an area designated as a park in the city charter, a citywide referendum was required to proceed with the project, championed by William D. Schaefer. The amendment "limited the size of any project there to the top of the USS Constellation docked in front of the Pratt Street Pavilion." Voters approved the use of of public parkland for the development, provided the surrounding remained public open space. The Inner Harbor promenade where Harborplace now sits was completed in April 1974.
The Rouse Company announced Harborplace in November 1978, and the project was estimated to cost around $20million. To proceed with the project, the Rouse Co. founded the Maryland-based subsidiary Harborplace, Inc. The Massachusetts-based architectural firm Benjamin C. Thompson was hired to design the Harborplace pavilions, and the marketplace officially began construction in January 1979 on the former site of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company docks. Developer Martin Millspaugh gave James Rouse an offer to power Harborplace with the Pratt Street Power Plant, which, at the time, sat abandoned and under multiple failed redevelopment efforts (Six Flags and P.T. Flagg's). Rouse rejected this, arguing that he wanted Harborplace to be "entirely first-class," and didn't want "any chance of the power failing."
1980–1990: Grand opening and early years
thumb|Original logo (1980–2012)
Following James Rouse's retirement from the Rouse Company in 1979, Mathias J. DeVito was at Harborplace's grand opening, though James Rouse stood alongside William D. Schaefer to cut the ribbon. Harborplace had its grand opening celebration on July 2, 1980, as a centerpiece of the revival of downtown Baltimore. The event was a week-long celebration that lasted until July 6, 1980, but most of the events and festivals happened on July 2, 1980. The event attracted over 200,000 attendees and involved a ribbon-cutting ceremony, speeches by James Rouse, Mathias DeVito and William Schaefer, a releasing of balloons into the sky, and was filled with music from various groups, including multiple Scottish bagpipe bands that paraded through the area. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a live concert at the water's edge. The event concluded at sunset with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, accompanied by firing cannons and a major fireworks display. James Rouse then declared Harborplace as the "official playground of the Inner Harbor for all ages." Harborplace was so successful that it attracted nearly 18 million visitors–more visitors than Walt Disney World–in its first few years, and also led to a Time magazine published on August 24, 1981, titled "Living: He Digs Downtown" with James Rouse on the cover with the phrase "Cities Are Fun!"
The twin pavilions were filled with multiple local specialty shops and restaurants. The Pratt Street Pavilion was a retail and dining-based mall, while the Light Street Pavilion included a second-floor food court and a ground-floor marketplace known as the Sam Smith Market. The Light Street Pavilion was the larger sister mall of the Pratt Street Pavilion, with significantly more room for stores and restaurants. Notable original tenants included City Lights Seafood, an 870-seat Phillips Seafood (operating as Phillips Harborplace), Lee's Ice Cream, Hats in the Belfry, and Athenian Plaka. Phillips Seafood also included the Phillips Harborplace Express, a carry-out restaurant, and the Phillips Seafood Buffet, an "all you can eat" restaurant. The Inner Harbor Amphitheater Outdoor Stage was in between the pavilions to allow for events such as concerts and community gatherings, and the layout of the entire waterfront complex would be L-shaped.
Baltimore's Harborplace Festival Marketplace became an "architectural prototype, despite opening several years after Quincy Market," attracting both local residents and out-of-town visitors, and spawning a series of other similar urban renewal projects by the Rouse Co.: Waterside Festival Marketplace in Norfolk, Virginia, Portside Festival Marketplace in Toledo, Ohio, and even non-waterfront projects like Owings Mills Mall in Owings Mills, Maryland, The Gallery at Market East's Gallery II expansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 6th Street Marketplace in Richmond, Virginia. In its heyday, it also outperformed the then-failing Broadway Market.
Harborplace's success was amplified by the August 1981 opening of the National Aquarium and the 1982 opening of McKeldin Fountain, drawing more traffic. Harborplace was successful enough that James Rouse founded the non-profit Enterprise Foundation in 1982, which in turn created the for-profit subsidiary Enterprise Development Company (EDC), specifically to bring the festival marketplace concept to smaller cities.
The Fudgery, a local fudge shop where the employees would sing and perform while making fudge to entertain guests, opened in 1985 in the Light Street Pavilion.
1990–2004: Coca-Cola and new tenant mix
thumb|Pratt Street Pavilion (April 3, 2015)
Harborplace celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 2, 1990, with the Rouse Company sponsoring The Coca-Cola Company as part of the celebration. As part of its official anniversary sponsorship, Coca-Cola manufactured thousands of commemorative plastic souvenir cups, distributed to all the Inner Harbor merchants who sold Coke products to use throughout the anniversary week. One side of the cup featured the official Harborplace 10th Anniversary logo, while the other side detailed that a portion of the drink proceeds would be donated directly to Baltimore Reads Inc., which was the hallmark city literacy initiative created by Baltimore's mayor at the time.
Starting in the 1990s, The Rouse Co. began shifting from local vendors to chain stores at Harborplace for financial reasons. The first national tenant to open in Harborplace was Hooters, which opened in October 1990, and shortly received accusations of gender discrimination. Pizzeria Uno (later Uno Chicago Grill) opened in the Pratt Street Pavilion sometime in June 1991. In May 1992, The Nature Co. announced an expansion of its Harborplace store. The Tandoor restaurant closed its Harborplace location in October of that year due to declining business, and that the Rouse Co. didn't extend its lease. The opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards on April 6, 1992, led to visitors moving from Harborplace to the new stadium.
The Cheesecake Factory announced in 1995 that it was going to open in the Pratt Street Pavilion. The tenant had its grand opening in September 1996, replacing Nickel City Grill. Earlier that year, original restaurant American Cafe closed to relocate to the BWI Airport, and their former space at the Light Street Pavilion eventually became an expanded portion of the existing Hooters. Impressed by the successful transformation of the Pratt Street Power Plant by local firm The Cordish Companies, which added Hard Rock Cafe, Barnes & Noble, and ESPN Zone, The Rouse Company extensively renovated Harborplace in March 1998, phasing out smaller mom-and-pop craft vendors, signing leases with tenants like the Disney Store, and in January 1998, the developer allowed Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to break ground for a Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Pratt Street Pavilion. It closed permanently in September 2001. It was replaced with M&S Grill, a restaurant operated by McCormick & Schmick's, in October 2003.
Harborplace celebrated its 20th anniversary on July 2, 2000, marking two complete decades in operation. Then-Mayor Martin J. O'Malley and local dignitaries ceremonially cut an enormous custom birthday cake shared with thousands of visitors, and the Inner Harbor hosted high-profile outdoor performances, including a live concert by Davy Jones (of The Monkees) and local classic rock favorites The Ravyns. The night concluded with a massive synchronized fireworks display over the water, and unbeknownst to the crowds eating birthday cake, this would be the final major anniversary celebrated under the Rouse Company.
After its original lease concluded, Phillips Seafood resigned a massive 20-year lease extension with the Rouse Company on March 14, 2000, following a massive $5million renovation project that brought the climate-controlled greenhouse patio seating and the classic boathouse bar to the Light Street Pavilion, which started sometime in 1997 and was completed in December 2000.
2004–2012: General Growth Properties (GGP)
thumb|Light Street Pavilion as viewed from the Baltimore World Trade Center, also featuring the Baltimore Visitor Center (left) and the USS Constellation (November 7, 2015)|alt=A view of a brick promenade with a green-roofed shopping mall and the USS Constellation. Two other boats are in front of the Light Street Pavilion, and it also features a green sea monster wrapped around one of its balconies (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) On the left of it are blue awnings for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, and on the right, that signage of a blue M is for McCormick World of Flavors. On the far right of the promenade is an ice rink and the amphitheater.
On May 7, 2004, the Baltimore Visitor Center opened, situated adjacent to the Light Street Pavilion and the Maryland Science Center. Following this, GGP announced in late March 2005 that Five Guys, Edo Sushi, Irish pub Tir na nÓg, and the UK-based Spanish tapas restaurant La Tasca would open at Harborplace.
On the weekend of July 1, 2005, Harborplace celebrated its 25th anniversary with a ceremony featuring Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Martin O'Malley, and Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association (BACVA) president Leslie R. Doggett, making this the complex's first birthday under GGP. Local artist Bob Hallett provided live music at the amphitheater, accompanying regional performers who specialized in classic, old-school Baltimore styling, and the musical entertainment featured a massive dance celebration with the city's iconic "Original Bawlmer Hons", being local women dressed in 1960s-style beehive hairdos, cat-eye glasses, and leopard print, celebrating the city's distinct culture. The anniversary weekend doubled as a massive public audition and showcase for the Inner Harbor's famous street jugglers, acrobats, and fire-eaters. Starbucks closed its doors in the Light Street Pavilion on December 31, 2008, because of financial problems and store "cannibalization" (too many stores in one area), which forced the company to undergo a nationwide restructuring beginning in July 2008 during the Great Recession. The restructuring involved closing 600 underperforming cafes nationwide that were not making a profit, and part of those 600 locations included 12 Maryland cafes, which included the Harborplace location. Starbucks relocated to the Gallery at Harborplace. La Tasca's opening was delayed to March 2006, featuring a two-story location at the Pratt Street Pavilion.
On April 16, 2009, GGP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was one of the largest U.S. real estate failures at the time. A 7-foot-2-inch bronze statue of former Mayor and Governor William D. Schaefer was unveiled in October 2009, located just south of the Light Street Pavilion to honor his role in the harbor's creation. but the deal failed when Brookfield Asset Management already obtained GGP a $6.8billion equity recapitalization.
A , two-story Urban Outfitters opened at the Light Street Pavilion in the spring of 2007, occupying the former City Lights Seafood space and a portion of the Discovery Channel Store. Harborplace celebrated its 30th anniversary on the weekend of July 1, 2010, featuring an outdoor performance by The Fudgery, alongside 80s tribute band The Reagan Years. Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake used the celebration to heavily market the space, boosting security and adding over 100 cameras to ensure the event remained a safe, family-friendly environment, and a giant, iconic blue crab sculpture was commissioned and displayed at the Inner Harbor specifically to commemorate three decades in business. The event kicked off with confetti drops, a massive crab cake eating competition sponsored by Phillips Seafood, and fashion shows. This would be the last major birthday celebration at Harborplace, and the last one done under GGP. Around that year, GGP announced plans to bring new retail and eateries to Harborplace to better appeal to nearby residents and office workers, as well as tourists and convention attendees.
On September 30, 2011, Phillips Seafood, the last original tenant in the pavilions, permanently closed their location at the Light Street Pavilion because the restaurant announced that it was relocating to the former ESPN Zone space in the Pratt Street Power Plant. A Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, based on the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, would open in the former Phillips Seafood space in the Light Street Pavilion in May 2012, while its Gump on the Run carry-out restaurant moved into the former Phillips Harborplace Express space. Bubba Gump was originally going to open a location in Baltimore in 1998 after negotiations with The Cordish Cos., but the proposal was abandoned after complaints from the National Aquarium about its location.
Noodles & Co. opened in 2011. McCormick World of Flavors opened at the Light Street Pavilion in August 2012.
2012–2023: Renovations, decline, and neglect/maintenance issues
After emerging from bankruptcy, GGP sold assets it deemed were "non-core," including the Harborplace pavilions. In November 2012, the pavilions were sold to the New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation for $100million. Since Ashkenazy only owned the pavilions but GGP retained ownership of the Gallery, the area was no longer referred to by either developer as "Harborplace & The Gallery". In August 2015, managing partner Julio Febrer announced that La Tasca would close its doors on September 27, because of a severe drop in traffic following the April 2015 Baltimore riots. Summer tourism never fully recovered, which made the massive 400-seat space financially unsustainable. As a result, the restaurant chose to not renew its lease. Edo Sushi also left around that year.
Ashkenazy later announced aesthetic renovation plans, estimated to cost $15million. The new design plans were revealed in October 2015 by architect MG2 of Seattle, Washington, and were for to revitalize the struggling complex. In July 2015, Hooters planned to relocate from its original space on the second floor of the Light Street Pavilion to the facility's food court space known as The Galley on the first floor, which was largely delayed due to landlord construction issues and storefront updates. The design for the Pratt Street Pavilion aimed to "turn the building inside out" to allow ground-floor tenants like IT'SUGAR to have their stores facing both the street and waterfront sides, and to become only accessible from the exterior entrances of themselves. Another plan for the new design was to replace the awnings and iconic "greenhouse"-like glass with blackened steel, timbered wood, and terra cotta panels. Classic materials would be painted over in contemporary black. Much of the second floor was planned to be an updated food court called "The Market at Harborplace", and Ashkenazy also planned on an updated, more modern tenant mix for both pavilions, such as Build-A-Bear Workshop.
The renovation required the demolition and closure of the Pratt Street Pavilion's concourse near the elevators. The escalators for the Light Street Pavilion were replaced with regular stairs. During this renovation period, IT'SUGAR and several other tenants temporarily relocated to the Light Street Pavilion. During the time of the proposal, Harborplace began struggling again. McCormick World of Flavors shuttered on August 14, 2016. In May 2016, the Cheesecake Factory was also shut down temporarily due to rodent infestation, alongside 30+ other establishments in Baltimore City. It was also noted that water seepage would frequently occur in the pavilions' basement levels. Tenants also complained that Ashkenazy did not provide adequate security for the pavilions, resulting in frequent crime that deterred shoppers and even led some businesses, such as Hooters, to pay for their own security. Philly Pretzel Factory opened in early April 2017 days before the fire at Ripley's.
thumb|A Super Cube street lamp on the Harborplace promenade (on the left)
Ashkenazy's renovations consolidated with the Inner Harbor 2.0 plan, the BMore Bright initiative, and the Lights Out Baltimore project which involved replacing all of the iconic Super Cube light fixtures, colloquially known as "the Sugar Cubes", designed by George Kostritsky, the "K" in RTKL Associates with 143 new wooden LED light poles designed by Structura, which was completed in 2018. The replacement was made because the original sodium light fixtures were burning out, becoming difficult to maintain and repair, leading to dark areas on the waterfronts, and also caused migrating bird problems due to their upward-facing position. The new light fixtures point downward and are shielded, reducing this issue. The Super Cube light fixtures remained on the street side of the pavilions, but all of the Super Cube light fixtures near The Gallery at Harborplace have been replaced.
Construction on the renovation, however, was largely stalled. It started in December 2016, with the main entrance of the Pratt Street Pavilion being temporarily closed to the public, and fencing being placed around the property. Construction ended in April 2018 with the updated IT'SUGAR, and later that year, when renovations for both pavilions were only partially completed. The majority of the renovations were only completed for the Pratt Street Pavilion, and only a few tenants from the renovation plans, such as Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls (opened March 2019) and Crepe Lena Ice Cream & Funnel Cake had spots in the updated space.
Urban Outfitters would close on January 7, 2018 due to an expiring lease.
In June 2018, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. won a $1.13to $1.2million judgment against Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. for allowing the property to deteriorate. However, a portion of it was returned in October 2019 following an appeal.
Five Guys and Noodles & Co. left the pavilions in the summer of 2018. The Fudgery closed on September 9, 2018, due to profitability problems. M&S Grill closed permanently in October 2018.
On June 5, 2019, Cordish Companies CEO and Chairman David S. Cordish—which developed and operates the nearby Pratt Street Power Plant/Power Plant Live!—discussed that he would be interested in "the rebirth of Harborplace," having already attempted to acquire it from GGP a decade prior.
In August 2019, Banana Republic closed its store in the Pratt Street Pavilion, just one year after relocating from The Gallery in February 2018 despite strong sales. By that year, the pavilions faced strong competition from other festival marketplaces and nearby similar markets, particularly the Broadway Market in Fells Point, which underwent a major renovation that year. The Inner Harbor itself was already declining in the 2020s, drawing shoppers to better–performing areas like Harbor East and Canton. In March 2019, Deutsche Bank informed that Ashkenazy defaulted on a $76million loan after failing to satisfy Bubba Gump's 2018 judgment.
For failing to maintain the property and leaving vendors unpaid, Ashkenazy's affiliate, AAC HP Realty LLC, was evicted from ownership and management of Harborplace by Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr., and the property was put on court-ordered receivership on May 30, 2019. The Baltimore City Circuit Court had appointed IVL Group, LLC of Montclair, New Jersey to manage, maintain, lease, provide security for Harborplace, and the receivership order also authorized IVL Group to seek a new buyer. Immediately after the receivership, Jimmy Buffett's LandShark & Grill announced that they would open in the former IT'SUGAR space at the Light Street Pavilion in June 2019. However, by October 2019, the parent company, IMCMV Holdings, revealed that lease negotiations were still up in the air, and , the restaurant never opened. Even after Ashkenazy was forced to hand over the property, the pavilions were still in poor condition. In August 2019, the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) CEO Colin Tarbert inspected both malls. He found burned-out lighting, damaged signage, and faulty doors. His following response was: