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BALTIMORE-KSI Services Inc. has taken a step in the development of an approximately 1,100-unit multifamily community in the city's Greektown neighborhood by pursuing a rezoning request with city officials. The company is seeking to have a 14-acre industrial-zoned parcel, which is currently the site of a trucking terminal, designated as a Residential Planned Unit Development. KSI expects to spend $200 million to realize the apartment, condominium and townhouse endeavor.

The Greektown project will be located on a site bound by Foster Avenue, Oldham, O'Donnell and S. Macon streets in Southeast Baltimore. KSI's development plans are still in the early stages, but preliminary plans call for the construction of two 23-story high-rise condominium towers, two 14-story structures with both condominium and apartment residences, and a selection of four-story stacked townhouses. The property will also feature a sprawling park, as well as a small community retail center. "Not only will it add to Baltimore's charm, but we hope it helps, in some small way, to fuel the city's economic expansion," KSI founder and chairman Robert C. Kettler says of the project.

Both renters and condo buyers continue to keep the multifamily markets booming in the city. "The demand for rental housing remains strong, as new jobs continue to come into the Baltimore area," Delta Associates concludes in its Year-End 2005 Mid-Atlantic Apartment & Condominium Market Report. "These new jobs are coming largely from the education and health sectors, construction, and most importantly, professional and business services, which will be further positively impacted by the recent Base Realignment and Closure announcement." The National Institutes of Health will open its 573,000-sf Biomedical Research Center on the Johns Hopkins Medical Center at Bayview campus in the first quarter of 2007. Additionally, the report notes that at year's end, 78 developers were in the marketing and planning stages for various condominium projects.