BALTIMORE -- As recently as a decade ago, if you asked a Baltimore resident directions to Harbor East, you were likely to get a puzzled “where?’’
“Nobody came here,’’ said Tony Foreman, a native son who along with his wife, chef Cindy Wolf, has been a driver in the neighborhood’s development. “It was all industrial warehouses, parking lots, and biker bars.’’
Tracy Wise, who tends bar at the trendy tapas lounge Pazo, remembers it this way: “Seven years ago, you needed either a machete or a machine gun to walk around here,’’ she said.
No more. The neighborhood’s evolution, fueled by the opening of a 753-room Marriott Waterfront Hotel, restaurants like Foreman and Wolf’s Charleston, smart boutiques, and even a Whole Foods, is firmly progressing. Add in a Four Seasons, opening in 2011, and a new Legg Mason office tower, part of a $550 million mixed-use development project, and it’s clear why Harbor East is Baltimore’s fastest growing neighborhood.
“What we’ve purposely done is create an urban neighborhood with a strong mix of uses,’’ said Michael Beatty, president of Harbor East Development, which purchased 70 acres of fallow waterfront land in the 1980s. “Baltimore waterfront was about shipping, it wasn’t the center of town. So when shipping dried up, the entire waterfront suffered,’’ Beatty said.
While the Inner Harbor was the first reclamation project, it is an area primarily dedicated to tourism. Harbor East, on the other hand, incorporates residences, service businesses, shopping, corporate office space, and restaurants in a six-square-block swath bordered by water on two sides and Fleet Street and Central Avenue. “I think we’ve started achieving a critical mass in the past few years,’’ said Beatty. “There’s a quality of life factor that is starting to attract a lot of attention.’’
For the visitor, the neighborhood offers a geographical bridge between two of the city’s most popular waterfront destinations, the Inner Harbor and Fell’s Point, with Little Italy abutting to the north. Yet despite its central location, Harbor East feels tucked away, pleasingly off the beaten path of commercial attractions. Most sites are within a water taxi ride, or even better, walking distance, yet the hordes stay focused on the shopping malls, aquarium, and chain restaurants.
While the Visionary Arts Museum, a stroll through Fell’s Point, and a walk up Signal Hill are three of the best reasons to leave the neighborhood, Harbor East offers enough to keep you occupied for an overnight, or even two. Check out these attractions and hot spots in Baltimore’s swankiest new address.
What to see
FRESHFarm Market