By Mark Anthony Thomas

At a time where Maryland and all of the Baltimore Region’s jurisdictions are committing to greater investments in economic development, recently announced transitions offer a chance to celebrate impactful public leaders and use this moment of change to build stronger organizations that drive our future. 

Former Thurgood Marshall International Airport CEO Ricky Smith was tapped to lead Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest, with his successor Shannetta Griffin named last week. Today, BWI is Maryland’s major airport, in the midst of a $2 billion expansion program, increased air service, and additional routes to domestic and international destinations across the globe.  

Al Hutchinson will retire from his role as CEO of Visit Baltimore in June. Al has been a national leader in the tourism marketing industry and a mentor for many rising stars in the field. His work leading the multi-year effort to secure the 2033 ASAE Annual Meeting and Exposition for Baltimore was successful. The conference is the leading business development conference for conventions and it’s a major win for Baltimore to host it. The eight-year runup to the ASAE event will give us time to prepare the Center, the downtown, and the region for this prime time moment. 

Mark Anthony Thomas is the president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee and served as the inaugural leader of the Partnerships Team for the New York City Economic Development Corporation. This week, he discusses the possibilities open to the next leader of the Baltimore Development Corporation. (Courtesy photo)

The next Baltimore Development Corporation leader should be integral to making it all happen.

Colin Tarbert’s transition from his job as the CEO of BDC after six years is significant and caps off a tremendous career of service to the city and the field of economic development. Colin has been an important partner to the region, creating strategic initiatives like Baltimore Together and pursuing innovative public private partnerships to advance the type of risk-taking investments that make great cities.

The future BDC CEO will find a Baltimore that’s better positioned to lead on economic opportunities that have historically been out of reach for the city or where the lack of alignment would’ve made things a greater challenge.

There’s no path forward for Baltimore, or Maryland overall, to achieve comparable national growth levels with a business as usual approach. City leadership recognizes this: Baltimore City Council members are showing a deep desire to market and grow the city’s economy and address permitting,  while economic and community development are central focal areas for Mayor Brandon Scott’s second term, with new hires like Calvin Young as his chief of staff signaling the commitment.

The city can now transform BDC to become the engine for the aggressive pursuit of opportunities and the key entity to evolve the local economy as the anchor for one of the nation’s largest metropolitan regions that has a political imperative to innovate. 

With a state that’s deeply invested in the region and a private sector that’s made strategic choices to unify GBC, the Economic Alliance, and UpSurge, it feels like Baltimore, too, is now poised for big initiatives and even bigger bets.   

In that spirit, here are 10 ideas for how the next CEO of BDC can ensure the city is at the center of those efforts:  

1. Keep Baltimore Together, just turbocharge the work.  BDC created a great framework but it can use more resources and public-private partnerships, and more intentional buy-in on strategies to accelerate implementation.

2. Provide concierge support to accelerate entrepreneurs and small business in the city.  It’s an all hands on deck effort to shift the national business competitive reporting that Maryland’s public entities aren’t the most business friendly. It will take time to fix this, but start with navigators to help move things faster and address consistent bottlenecks. 

3. Build a machinery to move special projects and major placed-based opportunities forward.  East Baltimore Development, Inc., UM BioPark, State Center, Baltimore Penn Station, and even the redevelopment of Pimlico Race Course are the types of large-scale major market movers where additional support could ensure greater success.

4. Help lead Downtown RISE.  There are billions of dollars of existing, planned, and potential investment spanning from Horseshoe Casino to Lexington Market, but also many barren blocks and untapped opportunities in between. We need an ambitious team to coordinate private partners, infrastructure investments, and the redevelopment of strategic properties, with the goal of building a world class entertainment district.

5. Lead on reactivation of the Industrial Development Authority and help drive the neighborhood revitalization work advanced by the Governor’s Vacant Reduction Council. BDC should also institutionalize support for entrepreneurial leadership behind the work of groups like West North Avenue Development Authority, Parity Homes, and BUILD.

6. Establish an Industrial Redevelopment initiative and leverage the City and public sector tools to drive more manufacturing growth. BDC currently manages the federal foreign trade zone program on behalf of regional partners, as well as an inventory of developable areas, within the city limits, that can help bring more accessible, high-quality manufacturing jobs closer to communities.

7. Establish an Anchor Strategy to support development around the City’s major urban assets. Baltimore’s universities, major arts and research institutions, transit, public markets and public park assets lack cohesion in how they interplay with their adjacent neighborhoods. It will take strategy and intentionality to fix that, which will only improve our livability and connectivity as a city.

8. Incentivize the build-up of the City’s arts districts and creative corridors, to foster economic development around the culture of artists and work with Visit Baltimore to drive more regional and out of town commerce to these communities. 

9. Build a world-class night life for Baltimore.Baltimore’s nightlife offerings don’t nearly reflect the breadth and dynamism of our cultural assets, and a tremendous revenue opportunity is being lost to neighboring cities as a result. Many places have created night mayors or offices strategically focused on growing this sector of the economy. CFG Bank Arena’s concert cadence is a good proof point for how to keep those dollars in our region.

10. Lead the rezoning and long-term redevelopment planning of underinvested neighborhoods. BDC can bring public and private partners together with community groups to not just imagine potential growth opportunities in the city, but bring in key investors to advance them, while spurring growth and delivering impact objectives at a greater scale. 

Importantly, BDC can help the electeds at every level understand the pipeline of business trends in the state’s largest city and build the capacity to engage them on the many tactics to grow wealth and development in neighborhoods. This will help bridge the disconnect between policy making and economic impact and reshape Baltimore and many families and communities for generations to come.