Construction could begin as early as next March on the $75 million Towson Circle III project, featuring a 2,500-seat multiscreen theater, now that Baltimore County development review officials have approved the plan. The project also features offices, restaurants and retail space.

“We did everything everybody asked for,” said Jack Cannella, vice president of construction and design for Heritage Properties, which is teaming with the Cordish Co. to develop the 4-acre site bounded by Joppa Road and Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware avenues.

Earlier incarnations of Towson Circle III included a controversial 2004 plan involving a mixed-use complex with a 600-bed apartment dormitory for Towson University students; a 2006 plan for a multistory residential, retail and entertainment structures and a parking garage, without the dorm, and a 2007 plan that featured a theater, retail and restaurant space and a parking garage but which didn’t sufficiently reflect the principles espoused by the Urban Design Assistance Team that visited Towson two years ago.

“Planners were blown away by this plan,” Cannella said of the latest design, adding that it is based on principles of urban living and offers various facades to create a town center sense of place.

Towson Circle III will have a multiplex cinema atop a 4-story, 700-space parking garage owned by the Baltimore County Revenue Authority, as well as 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space at the plaza and street levels, and 60,000 square feet of office space above the retail space.

It will take about two years before it’s up and running, Cannella said.

The venture is an expansion of the Towson Circle complex, which was developed by the same partnership. Towson Circle includes Bahama Breeze, Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble, Pier 1 and Vin restaurant.

The theater-garage structure will anchor the southern portion of the site. The retail-office uses will be in two three-story buildings on the northern side.
The space in between will be an open T-shaped pedestrian plaza, including a glass conservatory, landscaping and fountains and areas for “bistro-style” outdoor dining.

Smaller-scaled retail buildings will front along the existing streets and surround the garage and theater to bring the scale down at the street, creating a pedestrian-centric design in keeping with Towson’s recent Urban Design Assistance Team study and walkability guidelines.

More than 13,000 square feet of Shealy Avenue will be closed and the space incorporated into the design, which features the preservation of the historic Shealy Avenue cemetery.

At Heritage’s request, a public hearing on the closing of the street will be held July 10 at 10 a.m. in Room 217 of the County Office Building.

In addition, Heritage will submit the plan to the county’s Design Review Panel, whose recommendations are advisory in nature. The date of the review has not been set.

Towson Circle III will be a “green” complex, designed and constructed to significantly reduce or eliminate any negative impact on the environment it might have, according to Cannella.

The $75 million cost includes the $17.2 million turnkey parking garage, which will incorporate a $6.2 million county grant to the revenue authority toward the purchase.

Also included is a $2 million state infrastructure grant for improvements related to roads.

While Heritage Properties is the development arm for the project, the Cordish Co. is the leasing arm.

“It’s a beauty of a project” Cannella said.

Indeed, “it looks very good,” said Pat Keller, the county’s planning director, noting how the design is pedestrian oriented and illustrative of urban design principles.
“They did a good job.”

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