Malls are typically 100% retail. We are proposing no more than 40% of the project as retail and restaurant, with the rest being residential condo, entertainment, hotels, Class A office and recreation. Virtually none of those aspects exist in a quality way anywhere else in Catonsville. Why must Catonsville be a place to drive through, as it is now, rather than a potential destination, a great amenity, a place to drive to? Why can’t we have great amenities in Catonsville? Why must we always drive someplace ELSE to find something nice?

Laura LeMire loves to repeat her traffic mantra, without one scintilla of evidence beyond her opinion. but the truth is that sufficient infrastructure improvements can and will be made as part of the project to mitigate traffic impacts. Among other things, that happens to be a requirement of the County’s development approval process. Even more importantly, she loves to conveniently ignore that, if the Promenade replaces local residents trips to more distant amenities, that substitution effect will have Catonsville residents spending less time in their cars, rather than more. That, of course, doesn’t fit on a little blue lawn sign, does it?

I also invited you, Jamie, to come to our office and review our detailed video presentation. You have chosen not to do so before writing your blog. How can you opinionate on such a complex topic when you haven’t seen or heard the actual story? How do you draw conclusions when you don’t know all the facts? Not exactly journalism’s finest hour. You’ll find that 90% of the folks with little blue lawn signs arefrom that exact same mindset — don’t confuse me with the facts; I don’t like it!!! (whatever it is…)

Finally, Whalen Properties is probably the largest commercial property owner on Frederick Road. I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. I fervently believe that a well-designed Promenade will bring more folks and more interest to Catonsville and work synergistically to spur quality redevelopment on Frederick Road, just as the original development of Harborplace and the Inner Harbor helped spur interest in and redevelopment in Fells Point, Canton and Inner Harbor East. The effect can be symbiotic and complementary if designed and properly coordinated. The idea that both cannot be mutually supportive, beneficial and ultimately successful is baloney. But it does take hard work, good planning and coordination to be successful and that’s why we are spending so much time doing our homework. We get one chance to do it right.

I’ve been fervent about Catonsville since I was born here 59 years ago. I’ve developed many successful projects in and around this, my community. At the end of the day, it really does come down to separating the visionary from the reactionary. There is much local support for a great idea whose time has come, even if the proponents choose to express their advocacy more quietly, without littering the landscape with little blue lawn signs.