Harborplace
Harborplace is a festival marketplace on the Inner Harbor in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland composed of three mall structures: Pratt Street Pavilion, Light Street Pavilion, and The Gallery at Harborplace all of which were developed by The Rouse Company and opened in the 1980s. Other adjacent structures include an office tower on 111 S. Calvert Street known as Harborplace Tower, and the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, both adjacent to the Gallery mall, which remains closed as of 2026.
Having endured serious damage along with the entire Baltimore Inner Harbor from Hurricane Isabel, decade-long mismanagement, and massive pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic, Harborplace's viability as a retail center suffered irrevocably. The facility is scheduled for demolition and redevelopment, to begin in the fall of 2026.
Description
The property consists of two, green-roofed shopping mall pavilions, each two stories in height; one along Pratt Street, the other on Light Street, and a five-story mall adjacent to the Pratt Street Pavilion called The Gallery at Harborplace that has been closed and vacant since 2022. Where the defunct Gallery mall is includes a 28-story office tower known as Harborplace Tower, and a 12-story Renaissance hotel. The pavilions housed a range of stores and restaurants, some of which once sold merchandise specific to Baltimore or the state of Maryland, such as blue crab food products, Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens merchandise, Edgar Allan Poe products, and University of Maryland Terrapins clothing.History (1964–1985)
Pre-construction and development
In 1964, then Baltimore mayor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin initiated the first Inner Harbor Master Plan to clear out derelict piers and industrial warehouses. Those warehouses have since been razed and replaced with mixed-use buildings, including the Baltimore Convention Center. The Maryland Science Center was completed in 1976. In 1977, then Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer hired James W. Rouse, who also developed West Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall and known for Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Massachusetts, to create a similar vibrant commercial hub. The concept chosen for the project was a festival marketplace, the same one used for Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which was a lively, European-style public space with locally owned restaurants, diverse small vendors and entertainment, including nightlife.In 1978, because the land was owned by the city and was in an area designated as a park in the city charter, a citywide referendum was required to proceed with the project, championed by William Donald Schaefer. The amendment "limited the size of any project there to the top of the U.S.S. Constellation docked in front of the Pratt Street Pavilion." Voters approved the use of 3.2 acres of public parkland for the development, provided the surrounding 26 acres remained public open space. The Inner Harbor promenade where Harborplace now sits was completed in 1974.
The Rouse Company announced Harborplace in November 1978, and the project was estimated to cost around $20 million. To proceed with the project, The Rouse Company founded the Maryland-based subsidiary Harborplace Festival Marketplace, Inc., or just Harborplace, Inc. Rouse also founded four more subsidiaries; Harborplace Management Corporation which would manage the pavilions, and formed the Harborplace Associates Limited Partnership. Harbor Funding, Inc. and Harbor Overlook Investments, Inc. were also founded for the funding of the project.
The Rouse Company hired architect Benjamin C. Thompson, who also designed Faneuil Hall Marketplace, to design the Harborplace pavilions, and Harborplace officially began construction in January 1979 on the former site of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company docks.
Grand opening
Following James Rouse's retirement from The Rouse Company in 1979, Mathias J. DeVito was at Harborplace's grand opening as ribbon-cutter. Harborplace had its grand opening celebration on July 2, 1980, as a centerpiece of the revival of downtown Baltimore. The event was a week-long celebration that lasted until July 6, 1980, but most of the events and festivals happened on July 2, 1980. The event involved a ribbon-cutting ceremony, speeches by Mathias DeVito and William Schaefer, a releasing of balloons into the sky, and was filled with music from various groups, including multiple bagpipe bands that paraded through the area. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a live concert at the water's edge. The event concluded at sunset with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, accompanied by firing cannons and a major fireworks display.Harborplace was so successful that it attracted nearly 18 million visitors–more visitors than Walt Disney World in its first few years, and also led to a Time magazine published on August 24, 1981, titled "Living: He Digs Downtown" with James Rouse on the cover with the phrase "Cities Are Fun!"
Both pavilions were filled with multiple local specialty shops and restaurants. The Pratt Street Pavilion was a retail and dining-based mall, while the Light Street Pavilion included a second-floor food court known as The Galley and a ground-floor marketplace known as The Sam Smith Market. Some original tenants included City Lights, Phillips Seafood, Lee's Ice Cream, Hats in the Belfry, and Athenian Plaka. Phillips Seafood also included the Phillips Harborplace Express, a carry-out restaurant and the Phillips Seafood Buffet, an "all you can eat" restaurant.
After opening
Baltimore's Harborplace Festival Marketplace became an "architectural prototype, despite opening several years after Quincy Market," attracting both local residents and out-of-town visitors, and spawning a series of other similar projects: Waterside Festival Marketplace in Norfolk, Virginia, Portside Festival Marketplace in Toledo, Ohio, Pier 17 Pavilion and the Fulton Market Building at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, New York City, Jacksonville Landing in Jacksonville, Florida, Bayside Marketplace in Miami, Florida, and even non-waterfront projects like Owings Mills Mall in Owings Mills, Maryland, The Gallery at Market East's Gallery II expansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 6th Street Marketplace in Richmond, Virginia. In its heyday, it also outperformed the then-failing Broadway Market.Harborplace was successful enough that James Rouse founded the Enterprise Foundation in 1982, which in turn created the subsidiary Enterprise Development Company, specifically to bring the festival marketplace concept to smaller cities.
The Fudgery, a singing fudge shop, opened in 1985 in the Light Street Pavilion.
The Rouse Company built The Gallery at Harborplace connected to the Pratt Street Pavilion and opened in September 1987. This led with the Harborplace complex having three malls. The Renaissance Harborplace Hotel was built adjacent to The Gallery and the Harborplace Tower and opened in 1988. The development of The Gallery at Harborplace, the Harborplace Tower and the Renaissance Hotel also led to similar projects, such as Pioneer Place in Portland, Oregon, Westlake Center in Seattle, Washington, Owings Mills Corporate Center in Owings Mills, Maryland, and Arizona Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The success of The Gallery led to The Rouse Company to refer to the entire complex as "Harborplace & The Gallery".
Decline (1990–2026)
The shift from local tenants to national tenants
Starting in the 1990s, The Rouse Company began shifting from local vendors to chain stores for Harborplace for financial reasons. The first national tenant to open in Harborplace was Hooters, which opened in October 1990, and shortly received accusations of gender discrimination.Pizzeria Uno opened in the Pratt Street Pavilion sometime in June 1991. The restaurant was renovated in 2014.The Cheesecake Factory announced in 1995 that it was going to open in the Pratt Street Pavilion. The tenant had its grand opening in 1996.In January 1998, The Rouse Company allowed Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to break ground for a Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Pratt Street Pavilion. It closed permanently in September 2001. It was replaced with M&S Grill, a restaurant operated by McCormick & Schmick's, in October 2003.
2012 Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation acquisition of the Harborplace pavilions
In November 2012, the pavilions were sold to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation for $100 million. Since Ashkenazy only owned the pavilions but GGP kept ownership of The Gallery, the area was no longer referred to by either developer as "Harborplace & The Gallery".Store closures and management problems
In the 2010s, numerous tenants began to close at Harborplace again, leading up to the area's planned redevelopment.- McCormick World of Flavors shuttered on August 14, 2016.
- Urban Outfitters closed on January 7, 2018.
- Five Guys and Noodles & Co. left the Light Street Pavilion in the summer of 2018. While Five Guys is planning to return to the Inner Harbor in 2026, its new location is at the nearby Lockwood Place shopping center, not Harborplace.
- The Fudgery closed on September 9, 2018, due to profitability problems.
- M&S Grill closed permanently in October 2018.
- The former Urban Outfitters space was replaced with local merchandise store Neighborhoods Urban Goods.
- In 2019, Banana Republic closed its store in the Pratt Street Pavilion, just one year after relocating from The Gallery.