Oh say can you see...
Just south of the Inner Harbor, along the water's edge, Locust Point was historically an industrial neighborhood. At the eastern end of Fort Avenue is Fort McHenry, famous because there Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814.
The Locust Point community lost 2,500 jobs to plant closings in the 1990's. This long time blue collar neighborhood was fast losing homeowners and faced increasing drug activity and crime. SBER bought the shuttered P&G factory and invested $80 million in its adaptive reuse as state of the art office campus which houses SBER's main office and headquarters. It is home to many other businesses and commercial tenants, including Under Armour, Ayers St. Gross Architects, and the Harvest Table café. Tenants of Tide Point mingle with local residents on the public promenade.
SBER subsequently converted the vacant Coca Cola plant into the world headquarters for Phillips Seafood and the blighted White Lead Paint Factory into a health club, retail and office space. In the last five years, 1,800 of the lost jobs have been replaced.
SBER's James Rouse Community Service Day efforts in 2005 included $55,000 dollars of donated time, materials and money towards the improvement of Latrobe Park, on Fort Avenue, and neighboring Francis Scott Key Technology Magnet School. The school is a pre-k through 8th grade program and offers students a great learning environment and advanced technology.