This article originally appeared on CityBiz.
Warehouse marks the national construction firm’s inaugural industrial project in the Washington-Baltimore region, showcasing its extensive experience in the field.
Hoar Construction announced today the completion of an 80,000-square-foot industrial building in Glen Burnie, Maryland close to the Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI Airport). Hoar served as general contractor on the project, which broke ground in August of 2023 and is owned by Brennan Investment Group. This design-build industrial project draws on the firm’s extensive design-build expertise gained through numerous successful projects across the country.
The warehouse sits on a nearly 16-acre site on Solley Road, just 12 miles from BWI Airport. It offers minimum clear heights of 32 feet, two ramped drive-in doors, and a truck court providing access to 20 dock-high loading dock doors. Hoar also constructed approximately 2,000 square feet of spec office space in the warehouse without disruption to the project timeline. The development is designed to accommodate up to two tenants.
“This was the ideal project to kick off Hoar’s industrial work in the D.C./Baltimore region, as we were able to pull on our team’s vast collection of experience and knowledge to perform the job well despite unforeseen challenges that arose,” said Andrew Autrey, superintendent at Hoar. “We are thankful to have had a collaborative, trusting partner in Brennan, which made the entire process as efficient and seamless. Baltimore’s industrial landscape is thriving, and this development will attract top-tier tenants who seek its advantageous location close to the major thoroughfares of I-95 and I-97, I-695 and I-895, as well as the Port of Baltimore.”
During construction, Hoar had to work around difficult environmental conditions, including mitigating unsuitable existing soils and heavy rain and snow in the winter. Site conditions include clay-based soil, which takes a long time to dry out whenever it freezes or becomes wet. Due to existing soil conditions, it was necessary for Hoar’s team to stabilize the subgrade of the paving areas prior to asphalt, using soil-cement to dry and cure the top layer of the ground. The property also had a large number of stormwater management ponds on site in keeping with Anne Arundel County requirements. This took careful planning and collaboration with consultants, the geoengineer, developer and additional subcontractors to ensure this process was done without delaying the schedule.
Additional project partners include architect Powers Brown Architecture, Morris & Ritchie Associates as civil engineers and Colliers as the leasing agent.
Baltimore’s industrial market continues to perform well, recording its best quarter for absorption since Q2 2022 in Q2 of this year. Vacancy rose slightly last quarter, but leasing increased by 87% quarter-over-quarter and passed 2.7 million square feet. 3.2 million square feet of industrial product remains under construction in the area.
