Baltimore Arena’s Angel Investor

The city of Baltimore may have a new hero in a local businessman who made an offer to help cover the cost of an 18,500-seat downtown arena.

The Greater Baltimore Committee has been exploring options to fund a $900 million new arena and convention center expansion for some time and recently announced Whiting-Turner Contracting CEO Willard Hackerman had expressed interest in financing the project.

“Mr. Hackerman has pledged to the governor and the mayor that he will engage in creating a private … partnership that will finance the arena and the hotel,” GBC head Donald C. Fry told the Baltimore Sun. “He sees this as a transformative project that can have a significant impact on downtown Baltimore, and he would like to see that. … It would result in a great revitalization of the area.”

Plans for the project include the construction of the new venue with two levels of underground parking, a four-level convention center expansion, a 500-room, 25-story hotel, stores and restaurants, the paper said.

While the city previously proposed constructing a new building atop the site of the aging 1st Mariner Arena, the new plans would reportedly see the venue built at a different downtown site partially owned by Hackerman. The 1st Mariner would be razed following the opening of the new venue.

City officials have requested the Maryland Stadium Authority conduct a feasibility study on the project, the Sun said, and a report is expected to be completed by the end of the year.