Waterfront Partnership President Laurie Schwartz on the past, present, and potential of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

After too many years of out-of-town ownership, decline, and vacant windows, Harborplace is now quickly moving toward an exciting new life. On Wednesday, the City Board of Estimates approved an amendment to the Pavilions ground lease with MCB-HP Real Estate, headed by Baltimorean David Bramble.

In a study conducted by the University of Toronto's School of Cities, Baltimore consistently ranks the highest in post-pandemic recovery among 62 American cities based on cellphone geolocation activity in downtown areas.

Nearly a third of Baltimore’s Harborplace was vacant as of June and some of its retailers have struggled with declining sales for years, a report by the court-ordered receiver for the Inner Harbor attraction shows.

IVL Group LLC also said the property needs maintenance and repairs in its first report to Baltimore City Circuit Court since being appointed May 30 to manage and lease the waterfront festival marketplace.

The two low-slung pavilions filled with shops and restaurants were considered visionary when the Rouse Co. built them on parkland along Baltimore’s Inner Harbor nearly four decades ago. But over the years, Harborplace lost its luster and financial footing. Now there’s a debate about what should be done with the waterfront.

Suggestions range from bringing more entertainment venues to the buildings and sprucing them up to leveling one or both structures to create a larger gathering space. Some even propose attempting to restore a natural shoreline in what has been a working harbor for nearly three centuries.

It was once the crown jewel of downtown Baltimore, but now there are new troubles for Harborplace- the tourist destination at Pratt and Light Streets has been put into receivership- taking the property out of the hands of its owners based in New York, the Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation.

Harborplace has been placed into court-ordered receivership, the latest setback for what was once considered the epicenter of Baltimore tourism.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge approved the receivership on May 30 after an emergency petition was filed 45 days before by Deutsche Bank Trust Co. against AAC HP Realty LLC, an entity of Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., the owner of Harborplace.