Anthem House

Leading due diligence and compliance efforts for a $100+ million redevelopment property in the heart of South Baltimore.

Urban Green led the environmental due diligence and compliance efforts for the Anthem House Property in Baltimore.  This project included the preparation and submission of a MDE VCP Application to facilitate a $101 million redevelopment of the property into 292-unit apartment building with 6,000 square feet of office space and 14,478 square feet of retail.  

The Anthem House property totals approximately 2.67 acres located in the Locust Point neighborhood of Baltimore City.  The site had a long history of heavy industrial uses, including a fertilizer manufacturing company, a wholesale glass company, animal matters manufacturer, metal products manufacturer, and a gasoline filling station.  General Electric (GE) began operations at the site in 1946 and GE’s Apparatus Service Center occupied the Site until 1993.  GE operations included service and repair of power generation equipment including electric motors, switchgears, transformers, and turbine engines until December 1993 when the Center was closed and decommissioned.  Environmental impacts included PCBs (from the former GE operations) petroleum (from former storage tanks), volatile organic compounds, metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Key Urban Green personnel (Denise Sullivan and Gary Suskauer) worked with the development team from 2011 through 2019.  During this time, Denise and Gary have provided technical expertise pertaining to local, state and federal environmental regulations and policies, addressing environmental concerns during development and construction activities, providing contract negotiation support, negotiating with regulators, and integrating local and state environmental regulations, including the MDE VCP and Oil Control Program (OCP).

Investigations and remedial actions completed included Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), Phase II ESAs (soil, groundwater, and soil gas testing), UST removals, and preparation and implementation of a Response Action Plan (RAP).  The RAP required the design and installation of an engineered vapor barrier and sub-slab vapor mitigation system, and installation of an environmental cap to address soil impacts.  The RAP also included provisions for addressing contingencies encountered during development, including worker health and safety protocols, and materials management (e.g. soil characterization for off-site disposal or on-Site re-use). 

Urban Green worked with the client throughout the development process, attending progress meetings, and performing environmental investigations. Unique aspects of this VCP project included:

• Designing a cost-effective vapor mitigation system to satisfy MDE VCP requirements
• Establishing construction protocols to maximize reuse of Site soils beneath the environmental cap and avoid additional off-Site disposal
• Identification of appropriate disposal options for various Site soils, including PCB-impacted materials requiring disposal outside of the State of Maryland

Urban Green
Environmental

1476 Reynolds Street
Suite 100, Baltimore
Maryland 21230