City and state economic development leaders have concluded that a plan to build a replacement for Royal Farms Arena on the site of the Baltimore Convention Center is too ambitious and complicated to be realistic.
A group of officials evaluating options for convention center expansion decided that including an arena in the project is “not recommended” because of “significant operational and construction related challenges,” Michael Frenz, the Maryland Stadium Authority’s executive director, told Mayor Catherine Pugh in a letter Friday.
Such a project — squeezing new convention space, an arena and a new 500-room hotel along West Pratt, South Charles and Conway streets downtown — was expected to take as long as six years to design and build, according to a report the stadium authority also released Friday.
“It is simply not feasible to include that much programming in that small footprint,” said Bill Cole, executive director of the Baltimore Development Corp.
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