More on the Carroll Creek Park Project
The Frederick News-Post has a great article on the Carroll Creek Park Project.
Luxury apartments are now under construction at the corner of South and Market streets; new restaurants are doing plenty of business on nights and weekends; and construction workers are busy along Carroll Creek Park, which could one day become the economic center of Frederick city.
“This is the next logical step for the city of Frederick,” said Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development. “We have an opportunity with the resurgence in downtown.”
The Carroll Creek Park Project has been ongoing through four separate city administrations and three decades, according to the city. Three buildings are now under construction, Mr. Griffin said: South Market Center, La Paz Mexican Restaurant, and Maxwell Place.
A fourth building, Creekside Plaza, has completed the permit and approval process, he said. The other sites are in various stages of planning.
Mr. Griffin estimated the project will create 1,000 new jobs in Frederick in a variety of fields, from legal, finance and marketing to blue-collar and retail jobs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes will also flow into the city’s coffers each year as a direct result of the development, he said.
The article also provides the incoming Mayor’s view on the project:
Mayor-elect Jeff Holtzinger said his administration’s responsibility will be to make sure infrastructure can support the increased traffic.
“I think it’s very important (economically),” he said. “It’s also important we focus on getting the transportation components completed.”
Connecting the Carroll Creek project to East Street and tying it into Monocacy Boulevard to provide an eastern bypass to the city are critical, Mr. Holtzinger said. Also, the mayor-elect wants to see a completion of the flood control project on the creek.
After reading the article it feels like the City of Frederick has a lot riding on the success of this project. Read the whole article, it covers everything from affordable housing to gentrification in relation to the project.
There’s a lot going on downtown for sure. With so much buiding, I think they suffered a bit downtown retail-wise. It’s going to be awesome when it’s done…hopefully soon.