Days ago, the editorial board of The Baltimore Sun, Maryland’s largest general-circulation daily newspaper, published an article titled “Drop in downtown Baltimore real estate values not a crisis — yet,” which comes immediately after we shined a spotlight on crashing office tower prices:
- Beginning Of CRE Firesale? Baltimore Office Tower Dumped At 63% Discount
- CRE Panic Hits Baltimore As Second Office Tower Dumped At 69% Discount
The op-ed attempts to downplay the CRE earthquake in the Inner Harbor business district, citing Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman, the state’s chief tax collector, who said, “It’s not time to panic.”
However, CRE turmoil is underway after the recent firesales, and a wave of building owners are expected to file assessment appeals and unleash a “potential domino effect that continually diminishes the central business district’s tax base and puts further strain on the commercial market,” Michael L. Higgs, director of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, told the Baltimore Business Journal in June.
Months before the CRE panic hit the Inner Harbor in June, we provided readers with an April note titled “Entire Downtown Is Effectively Dead:” Baltimore City Descends Further Into Turmoil — laying out the downtown district was full of shuttered shops, and vacant office building.