Baltimore’s Rivatalization Strategy: We’re building the next chapter for long-term growth, investment opportunities – Thomas

The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), the leading voice for the private sector, is on a mission to advance a bold economic development plan focused on positioning the region’s key sectors for global opportunities, including unlocking new investment in major infrastructure projects.

In this interview, Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO of Greater Baltimore Committee, shares insights with Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme, Managing Editor, The Energy Republic, on GBC’s action plan to rebuild market confidence, strengthen public-private sector partnerships, and organize the region’s critical assets for long-term growth opportunities.

Excerpts:

TER: What are the core pillars of GBC’s revitalization strategy, and how do they differ from past approaches? How are you addressing investor concerns around risk, infrastructure, and long-term returns?

Thomas: Baltimore’s revitalization strategy is ultimately about rebuilding confidence in the market. For too long, Baltimore had strong institutions, respected economic development organizations, major infrastructure, global brands, and talented people, but not enough alignment around growth. What has changed is the level of coordination, the quality of the momentum, and the clarity of the long-term strategy.

At the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), our work flows through a multi-year agenda: driving economic development and business investment, strengthening infrastructure and connectivity, and advancing collective impact on housing and neighbourhood investment. These aren’t separate lanes. They are connected parts of the same market-building strategy.

The goal is to make Baltimore easier to understand, invest in, and grow in. This is different from past approaches. It is not focused on chasing a single project, corridor, or neighborhood at a time. It is focused on how the region organizes its assets, aligns public and private leadership, and creates stronger conditions for long-term growth.

Through business attraction, innovation-led growth, downtown and waterfront redevelopment, arts and culture, and national storytelling, we are making the case for where Baltimore’s next phase of growth is already taking shape.

At the same time, the Port, Tradepoint Atlantic, transit, logistics, tunnels, bridges, site readiness, and transportation access remain central for the region’s competitiveness for industrial growth, manufacturing, and global trade.

Housing, neighborhood market restoration, public safety, and inclusive economic opportunity are equally important because long-term investment follows confidence in the overall trajectory of a city and region. You can see that strategy coming together across the market.

The Port of Baltimore remains one of the country’s most important trade gateways, ranking 10th nationally in foreign cargo tonnage and 11th in cargo value in 2024.

Tradepoint Atlantic’s planned $1 billion expansion is expected to increase the port’s capacity by 70% by 2028.

JD Fields’ decision to open a new 200,000-square-foot fabrication facility at Tradepoint Atlantic, representing approximately $50 million in capital investment and 150 high-skilled jobs, is a strong signal that major industrial players increasingly see Baltimore as a strategic location for manufacturing, logistics, and distribution.

At the same time, Baltimore’s waterfront is undergoing a $3 billion transformation, and more than $2 billion has been invested across arts, culture, sports, and entertainment assets. These investments strengthen downtown, attract talent, support tourism, and help reposition the market nationally.

Housing is also central to the long-term growth strategy. Baltimore is advancing one of the largest housing redevelopment initiatives in the country, supported by $1.2 billion in public funding and projected to attract more than $5 billion in private investment over the next 15 years. The effort is designed to revitalize more than 37,000 vacant or at-risk properties and restore neighborhood market confidence at scale.

Baltimore’s next chapter will not be built through isolated wins. It will be built by connecting business investment, infrastructure, housing, culture, and neighborhood confidence into a more coherent growth strategy.

That is where GBC is focused: organizing the region’s assets, aligning leadership around them, and turning today’s momentum into sustained economic growth.

TER: What sectors currently offer the strongest growth potential, and how is GBC positioning the region to compete globally?

Thomas: We developed a 10-year economic opportunity plan with input from public, private, civic, philanthropic, workforce, higher education, and community partners across the Baltimore Region called All In | 2035.

The plan identified three major opportunity areas where the Baltimore Region has the assets, infrastructure, institutional strength, and long-term growth potential to compete globally: tech, industrial, and culture.

First, tech.

For Baltimore, the tech opportunity is not just about startups or headlines. It is about applied technology moving through industries where this region already has depth: healthcare, biotechnology, cybersecurity, defense, manufacturing, logistics, and AI.

The next phase of AI will be defined by markets that can help companies test, commercialize, and scale technology inside real industries. This is where Baltimore has a strong case to make.

The region supports more than 75,000 technology workers and produces more than 12,500 tech-related degree completions every two years. Baltimore also generated approximately $560 million in venture capital investment across 77 venture-backed transactions in 2025. This is a meaningful momentum, but it still does not fully match the strength of the region’s underlying assets. That gap is the opportunity.

Organizations like Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, FastForward, Techstars, UpSurge Baltimore, UMBC, and the University of Maryland BioPark are helping strengthen the broader innovation ecosystem.

Blackbird Labs’ recently announced $500 million venture studio focused on commercializing Johns Hopkins technologies is another strong signal of where the market is heading.

Second, industrial.

Baltimore’s industrial opportunity is anchored by the Port of Baltimore, Tradepoint Atlantic, BWI Marshall Airport, rail, interstate access, and the region’s strategic East Coast location.
The Port remains one of the country’s most important trade gateways, ranking 10th nationally in foreign cargo tonnage and 11th in cargo value in 2024.

Tradepoint Atlantic’s planned $1 billion expansion is expected to increase port capacity by 70% by 2028. This is where logistics, advanced manufacturing, supply chain resilience, and global trade come together.

JD Fields’ decision to open a new 200,000-square-foot fabrication facility at Tradepoint Atlantic, representing approximately $50 million in capital investment and 150 high-skilled jobs, is a strong example of the type of industrial growth the region is increasingly positioned to attract.

Third, culture.

Baltimore’s cultural economy is not separate from its economic development strategy. It is part of it. Arts, culture, sports, entertainment, waterfront redevelopment, culinary assets, museums, and creative industries help drive tourism, talent attraction, neighborhood vitality, and national perception. More than $2 billion has recently been invested across arts, culture, sports, and entertainment projects throughout the region. This includes projects tied to waterfront transformation, major arts institutions, live entertainment, sports infrastructure, and destination-oriented redevelopment efforts that are helping reshape how people experience and understand Baltimore.

GBC’s role is to connect these strengths into a stronger regional investment proposition. Fragmentation has historically been one of Baltimore’s biggest challenges. Strong institutions, companies, entrepreneurs, cultural organizations, and major development projects often operated in parallel instead of as part of a coordinated growth strategy.

This is why we are focused on building a regional investment pipeline, strengthening business attraction, advancing national storytelling through BOLD MOVES, supporting entrepreneurship and commercialization, and aligning public and private leadership around where the Baltimore Region can win. Markets compete on perception as much as reality.

Baltimore’s opportunity is closing the gap between what exists here and what the national and global market currently understands about us.

TER: What incentives are in place to attract capital and large-scale development projects?

Thomas: One of the biggest recent shifts was the passage of Governor Wes Moore’s DECADE Act, which modernizes and strengthens Maryland’s economic development toolbox to better compete for business investment, innovation, manufacturing, and large-scale development projects.

The legislation reflects a broader shift in how Maryland approaches economic growth and investment attraction. It modernizes major business attraction and financing tools, extends key tax credits tied to growth industries, strengthens innovation infrastructure programs, improves commercialization incentives, and updates economic development programs to better align with how companies and investors actually make decisions.

It also strengthens programs tied directly to Baltimore’s long-term growth sectors. That includes expanding support for innovation infrastructure through the Build Our Future Program, modernizing RISE Zones to better support placemaking and commercialization around research institutions, strengthening biotechnology investment incentives, extending research and development tax credits, enhancing tools tied to cybersecurity and defense industries, and creating a more flexible Strategic Closing Fund for major business attraction opportunities.

At the same time, there has been a growing focus on place-based investment tools, including one of the most significant transit-oriented development laws in Maryland’s history.

We are also excited about the continued opportunity around Opportunity Zones and what they can do to help attract long-term private investment into emerging neighborhoods, redevelopment corridors, and mixed-use growth areas across the region.

Waterfront redevelopment strategies, innovation district investments, and other place-based economic development tools are helping create more investment-ready environments throughout Baltimore.

Downtown Baltimore’s newly approved RISE PILOT program is another important example. The program was designed to help catalyze large-scale redevelopment in the central business district by making the economics of major mixed-use and commercial projects more feasible.

Baltimore is putting more of the right tools in place to compete for capital, unlock stalled projects, and support long-term redevelopment. The larger focus is on making the region more competitive for long-term investment and growth.

TER: What are the immigration prospects and career opportunities in Baltimore, particularly for skilled workers and entrepreneurs?

Thomas: Baltimore offers a strong case for skilled workers, including immigrant professionals and entrepreneurs. This region sits at the intersection of industries that will define the next economy: healthcare, life sciences, logistics, cybersecurity, AI, defense, education, advanced manufacturing, and professional services. These industries are anchored by major employers, research institutions, federal assets, port infrastructure, universities, hospitals, and a growing innovation ecosystem.

Immigrants already play a major role in the Baltimore Region’s economy, representing roughly 15.8% of the metro area’s employed workforce.

For skilled workers, the opportunity is broad. The region continues to see demand across healthcare, engineering, biotech, cybersecurity, logistics, education, manufacturing, and technology.

Proximity to Washington, D.C. also creates access to federal agencies, contracting, research, defense, and policy-driven industries.

For entrepreneurs, Baltimore offers something many larger markets increasingly struggle with: room to build.

The cost structure is more accessible than many peer innovation markets. The institutional assets are strong. Access to decision-makers is often easier. The ecosystem is becoming more connected through organizations like Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, FastForward, UpSurge Baltimore, UMBC, the University of Baltimore, the University of Maryland BioPark, Techstars, and regional incubators.

The larger opportunity is not simply relocating to Baltimore for a job. It is helping shape the next phase of Baltimore’s growth.

TER: What role should the government play in driving economic growth, and where is legislative support most needed?

Thomas: Government has to create the conditions for growth, and the private sector has to help scale it.

Public-sector leadership matters when it comes to infrastructure, transportation, permitting, public safety, housing policy, workforce systems, education, and economic development tools. These decisions shape whether investment can happen, whether companies can grow, and whether residents can access opportunity. But equitable economic growth cannot be achieved through government alone. It requires employers, developers, anchor institutions, investors, philanthropy, entrepreneurs, and civic organizations to move with the same level of urgency and coordination. This is the lane GBC is working to strengthen.

Maryland has seen (and embraced) the need to modernize the tools, reduce friction, invest in infrastructure, and support conditions that make growth possible. The private sector needs to invest, hire, expand, mentor entrepreneurs, support workforce pathways, and help turn policy tools into actual projects.

The greatest need for legislative support is around tools that help markets function more effectively: transit-oriented development, infrastructure financing, housing redevelopment, site readiness, innovation investment, public safety, and policies that make it easier for employers to grow and expand in Maryland.

The focus now has to be execution: putting the right tools to work, aligning capital with opportunity, and making sure growth is sustainable, investable, and broadly shared.

TER: Looking ahead, what does success look like for Baltimore’s economy, and what key milestones should stakeholders watch?

Thomas: Success means Baltimore is no longer described as a place with potential. It is recognized as a market that is producing results.

Over the next decade, it means more people choosing Baltimore, more companies expanding here, more capital moving into neighborhoods and commercial districts, more startups scaling in the region, and more residents connected to the jobs and wealth being created.

The signs of momentum are already visible.

Baltimore has recorded population growth for the first time in more than a decade. Crime continues to trend down. Major investments are moving through housing, waterfront redevelopment, logistics, infrastructure, arts and entertainment, and innovation.

But the next phase has to be about execution and scale.

The milestones to watch are clear: continued growth at the Port and Tradepoint Atlantic, measurable progress on vacant housing, more business attraction wins, stronger downtown and waterfront redevelopment, more venture-backed companies scaling locally, better transit and infrastructure investment, and more residents gaining access to quality jobs.

Over the next decade, we are focused on translating Baltimore’s assets into sustained economic growth. This means aligning leadership, accelerating investment, executing major projects, growing industries where the region has a competitive advantage, and making sure more residents and neighborhoods benefit from its growth.