Baltimore Company Receives $16 Million

Caves Valley Partners has been selected to receive up to $16 million in tax-exempt federal aid to rehab the Investment Building in downtown Towson, which it plans to gut and redevelop into the new headquarters for Mile One Automotive.

Baltimore County’s economic development office announced its award Monday of $16 million in Recovery Zone Facility Bonds to Caves Valley. The development team, which includes real estate veterans Anthony W. Deering and Arthur H. Adler, plans to spend $27 million to redevelop the 12-story building.

The county is not on the hook for the federal bond funds, earmarked in the federal stimulus bill to help convince banks to lend money to commercial redevelopments. Caves Valley will use the bond funds to borrow more money to finance its project, Baltimore County Economic Development Director David S. Iannucci said in Monday.

Caves Valley development director Arsh S. Mirmiran told the Baltimore Business Journal in May his firm hopes the rehabilitated building, to be called Towson City Center, will eventually employ 500 people and become the centerpiece of Towson’s ongoing transformation. Construction could begin this fall.

The county also set aside $10 million in Recovery Zone funds for Home Run Lodging LLC to build a Hampton Inn on Red Run Boulevard in Owings Mills. Home Run wants to build a 105-room, five-story hotel, expected to cost $11.3 million. The county has been earmarked to receive $48.8 million in Recovery Zone bond funds. Iannucci said the county received about a dozen requests for the aid and his office plans to announce additional project recipients in the future.