Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group will move later than expected from its prominent downtown office tower of nearly five decades to Harbor East.
The global investment firm began constructing its new, 550,000-square-foot headquarters in the mixed-use waterfront community east of the Inner Harbor more than two years ago, planning to open by the end of the year.
But the company said it has faced recent project delays on the two seven-story buildings connected by a glass atrium and now expects to move sometime during the first three months of next year. The company offered no details about the delays.
“Project delays are not unusual, and we have robust contingency plans in place to ensure we meet the needs of our clients and associates,” the company said in an emailed statement Thursday.
T. Rowe has been headquartered since 1975 at 100 E. Pratt St., where it has occupied nearly half the 28-story building overlooking the Inner Harbor. The downtown workers are among 5,200 Baltimore-area employees, including in Owings Mills.
The planned move continues a long-term trend in which tenants have moved from the city’s historic central business district to updated offices in more recently developed areas along the harbor. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the trend has accelerated as tenants downsized or moved out of large, often older buildings to newer ones with more amenities.
T. Rowe’s move from the central business district is expected to result in one of the Baltimore region’s most glaring vacancies. Data from national real estate services firm JLL earlier this year showed the move would send the downtown vacancy rate from 22.5% to more than 30%, the highest on record and the biggest jump since just before the pandemic.
Leasing information from brokerage Cushman & Wakefield reflects the pending vacancy at 100 E. Pratt St., showing more than 476,000 square feet available out of a total 613,876.
Representatives of 100 E. Pratt St. owner Vision Properties, a Tampa, Florida-based real estate investor that bought the high-rise in 2016 for $187 million, referred questions about leasing plans to Cushman & Wakefield. Broker representatives did not immediately respond to questions about plans.
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