Downtown Property Owners Sue To Stop State Center

Claiming that the state ignored procurement laws to award the contracts for the $1.5 billion State Center development project, a group of large property owners in Baltimore’s central business district sued the government and State Center developers on Friday, hoping to bring the project to a halt.

The massive project occupying more than eight-square blocks has had the enthusiastic backing of Baltimore elected officials and persistent skeptical analyses from the legislature’s staff.

Attorney Alan Rifkin, lead attorney in the lawsuit, said Friday that the contract to develop the planned mixed use development on government land was not put out for competitive bids as the law required. Furthermore, the development agreement for the complex includes dubious finances and government subsidies that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.

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