368/Maryland Manual

reappointed. The Authority selects its own offi-
cers and staff.

The Authority has an eleven-member Advisory
Council. Five Council members are appointed by
the Maryland Agricultural Commission, and five
are appointed by produce merchants who are ten-
ants in the Maryland Wholesale Produce Market
(Chapter 729, Acts of 1975). The Executive Di-
rector of the Authority serves as the non-voting,
ex officio chairperson of the Advisory Council.

The Authority is developing a 398-acre site for
establishment of the Maryland Food Center.
Near Jessup, the Center is located at the intersec-
tion of U.S. Route 1 and Maryland Route 175 in
Howard County. In the Food Center now is the
Maryland Wholesale Produce Market. In the fu-
ture, the Food Center will also house the Mary-
land Wholesale Seafood Market, and a factory
outlet shopping center that will include a farmers
market, crafts market, and flower market. With
so many different types of food operations in one
location, the Food Center can provide quality
food products to Maryland consumers more effi-
ciently and at less cost. As of September 1, 1982,
approximately 2,040,314 square feet of food
warehousing space had been completed or was
under construction within the Food Center at an
estimated cost of $65 million. Furthermore, the
Authority has signed commitments for construc-
tion of an additional 448,160 square feet of food
warehousing space. Of 330 saleable acres, approx-
imately 214.2 acres had been sold or leased as of
September 1, 1982. It is estimated that by the
completion of the project approximately $120
million will have been invested in food distribu-
tion facilities.

While the 1979 General Assembly gave the Au-
thority the right to construct a Fisherman's
Wharf-type development in Baltimore's Inner
Harbor area, it was not possible to obtain land
for this development from the City of Baltimore.
Consequently, the proposed Fisherman's Wharf
development has been abandoned and replaced
with plans to develop the 14-acre Maryland
Wholesale Seafood Market within the Maryland
Food Center Project at Jessup. Twenty-one com-
panies have signed Agreements to Lease secured
by good faith deposits of $85,500. These compa-
nies are primarily those now operating at the
Baltimore Wholesale Fish Market. It is estimated
that the new Seafood Market will be completed
by December, 1983. Financing for the project will
be obtained through the sale of Authority reve-
nue bonds secured only by the leases from the

seafood merchants. The Authority can issue up to
a maximum of $25 million in revenue bonds.

Of the $25 million revenue bond authorization,
$3 million in revenue bonds are outstanding as of
September 1, 1982. The Equitable Trust Compa-
ny was the purchaser of $2 million in bonds for
the expansion ofthe Maryland Wholesale Produce
Market.

In the Fall of 1982, the Authority began grad-
ing and land development in the last 129.25-acre
phase of the Food Center development. In De-
cember 1980, the Authority completed a 40 per-
cent expansion of the Maryland Wholesale Pro-
duce Market at the Food Center. The building
area totals 333,300 square feet. The facility is
leased by 30 produce merchants, and there is a
lengthy waiting list of companies desiring space.
The Maryland Food Center project has achieved
extensive financial success, and the Maryland
Wholesale Produce Market at the Food Center is
reported to be the best development of its type in
the United States. Hundreds of governmental of-
ficials from all over the world have visited the
Food Center to examine its operations, adminis-
tration, and technical achievements. It has be-
come a model for similar developments being un-
dertaken elsewhere in the world.

In February 1981, the Authority entered into
an agreement with a private sector group for de-
velopment of a 150,000 square foot factory outlet
shopping center at the Food Center. On a four-
teen-acre site, the shopping center would include
a farmers market, crafts market, and flower mar-
ket as mandatory parts of the project. These mar-
ket facilities will be available daily or weekly to
small farmers, craftspersons, and horticulturists
on a year-round basis to enable them to directly
market their products to the Maryland consumer.
Since these market operations, on their own, are
not likely to be self-sufficient, their location is
planned within a commercial shopping center in
order to attract the pedestrian traffic that will
make them successful (Code 1957, Art. 41, secs.
410, 412, 413, 416).

GOVERNMENT HOUSE TRUST

Chairperson: Mrs. Howard Baetjer II

Harry D. Berry, Jr.; Mrs. Dudley I. Catzen; Lou-
is G. Hecht; Eugenia C. Holland; Bryden B.
Hyde; William R. Johnston; Mrs. Robert H.
McCauley, Jr.; J. Jefferson Miller II; Edwin
Obrecht; Elisabeth C. G. Packard; Dorothy
Mcllvain Scott; Mrs. Lebrot Simmons; John R.
Williams.