Appeals court backs garage owner at old Mechanic site

Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals has ruled in favor of a parking garage owner embroiled in a dispute with the developer of a proposed apartment tower project on the former site of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre.

Urban Growth Property Limited Partnership, the owner of the DownUnder Garage near the former Mechanic site at Charles and Baltimore streets, filed a lawsuit in August 2014 seeking to stop the developer from demolishing the Charles Street entrance.

The garage owner said the new development caused it to lose its Charles Street entrance. The company lost the suit and appealed to the higher court.

The entrance has belonged to the garage owner, and its predecessor companies, since 1964 when it was conveyed by the city as part of the Charles Center urban renewal project.

But Owings Mills developer David S. Brown Enterprises and partner Arrow Parking One, known as One West Baltimore Street Associates, argued that the right to the garage entrance had ended in 1999.

In its decision Thursday, the court sided with the garage owner and sent the case back to Circuit Court.

“In light of the proposed use of the property as an underground parking facility, continued access to Charles Street would not be an unreasonable expectation,” the ruling said.

Demolition started in 2014 to make way for two proposed towers with about 450 apartments, more than 150,000 square feet of retail space and a five-story parking garage, including demolition of the DownUnder garage access on Charles Street. The developer has blamed the delay on Urban Growth’s lawsuit. Representatives of David S. Brown were unavailable Friday.

Charles J. Murphy, a vice president at Chicago-based InterPark, which owns the DownUnder garage, said the court’s decision validated the company’s position.