Towson Row hotel is moving forward

The long-awaited Towson Row development is moving forward, with the mixed-use project’s hotel starting to make its way through the approval process.

Plans for the hotel and its adjoining restaurant will go before Baltimore County’s Design Review Panel on Sept. 12. The panel will review the project’s design and architectural elements, one step in the county’s approval process.

Developer Greenberg Gibbons is working with Shamin Hotels to develop two Hilton-branded hotels at the site, with the goal of opening in the fall of 2020.

The 230-room hotel fronting on Towsontown Boulevard would be the first new structure built in Towson Row. The 5-acre development in the heart of downtown Towson is planned to include more than 100,000 feet of shops and restaurants, 150,000 square feet of office space, 250 apartments and 300 student housing units.

Towson Row was first announced in 2013 , but the project stalled when the original developers, Towson-based Caves Valley Partners, encountered subsurface rock that complicated plans for an underground parking garage.

Owings Mills-based Greenberg Gibbons partnered with Caves Valley and convinced the Baltimore County government to give the venture $43 million in financial assistance late last year to jump start the project. Greenberg Gibbons is now the lead developer.

“I am very pleased this element of the project is moving forward,” said Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, a Republican who represents Towson. “There was some disagreement with the financing, but the County Council overwhelmingly supported the concept behind Towson Row.”

Marks said he believes the hotel will serve families visiting Towson University as well as corporate employers in the area.