More than two decades ago on a site once imagined as an Asian cultural theme park and a NASCAR raceway, developers mapped out a concept for a 1,100-acre, 5 million-square-foot business park in marshy, wooded Middle River, the eastern Baltimore County community off Interstate 95 that abuts White Marsh, Essex and the waterfront.

State and county leaders hoped the move would draw 10,000 workers to the I-95 corridor and invigorate one of the last great parcels of untapped land in the county.

Greenleigh, the name the mixed-use community adopted in 2015, has in some ways exceeded the expectations of local officials, who are now cheering the development as an unlikely catalyst benefitting residents of all incomes. Its two luxury-style apartment buildings are more than 95% occupied — strong showings in the multifamily industry. The average house is selling for about $700,000, Greenleigh’s master developer said, in a county where the median home price hovers at around half that. And hundreds more homes are coming amid a housing shortage that’s fueling a crisis of affordability around the country.

Observers believe the journey here offers a blueprint to the heart of the 21st century homebuyer — and, maybe, a clue for alleviating the rest of the state’s housing woes.

“This is newer, higher-quality development located in a good location,” said Richard Clinch, Executive Director of the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute, who has conducted economic analyses on high-profile development projects around the region, including Harborplace and Port Covington. “That is what is selling and attractive nationally.”

‘Neat, clean and safe’

Middle River has long been known for supplying a robust workforce. It expanded during the 1930s and 1940s as a planned community for employees of Martin Aerospace Co., now known as Lockheed Martin, and also housed steelworkers. The neighborhood sits less than an hour’s drive from Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility, and contains Martin State Airport, a public use airport.

Today, the workforce at Greenleigh represents some of Maryland’s top employers, including Stanley Black & Decker and the Kennedy Krieger International Center for Spinal Cord Injury.

“Everything’s here,” said Tom Novotny, Kennedy Krieger Institute’s vice president of philanthropy, pointing to the freshly paved sidewalks, wheelchair-friendly building layouts and nearby hotel.

It’s no surprise Greenleigh has attracted public servants to live and work there, too. Asa Johnson Sr., a retired Navy chief and federal Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency employee, grew up in South Baltimore’s Cherry Hill and dreamed of escaping city life. He found a mini city in a suburb instead.

He and his wife, who married and combined their families a few years ago, once considered buying a home in Maple Lawn, the mixed-use, planned community in Howard County within a few minutes’ drive of downtown Columbia.

The Johnsons held back but still longed to live somewhere with places to shop, eat and relax. Almost a decade later, Johnson drove past Greenleigh and felt that same gravitational pull.

He bought his roughly 7,800-square-foot Greenleigh property in early 2022.

“I wanted to find a neighborhood that was neat, clean and safe,” Johnson, 59, said. “As long as it remains like that, I’ll probably be here.”

Like Maple Lawn

Not surprisingly, Greenleigh’s developers used Maple Lawn as their North Star. After the 2008 recession hit, the Greenleigh team looked to resuscitate its business park, called Crossroads@95.

The developers saw housing as the answer. It could entice more workers, support more businesses and ultimately fill vacancies.

St. John Properties Inc. and its partners at the Bethesda-based Somerset Cos. LLC approached then-Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz in 2013 and pitched building a few hundred homes in addition to an existing apartment building.

Matt Lenihan, executive vice president of St. John Properties, recalled the company’s founder and chairman, Edward St. John, being summoned to Kamenetz’s office, expecting a scolding. Instead, Kamenetz, who died in 2018, said to go all in.

“‘If you’re going to do it, I want you to do something spectacular and significant, like Maple Lawn in Howard County,’” Neil Greenberg, chief operating officer at Somerset Cos. — Greenleigh’s master developer — remembered Kamenetz saying. “‘If we’re going to get behind this, we want it to be that nice or nicer.’”

And there’s more planned.

In addition to more amenities — including a grocery store and library, Greenberg said — he’s approved to build 3,300 homes, which would nearly double the current footprint. Meanwhile, about 75% of the retail space, 80% of the office space and 90% of the flex and light industrial space have been leased, and about 5,800 employees work at Greenleigh each day — smaller than past projections, though Greenberg said he thinks they’ll get there.

There’s more room to improve, said Klaus Philipsen, president of ArchPlan Inc., an architecture and urban design firm in Baltimore.

The community resembles a sprawling suburb in some ways: not entirely walkable, designed specifically for cars and largely isolated from the rest of Middle River. Still, it’s closer to a “new urbanist” ethos — easy to navigate, with lots of green space and amenities — than most other county projects, Philipsen noted, and it’s seemingly paying off.

Growing, growing, gone

Mike Amrhine, a Perry Hall High School alumnus, grew up near Middle River and has watched it evolve into a more dense and diverse suburb. After more than a decade working in the school system, he opened a business in 2007 that offered summer camp, child care services and events for kids and families. In October 2010, he opened a location in Greenleigh.

The community was close to other areas he knew needed child care: Perry Hall, White Marsh, Rosedale, Overlea, Parkville. As more tenants and workers moved into the development, he hoped the business could grow.

His Amped Up! facility has since expanded from 8,400 to 11,200 square feet and serves as many as 400 families a year. Soon, his wife plans to leave teaching to join the business full time.

They live in Greenleigh, having purchased what may be the first single-family home in the development in 2018 to shorten their commute. The value of their property has increased by about 12%, online property records show.

Amrhine said the community has only improved over time.

“You can pretty much walk to anything in the area,” he said. “The proximity to work and, in general, the amenities really are nice.”

No setup is without faults, though. Amrhine acknowledged the difficulty of the coronavirus pandemic on small businesses and at times worried if his would make it. Some of the surrounding commercial and retail space remains empty. To this day, Amped Up! struggles with finding and hiring staff.

His alma mater, his two sons’ districted high school, is more than 100% filled, according to the latest Baltimore County Public Schools data, and parents have reported problems with crowded classes at the nearby elementary school, Vincent Farm. The county school system is reassessing the neighborhood boundaries to make sure all the kids are funneled to the same schools, alleviating potential school bus congestion.

There’s a long-running refrain among homeowners in Greenleigh, Amrhine said: “Where are you going to put everybody?”

Baltimore County Council member David Marks, a Republican who represents Middle River and much of the county’s east side, said he’s worked closely with Greenleigh to contain the growth. It was once zoned for 9,000 households. Marks passed legislation in 2024 that reduced that figure by more than 60%.

At the same time, he acknowledged — even celebrated — Greenleigh’s meteoric rise over the past eight years. The developers have handled the surrounding neighborhoods with care, he said, and they aren’t simply angling to make a quick buck. Baltimore County, he added, needs to reverse its stagnating population numbers if it wants to support its tax base, and he’d prefer it do so without encroaching on rural land.

That means building vertically — yes, with apartment buildings — and densely, he said, including in specific areas that already have amenities built in.

“This is a place the county should grow, and it’s growing in an excellent manner,” he said. “I can’t say enough good things about this project, honestly.”

Limbo

Nationally and regionally, registered voters have told pollsters they want more housing and more government intervention to break down barriers impeding it. And yet the obstacles persist, stalling more growth in Maryland and around the country.

Baltimore County, to many, represents something of a national microcosm. County council members have heeded feedback from constituents and taken steps over the past year to limit more housing at a time it’s needed most, including by putting more guardrails around some projects that neighbors don’t like and restricting homebuilding in areas with schools that are over capacity.

A state-level bill supported by Gov. Wes Moore’s administration would require counties with more jobs than there are people to fill them to “expeditiously approve” new housing development, unless there’s sufficient justification. It’s unclear if it will pass this year, though Moore warned during a hearing in Annapolis that home prices will stay high so long as housing remains difficult to produce.

Greenleigh, which was built using private funds, is not required to bake in affordable housing. The county is under a federal consent decree to add 1,000 more affordably priced homes by 2028 — notably in areas outside Middle River, where affordable housing was considered harder to find.

Researchers from the Urban Institute found that more development helps, rather than hurts, home prices. They found that adding more units, even those that are higher-cost, increases supply — a net positive for consumers. Newly built affordable housing, they also noted, must also continue being built where possible.

Clinch, the University of Baltimore economist, said producing market-rate and higher-end housing at scale also helps counties stay afloat financially, boosting the tax base and subsidizing the cost of services.

“This is what counties should be promoting,” he said about Greenleigh. “This is needed to keep people in Maryland and create opportunity.”

Philipsen, the architect and urban planner, said the county, and the country, notably lack enough new, market-rate housing, and Greenleigh shows just how pent-up the demand for it is; the average two-bedroom apartment is leasing for $2,500. He hopes the developers, in the spirit of “new urbanism” — the movement that supports reining in sprawl and integrating more sustainability — eventually incorporate mixed-income housing to diversify the tenant mix.

Interim Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier also said she supports having “high-quality inventory” available in the county. She sees Greenleigh as an important piece of the housing stock that could help reduce cost burdens among lower-income households.

Until then, buyers in Greenleigh and beyond will have to fight through an ultracompetitive housing economy. To claw out of it, the Greenleigh community’s creators said, more construction needs to land in areas where people want to live, rich with resources, opportunities and walkable attractions.

Sherrika Newsome, who lives in one of Greenleigh’s apartment buildings with her husband and three children, is among those who could benefit from more housing production — not just in Middle River but everywhere. The family has waited for two years for costs to come down enough for them to buy a house. They’re still waiting.

Originally from Jamaica, Newsome made her way to Middle River hoping to find a tight-knit community, almost like a village, for her kids. She thinks she’s found it. If she had her way, they’d be in Greenleigh for the long haul.

“We really don’t want to leave here,” she said. “It’s a great place to be stuck in limbo.”