(rshsdepot) Penn Station, Baltimore, MD

["Alexander D. Mitchell IV" <LNER4472_@_bcpl.net>]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.penn14mar14,0,2791592.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

Amtrak has revived a plan to open a boutique hotel inside Baltimore's historic Penn Station, which would be a first in an Amtrak-owned station. 

The passenger rail operator is negotiating with a developer to create a 72-room hotel on three levels at the station, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said yesterday. 

The national rail service is struggling with declining revenues and operating losses that are exceeding $1 billion annually and are projected to grow by 40 percent within four years, according to the Government Accountability Office. Amtrak, which has relied on Congress to subsidize its operating losses, has been under pressure to improve its financial operations. 

"It makes sense for us to make the best use of our properties, to help supplement our passenger rail income, and real estate is one way we can do that," Black said. 

The upper floors of the station, once used as offices for Amtrak police, customer service and maintenance workers, are vacant, Black said. Baltimore's Penn Station is Amtrak's 10th-busiest. 

The negotiations with an unnamed developer also include some redevelopment of the station's main floor for shops, he said. The hotel would encompass about 40,000 square feet, he said 

Amtrak planned a hotel there about four years ago and had agreed to a deal calling for Columbia-based James M. Jost & Co. Inc. to construct a moderately priced $5 million hotel. 

Jost would have owned the hotel and leased the space from Amtrak. The agreement was contingent on arranging financing and finding a hotel brand. 

Black said he did not know what derailed those earlier plans. James M. Jost, the company's owner, could not be reached. 

One analyst said yesterday that he suspected the earlier project had difficulty attracting financing and a hotel brand. 

*More at the link

Alexander D. Mitchell IV

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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