Remember when ground was broken on an expansive project that would help transform a strip of waterfront near downtown into a new mixed-use development that would have residences, a hotel, restaurants, shops, a marina, public spaces, tourist attractions, and a river walk? You do if you were here in the summer of 2004. That development was called Deep Harbour.
The grand vision for that waterfront community, which was supposed to transform the city and grow its population, never fully materialized. We don’t know if it is the last time Cambridge will face such a setback, but it definitely was not the first. Our dear city has actually had several times in the past two centuries when it looked like it might become one of the Chesapeake Bay’s premier destinations.
The first was arguably in the mid-1860s, when we were in competition to be a major rail-and-shipping hub. When the railroad, the engine of American growth in the 19th century, reached Cambridge, it connected us to regional markets and cities through the Delaware Railroad line. Our rail access inland and deepwater access to the Chesapeake made our city a natural transfer point between ships and trains for seafood, vegetables, lumber, and farm products.
However, ports like Baltimore had huge infrastructure, deeper harbors, and far larger rail networks. Freight companies naturally concentrated investment in those places. Still, our shipping infrastructure from rail transport helped create the industrial waterfront that later defined us. Cambridge’s economy evolved into a seafood packing and canning powerhouse.
For decades, we were one of the most important processing centers for crabs and oysters on the Bay, with packing houses and canneries all along the waterfront. At the industry’s peak, thousands of people worked in seafood processing.
But, eventually, oyster populations collapsed from disease and overharvesting, seafood processing moved to larger mechanized plants elsewhere, and the industry shifted toward imports. Cambridge was left with empty packing houses, a large unemployed population, a gutted economy, and community unrest that led to our part in the Civil Rights movement.
Things remained stagnant throughout the last part of the 20th century. But then, in 2002, Cambridge gained national attention and new tourism thanks to the opening of the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa, and Marina. Developers believed this would spark a wave of new growth, and the city’s leaders began looking at waterfront redevelopment as the next economic engine.
“Cambridge’s time has come,” George Rathlev told The Washington Post in 2004. He was the land acquisition manager for Beazer Homes, the outfit that wanted to put condos and townhouses on Cambridge Creek. Thus Deep Harbour was born. Developers were so optimistic about that project, they predicted the city’s population would grow to 23,000 by 2014.
So, why is our population only 13,000 and change? Why isn’t Deep Harbour the mecca people flocked to? Well, a pesky little thing known as the Great Recession of 2008 hit and dramatically slowed real estate development across the country. When the housing market collapsed, the buyers and lenders that the Deep Harbour developers were to rely on vanished.
Deep Harbour did get built, but not as the mixed-use district originally promised. The commercial and tourism components that would have created lots of jobs and brought in visitors never happened. Even now, Cambridge is still far from major job centers and has a limited year-round tourism economy. That makes it harder to support large retail districts, hotels, and restaurants compared to places like Easton and St. Michaels. Developers build where they see strong demand.
Therefore, is it any wonder that the latest waterfront project, Cambridge Harbor, has encountered challenges? More than $13 million in public funding has been spent, yet the development is still years away from major construction, thanks to financial problems, disagreements with the city government, and difficulty securing developers. Large redevelopment projects are complicated and can stretch out for many years.
Ironically, many urban planners think Cambridge has better raw ingredients than many other Eastern Shore towns: more waterfront, great neighborhoods, major history, and space to grow. The question has always been whether the right mix of investment, tourism, and housing will finally unlock our potential. Some of it is out of our hands, but enough of it is up to us that we can’t sit around and complain while our beloved city experiences another “what might have been.”
One Response
Cambridge residents still are hoping for a great mixed use development which will elevate our tourism and economy.
It can be done.
Please insist on good planning that gives us the best uses of our incredible waterfront.