Signal of upturn for downtown?

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A long-running Baltimore accounting firm’s move to 400 E. Pratt St. is just part of Baltimore’s attempt to revitalize its downtown business district, even as other neighborhoods have been attracting more buzz.

“It is important to us at Ellin & Tucker to be leaders in the community, so we’re excited not only for what this move means for our business, but also for what it means for the Baltimore community at large,” Ed Brake, managing director of Ellin & Tucker, said in a statement. “We are proud to continue investing in the growth and renewal of the downtown area.”

The firm, founded in Baltimore in 1946, is moving from 100 S. Charles St. Its new office will be approximately 31,000 square feet and provide increased visibility.

Brake said his business was expecting to move into the building on Oct. 1, 2014.

PDL Pratt Associates, the building’s landlord, is also planning a two-story addition to the building and improvements its facilities. David Lebowits, a managing partner of the company, said the expansion would help create a “more successful and vibrant Pratt Street.”

And if all goes according to the Downtown Partnership’s plan, this won’t be the end of the revitalization efforts. The Partnership is a nonprofit group that works to “create a more vibrant community” in downtown Baltimore for business owners and residents, according to its website.

The expansion, according to a statement, is part of the plan to “rethink the way Baltimore operates.” Key components of the plan include the encouragement of more construction downtown and the removal of earthen berms and skywalks. Kirby Fowler, president of the Partnership, said the latter keep Baltimore residents off the sidewalks and thus farther from businesses.

“Our hope is that [Ellin & Tucker’s expansion] will show other property owners the benefits of making a similar Pratt Street investment,” Fowler said in a statement.

The downtown area’s office vacancy rate rose in 2012, by 0.1 percent, to 17.8 percent, according to a report from the Downtown Partnership. T. Rowe Price Group Inc. has hinted it would consider moving out of its 100 E. Pratt St. headquarters when its lease expires in four years.

But Laurie Schwartz, president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, said the area has become a top choice for businesses as more young professionals have chosen to live in the same city where they work.

“Pratt Street still has enormous appeal, as it should, for lots and lots of corporations and retailers,” Schwartz said.

Real estate experts estimate that the Pratt Street space was costing in the low $20s per square foot, while a similar space in the Legg Mason building would go for about $40 a square foot.

Maintaining Pratt Street’s viability has become challenging in recent years, with the growth of Harbor East and the planned arrival of Harbor Point. While the Partnership supported a controversial tax increment financing plan for infrastructure upgrades for Harbor Point, the board of directors of the Downtown Management Authority, which the Partnership oversees, opposed it.

The authority said in a statement that both Harbor Point and the DMA district (bordered by Pratt Street on the south, Centre Street on the north, President Street on the east and Greene Street on the west) deserved TIFs, but the downtown needed it more than Harbor Point, and would not support the TIF if only Harbor Point received it. Ellin & Tucker’s current and future headquarters are both within the DMA district.

Fowler declined to comment on the issue due to his position on the executive boards of both the DMA and the Downtown Partnership.

“I think we need to stay focused on both parts of the harbor,” Brake said.

He said the new location “looked attractive to us” thanks to a second-floor balcony and green space, as well as its proximity to a parking garage (for added safety for employees leaving in the evening).

Beyond Pratt Street, the Partnership plans to convert a number of abandoned downtown office buildings into apartments, including high-end residences and rooms aimed at students and recent graduates, Fowler said.