Daily Record

The University of Maryland, Baltimore has struck a deal with a residential builder to develop the second building at the school's biotechnology park in West Baltimore.

Walter J. Skayhan of Baltimore-based WJS & Associates said his firm yesterday finalized a joint-venture with Towson-based Towsend Capital to develop the $41 million building on a one-acre, three-lot parcel across West Baltimore Street from the park's recently completed 120,000-square-foot, $36 million first building.

The six-story, 170,000- to 180,000-square-foot building would allow the park to straddle West Baltimore Street just a block from Martin Luther King Boulevard, forming "a gateway" to the rest of the $400 million, 10-building development.

Skayhan purchased the three lots, 801, 809 and 811 W. Baltimore St., beginning last year for about $1.65 million, hoping to create a residential development on the site to attract those working at the BioPark. But after meeting with James L. Hughes, the University's director of research and development, last spring, he began to consider the new possibility.