CUMBERLAND — The need to replace aging infrastructure beneath Baltimore Street grew into a plan that opened the city’s pedestrian mall to oneway traffic, bicyclists — and hopefully more visitors eager to shop and dine downtown.
The main goal of the Reimagine Cumberland project, which began in March 2023, was to reverse a trend that saw failed business ventures and vacant buildings in the city’s heart, Matt Miller said.
He is executive director and president of the Cumberland Economic Development Corp.
Recently, Miller discussed various steps that took the $17 million project from design to engineering and final construction.
“We wrote so many different grants … to make it financially feasible for the city,” he said of the CEDC, which secured roughly $13 million and led the project. “This was a huge change to a part of our community.”
More than 18 months after construction vehicles arrived on the former pedestrian mall’s 50-year-old bricks, downtown buildings are equipped with high-speed internet and expanded water capacity that allows for sprinkler systems.
“Now, they have the ability to attract new tenants,” Miller said.
Since the project began, the city has seen more private investment in the past 12 to 18 months than it had in the earlier 12 to 18 years, he said.
“It’s a very exciting time,” Miller said. “Interest is happening organically … people are finding us.”
Cumberland is now “on the map,” he said.
‘Weird things’ underground
The project included several growing pains.
Downtown businesses experienced street closures, dust, noise, busted sidewalks and water interruptions due to archaic underground unknowns.
At one point, Baltimore Street was heated with a steam line to melt snow, Robert Smith, Cumberland’s director of engineering and utilities, said a few weeks after the project began.
There was no way to predict some of “the weird things that we find,” he said at that time, and added old paper street plans, when they could be found, weren’t very helpful.
Other surprises the digging uncovered included an old gas line built into an abandoned sewer main, random pipe fittings, trolley lines and a wooden water main.
Work crews had 50 feet of right of way to fit in features such as a water main, storm and sanitary sewers, fiber optic banks, telephone conduit, electrical circuits, stone and concrete work, and pits with French drains to support trees.
‘Checking out the streetscape’
Miller said Downtown Development Commission Executive Director Melinda Kelleher was a conduit of information for the project.
Kelleher led a public town hall each quarter to provide updates and address problems related to the construction project.
She worked as a liaison between officials for the downtown makeover and local business owners.
“She’s done a fantastic job,” Miller said of Kelleher. “She was a direct ambassador.”
Kelleher talked of “seeing a notable shift in the energy downtown as we prepare for the grand reopening” of Baltimore Street.
“More people are out walking, checking out the streetscape and shopping and dining,” she said.
‘This was a joint effort’
Miller said a $50,000 grant has been secured to fund a six-month marketing position that will showcase Cumberland and “promote awareness.”
He talked of the importance of his organization, an entity with public and private sectors, with vision and strategic planning that brought the downtown renovation plan to fruition.
“I don’t think the project would have happened without the CEDC,” Miller said and added the group partnered with city officials including the engineering department, DDC – and private citizens.
“This was a joint effort,” he said. “You cannot do projects like this in a silo.”
Now that the construction project is complete, Miller is ready to focus on updates to other Cumberland sections including Virginia Avenue on the city’s south side.
“We’re charged with economic development throughout the entire city and we’ll continue (that mission),” he said.