More than 180 NAIOP Maryland volunteers descended upon the Living Classrooms’ Crossroads School on S. Caroline Street in Baltimore City last week to invest an afternoon installing sod on a nearly one acre site, painting railings, planting shrubbery, removing invasive materials and trash from the adjacent Inner Harbor water and constructing raised-bed planters. The site was the beneficiary of NAIOP Maryland’s bi-annual Community Service Project that was co-chaired by Todd Summerfield of Liberty Property Trust and Connie Rhodes of Rhodes Development, LLC.

“There was a constant bevvy of activity all afternoon and each project proceeded like clockwork,” explained Richard Slinghoff, Operations Manager of Living Classrooms Foundation. “We were overwhelmed by the show of support and the precision in which each construction project was designed and executed. Among the challenges was to provide meaningful work for a large number of professionals, and we were able to space all tasks in a coordinated manner. This exterior landscaping package provides the perfect framing to the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center which was dedicated last spring.”

“The school is surrounded by brand new and under-construction Harbor East office, retail and residential projects,” explained Todd Summerfield. “Our committee was disenchanted by the aesthetics of the grounds and the lack of functionality due to the condition of the grounds. The school was built on the site of a former dump, so growing grass is nearly impossible and importing sod was the solution. But first, we needed to repair the drainage systems underneath to prepare the site.”

More than 370 professionals are involved in NAIOP Maryland, comprised of companies and individuals working in development, investment, construction, brokerage, asset management, finance, architecture, engineering and legal services.

NAIOP is the nation’s leading trade association for developers, owners, investors and other professionals in industrial, office and mixed-use commercial real estate. Comprising 16,000 members in 55 chapters, it provides networking opportunities, educational programs, research on trends and innovations and strong legislative representation.

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