Museum agreement nearly complete

Officials from The National Sailing Hall of Fame expect to soon secure the final necessary approval it needs to lease state property for their planned $15 million museum and headquarters.

The Maryland Historical Trust is putting the final signatures on its agreement with the hall of fame, and could mail it out by Monday.

Meanwhile, building designs will be created in the coming weeks, with some design concepts ready to present in three or four weeks, said Hall of Fame Director Lee Tawney.

"We're taking it step-by-step. We can't get too ahead of ourselves," he said.

The agreement lays out how hall of fame officials will work with the trust while the hall is being built in the Historic District.

The state Department of Natural Resources signed its agreement last week and is now putting together the lease agreement with the hall of fame for the department's property on Prince George Street.

Next, the state Board of Public Works will then have to approve the lease.

The department said that, to get the lease the hall must get written agreements for the project from City Council, the city Planning Commission, and the city's Historic Preservation Commission.

Because the hall of fame will lease state property, the hall is not required to get written permits or approval from city agencies. However, the hall is required to get nods from the trust at several points as the museum is built.

Under the agreement with the trust, the hall of fame will provide the trust with plans in the initial, halfway and final stages of its designs.

And there are covenants for possible archeological finds, and for any additional public funding for the project.

Hall of fame officials told the city's Historic Preservation Commission that it would regularly meet with the preservation commission and go through its procedures as if it were seeking the commission's approval.

Maryland Historical Trust officials said someone from the trust would attend preservation commission meetings when the hall of fame presents its designs.

"We're really going to try to combine the reviews as much as possible," said J. Rodney Little, trust director.

Part of the land parcels being developed by the hall of fame includes the Burtis House, a wood-framed house built in 1897. It's currently used as a station for Natural Resources Police.

Mr. Little once said the location of the project is unsuitable because of the historic importance of the Burtis House to maritime history. But sailing hall officials have promised to incorporate the house into the museum.

The house is the former home of the Burtis family which included oystermen, watermen and a former head of the Market House.

Hall of fame officials have hired local architect Joe Boggs to design the project.

"We want to see something that is compatible with this Historic District but also something that is very much a 2009 statement," Mr. Little said. "Seeing some of the initial concepts, it appears to us that they're on the right track."

Mr. Tawney said the hall's next move is to raise the money necessary to build the project. Though the hall of fame's honorary advisory board includes Walter Cronkite, Ted Turner and Morgan Freeman, getting the funds might prove difficult in a lagging economy, Mr. Tawney said.

The museum would create 95 jobs and would annually bring more than $300,000 in new tax money for the area, according to a study by the state Stadium Authority.