Construction starts on Westport Waterfront Park in South Baltimore

Work has started on Westport Waterfront Park, a 10.5-acre public space that will sit at the center of One Westport in South Baltimore and reshape a long-vacant stretch of the Middle Branch waterfront. The park is being built in two phases over several years, so the immediate story is not a finished ribbon-cutting but the start of a much larger neighborhood change.

The park is part of the 43-acre One Westport redevelopment on the Patapsco River, where the broader plan also includes more than 500 townhomes by Ryan Homes, apartments, retail, office space, a waterfront promenade and a public recreation field. The project has been described as a major buildout for Westport, with an estimated $30 million price tag for the park itself and more than 14 acres of publicly accessible waterfront trails and park areas in the overall plan.

The development is a partnership involving Stonewall Capital, Parks & People and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership. Reimagine Middle Branch says the City of Baltimore and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership are working with Stonewall Capital and the Westport Community and Economic Development Corporation on the park, following adoption of the Reimagine Middle Branch plan in 2023.

For Westport and nearby South Baltimore neighborhoods, the key question is how open the new waterfront will feel once construction is done. The project materials emphasize public access, but the park will arrive in stages, alongside housing and commercial space that will change the area’s daily traffic, activity and identity. Ryan Homes is marketing townhomes in the mid-$300,000s, with some listings showing homes with three to five baths and roughly 1,599 to 2,600 square feet, and earlier neighborhood reporting said 23 townhomes had already sold by January 2026.

The park will also carry a historical layer meant to tie the new development to Westport’s Black baseball history. The Baltimore Black Sox were founded in 1913 and began playing in Westport in 1917, and Parks & People says a Black Sox Memorial will be part of a new African American Heritage Trail. Reimagine Middle Branch says the sculpture and memorial project will be located in the future Westport Waterfront Park, linking the redevelopment to a team that reached its greatest success in 1929, when it won the American Negro League pennant with a 61-28 record.

That mix of public space, housing and memory will make Westport Waterfront Park a test of whether one of Baltimore’s most visible waterfront redevelopment projects delivers more than new addresses. As the townhomes rise and the park takes shape, the real measure will be how much of the waterfront feels genuinely usable, welcoming and protected for longtime residents as well as new arrivals.