Baltimore residents, workers have high hopes that expected new Harborplace owner can transform Inner Harbor’s centerpiece

When he bikes around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or walks the promenade with his infant daughter, Ermias Abbai wonders about the emptiness at Harborplace and often imagines what it could become. He said it has occurred to him during those long walks that it would be great to hop onto a sky lift and soar across the water, maybe from the northern shore to Federal Hill. The Pigtown resident sees the ambitious idea as one that “will pay for itself.”