State workers union upset over plan to move Maryland Department of Health offices to Metro West

A union representing state workers is upset with the decision to move the Maryland Department of Health — and about 1,200 employees — to a vacant complex north of downtown Baltimore called Metro West. The federal government spent about $92 million building Metro West for the Social Security Administration. The complex opened in 1980 but has sat vacant since 2014 when the agency left. Two years later, Towson-based Caves Valley Partners bought Metro West from the federal government at auction for $7.1 million. Under a proposed contract, the Maryland Department of Health would be its first tenant in a decade, with a 15-year lease starting in 2024 that would cost more than $12.1 million annually.