Big public money outlay raises big questions about Harborplace redevelopment

For nearly 2 1/2 hours Monday night, on the fourth floor auditorium at the National Federation of the Blind headquarters in South Baltimore, representatives of MCB Real Estate — including managing partner P. David Bramble — pitched their plan to tear down the Harborplace pavilions and replace them with four new, much taller buildings. Whether they changed a lot of minds in the crowd of about 200 people isn’t clear; more than a few seemed skeptical, particularly of the size and scale of the project, with its estimated $400 million in public investment required.