By Matt Hooke – Reporter, Baltimore Business Journal
Aug 10, 2026
A 60-year-old formermine in Middle River may become home to a solar farm, nature preserve and warehouses that could bring 600 jobs to the region.
A development team spearheaded by Hanover-based Chesapeake Real Estate Group (CREG) is proposing to turn a 415-acre sand and gravel pit at 1050 E. Earls Road into Greentree Ecopark, a development they say will create jobs and electricity for Baltimore County. The mine’s Chicago-based owner, Amrize, is restoring the site, known as Lafarge Quarry, back to a natural state to enable development, according to a plan submitted for a Baltimore County Development Plan Hearing held on Thursday.
The 19,000-person materials company selected CREG to turn the area into an industrial site after it was designated as an “employment center” in Baltimore County’s 2020 master plan. Developer Bushrod Investments, architecture firm Morris & Ritchie Associates, law firm Smith, Gildea and Schmidt and consultants the Traffic Group and Holly Oak Consulting are assisting Chesapeake Real Estate with Greentree’s development.
Greentree Ecopark will use the massive site for three warehouses totaling 516,000 square feet of space, 190 acres of environmental preserves and a 60-acre solar farm. The property already has a Fortune 50 tenant willing to lease one of the warehouses, according to developers, who did not name the tenant. The company plans to employ at least 200 people, said Whit MacCuaig, CREG’s senior vice president of development and finance, said during Thursday’s meeting. The combined warehouse space will create a total of around 600 jobs.
“This is a big boon for the county,” Jason Vettori of Smith, Gildea and Schmidt said.
The development team is under a tight timeline because of that future tenant, MacCuaig said, and hopes to start construction within six to eight months once final permits are in place. Thursday’s hearing took place before a Baltimore County administrative judge, who will decide whether to approve the plans later this month. The project involves hooking up the warehouses to public sewers and widening Bengies Road to facilitate development.
A sand and gravel mine in Middle River is set to become an “Ecopark.”
By Matt Hooke/Baltimore Business Journal
Developers have looked to transform the former mine for years. One proposal to turn the site into housing was shot down by the Baltimore County Council in 2023 after community members spoke out against the idea. Councilman David Marks changed the zoning of the area in 2024 to add an “ecopark” designation. The designation is intended to find a new use for industrial land while balancing traffic flow and environmental concerns.
The ecopark designation requires that 60% of the property be used for environmentally restorative and green energy uses. Greentree meets that requirement through a 40-acre wetland bank, a 70-acre forest bank and 80 acres of preserved forest alongside a 60-acre solar farm. The solar farm is expected to power 2,000 homes.
“Almost no one wants new development,” Marks wrote on Facebook in February, protesting a bill by Gov. Wes Moore that would potentially allow for housing on the site. “It’s unrealistic, however, to think that the hundreds of privately-owned acres at the Lafarge Quarry will remain undeveloped forever.”