Baltimore Announces City-Wide Real Estate Process Review

The Baltimore City Comptroller’s Department of Real Estate, together with the Mayor’s Office, will lead a collaborative effort to ensure greater transparency, data accessibility, and a system of stewardship that maximizes the value of Baltimore’s real property assets and real estate transactions.

Acting Real Estate Director Andy Frank announced that his Department will lead an interagency collaborative effort to review the City’s current real estate assets, management and transaction systems and processes, and real estate expertise across all city agencies. This effort, akin to a multi-agency performance audit, will continue the critical examination of operations and workflows already started within the Department of Real Estate.

“Transparency, accountability, and integrity are essential ingredients for progress in my administration, said Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott. “A comprehensive assessment of City real estate underscores my approach towards building public trust in local government, and I look forward to leading this effort with the Comptroller and the new Department of Real Estate.”

According to a press release:

The overall goals are:

  • Identify immediate and short-term improvements in real estate practices
  • Establish shared guiding principles for agencies charged with stewarding City assets
  • Understand how the Department of Real Estate and City agencies can work together to better support the City’s vision for community development
  • Identify longer-term changes, policy recommendations, and investments that will improve practices and maximize value for the City
  • Develop a 3-year road map towards comprehensive reform

This process review will be closely coordinated with the Office of the Mayor and agency stakeholders. The DoRE’s process review will support other intra-agency efforts already underway including:

  • Department of General Services (DGS) has been working on assessing the condition of the 130 buildings in their portfolio and using that information to inform the capital budgeting process for their improvements.
  •  Mayor’s Office has been coordinating bi-weekly meetings to track information about the disposition of key properties, including surplus schools.
  • Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and DoRE are working together to purchase software to automate various real estate workflows and processes.

The necessary work to revitalize Baltimore City’s real estate programs is happening – this process review will pull it all together.

Visit the Baltimore City Comptroller website for more information.