For a museum that has watched a neighboring waterfront lot from across its property line for years, the Calvert County Commissioners’ Sept. 29 vote was the end of a long wait. The board authorized the purchase of 215 Lore Road in Solomons from Back Creek Holdings, LLC for $1,092,500, and authorized the board president to sign the contract of sale and settlement documents. The property will be folded into the Calvert Marine Museum campus.
The county’s Department of Public Works General Services Division, which negotiated the deal, told the board the sellers signed a contract of sale on Aug. 25. A real estate attorney retained as outside counsel provided the contract and found it legally sufficient. The county memo said the purchase “will provide valuable space for future development, programming and community engagement opportunities” and that the museum’s master plan identifies the property as a potential site for future programming and community activities. No commissioner objected when the motion was called, and the board’s remarks were celebratory.
The money is the notable part. Under the county’s memo, no additional county funds are required: the price is covered by Program Open Space local funding for which the state Board of Public Works approved a $1,092,500 commitment on June 3, under project number POS 7983-4-93, and the county’s capital budget carries the matching line, CIP 00298, Calvert Marine Museum Land Acquisition. The state’s agenda for that meeting shows the commitment is assembled from five Outdoor Recreation Land Loan allocations dated from 2019 through 2023, ranging from $1,143 to $320,844, which together add up to exactly the purchase price.
The same agenda lists two appraisals: $1,025,000 from Associated Appraisers, LLC and $1,160,000 from Hooper & Associates. The negotiated price of $1,092,500 is the exact midpoint of the two. The agenda describes the parcel as about 1.1 waterfront acres and says future plans “may include extending the boardwalk and improving the green space” for recreation and education, language the state used when the Chronicle reported the grant approval in June.
The property is not new to the county’s wish list. Calvert’s annual Program Open Space project descriptions listed a “Calvert Marine Museum Addition” at 215 Lore Road as far back as fiscal 2014, describing a 1.10-acre lot with a single-family house and about 60 feet of waterfront with a pier. In those early plans the museum would have bought the house with private funds for staff offices, collections storage and guest housing; the purchase approved Sept. 29 is a county acquisition with state money instead. A museum official told the board Tuesday that the institution has documentation of its interest in the lot going back to at least 2008, and credited four to five years of intensive work by county staff, museum staff, the museum’s nonprofit society, the county attorney’s and administrator’s offices, and the parks and recreation staff who manage Program Open Space funds.
What comes next is mostly planning. The same museum official said the purchase “basically doubles our waterfront,” and described the museum as pinched on its current campus. The museum has a new strategic plan and intends to do more site master planning for the property, the official said, adding that public water access is scarce up and down Calvert County and that the addition “opens more land up for our public to use.” A commissioner joked that people might one day come to the museum’s concerts by boat. The county memo adds one concrete commitment: because Program Open Space helped pay for the land, the county plans to install a permanent sign recognizing that assistance.
Two things remain to be seen: when settlement happens, and what the museum builds or programs on the lot, which neither the county memo nor the state agenda specifies beyond the boardwalk and green space language. The museum’s earlier site master plan, prepared by Design Collective for the county, already framed acquiring nearby property and developing the waterfront as two of its four goals.
