Election results show that Baltimore voters approved a ballot question allowing residential buildings in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

A “yes” vote would mean MCB Real Estate has overcome its biggest obstacle in the local company’s quest to redevelop Baltimore’s most intriguing piece of real estate — and demolish the waterfront pavilions known as Harborplace.

With 286 precincts out of 295, approximately 60% of voters supported the passage of Question F, a crucial step forward for the MCB. Company founders P. David Bramble and Peter Pinkard claimed victory in a statement, thanking the public for their support and attributing the victory to a strong awareness effort.

“Now the real work begins to transform Harborplace, the Inner Harbor and Baltimore City for the benefit of our city and our state – and we’ll need everyone to help us make this a reality,” it says. the press release.

In place of the Light Street Pavilion, MCB wants to build two residential towers, spanning 32 and 25 stories and containing up to 900 units in total. These towers are part of a larger reimagining of the Inner Harbor, its streetscape, public space and waterfront promenade. A proposed structure, called “The Sail,” would feature a curved roof topped by a park. The overall vision will cost approximately $900 million, according to MCB, of which approximately $400 million from taxpayers in a hypothetical mix of primarily state and federal funds that have not yet been fully secured.

The timeline for demolition and construction is unclear. Bramble, has previously acknowledged that some of the development – ​​particularly a proposed office building – will depend on MCB’s ability to find anchor tenants.

City officials were eager to see improvements to Harborplace, which had fallen into disrepair and disuse under previous ownership. Despite uncertainties surrounding MCB projects, pre-development legislation nearly sailed by the Baltimore City Council earlier this year.

While many residents, business leaders and politicians have rallied behind the MCB proposal, others have decried the plans. They formed the “Vote F-No” coalition, organized public events and without success challenged the legality of the ballot question.

MCB Real Estate has ramped up its voter outreach campaign in recent weeks, investing $240,000 in a ballot issues committee, according to campaign finance filings. This group, Baltimore for a New Harborplace, is controlled by MCB employees and lobbyists and spent almost all of its money on advertising and paid canvassing.

In a phone interview Tuesday evening, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said he was excited about Question F’s victory. He recalled a recent conversation he had at a grocery store with an older black woman .

“They think we’re stupid,” Scott recalls. “They think we’re too stupid to know that every part of this water has been built, but they don’t want the only part owned by a black man to be built. »

“The voters showed they were smarter than that tonight,” Scott said.

Three former mayors – Kurt Schmoke, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Bernard C. “Jack” Young – spoke out via a joint press release last week, urging voters to say yes to question F. Two days later, former Mayor Martin O’Malley weighed in on social issues, calling the plan to raze Harborplace “aa terrible appropriation by the promoters of a public park at the water’s edge.”

O’Malley’s words encouraged at least one voter, Mary Braman, a photojournalist in South Baltimore. Braman said it came down to her, but she ultimately voted against Question F, motivated in part by O’Malley’s rejection of the question at the last minute.

While Question F was ostensibly about whether residential buildings should be allowed in the Inner Harbor, it has become something much more important this election season: a proxy question about what residents think of the plan redevelopment as a whole. Bramble predicted as much in an interview earlier this year, saying the vote would be more like a public referendum on MCB’s vision for Harborplace.

“Let’s let the issues fall where they may,” he said earlier this year.

Sisters Kendal McFadden, 24, and Kristina McFadden, 27, shared a high five after leaving East Baltimore School’s Johnston Square Elementary Tuesday evening. They said they both voted for Question F.

“I can’t wait to see what they do with this land,” Kristina McFadden said.

At the same polling place, Markita Jackson, 35, said she voted against Question F, about Harborplace, because she “wasn’t community-based” and didn’t want to see the More commercialized Inner Harbor.

“There was a time when you could go to the harbor and just enjoy it,” Jackson said.

Harborplace faced similar backlash and criticism when the waterfront pavilions were initially proposed nearly fifty years ago. The Inner Harbor – once an industrial port – has been largely demolished and converted into parking and green space. In 1978, voters were asked whether the city should allow commercialization of the port, paving the way for the Rouse Co. to develop a festival market.

The Baltimore Sun called the ensuing political brawl “the hottest issue of the year.”

Harborplace won, despite 46% of Baltimore voters voting ballots to keep the Inner Harbor free from commercialization. Two years later, Harborplace opened to a grand celebration that drew more than 100,000 people to downtown.

Now it’s MCB’s turn.

Banner reporters Hallie Miller, Ellie Wolfe and Emily Opilo contributed reporting to this story.