Discussing election results on Wednesday morning, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said it’s “time to get things moving” on a new Harborplace following its charter amendment passing.

The mayor said at a news conference that his administration was “very excited” that a majority of Baltimore voters approved of Question F, the first major hurdle in the $900 million effort to replace aging shopping pavilions and park space around the Inner Harbor with four taller buildings with apartments, retail, parking spots and green spaces.

The main group opposing MCB Real Estate’s proposal, which critics say would simply privatize the Inner Harbor shoreline, said Wednesday that it saw good news in the vote too. And despite the first ballot issue passing Tuesday night, they promised to use the citizen ballot initiative process to reverse it in 2026.

Protect Our Parks, the opposition group led by attorney Thiru Vignarajah, said in a Wednesday statement that it saw the results as positive — the question passed by a slimmer margin than others, despite campaign finance records showing MCB spent at least 100 times as much as its detractors to convince voters. The opposition committee promised Wednesday to sponsor another ballot measure that would repeal the charter amendment adopted by Question F and “protect all city parks.”

Spokespeople for MCB did not return multiple requests for comment.

Along with a group called the Inner Harbor Coalition, Vignarajah, who unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for mayor and has called MCB’s plan to rebuild Harborplace a “backroom deal” between officials and developers, had already tried to get their own question on the ballot this November in an effort to block the MCB plan. They failed to get enough signatures. The group also filed a legal challenge to Question F that led to a judge nullifying the question before Maryland’s highest court reversed that decision.

Meanwhile, the city will move forward with MCB to consider funding options and work on zoning and other issues that must be dealt with in City Council, Scott said Wednesday. The project’s developer, P. David Bramble, estimated the Harborplace revamp to require hundreds of millions of dollars in public investment, some of which the state has already chipped in. Bramble estimated roughly $300 million in taxpayer dollars are expected to be used for new parks and public spaces, along with $100 million for roadwork.

Most of the public funding is expected to come from state and federal sources. “That position has not changed for us,” Scott said Wednesday when asked about the city kicking in, noting that “things that we were already doing” — some public portions of reconfiguring parks and promenade space — “we would have to fund anyway and figure that out.”

Colin Tarbert, president and CEO of the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corporation, said in a statement that Tuesday’s passage of Question F was “an opportunity to build a new Harborplace and renew our entire downtown.”

“Today marks the start of a new chapter,” Tarbert said. “We’re building a Baltimore where the waterfront and downtown pulse with energy, opportunity, and pride for everyone.”

Have a question about this article? Contact editor Kendyl Kearly at kkearly@baltsun.com.