SALISBURY, Md. - Construction crews are busy changing the city of Salisbury's skyline. Work to build The Ross building is underway but developers say their plans are changing, slightly.
"I believe it's the tallest building in Wicomico County," developer Nick Simpson says.
Simpson and his partners are building The Ross, a 12-story apartment building for Salisbury University students on Main Street. But now that the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce has relocated, Simpsons's blueprints are expanding. Simpson purchased the chamber's lot and will build a six story apartment building that attaches to the original building.
"Nothing of the original chamber building will stay," Simpson says. "It's currently in the flood plane so it will come out of the flood plane with a new building. That way it's safer for the future tenants and there's no issues with flooding. It's a new opportunity to get this corner of Main Street to look good again."
New renderings show walking bridges that connect the buildings to each other and to the parking garage. SVN Miller Commercial Real Estate sold the chamber of commerce building to Simpson for the addition to the Ross project.
"It kind of draws a line in the sand and that line is the successful activity of a marriage of the university, housing, density and new activity," Tonney Insley, advisor with SVN, says.
City leaders say the project is a sign of growth in Salisbury.
"It will be a nice addition to the skyline. It will be a great addition of energy and fusion of people in downtown so we couldn't be more excited about that," Mayor Jake Day says.
The facades of the original structures will stay, but a 200-foot crane will be coming in to start demolition of the rest of the building next week. Simpson estimates that students will be able to move into The Ross by August of 2021.
