Owners of 1 Investment Place soon plan to put the 13-story Towson office tower on the market in hopes of finding a buyer to redevelop the nearly 2-acre site with new uses.

"It could be residential, office, retail -- even hotel operators," said Tim Hearn, president of southwest Baltimore-based NAI KLNB Management, who is working on the sale with Bill Miller of NAI KLNB in Towson.

More than 900 county and state employees moved out of 1 Investment Place in early 2002 after years of complaints about asbestos and mold in the building.

Workers said they suffered from headaches, nausea and respiratory illnesses.

Crews began gutting the office tower last fall before starting an asbestos removal project that is expected to end in a few weeks, Hearn said.

The last five tenants, who had been working on two floors, left last fall, he said.

Now is a good time to do something with the building -- located at York and Dulaney Valley roads near the roundabout -- because Towson has become a dynamic market with more than half a dozen projects under way to provide new and expanded housing and retail space, Hearn said.

But Hearn said the 1 Investment Place owners, New York-based AMG Realty Partners, are not interested in selling the building for student housing.

"We don't think this is a location for it," he said.

Free of inside partitions, all 13 floors now offer "wide-open" views in all directions from the top of the Towson hill, said Hearn, who plans to invite county economic development officials to see the building.

Hearn said he will also soon make available architectural drawings of possibilities for the site, which is expected to incorporate "green" building principles when it is redeveloped.

The office tower site includes an annex that sits on part of the site originally slated for a second tower, he said.

Investment Place has 200 parking spaces on two levels -- enough to accommodate 80 to 100 residential units -- in the building, plus a few dozen spaces outside near the new Fidelity Mutual Fund Investments building on the roundabout, he said.

If 1 Investment Place is developed for nonresidential uses, it may have to rely on nearby parking lots, including a county revenue authority lot, Hearn said.

E-mail Virginia Terhune at Virginia Terhune@patuxent.com