Three former Baltimore mayors have announced their support for a ballot measure that would allow a private company to redevelop the aging Harborplace pavilions at the Inner Harbor.

Former Mayors Kurt Schmoke, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Bernard C. “Jack” Young encouraged voters to say yes on Question F. Their backing was announced in a news release from Baltimore for a New Harborplace, a group that has been trying to mobilize support for MCB Real Estate’s proposed redevelopment.

If approved, the ballot measure would allow for residential development at Harborplace, which is now zoned for parkland.

Rawlings-Blake said voting yes on the ballot measure would pave the way for a better future for Harborplace and the city as a whole.

“So many of us have cherished memories from time spent at Harborplace as children,” she said, according to the news release. “But we can’t allow nostalgia for what once was stand in the way of us building the Baltimore that our children deserve.”

The announcement comes three days after a group of commercial tenants at a former MCB development project in Canton warned against approving a ballot question that would give the firm authority to overhaul Harborplace. The company was known to renege on promises and give priority to national chains instead of local businesses, and it sold the development at a loss this year, the group claimed.

A spokesperson for the firm called the tenants’ remarks “another desperate attempt” to sink Question F. The spokesperson said no other commercial tenants at the company’s other properties had voiced similar concerns.

Although critics have questioned the density of the proposed development, which would include 32-story and 25-story residential towers, the former mayors and another former state official said Baltimore-based MCB’s plans represented an important opportunity.

“The debate over a new Harborplace and Question F has brought out some of the worst tendencies in our City — to bet against ourselves,” Young said, according to the news release. He said it was time to “bet big on Baltimore and bet big on our future — not hold on to some old ideas from before most of the city was born.”

Matt Gallagher, a former chief of staff to Martin O’Malley, a former governor and Baltimore mayor, said in a statement that MCB managing partners P. David Bramble and Peter Pinkard have “patiently and thoughtfully taken on some of the city’s most challenging and overlooked development sites, and I’m grateful they continue to choose Baltimore as a home for their investments.”

MCB’s plans call for razing the existing two-story retail and restaurant pavilions in favor of two adjoined residential towers with 900 units plus two large commercial buildings. The designs feature space for retail, restaurants, a park and an amphitheater.

The company’s announcement last fall, staged at the Inner Harbor pavilion on Light Street, featured remarks and praise from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Mayor Brandon Scott and other local lawmakers who offered their support.

The project is expected to cost at least $900 million, and Bramble has said that at least $400 million would come from the public sector — though he has stated it won’t come from city government. Predevelopment legislation all but sailed through Baltimore City Council this year.

“More than four decades ago, a visionary developer — in the face of opposition — reimagined our city’s inner harbor and created what became our crown jewel,” said Schmoke, who was Baltimore mayor from 1987 to 1999, according to the news release. “Harborplace has since then been the heart of our downtown, but it no longer elicits civic pride the way it once did. It’s time for a new generation of Baltimoreans to reimagine it as a vibrant destination for all of us.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Hallie Miller contributed to this report.