Baltimore Development News IV

[StevenW]

To get this thread started off right, here are some recent posts from the last thread. These are renderings of projects that have never been built or are on the drawing boards or are in the works for construction soon:

Hackerman's Conway street proposal:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6montage1_center-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6montage3_center-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6montage2_center-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6oriole_center-thumb.jpg

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6240/014zr.jpg
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Water Tower

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6wlapts-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6waterst-thumb.jpg

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300 East pratt
Last rendering ever released:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6300_e__pratt-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6slcepropelev-thumb.jpg

Old rendering, when it was proposed as a Westin Hotel:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6baltb-thumb.jpg

Yet another old proposal for 300 East Pratt that never happened:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6modelsm-thumb.jpg


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RLJ Convention Hotel proposals:

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/65437774-thumb.jpg


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Old proposed projects that never happened:

The SM Tower:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6aerial_sm-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6elevation_sm-thumb.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6street_sm-thumb.jpg

Other towers that never made it:
The proposed Provident tower:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6provident-thumb.jpg

another proposal scrapped:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6murd-thumb.jpg

The older One Light Street proposals:
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6genslerfillat-thumb.jpg

BTW, I love that first One Light Street rendering/design. :) Too bad it never happened.

[jaysonjaz]

Here is the link for Baltimore Development III

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=216685

[xzmattzx]

damn, you guys are already on #4? judging from the number of development news threads, i would say baltimore is best-represented on ssc.

[waj0527]

Found this pic on the Brewer's Hill site:
http://www.brewershill.net/images/aerialshot.jpg


I didnt realize how intergral the Brewer's Hill/Camden Crossing developments are to creating one cohesive waterfront district. Of course each waterfront neighborhood has its own feel and flair, but I really think that there's no reason people cant be drawn from the Inner Harbor and travel southeast through Harbor East and Fells Point and Canton. They just need some reason to go.

[Hugh Jaramillo]

Thank's StevenW for creating the Baltimore Development News IV Thread.

Fanofterps and Waj0527, I walked by the site where the Water Tower condos are supposed to be built. There is a large sign with a picture of the building on one of the facades of the parking lot and better yet, they have a sales office on the ground floor. So that looks encouraging.

Has anyone heard anything about the City Place development. I walked past that too and didn't see any signs of any activity.

The current issue of the BBJ also has an article about Best Buy looking for a site in downtown Baltimore. You guys are really astute because someone on this forum mentioned this several weeks ago and I found it difficult to believe! The article has a photo of the retail section of Lockwood Place, but I don't think that they would locate there because the cost of leasing there would be prohibative unless they get a break from the developer.

[StevenW]

damn, you guys are already on #4? judging from the number of development news threads, i would say baltimore is best-represented on ssc.
Actually, it's really the 5th thread. :D
When the threads started changing over after 500 posts, the first time, the thread name stayed the same. AND before the first thread change, the post count was a rediculious #. I think it was at or 7,000 posts!! :eek2:

[StevenW]

Thank's StevenW for creating the Baltimore Development News IV Thread.

Fanofterps and Waj0527, I walked by the site where the Water Tower condos are supposed to be built. There is a large sign with a picture of the building on one of the facades of the parking lot and better yet, they have a sales office on the ground floor. So that looks encouraging.

Has anyone heard anything about the City Place development. I walked past that too and didn't see any signs of any activity.

The current issue of the BBJ also has an article about Best Buy looking for a site in downtown Baltimore. You guys are really astute because someone on this forum mentioned this several weeks ago and I found it difficult to believe! The article has a photo of the retail section of Lockwood Place, but I don't think that they would locate there because the cost of leasing there would be prohibative unless they get a break from the developer.

Thanks, Hugh. I generally try to keep up with our post count. When 500 posts happen it's time to start over. :D

About "CityScape, I think you are refering to, it's in the designing stage. I talked to the BDC project manager for CityScape. From what I understand from him, both CityScape AND 300 East Pratt are coming along.
I don't know why, but, I think that August is going to be a month that will reveal allot of info AND renderings on some of these projects we've been LUSTING over. LOL. :D ;)

[fanofterps]

Imagine the following:
Zenith= 200 units, 300 East Pratt= 250 units, 1 Light St=250 units, Cityscape= 300 units, Water Tower= 300 units, and St. Regis complex=200 to 300 units. This would add about 3,000 people living in the Central Business District or a real 24 hour enviroment in Center City not to mention a great skyline.







Thanks, Hugh. I generally try to keep up with our post count. When 500 posts happen it's time to start over. :D

About "CityScape, I think you are refering to, it's in the designing stage. I talked to the BDC project manager for CityScape. From what I understand from him, both CityScape AND 300 East Pratt are coming along.
I don't know why, but, I think that August is going to be a month that will reveal allot of info AND renderings on some of these projects we've been LUSTING over. LOL. :D ;)

[StevenW]

Ditto. :)

[BigBalto]

All of these projects plus the Key highway redevelopment is going to bring a lot of triffic downtown.

[StevenW]

yeah, that has been one of my biggest concerns/questions. How and WHEN will upgrades to public transportation begin? :? Who will pay for it? Where will it be? :?

Well, one thing, until public transportation grows with all the other new developments both commercial and residential, maybe some business big and small will profit more by slower traffic and more foot travel. :) I guess we'll have to wait and see about that one. :D

[Maudibjr]

On waj0527's map The Korean War Memorial park is an excellent location to see the work ocuring at Canton Crossing.

[StevenW]

I'd love to see some up-to-date construction pix of the Canton Crossing projects. :D
Wouldn't you? :D :D :D

[StevenW]

Let's keep this link pretty close by: http://www.arcwheeler.com/projects/414lightstreet.php

In the next 3 or 4 weeks it will be interesting to see updates on this most exciting project for Baltimore. :)

[waj0527]

How long til the Westside looks the renderings developers released?:

http://info.rentnet.com/property/98/432598/photo/432598.p01.jpg

http://www.downtownwestside.com/images/photos/350x225/centerpoint.jpg

http://www.downtownwestside.com/images/photos/350x225/quadrangle.jpg

http://www.rent.com/media/property/485488/655568_w.jpg

[scando]

yeah, that has been one of my biggest concerns/questions. How and WHEN will upgrades to public transportation begin? :? Who will pay for it? Where will it be? :? Well, one thing, until public transportation grows with all the other new developments both commercial and residential, maybe some business big and small will profit more by slower traffic and more foot travel. :) I guess we'll have to wait and see about that one. :D

I don't think anybody profits when transportation slows things down. Over the years a number of corporate presences in the city have cited transportation and parking as reasons to move to the 'burbs. I'm really hoping something emerges in the way of a new idea on this because right now, it's all in the hands of the Md Dept of Transportation and you can read their plan on their web site (www.mtamaryland.com). Suffice to say, at best, improved transit in the city will progress at a glacial pace. Unfortunately MDOT is a multi-modal agency that serves the entire state so transit in the city is just a small piece of the pie for them. Transit stands in the same long line with budget requests for roads in Garrett county, port facilities, toll bridges, and the 800 lb gorillas, the Wilson Bridge and the next Bay Bridge.

Right now, the Red line (Woodlawn to Canton) is about 10 years out at best. The Green Line (extension of the Subway northeast from Hopkins Hospital) comes after that. It will be intersting to see what comes from the current bus line revision plan. It has long been needed but every tiny little change will be controversial and you can expect to see media photos of little old ladies with their walkers standing vainly at retired bus stops, waiting to get to their doctor appointment. I wish I knew where all this ends up because I really think that, along with the school system, nothing else holds such a strangle hold on the city's progress.

Having transit in the hands of the State just won't move things along fast enough. Projects that require federal funds will move even slower than the State since the State has to come up with a detailed plan, spend a lot of its own money and THEN stand in line for Federal money, which may take years. We need a conclave of creative thinkers who can come up with concrete proposals that don't have costs in the billions and that can start being built now. Who knows, maybe the talked-about Charles St trolley can be the start of something, but cost-wise, I can't see that being cheap or fast either since it's basically low-end version of light rail and requires building tracks and wires on current streets. I wish I knew the answer to all this because, like many people, I struggle with getting places in the city every day and sometimes just get sick and tired of the aggravation. The rails are not extensive enough, the buses are slow it best and when I drive somewhere, parking is always a hassle, even for a person like me who has paranormal ability to find parking spaces anywhere.

[BigBalto]

Just imagine the Arc Wheeler project and the Westin Con. hotel almost side by side if built with the Arc Wheeler project atleast a hundred feet taller than the Westin. That would be crazy. I'm guessing that RKTL would get the AW project or maybe Design Collective. Since these are privately owned project we could see sonstruction start in a matter of months not years. With the current convention hotel plan already $105 million over and striking lots of bad press, I see the Westin 45% back on track, the current hotel plan seems to be in the paper everyday with something bad about it so who knows.

[jaysonjaz]

Private hotel deal
Hackerman plan may kick in if city deal fails
Heather Harlan
Staff

The CEO of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. is prepared to build a hotel behind the Sheraton Inner Harbor, just steps from the city's Convention Center -- if the city's publicly funded project crumbles, according to real estate sources familiar with the plan.

The Baltimore City Council is expected to vote July 11 whether to approve the $305 million, 100-percent, publicly financed convention headquarters hotel just outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards downtown. Mayor Martin O'Malley and the Baltimore Development Corp., advocates of the proposal, have argued that since 9-11, a convention headquarters hotel outside of New York or a resort area has not been built without public subsidy.

Willard Hackerman, the Whiting Turner CEO who has a long-standing policy of prohibiting his employees from talking with the media, could not be reached for comment.

The CEO's behind-the-scenes discussions raise a key question, though: Why should the city use taxpayer money to fully fund a hotel if private developers are willing to make that move?

Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., who has led opposition against the proposed publicly financed headquarters hotel, said he would have to see Hackerman's latest hotel designs before deciding whether a new property on Conway Street or one combined with an existing Sheraton Hotel near Hackerman's site could supplant the city's plans.

"We've heard all of the arguments that there needs to be more rooms to support the Convention Center," Mitchell said. "If Mr. Hackerman is willing to build on that site near the Convention Center, I think that's fantastic."

Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, had a different perspective. Even the initial planning for a new convention headquarters hotel can stimulate further hotel development or expansion of existing properties, he said.

"I think the fact that a convention headquarters hotel would be built would give other private companies reason to look at their investments and see if they need to expand," Fry said.

Once Denver proceeded with plans to build a convention headquarters hotel, other private investors decided to jump into the game. In November 2004, Stonebridge Cos. of Colorado announced plans to build a 220-room Hilton Garden Inn limited-service hotel across from the Hyatt Denver Convention Center Hotel.

During a recent hearing about Baltimore's proposed convention center hotel, Cheryl Cohen, Denver's manager of revenue, said the privately financed hotels that began to take shape -- once Denver decided to move forward with a publicly financed project -- were much smaller in scope and scale.

The proposed convention headquarters hotel in Baltimore would be a Hilton with 750 rooms. The city's largest hotel, the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, has 751 rooms, but stands about a mile from the Convention Center.

The Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel has 337 rooms. The site behind the Sheraton that Hackerman controls is about a half acre, according to state property records, and could accommodate a tall building.

The Baltimore Business Journal first reported in June 2002 that Hackerman had purchased the land along Conway Street for $1.7 million, raising speculation that he could extend the existing Sheraton Inner Harbor into a much-needed convention headquarters hotel.

Hackerman was one of the bidders whose proposal was rejected by the city in favor of the Hilton, led by Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson.

In October 2003, the group led by Hackerman asked the mayor to strongly reconsider its alternative plan to construct a Westin on Conway Street behind the Sheraton. With a link to the Sheraton, the team -- including local developer Otis Warren, national development firm Garfield Traub and Baltimore architect Peter Fillat -- said the combined properties would serve as a convention headquarters hotel.

Even though Hackerman's alternative plan showed some private investment, public subsidy would be needed, according to those familiar with the proposal.

Ray Garfield, principal of Garfield Traub Development in Texas, said he and his firm are simply "sitting on the sidelines'' waiting to see how the Baltimore situation unfolds. Garfield said the original team, which included his firm, could mobilize in days -- should the publicly financed proposal fall flat.

"Mr. Hackerman's site is an excellent site and one that can be developed more cost effectively,'' Garfield said.

While Hackerman's initial Westin proposal was rejected, the CEO's Towson-based firm is being considered as construction manager for the convention headquarters hotel project.

The Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC) has narrowed its list to Faulkner USA of Austin, Texas, Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Chantilly, Va., and Whiting-Turner, which developed the office tower at 750 E. Pratt St. The BDC has not yet made a final decision.

[jaysonjaz]

Consumer electronics chain Best Buy has sights on Downtown Baltimore
Julekha Dash
Staff

Best Buy Co. Inc., the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer, has targeted downtown Baltimore as part of its expansion plans.

The move would be an economic boon to a city currently underserved by national retail chains and mirrors a trend among big box retailers making forays into urban markets after years of neglect, retail experts say.

The Minneapolis store is "looking at being a part of the [Downtown Baltimore] area," Best Buy Spokesman Jay Musolf said.

"This is another way to add convenience for residents of Baltimore that live in downtown," without having to drive to other store locations, he said.

Other Baltimore area Best Buy stores are in Woodlawn, Towson, Glen Burnie, White Marsh and Columbia.

But Musolf could not divulge where the downtown store would go or when it would open until at least later this month because the company has not yet officially announced a signed lease agreement.

Only a handful of downtown spots could accommodate a retailer whose stores range in size between 20,000 and 45,000 square feet. Lockwood Place, a restaurant and retail site under construction, will include a single retailer on its third floor, which is 30,000 square feet, said John Meyer, a principal at KLNB Retail Inc.

Meyer said the Towson retail broker is negotiating with a variety of retailers but declined to say whether Best Buy is one of them. The complex will open in spring 2006 and will include stores that are not already downtown, he said. The shell of the building, located at Pratt and Market Place, will be completed by year's end, Meyer said.

Ronald M. Kreitner, executive director of WestSide Renaissance Inc., said he was unaware of any discussions to lure the consumer electronics chain to West Baltimore, which is undergoing revitalization efforts.

Best Buy's entry into downtown will encourage other lifestyle retailers to come on board since chain stores "tend to follow one another," said Nan Rohrer, director of retail development at Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.

The store's interest in downtown follows that of another national big-box retailer, Office Depot Inc., which opened two downtown outlets within the past year. An influx of downtown residents -- which will total 10,000 by year's end -- has motivated retailers to consider downtown more seriously than in the past, Rohrer said.

A Baltimore store would further Best Buy's penetration in urban markets, Musolf said. This year alone, the company opened its third outlet in Manhattan and stores in Atlanta and Chicago.

In the quarter ending May 28, Best Buy opened 11 new stores in the United States. The new stores helped fuel a 12 percent revenue increase to 6.1 billion, with MP3 players, digital TVs, video games, digital cameras and notebook computers supplying the strongest sales. The company, which operates 840 stores in the United States and Canada, had $27 billion in fiscal year 2005 sales and earned $984 million in net income.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

[jaysonjaz]

OPINION
From the July 8, 2005 print edition
'Housing bubble' won't burst in city

"Housing bubble" has become a quite ubiquitous phrase in the American lexicon over the past several years.

The bubble never seems to burst or deflate, but every new quarter brings with it dire warnings of a market correction that will send the value of our homes and our real estate investments into the abyss.

It has happened before: Southern California's housing market was on fire in the mid-1980s. By the recession years of the early '90s, though, many homeowners were holding mortgages that far exceeded the value of their houses. Foreclosures were rampant.

Willl that happen in Baltimore and other areas that have experienced years of rapid house price inflation? According to local economist Anirban Basu, who writes our "Economic Barometer" reports each week, the Baltimore area is less vulnerable to a large correction than other metros.

The major reason is that the Baltimore area is surrounded by more expensive metros. While $200,000 for a bungalow in the city neighborhood of Hamilton is shocking to locals, it is still considered a bargain to families and investors coming in from the outside. And a lot of people and money are indeed coming in from the outside.

Another indication that Baltimore's housing market is not out of control is the relatively small percentage here of interest-only, variable-rate mortgages, which are riskier than conventional loans. Only 19 percent of mortgages in Greater Baltimore are interest-only, compared with 48 percent in San Diego and 45 percent in Atlanta.

So what's the bottom line? Baltimore is still a solid investment and should remain that way for at least the next several years.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

[waj0527]

But Musolf could not divulge where the downtown store would go or when it would open until at least later this month because the company has not yet officially announced a signed lease agreement

Wait, it sounds like this is really going to happen. I doubt this is a matter of if Best Buy is coming downtown, but when and where. Does Harbor East have the square footage to accomodate Best Buy? Im sure Canton Crossing does/will. Is Lockwood Place really a viable option? Are they looking to stand alone or be with other potential "big box" retailers on the westside?

So many questions.

[SoBoChris]

Wait, it sounds like this is really going to happen. I doubt this is a matter of if Best Buy is coming downtown, but when and where. Does Harbor East have the square footage to accomodate Best Buy? Im sure Canton Crossing does/will. Is Lockwood Place really a viable option? Are they looking to stand alone or be with other potential "big box" retailers on the westside?

So many questions.

I wonder how much square footage there is in the old Gutman's department store on Lexington Street? Something big like Best Buy would really kick start that stretch of Lexington.

[SoBoChris]

Baltimore City Council Delays Hotel Decision 7:45 AM

Jul 11, 2005 7:45 am US/Eastern
Baltimore, MD. (AP) Baltimore City Council members aren't ready to approve a 305 million dollar convention center hotel that would be the city's costliest public project.

Hotel advocates had hoped the project would go to a vote today.

But the council will instead continue asking questions at a work session -- trying to get a handle on the complex and increasingly controversial proposal.

Doubts are shared by at least half the council.

Of the council's 15 members, only three say they fully support a convention center hotel that the city would develop, own and pay for with revenue bonds.

Eight say they oppose it or are leaning against it. Three haven't made up their minds, and one didn't respond to inquiries.

[Eerik]

This is that chance Hackerman has been waiting for...now is the time for him to put his money where his mouth is and re-enter this circus. Also, did anyone read the article in the BBJ about hoteliers and their marketing efforts to boost lackluster 2006 bookings? In the past, Sheraton, Hyatt, Marriott and Renaissance have been vehemently against construction of a large 700+ room facility in the city, fearing a glut. It would be interesting to learn how they feel about a convention center hotel these days?

The old Gutman's store has about 24,000 square feet on the ground floor. The perceived challenges of a Gutman or Lockwood site is that of parking. While most customers can purchase and lug a CD or cell phone out of the store without any problem, imagine carrying a 54 inch plasma TV or a home theater system onto a bus.

The Gutman parcels are large enough to accommodate several floors of retail. A multipurpose garage could be constructed directly south of the store and connected with the Best Buy.

Here in Arlington, the Best Buy at Pentagon City is located in a high density area at a Metro stop along with validated garage parking. While Best Buy did open another larger store about a mile away with the traditional (free) parking lot, the Pentagon City location continues to thrive. At this point, given the lack of a electronic retailer in downtown Baltimore, no matter where they locate the store, provide validated parking and I the store will thrive.

[PeterSmith]

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2005/07/11/daily4.html?jst=b_ln_hl

Article on the Hopkins BioPark. They're starting by demolishing 18 vacant rowhouses. The first building will be seven stories and will break ground in August. The remaining 530 homes will be demolishing later.

I like how they emphasized that they will wait for the residents to move out before demolishing their homes....

[PeterSmith]

Speaking of the Biotech parks, I've heard so much about both of them, but I'm still a little unclear about their specifications. Which one is further along? Are they more or less the same size? Does their stand to be fierce competition between them? When do they plan to be completed by? Are their any exciting projects with in them that I should know about?

Can someone fill me in?

[Molo]

The U of MD is farther along. It already has its first building and parking up.
However, the U of MD park is slated for $400 mill, and JHU is more than double that. No renderings of the buildings exist. I'm not sure on sq footage.

I can't see Best Buy in the CBD. Maybe across Falls Road near the RLM, or Canton, or maybe even state center. If the Zenith, and/or CCH fall through, (which both sound highly likely at this point) I can see that area being turned into a retail hub. It could be huge before and after O's and Ravens games.

And does anyone know what is going on on Fayette St. from Falls to Broadway. I see tons of equipment moving in and fencing off has started. What the hell is going on in this very seedy area?

[jaysonjaz]

The U of MD is farther along. It already has its first building and parking up.
However, the U of MD park is slated for $400 mill, and JHU is more than double that. No renderings of the buildings exist. I'm not sure on sq footage.


I have seen renderings of both.

Here is a quote from another thread I posted in a month ago

The Johns Hopkins Biotech park is a super exciting project. For those who don't know, they are taking 80 acres of blighted housing directly north of thier hospital and completely re-doing it. 22 acres of it will be the actual biotech park, while the other 60 acres will be a mix of retail and new and renovated housing. The city has begun the work of repossessing the house and clearing the land. Here are a few pictures.

Look at the massive scale of the project. The hospital in the top right.
http://img123.echo.cx/img123/4738/1281persaerialafter2pa.jpg

Check out how many blocks this project will encompass
http://img123.echo.cx/img123/1712/januarymasterplan6zf.jpg

More info
http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/news/biotech/ebbiotech.html

The University of Maryland Biopark, on the other side of town, though smaller in scale actually has just as big a residential aspect surrounding it. The city is basicly turning over the entire neighborhood of Poppleton, which surrounds the park, over to a developer who plans on putting upscale housing, retail, and a movie theatre there.

Here is a picture of the park which is already under construction
http://img267.echo.cx/img267/2966/imgrendering8zg.jpg

Here are the latest construction photos of the UMD park
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/5677/p613006335lf.jpg
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/600/p613006411fj.jpg

[Balmurfan]

Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., who has led opposition against the proposed publicly financed headquarters hotel, said he would have to see Hackerman's latest hotel designs before deciding whether a new property on Conway Street or one combined with an existing Sheraton Hotel near Hackerman's site could supplant the city's plans.


Did the initial plans call for combining the existing Sheraton with the new hotel or is that something new?

[StevenW]

not sure, but I'd love to see the new conway street hotel design. :D

[StevenW]

"The Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel has 337 rooms. The site behind the Sheraton that Hackerman controls is about a half acre, according to state property records, and could accommodate a (tall building).

The Baltimore Business Journal first reported in June 2002 that Hackerman had purchased the land along Conway Street for $1.7 million, raising speculation that he could extend the existing Sheraton Inner Harbor into a much-needed convention headquarters hotel."

[SoBoChris]

I think the only grumbling about Hackerman's proposal came from the old Otterbein Methodist church. I can understand how they feel, especially since they've been there since before the Revolutionary War, but in order to remain in the present, they have to yeld to a certain degree to the future.

[StevenW]

Here's a good link, guys: http://www.pfarc.com/westin.html

[jaysonjaz]

University of Baltimore Plans $100 Million Project to Revitalize Midtown Baltimore
Jen DeGregorio
The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD)
July 8, 2005
Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires

The University of Baltimore has assembled a team of private developers to build what could be as much as a $100 million mixed-use development on three surface parking lots in the city's midtown, a project expected to begin in about 18 months.

Greenbelt-based Bozzuto Group, Howard County-based Gould Co. and Washington-based PMI Parking were chosen for the project, which is hoped to meet a need for student parking as well as inject more life and commerce in Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill and other midtown neighborhoods.

The plans, which are still tentative, call for a market-rate apartment complex with 1,500 parking spaces on a four-acre lot at Mount Royal Avenue and Oliver Street. Office and retail centers are also planned on a one-acre lot at Mount Royal and Charles Street and a smaller lot at Mount Royal and Cathedral Street. The number of apartment units has yet to be determined.

University President Robert L. Bogomolny said the school had long planned to put the parking lots to more profitable uses, but knew that the money for such a project was not available in the state budget.

The largely commuter school's enrollment is at an all-time high of more than 5,000, and officials see that number expanding over the next 10 years, Bogomolny said.

"We recognized that there were going to be state support issues" to the university's development plans. "And we were unwilling to raise tuition beyond what we absolutely had to," Bogomolny said.

But the city's strong real estate market gave officials the idea that the private sector would want in on the deal.

"It's an incredible neighborhood, it's got an incredible location and it's got this historic and wonderful cultural aspect to it," said Toby Bozzuto, vice president of Bozzuto Development Co. He cited the university's proximity to the Jones Falls Expressway, light rail stops and Penn Station among the project's attractions.

While designs and other details are still tentative, Bozzuto said the buildings would feed off the area's high concentration of students and young professionals, a demographic that draws restaurants and small specialty shops.

Neighborhood residents and planners are also anticipating that any new development would bring a supermarket, which the area is missing.

The closest supermarket is a Safeway on Charles and 25th streets. A Super Fresh is also expected to move into the Charles Plaza development at the corner of Saratoga and Charles streets.

"Our input to them was, basically, get a good upscale grocery store," said R. Paul Warren, vice president of the Mount Vernon Belvedere Association.

Architecture is another concern for the association, which is entrenched in a dispute with the city over height limits for new construction in Mount Vernon, a neighborhood known for its early 20th century buildings.

"We're really flexible about what would go on up there" as the majority of the development would fall in Bolton Hill and outside the historic district, Warren said.

But "our primary concern there is architecture, world class architecture. Height isn't so much of an issue," he said.

Bozzuto said the development team would work with the community during the coming months to get feedback on plans.

"We want to create synergies with the university and the community," Bozzuto said. "We see these three sites as community assets, or they could be when they are improved beyond surface parking lots."

The project might also help bring together midtown and city neighborhoods north of Mount Royal.

"Their project could build a bridge to the growing arts district in Station North," said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.

"It will change a lot," Rebecca Gagalis, executive director of Charles Street Development Corp., said of the project. "It's going to change the whole cityscape coming in from [Interstate] 83."

[jaysonjaz]

Municipal Market To Undergo Changes
Monday, July 11, 2005
WBAL Radio as Reported by Angela Jackson

One of Baltimore's six municipal markets is undergoing a face lift. From now through September, Cross Street Market is undergoing $1.3 million in exterior and interior renovations.

Market officials believe the changes will be on par with other revitalization efforts in South Baltimore.

"Cross Street Market has long been a focal point for the community and for the business community and we wanted to make sure we were keeping pace with the changes in the area," said Casper Genco, executive director of the Baltimore Public Market System.

Located between *Charles and Light Streets,* Cross Street Market is in the center of Federal Hill, and has been an anchor of South Baltimore since it opened in 1846, according to Genco.

He added minor changes to the building have happened over the years, but the current project is the most extensive.

There are over 20 merchants in the market. Renovations include an updated and freshly painted brick façade, new entrance signs and new and improved exterior and interior lighting.

Baltimore's public markets, with the exception of Lexington Market, are neighborhood markets that play a vital role in the community, according to Genco.

"They very much reflect the flavor and the feel of the community and that's why they've been so successful for such a long period of time," he said.

Nick's Seafood, the market's cornerstone for years, is closing from mid-July through September because of the construction project.


Neighborhood standby to change with the times
The half-century-old Cross Street Market building will get a face-lift that vendors hope will draw new customers without alienating its longtime fans.
By Justin Fenton
Sun Staff
Originally published July 12, 2005
Cross Street Market in Federal Hill is undergoing a $1.3 million face-lift over the next two months, temporarily shutting down a popular seafood bar as part of the first major renovation since the structure was built more than 50 years ago.

In an effort to better mesh with other revitalization projects in the South Baltimore neighborhood, the market's entrances - now marked by a retro-style multicolored cupola - will feature a new brick facade with a sign illuminated by gooseneck light fixtures, while the inside will get improved lighting and a new ceramic tile floor.

The Light Street entrance is closed; it will reopen when construction begins on the entrance on the opposite side on Charles Street.

Tommy Chagouris, owner of Nick's Inner Harbour Seafood, said it is time to upgrade the market, which has sold baked goods, seafood, meats, produce and flowers in various locations throughout South Baltimore since the 1840s. He acknowledges that his regular customers might not be initially pleased because they relish the market's atmosphere, which offers a step back in time.

But while neighborhood development over the past few years has brought in more tourists and residents, it has also ushered in more upscale bars, restaurants and supermarkets that have taken away some of Cross Street's customers.

"If you spent an afternoon here hanging out and talking to people, everybody would say the same thing - leave it alone. Don't do anything. This is the way we like it," Chagouris said. "I walk a very fine line with the regular customers. But the market needs it. My business needs it."

Almost three years ago, Whole Foods Market, an upscale grocery store open seven days a week, opened less than two miles away at Inner Harbor East and began to siphon away business. Last January, Cross Street vendors started shutting down at 6 p.m., one hour earlier, a move rejected by the organization that oversees the city's public markets.

The market is now dotted with empty stalls, which officials hope can be home to new businesses. By retaining its array of vendors and products, the market is banking that regulars will keep coming while the new look will bring new customers.

"We'll sweat it out, just like anything else," said Steve Bongiovani, an owner of Bongiovani & Sons, which has sold produce at the market for over 40 years. "Anything they do for us is a plus."

The upgrades may mean sacrificing some of the market's character. Besides the wet concrete floors and narrow aisles reminiscent of the days when people relied on public markets for groceries, the colorful cupolas are the image perhaps most associated with the market.

"It may be something customers were accustomed to seeing, but the new image as a more modern and contemporary building is going to be much more advantageous," said Casper Genco, executive director of Baltimore City Public Markets, which is paying for the renovations.

The market will remain open, though Nick's, the largest spot in the market, will close for two months to get its $600,000 worth of upgrades. Along with a more industrial appearance, the bar, a popular happy-hour destination for young professionals, will add more seating and a deck area, and shift around the sushi, steam bar and grill areas.

"It's time to make some progress. ... I want [the regulars] to say, 'Wow, this place is really nice,'" said Chagouris. "My place is OK, but I think it needs work."

Some customers strolling through the market yesterday said changes in appearance will be welcomed as long as the atmosphere remains the same.

"It's all that personal attention," said Tom Cripps, a retired teacher, as he checked out fresh fish on ice. "This is a real neighborhood place, a real market, not a tourist market."

[PeterSmith]

Great articles. Both those projects should help midtown and Federal Hill keep up with the rapid development taking place elsewhere in the city.

[PeterSmith]

More on the Hotel front......

City Council considers hotel plan amendments
Proposed changes would ensure living wage, open board meetings
By Jill Rosen
Sun Staff
Originally published July 12, 2005
While some Baltimore City Council members continued to stridently object to plans for a publicly funded convention center hotel, signs emerged yesterday that some elected officials see room for compromise in the controversial proposal.

Council President Sheila Dixon introduced a number of draft amendments to bills before the council that would pave the way for a $305 million Hilton that the city would own and develop.

Last week, only three of the council's 15 members told The Sun they fully supported the hotel. The amendments address some of the other members' concerns, though not the most serious ones - the lack of a private investor and whether the need for a hotel to bolster the convention center rivals other city problems such as neighborhood blight.

Council Vice President Stephanie C. Rawlings Blake, who supports the project, said after the meeting that, while some of the opposition is firmly entrenched, she's confident the majority will come around - probably before July 27, when the council could vote on the proposal.

"People may be concerned because this is a novel way of doing things," said Rawlings Blake. "But this novel idea presents unique opportunities for the city."

Baltimore Development Corp., the city's development agency, and Mayor Martin O'Malley say the city needs the 752-room hotel, which would be built adjacent to the downtown convention center, to remain competitive in the convention industry.

The draft amendments would assure a living wage for hotel workers and force the board that would oversee the hotel to follow Maryland's open meetings law.

Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. proposed an amendment that would require the hotel plan to go to a referendum in the next election, but the city's law department said the council does not appear to have the power to do that.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said she is pleased with the living-wage guarantee - an issue she had been vocal about the past few weeks.

Though that alone isn't enough to win her support, Clarke said, it's a start and shows there is room for compromise.

"It seems to be open to all kinds of amendments," she said.

In addition to the amendments, hotel advocates also were stepping up their efforts yesterday to pacify the opposition behind the scenes.

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the mayor was conferring with Dixon and had begun calling council members to win their support.

Although the Planning Commission and major unions enthusiastically endorse the project, for the last month it's received near nonstop criticism. Everyone from inner-city clergy demanding aid for Baltimore's struggling neighborhoods to Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan to a report by the Abell Foundation has disapproved of elements of the plan.

But the sharpest criticism is coming from the council itself, despite continued assurances from the BDC and tourism officials that the hotel would pay for itself and be an "acceptable" risk for the city to take on.

"How can you expect us to believe Baltimore is one of the world's top destinations for tourists ... but no one wants to do this with us?" Councilwoman Helen L. Holton angrily asked. "Something about that doesn't fit."

Councilman James B. Kraft, a solid member of the opposition, grilled BDC and Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association officials on aspects of the plan, including BACVA's ability and readiness to book groups for the proposed hotel.

When Ronnie Burt, the association's vice president of convention sales, told Kraft that BACVA didn't have a "proactive" selling plan before he arrived this spring, Kraft responded, "Did we need you to arrive from Atlanta to tell us we needed proactive selling teams?"

Kraft also referred to a report done before the center's expansion asserting that Baltimore had enough hotel rooms to handle the additional conventioneers.

"The state of Maryland was virtually assured this was not going to be a cycle of build a convention center and having to build a hotel to support it," he said.

Sun staff writer Doug Donovan contributed to this article.

[PeterSmith]

I'm all for the living wage amendment, I don't see anythink wrong with that. I am, however, getting tired of hearing people say we don't need a hotel at all. I can understand thinking the hotel should not be a priority, or thinking that there simply are not enough funds or that it is too risky to finance a hotel with public money, but it makes sense that if you're a convention planner you would want a location where all who attend the convention can be lodged in one central location. Even if there are enough hotel rooms in Baltimore, I wouldn't want to be in charge of reserving rooms at several different hotels. Just seems like unnecessary work, as well as another reason to choose some other place over Baltimore. Course, I don't really know anything about the convention industry, so maybe it's not that big a deal.

I am concerned, however, about the fact that we are supposed to be this major tourist destination and yet no one wants a piece of our market... Did the other proposals have private investors or were they all planned to be publicly-financed?

Despite the obvious reason of less strain on city funds, the privately-financed hotel would also demonstrate to other investors that Baltimore is a viable market to invest in.

[jaysonjaz]

I am concerned, however, about the fact that we are supposed to be this major tourist destination and yet no one wants a piece of our market... Did the other proposals have private investors or were they all planned to be publicly-financed?

I was listening to an interview yesterday with one of the council members who is against the proposal and he made two good points. He first said that all of the RFPs were due in 2002, about a year after 9/11. He said that there was a lot of uncertainty in the world of tourism at that time and that may have played a part in how many RFPs they got back, and how much help they were asking the city for.

The other point that he made was that everyone who submitted the proposals knew that the city was willing to pay a substantial portion of the tab, so therefore the the proposals were submitted accordingly. What person is going to shell out 200-300 million when they know the city might pick up the tab.

He wanted to put out another request for proposals to see if they could get a better plan now, 3 years later.

[PeterSmith]

I think that is definitely an option to consider. Given Baltimore's recent publicity as a revitalized city that is in the middle of a major turn around, I think the response would be greater. Granted, Baltimore was experiencing revitalization in 2002 as well, but it wasn't as certain or as well-known as it is today, and given the uncertainty of markets after 9/11, those who did submit proposals must have had the highest confidence in Baltimore. Although there is no way to make anyone forget that the city is willing to publicly finance the hotel, I still believe better responses would be received if new requests were issued.
Even though postponing the hotel again would simply put it as one of many in a seemingly endless line of projects destined to never be built in the Baltimore skyline, I do believe the rewards for reissuing RFPs would be worth the wait - and this project will be built, I'm sure. It's just a matter of when and how.

[Gsol]

The dilemma here is to go back to the RFP route again and waste another year or so, or go ahead with the present plan. The convention bureau is talking about loosing large conventions to other cities. There is a long lead time in which various groups book these events. It will take another two years or so the build the Hilton project if ground were broken today.

The alternative is to start the process over and perhaps get a better deal for the city. Yesterday's Balt. Business Journal, reavealed that Hackerman is considering building a Westin Hotel on the site adjacent to the Sheraton. I think this is a better configuration, and more direct access to the Convention Center. In fact, why not combine the existing Sheraton with the adjacent site into one large hotel?

The Camden Yards site will impede the view of the much acclaimed stadium and the historic Camden Station. Also the need for the unsightly ramps across Howard Street can be avoided.

So do we wait for something better and more practical, or go with something finacially risky and less sightly in order to more quickly get the conventioneers back?

[StevenW]

Wait on the Hackerman Conway Street hotel, I say. :D We've been waiting this long, why not a little more?

[StevenW]

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2005/07/11/daily12.html?jst=b_ln_hl

[StevenW]

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2005/07/11/story2.html

This tower would have had an Embassy Suites. :)
http://www.pfarc.com/images/97003/09.jpg

[jeremai]

That's what I don't understand; if Hackerman wants to build a hotel, why does the city need to finance one? Maybe I'm looking at it too simplistically.

[StevenW]

Not sure other than the fact that they probably think they would get more profit faster than giving relief in form of taxes, etc..... :?

[jaysonjaz]

Here is a link to the Abell Foundation report. It gives a pretty good breakdown between the different proposals.

http://www.abell.org/pubsitems/ec_hotel_605.pdf

[PeterSmith]

I guess it's still Baltimore, but I'm not liking it...

City slips as area's jobs leader
Baltimore County moves to front in employment; Growth in health care, high-tech
By Jamie Smith Hopkins
Sun Staff
Originally published July 13, 2005
The long leak of people and jobs from city to suburbs has come to this: Baltimore County is now the region's dominant employment hub.

It apparently happened last year as the county was enjoying strong growth and the city continued to lose ground, according to numbers from the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

By the final three months of last year, Baltimore County had 371,900 jobs, new preliminary numbers show. Baltimore had 358,100. As recently as 15 years ago, the city had roughly 90,000 more jobs than it does now.

People who study the region were caught by surprise because they've seen signs that the city is on the rise again, especially downtown, where construction cranes dot the landscape. But they add that the shift has been in the works for half a century, since people began moving out to new suburbs and employers followed. The county surpassed the city in population in the 1990s.

"Oftentimes, Baltimore County's gains are the city's losses," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. He said the city is doing better now than at any other time in his 12 years in Maryland but, "Baltimore City's long-term future is clearly at risk as an employment center because of the suburbanization of employment."

The county is gaining jobs largely in health care, business and professional services, and high-tech, the data showed.

Take Franklin Square Hospital Center, in Rosedale. It employs about 2,800 people; last year, it added more than 200 jobs and opened a new cancer institute.

Though many of its workers live in the county, it draws substantial numbers from both the city and Harford County. Franklin Square is part of the shift of the county's economy away from manufacturing and toward services, a change that has also deeply affected the city.

"Right now, we are the largest employer on the east side of the county," said Karen Robertson-Keck, the hospital's assistant vice president for human resources. "Used to be Bethlehem Steel."

David S. Iannucci, head of economic development for the county, thinks the county's recent growth is "a small-business success story overall," but big employers have also played a role. Government contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. are expanding quickly around the federal complex in Woodlawn. The St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., the insurance giant that bought Baltimore-based USF&G Corp. seven years ago, moved 700 jobs from the city to Hunt Valley last year.

Even the significantly smaller Howard and Anne Arundel counties are employment magnets in their own right now. Together, their job base equals the city's, state numbers show.

Another suburban jurisdiction - Montgomery - has the state's largest concentration of jobs, about 456,000.

City officials weren't happy about the news that Baltimore is no longer the top center of employment in the region, which comes at a time when Mayor Martin O'Malley is hoping to unseat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. They stressed that the statistics are preliminary and are typically revised, sometimes drastically.

"We have some questions about these numbers," said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

But Celeste Amato, director of business development for the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp., said the county's ascendancy has a positive side.

"Baltimore County being strong is only good for Baltimore City, and vice versa," she said. "County workers are certainly buying homes in Baltimore City, which is pretty obvious by our increasing house values."

Tax-paying city residents are a plus no matter where they work, since the piggy-back income tax they pay goes to the jurisdiction in which they live.

Iannucci agreed that the two jurisdictions "are inextricably linked economically."

"Baltimore City is and remains the center for the economy of the Baltimore region," he said. "What we're seeing is Baltimore County's maturity as a powerful economic center of its own."

The state's count of jobs is extracted from information filed by businesses as they pay their unemployment insurance tax. Patrick Arnold, the state's director of labor market analysis and information, said he's confident that the most recent numbers are accurate reflections of the employment picture.

What's less clear is how quickly counties' job bases are expanding or shrinking. That's because in the past, businesses with multiple locations often credited all their employment to their headquarters. The state is now more aggressively pressing companies to report where the jobs really are, Arnold said.

So state numbers show Baltimore County's employment base growing by nearly 11,000 jobs from fall 2003 to fall 2004 - more than any other jurisdiction in Maryland - but the real number is probably about 5,000, he said. Some of the "new" jobs were there all along but credited in the past to, say, the city.

On the flip side, the numbers show losses of 10,300 jobs in the city between fall 2003 and fall 2004, but the majority - possibly all but about 3,000 - were never there to begin with, Arnold said.

That means the county might have gained the upper hand in regional employment before last year, though at the moment the state numbers suggest it happened in January 2004.

The city doesn't want to lose prospects or current employers to anyone, but if it has to, it prefers to lose them to the county that's joined at the hip, said Amato, the BDC official. In fact, the two jurisdictions recently began marketing themselves together to the biotechnology industry because they have assets - not just proximity - in common. They staffed the same booth at a conference in Philadelphia last month and in the past few days launched a joint Web site.

"It's smart for us to accept that Baltimore is Baltimore, and city-county doesn't mean a whole lot when you're trying to attract a business," Amato said.

Though the city was still losing jobs last year, the federal government's separate monthly survey of employers shows a turnaround this past spring: slight growth. That matches Amato's sense of things; she said she's seeing an uptick in interest from businesses considering a move to Baltimore.

These are good signs for a long beleaguered city, said Donald F. Norris, professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Though its primary suburb will probably keep gaining employment heft, Baltimore isn't losing ground at the rate that it once did, he said.

"Look at the skyline of Baltimore City," he said. "Particularly east of the harbor, none of those offices and complexes were there 10 years ago."

[PeterSmith]

Deals for city-owned lots questioned
$2 million below appraisal accepted by BDC for land
By Doug Donovan
Sun Staff
Originally published July 13, 2005
Two city-owned parcels of prime downtown Baltimore real estate were sold for more than $2 million below their appraised market values, according to recently released documents.

The properties bookend a block of Washington Boulevard, with one across the street from Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the other next to the proposed site of a publicly financed convention center hotel.

The Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development agency that is proposing the hotel, brokered both deals and had the support of Mayor Martin O'Malley and the city's spending board despite appraisals at higher figures.

City Councilman Robert W. Curran, who has been looking into the deals for weeks, said his judiciary and legislative investigations committee will hold a hearing Sept. 12 to publicly demand answers from BDC and city real estate officials.

"I have a problem when developers wag the tail of the BDC" at the expense of taxpayers, Curran said. The BDC is a nonprofit corporation created in 1991, overseeing the development of downtown projects, city-owned businesses and industrial parks.

BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie and city Comptroller Joan M. Pratt said the two lots required special consideration to spur their development because of construction difficulties at the sites.

Curran said he does not assume any wrongdoing but wants answers to deals he finds questionable: "The comptroller's office is supposed to be the watchdog. They were silent."

Pratt said the city came up with the best possible prices considering the site limitations.

In January the city agreed to sell a third of an acre at the northeast corner of Greene Street and Washington Boulevard for $609,000 to a group that includes Next Realty Mid-Atlantic of Alexandria, Va., and Duane Taylor, a Baltimore developer. The group plans an eight-story, 126-room hotel called the Inn at Camden Yards.

Taylor, formerly of Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse Inc., had been leasing a portion of the property since December 1999 with an option to buy, operating a parking lot there.

The sale requires Taylor to pay the city $53,000 in unpaid rent and $83,612 in back taxes, penalties and interest, Pratt said. City officials have said they never sent tax bills because of a record-keeping glitch.

The sale price of $609,000 is far less than the $1.29 million appraisal performed in March 2002 at the request of the BDC by Gilbert Advising & Appraising LLC. But the final price was more than a second, $500,000 appraisal that Colliers Pinkard determined for Taylor's team on April 17, 2003.

A critical difference between the two appraisals appears to involve control of an alley that bisects the property - Gilbert's assumed control; Colliers Pinkard's did not.

Brodie said control of the alley would not make a $790,000 difference in value for the 11,230-square-foot property. He said the Gilbert appraisal was too high and did not consider the plot's awkward triangular shape and city utilities beneath.

"The $1.2 million price worked out to $115 per square foot, which doesn't stack up in that area," Brodie said. "The $500,000 is $46 per square foot, which is more consistent" with other deals in that area.

But in a May 2003 letter to Taylor, Brodie wrote that the Colliers Pinkard appraisal used "[out]dated land sales" and "the sale of smaller, mid-block lots that are significantly inferior to this ... site."

He also wrote that BDC did "not accept the appraiser's conclusion that the estimated market value requires" a discount because of the lack of control over the alley.

Nevertheless, Brodie concluded in the letter that "in the interest of the development moving forward ... we propose to accept" a value of $500,000. ($109,000 was added based on another, adjacent portion.)

Taylor could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Real estate experts said governments often sell property below market values to encourage development. But they questioned using dated appraisals.

"They were really stale appraisals on the properties," said Joseph T. "Jody" Landers III, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. "I think for commercial property downtown - particularly in the vicinity of the two stadiums and the University of Maryland - I think they need to let the market work and do a better job at getting competitive offers and make sure they're looking at current appraisals."

John Hentschel, president of Hentschel Real Estate Services and a former real estate officer for the city, agreed.

"The fact that the alley is there or not there is critical to the determination of value," said Hentschel, who is also an appraiser. "It can influence value."

A 30,536-square-foot vacant property used as a parking lot just a block away from Taylor's site was purchased by the University of Maryland Medical System Corp. in May for $4 million, which equals $131 per square foot, according to land records. That's almost triple the $46 per square foot that Brodie said was fair for Taylor's site.

Hentschel said governments consider different factors than private entities when determining values - such as the jobs and economic development a project could spur. Another consideration is the city's commitment to increasing the stake of minority developers in downtown deals, a priority for O'Malley.

"[Duane Taylor] is a young African-American developer," Brodie said yesterday.

Later he added that Taylor's race did not enter into "our economic analysis."

"We're pleased there is minority participation but that doesn't enter into our objective look" at deals, Brodie said.

The second lot is at the southwest corner of Pratt and Paca streets and was sold in December 2003 for $750,000 to a development team featuring several of the city's most prominent minority developers and contractors - Brian D. Morris, Dean S. Harrison and Ronald H. Lipscomb.

The team is building a luxury high-rise condominium called the Zenith, heralded two years ago by O'Malley as an example of outreach to minority-owned businesses.

The city's appraisal for the project was completed by Gilbert on Sept. 14, 2001, more than two years prior to the sale. It stated the value of the 23,015-square-foot property to be $1.96 million, or $85 per square foot.

The price was lowered to $750,000 - $33 per square foot - after Morris and his partners had to reduce the building's height to avoid helicopters from the nearby Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

"We couldn't maximize the use of the property," said Morris, chief executive officer of Legacy Harrison Enterprises and an O'Malley-supported appointee to the city's school board. "We and the BDC determined that the price we paid was a fair price for the property."

Pratt said $350,000 was knocked off the price because the developers would have to spend that much on environmental cleanup. Other terms related to the cleanup could require Zenith to provide the city an additional $175,000.

Curran said he wants further explanations from BDC officials and Pratt, and he thinks the council should be made aware of appraisals before deals are finalized.

He also plans to re-examine the long-delayed plans to extend Key Highway in a northeastern arc, connecting it to Nicholson Street in Locust Point. In December 1999 the city and state agreed to spend $5 million each on the project known as the "loop road." Under the deal, developer C. William Struever's company, Hull Point LLC, would pick up any costs above $10 million. The road would connect Key Highway to Struever's Tide Point development and alleviate truck traffic that now must pass through Locust Point.

Now the city has agreed to take on that additional risk and Curran wants to know why.

Struever said his company has already invested more than $2 million into the project and that its new estimated cost of $19 million stems from the city's desire to install utility, storm water and rail crossing safety improvements along the highway.

[NewBaltimore1980]

Keep in mind the county is more than double the size of the city. I dont think this is a good comparison.


I guess it's still Baltimore, but I'm not liking it...

City slips as area's jobs leader
Baltimore County moves to front in employment; Growth in health care, high-tech
By Jamie Smith Hopkins
Sun Staff
Originally published July 13, 2005
The long leak of people and jobs from city to suburbs has come to this: Baltimore County is now the region's dominant employment hub.

It apparently happened last year as the county was enjoying strong growth and the city continued to lose ground, according to numbers from the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

By the final three months of last year, Baltimore County had 371,900 jobs, new preliminary numbers show. Baltimore had 358,100. As recently as 15 years ago, the city had roughly 90,000 more jobs than it does now.

People who study the region were caught by surprise because they've seen signs that the city is on the rise again, especially downtown, where construction cranes dot the landscape. But they add that the shift has been in the works for half a century, since people began moving out to new suburbs and employers followed. The county surpassed the city in population in the 1990s.

"Oftentimes, Baltimore County's gains are the city's losses," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. He said the city is doing better now than at any other time in his 12 years in Maryland but, "Baltimore City's long-term future is clearly at risk as an employment center because of the suburbanization of employment."

The county is gaining jobs largely in health care, business and professional services, and high-tech, the data showed.

Take Franklin Square Hospital Center, in Rosedale. It employs about 2,800 people; last year, it added more than 200 jobs and opened a new cancer institute.

Though many of its workers live in the county, it draws substantial numbers from both the city and Harford County. Franklin Square is part of the shift of the county's economy away from manufacturing and toward services, a change that has also deeply affected the city.

"Right now, we are the largest employer on the east side of the county," said Karen Robertson-Keck, the hospital's assistant vice president for human resources. "Used to be Bethlehem Steel."

David S. Iannucci, head of economic development for the county, thinks the county's recent growth is "a small-business success story overall," but big employers have also played a role. Government contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. are expanding quickly around the federal complex in Woodlawn. The St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., the insurance giant that bought Baltimore-based USF&G Corp. seven years ago, moved 700 jobs from the city to Hunt Valley last year.

Even the significantly smaller Howard and Anne Arundel counties are employment magnets in their own right now. Together, their job base equals the city's, state numbers show.

Another suburban jurisdiction - Montgomery - has the state's largest concentration of jobs, about 456,000.

City officials weren't happy about the news that Baltimore is no longer the top center of employment in the region, which comes at a time when Mayor Martin O'Malley is hoping to unseat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. They stressed that the statistics are preliminary and are typically revised, sometimes drastically.

"We have some questions about these numbers," said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

But Celeste Amato, director of business development for the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp., said the county's ascendancy has a positive side.

"Baltimore County being strong is only good for Baltimore City, and vice versa," she said. "County workers are certainly buying homes in Baltimore City, which is pretty obvious by our increasing house values."

Tax-paying city residents are a plus no matter where they work, since the piggy-back income tax they pay goes to the jurisdiction in which they live.

Iannucci agreed that the two jurisdictions "are inextricably linked economically."

"Baltimore City is and remains the center for the economy of the Baltimore region," he said. "What we're seeing is Baltimore County's maturity as a powerful economic center of its own."

The state's count of jobs is extracted from information filed by businesses as they pay their unemployment insurance tax. Patrick Arnold, the state's director of labor market analysis and information, said he's confident that the most recent numbers are accurate reflections of the employment picture.

What's less clear is how quickly counties' job bases are expanding or shrinking. That's because in the past, businesses with multiple locations often credited all their employment to their headquarters. The state is now more aggressively pressing companies to report where the jobs really are, Arnold said.

So state numbers show Baltimore County's employment base growing by nearly 11,000 jobs from fall 2003 to fall 2004 - more than any other jurisdiction in Maryland - but the real number is probably about 5,000, he said. Some of the "new" jobs were there all along but credited in the past to, say, the city.

On the flip side, the numbers show losses of 10,300 jobs in the city between fall 2003 and fall 2004, but the majority - possibly all but about 3,000 - were never there to begin with, Arnold said.

That means the county might have gained the upper hand in regional employment before last year, though at the moment the state numbers suggest it happened in January 2004.

The city doesn't want to lose prospects or current employers to anyone, but if it has to, it prefers to lose them to the county that's joined at the hip, said Amato, the BDC official. In fact, the two jurisdictions recently began marketing themselves together to the biotechnology industry because they have assets - not just proximity - in common. They staffed the same booth at a conference in Philadelphia last month and in the past few days launched a joint Web site.

"It's smart for us to accept that Baltimore is Baltimore, and city-county doesn't mean a whole lot when you're trying to attract a business," Amato said.

Though the city was still losing jobs last year, the federal government's separate monthly survey of employers shows a turnaround this past spring: slight growth. That matches Amato's sense of things; she said she's seeing an uptick in interest from businesses considering a move to Baltimore.

These are good signs for a long beleaguered city, said Donald F. Norris, professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Though its primary suburb will probably keep gaining employment heft, Baltimore isn't losing ground at the rate that it once did, he said.

"Look at the skyline of Baltimore City," he said. "Particularly east of the harbor, none of those offices and complexes were there 10 years ago."

[PeterSmith]

Does Legacy-Harrison have a website? They have so many projects going on in the Baltimore area and it's often hard to find out about them because I've never been able to find a website for them. Anyone know?

[PeterSmith]

This is true. The county is much larger than the city...and I assume that once the region reaches a certain size, it is inevitable that the larger Baltimore County will grow to be larger than the smaller Baltimore City - but has the Baltimore region reached this size yet, or do people still prefer a surburban setting to an urban one? How do other cities that are located within larger counties compare?

[PeterSmith]

In other news, this is one project that seems to be going against the trends and moving along fairly fast.

http://www.charlesstreet.org/PDF/final%20report_exec_sum.pdf

This is one project that I'm excited about a lot. The people of Baltimore need to be exposed to more rail once again. I think rail is a lot like heroine - once you've had a taste you can't help but to demand more.

[Gsol]

In other news, this is one project that seems to be going against the trends and moving along fairly fast.

http://www.charlesstreet.org/PDF/final%20report_exec_sum.pdf

This is one project that I'm excited about a lot. The people of Baltimore need to be exposed to more rail once again. I think rail is a lot like heroine - once you've had a taste you can't help but to demand more.

There is a major advantage to streetcars that was omitted in the referenced report. Streecars are quiet and non-polluting.

However, there are downsides to this technology that the community and riders are going to have to deal with. (1) Riders often have to board the cars in the middle of the street. If the tracks are in the curb lane, deliveries cannot not be made to businesses and residents. (2) The interaction with streetcars and automotive traffic. Vehicles must wait while streecars pickup their riders. (3) Streetcar breakdowns. What happens on a fixed guideway when one vehicle is disabled? (4) Where are cars stored? (5) How do the cars layover at the end of the line. Do they simply sit idle in the middle of the street?

The report does not address these questions. Those problems led to demise of this technology. Streetcars are neat, but the reality of re-introducing this late 19th century technology into the 21st is going to be a tough sell.

[PeterSmith]

Haven't they been reintroducing street cars in other parts of the country? How do these cities deal with such problems?

[Gsol]

Haven't they been reintroducing street cars in other parts of the country? How do these cities deal with such problems?

Streetcars are usually separated from auto traffic, either by private right-of-way or dedicated lanes on wide streets. In Philadelphia and Boston streetcars operate either below ground or above. In San Francisco they operate with traffic on wide streets. Portland Oregon has just begun service on downtown streets, and I believe it runs with traffic. However, Portland is a more daring city and ecologically astute. In fact, I think the red streetcar on the cover of the report is the one in Portland.

I am not saying it cannot be done in Baltimore, but the streets being considered are quite narrow - especially downtown. Knowing Baltimore's love affair with autos, there is going to be a lot of gripping if and when this plan is seriously considered.

In an earlier post I suggested using double-decker buses. They are very popular with tourists in New York. They are also visible and should attract the curiosity of visitors to the city. It can be done quicker and cheaper than streetcars. This also provides more flexibilty in establishing routes. I think the Charles Street Midtown group ought to visit the Big Apple and see how successful they are and how easily it can be adapted to Baltimore's needs.

[jeremai]

Don't the concerns raised here also apply to the sections of the light rail that run on Howard Street? Also, what differentiates streetcars from light rail?

[SoBoChris]

I may be wrong, but I think the main differences between streetcars and light rail is that streetcars are smaller and more intimate then light rail, and streetcars are run individually where as light rail can and do have multiple cars attached.

Also, construction of a streetcar line costs millions less then light rail.

[jeremai]

Thanks for that. I just looked it up on Wikipedia (guess I could have done that to begin with, hey?) and it pretty much says what you said. In some cases the terms have been used interchangably:
"In Toronto, the city Transit Commission had to rename a recent project to build a dedicated right of way for one of its streetcar lines as a 'new, modern LRT' in order to obtain the support of politicians, and then change it back to a 'normal, familiar streetcar' to be accepted by the area's residents (the actual project was the same the entire time)."

[SoBoChris]

Portland opened their streetcar line in 2001 and the system has already paid for itself, plus the fact that millions in development along the route have occured. If you're waiting for that big development push into Mt. Vernon and Charles Village, this is the city's big opportunity.

In terms of having to wait behind the streetcar when it lets people on and off, that's what happens with the buses now. How many times have you driven around a bus that has stopped? If the street is too narrow to allow you to go around it, you're just going to have to sit and wait. That goes for anything, bus, delivery truck, streetcar.

I'm so excited that this plan is even being considered. I for one am keeping my fingers crossed that it actually happens, and happens soon.

[jeremai]

I agree with you Chris; the sooner the better. I do agree with some older comments that the line would be better placed farther from the light rail to serve different areas, but as you say, this line will spur more development, and other routes will come in time.

If this does get built I'd like to see it, the light rail and subway presented as a unified system, on the same map, accepting the same tickets, etc.

[jaysonjaz]

I think this could be a good thing, but the key to its sucess will be how much they charge to ride the thing.

First and foremost, it should really be designed with Baltimore citizens in mind and therefore should be made fairly cheap. They need to make the fare reasonable so people who live here will see it as a cheaper alternative than driving.

If it only costs me a dollar or two to ride from the Inner Harbor to The Charles, well thats perfect b/c it saves me money on parking. However, if they make it too touristy, they may think they can charge $5 per ride. That times two for my wife, and it costs me more to ride the street car than to just drive up and park.

This is my one complaint about the water taxis. Its much cheaper and faster for me to just drive to Canton or Fells Point and park than to walk to the inner harbor and take a water taxi. It costs $8 to ride them, so no way I'm going to pay $16 for my wife to ride when we can drive and park for a fraction of that cost.

Thank you for listening to my rant
:soapbox:

btw: here is the webpage for the Portland system. It has lots of good information
http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/index.php

[PeterSmith]

How long has this plan been being considered? Apparently this study was done almost a year and a half ago, but I hadn't heard anything about it until maybe a month or so ago. I agree with what you said, Chris, about having to wait behind a streetcar as the same as having to wait behind a bus. The streets in Baltimore are too narrow, so buses just stop in the middle of the road anyway, not like here in Miami where there are littles spots on the side of the road for buses to pull off onto when picking up and dropping off passengers. So, in that instance, the problem already exists and implementing the streetcar wouldn't change it. It's just a problem people have to deal with.
However, Gsol presents a good point about either forcing passengers to board in the middle of the street or prohibiting delivery trucks from making deliveries. Are there alley ways in that area where deliveries could be made instead? Also, though, it's not unusual to see delivery trucks double parked in even Baltimore's most narrow streets. In downtown I've seen trucks parked three deep unloading goods to merchants. Although if this became the rule and not the exception, it might be a problem.....Course it might also give them the slowed traffic they've been looking for......

One more thing...how exactly does slowed traffic bring about better business? Are the suggesting that people will take more notice of the shops and therefore e more inclined to return there when they need something, or are they suggesting people will exit there cars at a traffic jam and do a little shopping before the light turns green...? :)

[PeterSmith]

I agree with you jason on gearing it towards Baltimoreans and not tourists. It needs to be a viable form of transportation, not an attraction in itself. That is my problem with the water taxis - they're so expensive and they market them as though they're a tourist attraction themselves. I came back to Baltimore this past spring to show my girlfriend where I'm from and we did the whole Inner Harbor thing (a little side note, I never really saw the tourist appeal of a lot of the Inner Harbor attractions, but she loved everything there), but anyway we rode on the water taxi. It was $16 and he gave us a STAMP. We didn't even get a ticket or anything, the guy (who I think lived on the water taxi) stamped our hands so that we could get back on later. But after he dropped us off at Fells Point he then informed us that he wouldn't be returning and that the water taxi was finished for the day.....it was 4:30pm. What shit is that? We had to walk back to downtown, not that it's that far, but still. $16 for a five minute boat ride. Anyway, enough on that. The streetcar needs to be designed with a different intent in mind.

[jaysonjaz]

Yeah, what a rip off. I thought the whole point of the city forcing the two water taxis to merge was so that they could make it more commuter friendly. If that was the case, then they should make them offer reasonable one way fares. I don't need to ride all day, I just need to go to Fells Point, drink a few beers, and then ride back.

Anyway, I think the street care could do wonders for places like North Ave. It seems like the sucess of the area around The Charles is bound to spread north from there, but something like that could really help that area take off. People could move into housing there knowing that they could easily get downtown. Again, I am 200% behind this project. :)

[Hood]

I think the street car would fail miserable on North Avenue. It has to be in a place that is solid now and can’t be a pioneering type endeavor. I love the Charles street corridor idea because it travels through good parts of town except for the stretch north of the Charles until 26th street at Hopkins. But that is a short stretch. I would like it to continue south through federal hill, turn onto fort to the east. Then north on lawrence and then on key highway to serve the industrial properties which will be turning over to mixed use and then back to the harbor. That would be my wish.

[jaysonjaz]

I think the street car would fail miserable on North Avenue. It has to be in a place that is solid now and can’t be a pioneering type endeavor. I love the Charles street corridor idea because it travels through good parts of town except for the stretch north of the Charles until 26th street at Hopkins. But that is a short stretch. I would like it to continue south through federal hill, turn onto fort to the east. Then north on lawrence and then on key highway to serve the industrial properties which will be turning over to mixed use and then back to the harbor. That would be my wish.

no no no.. i think you misunderstood me. I think it would spur development along the intersection of North Ave and Charles St.. Maybe a few blocks of decent housing in that area would then begin to help give North Ave. something to live for
but yes I agree with you.. an east-west North Ave line would fail miserably.

I think sending the line all the way down Key Hwy and maybe even down to Ft. McHenry. Key HWY is the one place along the line that would actually be wide enough to serve traffic and the Streetcar.

[Hood]

no no no.. i think you misunderstood me. I think it would spur development along the intersection of North Ave and Charles St.. Maybe a few blocks of decent housing in that area would then begin to help give North Ave. something to live for
but yes I agree with you.. an east-west North Ave line would fail miserably.

I think sending the line all the way down Key Hwy and maybe even down to Ft. McHenry. Key HWY is the one place along the line that would actually be wide enough to serve traffic and the Streetcar.

I had to come back here because I realized what an asshole I must have sounded like with such harsh writing. So yes, you and I both are thinking about that gap of goodness that is the intersection of charles and north.

[StevenW]

Do you guys think a cable car line running east and west pratt would be a good idea? :D
Then a line could run north to south from the light street for a little while south of pratt and all the way to the north of light for about 7 or 8 blocks. Then on the east side a line from pratt going south to harbor east/fells point/Canton. :D
Would this work or am I just dreaming? :D :D :D

[jaysonjaz]

Do you guys think a cable car line running east and west pratt would be a good idea? :D
Then a line could run north to south from the light street for a little while south of pratt and all the way to the north of light for about 7 or 8 blocks. Then on the east side a line from pratt going south to harbor east/fells point/Canton. :D
Would this work or am I just dreaming? :D :D :D

Ok heres the deal :)
We get the cable car going north and south from the inner harbor, then we get the Baltimore-Lift going east and west from there.

http://www.baltimorelift.com/

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/817/left4fe.jpg

btw: no offense taken Jeffbaltmore :)

[StevenW]

http://www.baltimorelift.com/images/approach/left_details.gif

Very nice website. :) Thanks for posting it. :)

BTW, did you notice in the rendering above 414 Water Street Tower? :D

[Eerik]

I agree with you jason on gearing it towards Baltimoreans and not tourists. It needs to be a viable form of transportation, not an attraction in itself. That is my problem with the water taxis - they're so expensive and they market them as though they're a tourist attraction themselves. I came back to Baltimore this past spring to show my girlfriend where I'm from and we did the whole Inner Harbor thing (a little side note, I never really saw the tourist appeal of a lot of the Inner Harbor attractions, but she loved everything there)...

I agree. I don't understand how a lot of the stuff at the Inner Harbor can be considered appealing. I think it was Ed Gunts a few years back who alluded to all the shoreline attractions as being cluttered and tacky. Not his exact words, but that was his gist...

I had to chuckle at your comment about visiting the Inner Harbor with your girlfriend. My wife isn't originally from the United States, but claims to enjoy the Inner Harbor and Baltimore. I have to wonder sometimes if she really likes Baltimore as much as I do, or is it that she likes Baltimore because I do...?

As to the water taxis: $8 is a rip. Back in the late 80s when I worked in Baltimore, I would sometimes park my car in Fells Point and "commute" with the water taxi. Or in the winter I would ride that fake-trolley bus line that ran all over town. At least back then there were two water taxi companies competing. Today it's more of a monopoly...

[SoBoChris]

I would think that if the streetcar system was run by the MTA, then the price would be the same is it is for the subway/light rail/bus. Currently it's $1.60 for a one way trip. If you get a day pass which is I believe $3.50, you can ride all three modes of transportation all day.

By the way Steven, cable cars and streetcars are two different things. The cable cars like the ones in San Francisco are pulled along by a cable underground. Streetcars are run by an overhead electrical wire. Just some useless knowledge I had stored away in my brain.

[StevenW]

Yeah, I knew that. :)
I just prefer cable cars for the charm. :D
Street cars are ok, too. :)

[StevenW]

BTW, Baltimore and other cities could learn from San Francisco. They got the whole public transportation thing down pat. :) My wife and I and our friend went last year and had NO problem getting around. Car? WHY? It wasn't needed. Price? Try 15 dollars for a WEEKS pass of unlimited public transportation. Subway, cable cars, street cars, busses, etc.... :) Although Baltimore is about 2/3rds larger in city limits size, it has close to the same density. The downtown portions of the city plus Harbor East/Canton/Fellspoint would benifit greatly through a mix of this transports. I see the lifts, cablecars, street cars, subway and the bus system along with the "water Taxis" ;)
Now, the biggest problem, ....... who is going to pay for it all? :D ;)

[Brian21]

http://www.baltimorelift.com/images/approach/left_details.gif

Very nice website. :) Thanks for posting it. :)

BTW, did you notice in the rendering above 414 Water Street Tower? :D


^ was just about to say the same thing Steven. Also there are a few other tower renderings in that graphic, they also have a rendering of the Westin Tower too. and also a rendering of an unknown tower a little farther north.

[scando]

Don't the concerns raised here also apply to the sections of the light rail that run on Howard Street? Also, what differentiates streetcars from light rail?

The concerns raised do apply to the light rail on Howard St since it sucks in that stretch. The LR is miserably slow there due to the lack of signal priority and that wide street only accomodates 1 lane of traffic in each direction. Every time I ride that stretch of track there is amost an accident and invariably the LR has to wait for a car or truck that partially blocks the LR lane. If they do build a street car on Charles St, they ought to make it narrower than the LR. Furthermore, I don't know if this technology still exists, but there used to be trolley cars that were electified (and therefore no diesel noise, vibration, engine heat or odor) but ran on rubber tires and had limited steering so they could turn in and out of traffic and move to the curb for loading passengers. I've heard of them being called "trackless trolleys", but have never seen them still running. Something like that could address the issues of mixing with cars, could minimize costs since no rails would be needed and would still be cute enough that tourists and fussy metrosexuals would ride them.

[scando]

I agree with you Chris; the sooner the better. I do agree with some older comments that the line would be better placed farther from the light rail to serve different areas, but as you say, this line will spur more development, and other routes will come in time.

If this does get built I'd like to see it, the light rail and subway presented as a unified system, on the same map, accepting the same tickets, etc.

That would be nice, but it would have to come from the MTA, which is not planning anything like a new streetcar line in that location. This plan seems to be completely separate from anything MTA is planning, more of a City initiative.

[scando]

Ok heres the deal :)
We get the cable car going north and south from the inner harbor, then we get the Baltimore-Lift going east and west from there.

http://www.baltimorelift.com/

btw: no offense taken Jeffbaltmore :)

Do you know if this thing is still under consideration? I heard about it a couple years ago, thought it might be a good idea but never heard anything again. It seems that it was relatively cheap (at least compared to LR or subway) and required very little footprint on the ground (just poles and stairs, although ADA might be a complication on that). I would like to think that thing might actually happen.

[Eerik]

In terms of that graphic, Earnie Caldwell, who now works for BDC, drew it. At the time he worked for the City Planning Department. The original copy is rather large, about four feet by four feet, and mostly drawn by hand. Incredible detail…

The lots north of the stadium depict what was then planned as the national headquarters for HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration). There was a heated battle between Baltimore City and Baltimore County for those 2000-3000 jobs. HCFA ended up in Woodlawn.

That small tower just north of the stadium lots depicts the loft style apartment building currently under construction at the northwest corner of Howard and Lombard. With all due respect, in hindsight you have to really wonder what they heck they were thinking to imagine such a small slender tower for an apartment building!

Notice the tall slender tower just north of the 414 Water Street building (414 is rendered here not as an apartment tower, but as an office building). Once it was clear Provident Bank wasn’t going to build their 46-story tower, the city still envisioned for at least some kind of 250,000-350,000 square foot office building at the site. Today, it’s a part of the Mercy Hospital complex (the expansion wing that was just finished a year or two ago).

The Center for Marine Archeology on piers five and six had two towers planned along Pratt Street. I always liked the notion of a small cluster of buildings on the eastern edge of the business district; it would have created a nice gateway in and out of the eastern edge.

But most important, notice the tower behind the Sheraton hotel as well as the tower above the Hyatt garage. At the time of this rendering, the convention center expansion hadn’t even been approved; for that matter businesses were still being moved out of the Camden Yards Industrial Park and demolition for stadium construction had hardly begun. Even at this stage, a “notion” was present that perhaps the parking lot behind the Sheraton was underutilized and could be used as part of a footprint for a hotel of some sort that tied-in with the center; the only downside being Otterbein church would be surrounded.

The Sheraton and Hyatt hotels have been and continue to be evaluated as possible expansion sites for hotel rooms. So far the only other possible scenario that hasn’t been discussed is building a hotel above the convention center expansion. Supposedly when the design work was being done for the expansion, ideas called for designing the trusses that span the expansion with supports for future construction above the center itself for a 45-storey hotel tower. I think this idea was largely abandoned due to the ridiculous cost it would have added to already tight budget. Yet I recall the trusses and center were organized in a manner programmatically to allow the possibility for such a tower in the future.

This convention center hotel-business is hardly over…it’s only now beginning to get interesting!

[CU_rak]

Not sure if these have been posted before...

Aegon (200 N. Charles)
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/25/aegonaerial10wa.th.jpg (http://img347.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aegonaerial10wa.jpg)

400 W. Baltimore Street (eww)
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7357/photo400westbaltimore13ik.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo400westbaltimore13ik.jpg)

Symphony Center
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6194/photosymphony0217kz.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photosymphony0217kz.jpg)

Pier Side at Harborview
http://www.piersideapartments.com/index.html

An undated report on the Baltimore retail sector (check out Centerpoint and Lockwood place designs!)
http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/publications/Retail_inserts.pdf

[jaysonjaz]

Not sure if these have been posted before...

Aegon (200 N. Charles)
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/25/aegonaerial10wa.th.jpg (http://img347.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aegonaerial10wa.jpg)

400 W. Baltimore Street (eww)
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7357/photo400westbaltimore13ik.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo400westbaltimore13ik.jpg)

Symphony Center
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6194/photosymphony0217kz.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photosymphony0217kz.jpg)

Pier Side at Harborview
http://www.piersideapartments.com/index.html

An undated report on the Baltimore retail sector (check out Centerpoint and Lockwood place designs!)
http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/publications/Retail_inserts.pdf

As far as I know the 400 W. Baltimore thing is a no-go, thankfully.

As far as the PDF goes, I think it is a bit dated. The most current information in there seems to be at 2001-2002. As shown by this little snipped:
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/7997/image45bw.jpg

The picture of Centerpoint seems to be right on:
http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/6268/image30lc.jpg

The picture of Lockwood place is an older image and what we're ending up with is a lot less exciting.

The picture of the St. James is interesting to me because this is a Westside project that hasnt gotten underway yet. Its going to be at Franklin and Howard up by the old Mayfare theatre.

http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/8388/image27tk.jpg

[jaysonjaz]

Snippet from the Sun today. Its about time they did this, since we've been talking about it on and off for a while. Once they get the Super Fresh in there, that place will be pretty nice.

In other business, the spending board accepted a four-year, $2 million state grant to finance the revitalization of the 1.67-acre Center Plaza in downtown. City departments will work with the Downtown Partnership to implement a plan to install more grass, new walkways, seating, lighting and water fountains to the plaza atop a parking garage north of Fayette Street and between Charles and Liberty streets.

[StevenW]

In terms of that graphic, Earnie Caldwell, who now works for BDC, drew it. At the time he worked for the City Planning Department. The original copy is rather large, about four feet by four feet, and mostly drawn by hand. Incredible detail…

The lots north of the stadium depict what was then planned as the national headquarters for HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration). There was a heated battle between Baltimore City and Baltimore County for those 2000-3000 jobs. HCFA ended up in Woodlawn.

That small tower just north of the stadium lots depicts the loft style apartment building currently under construction at the northwest corner of Howard and Lombard. With all due respect, in hindsight you have to really wonder what they heck they were thinking to imagine such a small slender tower for an apartment building!

Notice the tall slender tower just north of the 414 Water Street building (414 is rendered here not as an apartment tower, but as an office building). Once it was clear Provident Bank wasn’t going to build their 46-story tower, the city still envisioned for at least some kind of 250,000-350,000 square foot office building at the site. Today, it’s a part of the Mercy Hospital complex (the expansion wing that was just finished a year or two ago).

The Center for Marine Archeology on piers five and six had two towers planned along Pratt Street. I always liked the notion of a small cluster of buildings on the eastern edge of the business district; it would have created a nice gateway in and out of the eastern edge.

But most important, notice the tower behind the Sheraton hotel as well as the tower above the Hyatt garage. At the time of this rendering, the convention center expansion hadn’t even been approved; for that matter businesses were still being moved out of the Camden Yards Industrial Park and demolition for stadium construction had hardly begun. Even at this stage, a “notion” was present that perhaps the parking lot behind the Sheraton was underutilized and could be used as part of a footprint for a hotel of some sort that tied-in with the center; the only downside being Otterbein church would be surrounded.

The Sheraton and Hyatt hotels have been and continue to be evaluated as possible expansion sites for hotel rooms. So far the only other possible scenario that hasn’t been discussed is building a hotel above the convention center expansion. Supposedly when the design work was being done for the expansion, ideas called for designing the trusses that span the expansion with supports for future construction above the center itself for a 45-storey hotel tower. I think this idea was largely abandoned due to the ridiculous cost it would have added to already tight budget. Yet I recall the trusses and center were organized in a manner programmatically to allow the possibility for such a tower in the future.

This convention center hotel-business is hardly over…it’s only now beginning to get interesting!

Thanks for explaining this to us, Eerik. :)
Good info, indeed! :)

[StevenW]

Snippet from the Sun today. Its about time they did this, since we've been talking about it on and off for a while. Once they get the Super Fresh in there, that place will be pretty nice.

Good news. That'll be good for downtown. :)

In today's Sun.com: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.hotel14jul14,1,1187810.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

A good read. :)

[StevenW]

Harbor Bank earnings swell almost 30 percent
Rachel Sams
Staff
Earnings at Harbor Bank of Maryland rose nearly 30 percent for the second quarter.


Harbor Bank reported second-quarter earnings of $632,421, or 78 cents per share. A year ago, Harbor Bank earned $490,833, or 57 cents per share.

Officials credit the earnings increase to successful expense controls, quality loan bookings and well-chosen investments. In a statement, CEO Joseph Haskins Jr. said he "looks forward to finishing the year stronger than ever."

Assets rose 3.7 percent from a year ago, reaching an all-time high of $242 million. Loans grew by 11.4 percent to $180 million. And deposits rose 3.6 percent to $217 million.

Harbor Bank ranked ninth on this year's list of the nation's largest African-American-owned banks published in Black Enterprise magazine.



© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.


I have a question for you guys.

Between 1st Mariner Bank and Harbor Bank, which one has the ability or likihood to becoming a major bank in the future? I mean, like the next big corperate "powerhouse" bank? I say, 1st Mariner Bank. :)

[StevenW]

Recognize this Baltimore tower? http://www.baltimorearchitecture.org/images/index.jpg

[jaysonjaz]

Recognize this Baltimore tower? http://www.baltimorearchitecture.org/images/index.jpg

I recognize it, but its not there anymore.
The interesting thing is that I heard it was carefully dismantled and stored away, so someday it may rise again.

[waj0527]

Snippet from the Sun today. Its about time they did this, since we've been talking about it on and off for a while. Once they get the Super Fresh in there, that place will be pretty nice.

I certainly hope the Center Plaza work gets underway and soon. It was supposed to be completed last year some time. Good to see that the state approved funding this time and Im guessing that the city and the parking garage owner finally settled the dispute that blocked this in the first place.

Nice to see Baltimore upgrading its public squares and plazas. The War Memorial Plaza work is still being done, the upgrade at Center Plaza and Hopkins Plaza should be getting some work esp. when the work at the Mechanic starts.

[Gsol]

The concerns raised do apply to the light rail on Howard St since it sucks in that stretch. The LR is miserably slow there due to the lack of signal priority and that wide street only accomodates 1 lane of traffic in each direction. Every time I ride that stretch of track there is amost an accident and invariably the LR has to wait for a car or truck that partially blocks the LR lane. If they do build a street car on Charles St, they ought to make it narrower than the LR. Furthermore, I don't know if this technology still exists, but there used to be trolley cars that were electified (and therefore no diesel noise, vibration, engine heat or odor) but ran on rubber tires and had limited steering so they could turn in and out of traffic and move to the curb for loading passengers. I've heard of them being called "trackless trolleys", but have never seen them still running. Something like that could address the issues of mixing with cars, could minimize costs since no rails would be needed and would still be cute enough that tourists and fussy metrosexuals would ride them.

The "Trackless-trolleys" which you refer to are still a large portion of the bus fleets in San Francisco, Seattle, Dayton and Vancouver. They are ubiquitous in the downtowns of those cities. There is a line I know of in Philadephia, the 59 bus on Castor Avenue.

These are familiar looking buses powered by two overhead wires, they are very quiet and non-polluting. The trolley buses operated around Baltimore until the 60's, most notably along Howard St. Perhaps someone has an old photo.

I don't believe they are that much of an attraction to tourists unless painted in some fashion that raises curiosity. This system is cheaper to build than streetcars and won't impede traffic flow any more than a standard bus.

[StevenW]

I recognize it, but its not there anymore.
The interesting thing is that I heard it was carefully dismantled and stored away, so someday it may rise again.

Yes, the clock portion of the tower is saved somewhere. :)

[SoBoChris]

I think sending the line all the way down Key Hwy and maybe even down to Ft. McHenry. Key HWY is the one place along the line that would actually be wide enough to serve traffic and the Streetcar.

That is my ultimate dream in terms of the return of the streetcar. I remember 10 or so years ago when Key Hwy was being fixed up, they had the middle of the street dug out for what turned out to be the tree lined median, but I thought, and even asked one of the workers if they were putting in a light rail line. I was quite disappointed to hear that it wasn't.

I mentioned this a few months ago, I'd love to see a streetcar line run from Fort McHenry to Fells Point. The first step is the Charles Street line. Once that becomes a resounding success, then they can build the Ft. Mc to Fells line.

Another thing I mentioned at the time was, do you think it would be more economical to use the existing streetcar t