Here we go again! ;)
Let's start this off right! :)
I'm liking those two newly proposed 60+ story towers AND 10 Inner Harbor!

Hopefully we'll hear more details on these developments. :)

:)

Check these out!

:)

http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/images/FinalDevelopment%20Report2006.pdf

and

http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/publications/data_reports/2006_Living.pdf

and

http://dev.godowntownbaltimore.com/aboutdowntown.cfm?id=18

Sweet, finall, I new thread. I this this is the highes # on the forums. Way to go B'more

Good find Steven. Give it some time. Baltimore would be a household name.

^^ yeah, it shouldn't be long now.... ;)

From ARCWheeler's site: Read This! (http://www.arcwheeler.com/news/Baltimore-Business.pdf)
Awesome! :)

The Preakness today was absolutely heartbreaking. :(

It surely was. I mean, is there any reason to watch the Belmont Stakes now?

The Preakness today was absolutely heartbreaking. :(
I know. It was very sad. :(
I hope he makes it so he can at least stud himself the rest of his life. :(

Scenic Views, From Atop a Silo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051900663.html

By Sandra Fleishman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 20, 2006; Page F01

Imagine a grain elevator, once the biggest and fastest in the world, jutting 290 feet in the air. Sitting on a peninsula surrounded by working ships, yachts and sailboats. Right next door to a major historical site and across the harbor from a downtown marketplace.

Now imagine that elevator sheathed in glass and metal and converted into about 230 condominiums. Inside, a new lobby, with a restaurant, coffee shops and a front desk, rises 130 feet. It's the same height the main floor was when the elevator operated for some 70 years, carrying processed soybeans, corn and wheat from rail cars to surrounding storage silos and from the silos to oceangoing vessels.

Hard to picture?

Not for Baltimore developer Patrick Turner, who envisions a residential reincarnation of the boxy elevator building and silos used most recently by Archer Daniels Midland Co., one of the world's largest processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa.

Turner says he believes the one-of-a-kind venture will be hard to resist. "The views are incredible, it's right off I-95, and you're just a few minutes from downtown Baltimore."

He adds: "You can live in a historic condo anywhere in the world, but there is no other grain elevator in the world where you can live." (There is a converted Quaker Oats plant in Akron, Ohio, where you can sleep in a silo, dine in a mill and shop in a factory, but no reports of residential uses, according to a local architect contacted through the American Institute of Architects.)

The Baltimore complex, Silo Point, sits in Locust Point, a once-gritty blue-collar neighborhood next to historic Fort McHenry. It faces Baltimore's downtown, trendy Federal Hill and the Inner Harbor tourist complex on one side, the fort on another, and a brand-new city marine terminal and Interstate 95 to the south. A deteriorating terminal is across the train tracks from the complex on the harbor side, with abandoned piers and a rusting hospital ship, but Turner says the tracks are no longer used and the ship will soon be removed.

On a clear day, Turner says, "you can see the planes landing at BWI and the Loch Raven Reservoir" to the north about 20 miles.

Turner's company has started building and selling 121 townhouses nearby in partnership with Pulte Homes Inc., and is ginning up now to market Silo Point. In a recent interview, he gushed about the condo units in the elevator building itself -- he calls them "lofts in the sky" -- and about top floors with panoramic views. The project will also have condos wrapped around the elevator tower, a 550-car garage linked by a bridge to the tower, and two-level and three-level townhouses sitting atop the garage.

Silo Point is still a bit hard for visitors to comprehend initially, Turner says. But he's taken "hundreds of them" through the abandoned "lobby" and then up 130 feet in an old claustrophobic workers' elevator to the level where the tower condos will start. After visitors climb another four levels of open-tread stairs to get to the roof, he says, "pretty much everyone has the same comment, which is 'wow.' " For those afraid of heights, a warning: Don't look down if you have a chance to climb the steps. Also, the roof penthouses that don't exist yet are already spoken for: by Turner.

The lobby will feature the original octagonal columns that supported the elevator's concrete slab floors and its Rube Goldberg system of shafts and conveyor belts.

The condo units will have ceilings as high as 18 feet, some with floor-to-ceiling windows. Units near the top of the skyscraper will have windows on either side, with views for miles. No other building nearby approaches the 22-story height, and the zoning says no new buildings can be more than 35 feet tall.

Turner is planning to market heavily to the Washington crowd for three big reasons, he says: The I-95 ramp is only a couple of turns away; the prices will run from $399,000 up, which he says is reasonable for the "unique" views; and "it's probably the safest neighborhood here. There's only one way in and one way out."

Turner says Baltimore is in its "second or third generation" of revival, and he thinks it's primed for more. Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland medical school, which he points out from the rooftop during the tour, are growing continuously and drawing private industry.

It is a jolt, though, to see the thin, boxy concrete structure now, standing in a mud field, with its crown of corrugated metal and steel girders and its banks of broken windows, which start halfway up the building.

But the developer has a history of seeing the potential of places such as Federal Hill, where he got in early, and of converting former industrial sites to residential or mixed use. Turner is also involved in redeveloping a massive industrial area nearby called Westport, which would extend the transformation of Baltimore's waterfront from industrial to upscale mixed use. Like Fells Point and Canton, Locust Point has been the focus of concentrated public-private ventures. The result has been potent -- home prices of $600,000 are now considered normal.

Chris Pfaeffle, a principal with Parameter Inc. architects in Baltimore who specializes in "adaptive reuse" of industrial buildings, theaters and schools, has spent 2 1/2 years on the Silo Point design.

You can find Silo Point tucked behind a neighborhood of classic Formstone and brick rowhouses, renovated industrial buildings, still-operating factories, and a mix of old bars and new cafes.

The resurgence shows in for-sale signs and gutted townhouses busy with workmen behind plastic sheeting. A classic Domino Sugar sign sits high above the fray to one side, marking a factory that is still running, while the rejuvenated Phillips Foods Inc. headquarters dominates another corner.

The first glimpse of the elevator itself comes as one you turn a corner into a mostly residential neighborhood. The narrow building peeks up behind the houses.

Two groupings of concrete storage silos sit a short distance from the elevator, the only silos left from what had once been an assemblage of about 180.

Each grouping has eight. They're blackened -- not from soot or decay, but intentionally for protection against the elements, according to Turner. The two sets of silos were kept to anchor the 550-car garage as another reminder of the past. Pfaeffle plans to reinforce the "industrial aesthetic" with other touches, including landscaping with grasses or wheat. He also plans to build a mound of dirt on one side to show "the amount of grain that could be stored in one silo. It will be sort of like an obelisk in Rome."

The architect is repeating the scale of the design elements in the original building wherever possible. "The plant was built on a 16-foot-by-16-foot module," he says. "Every column, every silo is based on that scale. So we have carried that grid to the new construction to preserve the integrity of the project."

Turner bought the 15-acre site from Archer Daniels Midland in 2003 for $6.5 million, according to published reports, and says he expects to spend about $400 million on the transformation. The facility was built in the early 1920s as a transfer station for the B&O Railroad, then passed to two agricultural processing companies. It was shut down in March 2003 by ADM.

Turner says he pestered ADM to sell the elevator while it was still operating because he "could see the industry was changing" and that factories and transportation facilities were being moved from urban areas like Baltimore's. ADM finally agreed after deciding to close it, he says.

The site has been graded down to red mud and a couple of large concrete pads. Turner plans to build on those pads later. About 130,000 square feet of office space and 25,000 square feet of retail space are permitted by current zoning.

Here's more on the development of Silo Point.

http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/planning/images/locust%20point%20plan.pdf

Outside Pimlico, an Impromptu Market Booms
Enterprising Neighbors Turn Backyard Parking and Shopping-Cart Ferries Into Cash
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/20/AR2006052001245.html

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 21, 2006; Page C04

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/05/20/PH2006052001248.jpg
Sean Ham, 13, helps a customer transport drinks at Preakness. He had plenty of neighborhood competition.

The business partner in charge of strategy, Dayonte Campbell, stood on the front steps, one hand around breakfast, a few strips of bacon, and knocked on the door.

"Yo, you ready yet?" he asked the business partner in charge of operations, Oshane Messam, who was standing in his doorway wearing nothing but shorts, yawning and squinting into the 6 a.m. sun yesterday.

"I am totally ready," he said and smiled.

"Go get dressed ," Campbell said.

Messam turned to go inside, then pointed at the bacon.

"Save me some."

"I ain't saving you nothing. Let's go."

It was that day again, no time to waste. The big day. Preakness Day, or for the residents in the working-class homes around Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore, the biggest hustling day of the year. They would not be betting on horses, or even make it inside the track, but Campbell, 17, and Messam, 16, friends and neighbors on Winner Avenue, were about to make some money.

There was no shortage of ways to accomplish this task, what with thousands of people flooding into their neighborhood flush with cash and boozy enthusiasm. Nearly every local seemed to have an angle: curried goat, jerk chicken, bottled water, straw hats. All for sale, just today. Backyard parking spaces sold for $10 to $100, depending on the size of the car.

"Last year I think we made close to $3,000," said Carolyn Seawell, 45, who was charging $2 a head for people to use her bathroom, just one of several industries -- from potato salad to shuttle buses -- that she was involved in yesterday. "Some of the people went to the bathroom on the lawn, but those who were coherent enough went inside."

But Campbell and Messam are in the shopping cart business -- a service, not a product. When the blond girl in the "Preaknasty" tank top or the guy wearing the loin cloth can't quite muster the strength to carry 10 cases of Miller Light from the bus to the infield, the young partners step up and say: "You guys need some help?"

The two were not alone. Around the track, dozens if not hundreds of people, from gray-haired men to little girls, pushed all manner of shopping carts -- Giant, Safeway, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kmart, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar -- not to mention hand trucks, rolling garbage cans and little red wagons.

Last year, Campbell and Messam made $450 carting in coolers in the morning and wheeling out drunk celebrants after the race.

Their tool of trade is a large orange Home Depot shopping cart that Messam, a sophomore Northwestern High School in Baltimore, keeps year-round behind his house. He cannot recall just exactly where it came from. About a mile from their block, Ray Key, manager of Food King grocery store on Northern Parkway, has an inkling.

I've been here 15 years, and [people have] been taking shopping carts for 15 years," he said. "It's a tradition."

With their cart secured, the entrepreneurs move on to the strategy. There are rules to this game, and that's where Campbell comes in.

"He's more of the brawn, and I'm the brains," said Campbell, who left high school in 10th grade and now stocks groceries at Giant and takes classes at Baltimore City Community College. Not only are the carts heavy, but walking alone down his street with $450 is not a good idea, he said. "I can defend myself, but I can't defend myself against someone too big. That's brawn's job."

"Brawn wins over brains, I'd like to point out," Messam said.

Other things Campbell has learned: Kids in polo shirts tend not to want to carry things, so watch for them. Be assertive but not pushy. The prohibited parking lots -- the ones with the buses of college kids -- are where you want to be. Always remind potential customers how long a walk they are facing and just how heavy the cooler is. And stay away from other shopping carts.

"It's like hunting, really, like animals in the wild. You got two lions trying to get a zebra, and you got competition," Campbell said. "We don't want competition."

For a black teenager asking for money amid what is predominantly a white, wealthier crowd, there is another, more complex rule, the partners said: Don't be flashy.

"You've got to pull off the whole, 'I'm poor. I need some money.' You can't roll up wearing bling bling and expect to get paid," said Messam, wearing baggy jeans and a knit cap over his dreadlocks.

But it is not all an act. The households in the several blocks around the two teenagers' brick rowhouses are 93 percent black, with a per capita income of $11,606, according to Census figures. One commercial block not far away houses Discount Liquors next to Coast to Coast Bail Bonds next to Pimlico Loan pawnshop.

Messam lives with several relatives who, like him, emigrated from Jamaica. Campbell lives with his grandmother, two younger siblings and his mother, who he said is unemployed and takes business management classes at the same community college he attends.

One day, Campbell wants to design video games. But yesterday, stepping over a carpet of beer cans, he had another idea.

"What I'm going to do next year is put my stocks in Bud Light and Miller Lite before the Preakness," he said.

For this year, the shopping cart ferry service had its own hazards. For the first two hours, when the energetic do-it-yourselfers arrived, rejection was constant. At one point Campbell spotted and then ducked away from an old class bully ("He's strong"); minutes later Messam turned the cart around briskly and said, "Ex-girlfriend alert!"

In the bus parking lot, a burly attendant with a gray mustache grabbed the cart handle.

"Get that cart out of here!" he yelled.

"Take it easy, man," Messam said.

"See that cop over there? You want him to make you take it easy?" the attendant asked.

Once outside the gate, the entrepreneurs had to resort to tossing the cart over a six-foot-high chain-link fence to get it back in the parking lot, then jumping over themselves. "Gotta make a buck," Messam said.

"It's so irritating. I'm surrounded by money, but I just can't pull any in," Campbell said.

Finally, a group of guys from the University of Delaware agreed to put their four coolers of Keystone Light in the Home Depot cart. One cooler tumbled onto the ground while the teenagers pushed the cart across a patch of gravel -- to shouts of "Refund!" -- but eventually the transaction was complete. Five dollars, plus a $2 tip. The sun shone through the clouds. It was 9:01 a.m.

"Pretty good for the first go-round," Campbell said.

Staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

Will Preakness move from Baltimore if they build that horse track in Anne Arundel?

Silo Point will look great when done. It cam be viewed from lots of places in the city.

Will Preakness move from Baltimore if they build that horse track in Anne Arundel?

I really hope not. Baltimore is the true home of the Preakness. I really hope Pimlico goes under serious renovations like Churchill Downs not long ago.

Will Preakness move from Baltimore if they build that horse track in Anne Arundel?
They aren't proposing a track, they are proposing a training/breeding facility.

They aren't proposing a track, they are proposing a training/breeding facility.

Ok, cool.

Great Preakness article. Although, I really hate the fact that the city reaps the fiscal benefits of the Preakness, but the neighborhood NEVER, EVER sees any of those funds return in the way of investment in the community.

I read that over $100mm is roughly how much money the Preakness brings in with wagering, concessions, tickets, etc. Thats not even considering all of the hotels that are booked solid or the resturants that are patronized or the money spent in shops.

^^ That's Wild! ^^

Baltimore is a renaissance city.

http://wjz.com/video/?id=18082@wjz.dayport.com

Here is a pic of the Ritz Carlton cranes with Harbor East in the background from Friday evening:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/BaltimoreAprilMay06/100_2329.jpg

Baltimore is a renaissance city.

http://wjz.com/video/?id=18082@wjz.dayport.com
Great link! Thanks, bmore87! :D

Great Preakness article. Although, I really hate the fact that the city reaps the fiscal benefits of the Preakness, but the neighborhood NEVER, EVER sees any of those funds return in the way of investment in the community.

I read that over $100mm is roughly how much money the Preakness brings in with wagering, concessions, tickets, etc. Thats not even considering all of the hotels that are booked solid or the resturants that are patronized or the money spent in shops.

I agree wholeheartedly! The area around Pimlico is so depressed. But there is so much potential there too. The city AND state really need to invest in Pimlico, and the city needs to make sure that the citizens of lower Park Heights reap some of the rewards from the major assest in their neighborhood.

Here is a pic of the Ritz Carlton cranes with Harbor East in the background from Friday evening:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/BaltimoreAprilMay06/100_2329.jpg

Really cool pic!

I agree wholeheartedly! The area around Pimlico is so depressed. But there is so much potential there too. The city AND state really need to invest in Pimlico, and the city needs to make sure that the citizens of lower Park Heights reap some of the rewards from the major assest in their neighborhood.

I'm curious, what is the potential that you see in Pimlico? I'd love to see the the track re-done and racing return to some better status, although I don't see that happening without slots. But as for the neighborhood, It's mainly deteriorated residential without much charm, even if it were cleaned up. If Pimilco were re-done with some additions like hotel-food for the slottists, the entire complex would be a long way from the harbor which is where most toursits come. Without a transit line, transportation would be dicey and once people were there, there isn't much aside from the hypothetical horse and gambling mecca to do there. Currently the surrounding area doesn't seem like something that would make toursists feel very comfortable. Maybe my vision is deadened by the current appearence of the place; what do you see in it?

I haven't been around Pimlico very often, but I think that the vision of a better neighborhood is hindered by the lack of a real tourist attraction for what is sounds like. I have complained about the public transportation system before, and that probably is what's holding back development. Looking at the map, I can't think of any current reasons for a tourist to go out into that neck of the woods when they are here for the Inner Harbor or Federal Hill (as scando said). There just needs to be a fast connection like a light rail or such to go out there. That should attract some business to build around there, maybe allow stores and perhaps a strip mall there.

I posted this a while back, but you can see that Pat isnt' embellishing the truth at all. Those views are spetacular.



http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151288.jpg



http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151289.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151292.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151293.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151294.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151295.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151297.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/jeffbaltimore/image/41151299.jpg

Fantastic pics, Jeff; I'd love to have that view! I remember when you first posted those but I had never been to Locust Point back then. Now I have it's great to see it from above and trace the route I walked.

On Friday night after the fireworks I got talking to a couple who live on Federal Hill. They were saying the pier homes parallel to Key Highway are going to block their view of the Tide Point sign when the top floors are complete. We were talking about other developments but I didn't think to mention that they'd gain a view of the new Silo Point sign!

FYI, for those who don't venture into the main photo section, here are my two latest photo threads:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=8550013
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=8551495

Last week someone wanted to see pics of Belveder Square. Here are just a few:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2370.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2369.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2371.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2375.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2379.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2377.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2376.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2381.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2380.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/code130/DSCN2386.jpg

Passenger numbers up at BWI, dip at Dulles, National
Baltimore Business Journal - May 19, 2006
by Joe Coombs
Contributor

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport served about
1.81 million passengers in March, a slight increase of 2.2 percent from about 1.7 million passengers last year.

But it was a different story at the airport's main rivals, Dulles International and Reagan National airports.

Independence Air is still having an effect on Dulles. It's just not very favorable at the moment.

Passenger numbers at Dulles dropped 26.2 percent in March on an annual basis mostly because there was no Independence Air, which shut down in January.

The airport handled about 1.34 million passengers this March, down sharply from more than 1.8 million in the same month last year, according to data from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

The loss of Independence Air, however, may have boosted operations at another low-cost Dulles carrier, JetBlue Airways. That airline handled 107,624 passengers in March, its highest total in the past 12 months at the airport.

Travelers shouldn't look for airfares to drop precipitously as JetBlue ramps up or when Southwest Airlines arrives at Dulles in the fall, says Peter Stettler, senior director at financial research and ratings firm Fitch Ratings.

"I wouldn't expect any major change for the next year or so," Stettler says. "Passenger numbers will continue to decline, but the rate of decline will slowly diminish as other carriers pick up the market share."

United Airlines announced in January that it would take over 35 gates at Dulles that belonged to Independence Air. United will use the gates for regional flights.

Operations at Reagan National Airport also declined in March, according to the airports authority's report. National served about 1.34 million passengers in March, down from about 1.4 million in March 2005, a decline of 4.3 percent.

National's busiest carrier was US Airways, which served nearly 468,000 passengers in March. In second place was American Airlines, which handled 193,755 passengers at National in March.

Little Italy eatery adding 'sexy' bar
Baltimore Business Journal - May 19, 2006
by Julekha Dash
Staff

The owners of Amicci's restaurant are pouring $1.2 million to add a bar and lounge to the Little Italy restaurant, slated to open in July.

That's a far cry from the $15,000 it took to open the eatery 16 years ago, said Scott Panian, one of the owners.

Amicci's owners bought the rowhouse next door to the High Street eatery and will use the first floor for the bar. The lounge will seat about 50, not including a private room for wine tastings and events, Panian said. The dining room seats 230.

The restaurant has always had a full liquor license but never had the space to allocate to a bar, Panian said. The bar will feature exposed brick and copper, mixing the historic and contemporary in its look. The owners wanted the bar to look "sexy," with a modern feel similar to Power Plant Live's Babalu Grill, a Cuban restaurant whose bar is a popular nightspot.

Having a separate bar area will allow Amicci's staff to keep customers before their meal. Amicci's staff sends customers to the bar at nearby Chiapparelli's Restaurant or Ciao Bella while they wait for a table. The bar "allows us to get some business that we're sending elsewhere," Panian said.

Amicci's held a contest to name the new bar by sending an e-mail to customers. So what name did restaurant owners ultimately chose? The Bar at Amicci's.

Restaurant managers decided that the Amicci's name "has enough cachet" to avoid finding a new one for the bar, Panian said.

Sending the e-mail turned out to be a good idea, nonetheless. Managers got inquiries from prospective employees as a result. Restaurant officials are looking to hire at least a dozen bartenders and servers with the expansion. Amicci's currently employs 45.

Turner site in cleanup mode
Baltimore Business Journal - May 19, 2006by Heather HarlanStaff
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It's no secret that local developer Pat Turner wants to build homes on aging, industrial land in the Westport section of Baltimore City.

But the businessman still has some environmental hurdles to clear first.



His attorney Michael C. Powell said Turner is "completing remediation" on one site the developer controls in Westport. Once home to the Carr-Lowrey Glass Co., the nearly 17-acre property is on Kloman Street. The site contains contaminants, including arsenic, chromium and mercury.

The land was accepted into Maryland's Voluntary Cleanup Program, which requires Turner to cap the property and seal certain areas.

"He's putting a cap on the site, so there's lots of distance from low levels of residual contamination," Powell said.

All told, that remediation should be wrapped up by year's end, the attorney said.

Turner isn't as far along on another contaminated site that he plans to redevelop in Westport. Previously owned by Constellation Power Source, the other property is off Kloman Street. That land, which also contains elevated levels of metals, has been accepted into the remediation program, the attorney said.

"It's in the program, but we don't yet have an approved plan," said Powell, who specializes in environmental law for Baltimore firm Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander LLC.

Powell referred all calls pertaining to cleanup costs and future plans for the sites to Turner. Yet, he downplayed the presence of metals on the sites.

"It's pretty much typical contamination that we are finding everywhere in Baltimore," he said.

Still, state and federal governments can prevent developers from building residences on contaminated sites -- even once the property is cleaned up. This was the case with what is known as the AlliedSignal site -- former home of a chromium plant -- on the edge of Fells Point.

Turner, principal of Henrietta Development Corp., could not be reached for comment. The developer, who is converting the former Archer Daniels Midland plant in Locust Point into a mixed-use project, has said in previous interviews that he is planning residences for Westport.

Rod Hart, vice president of operations for Pulte Homes, said his company is interested in Turner's vision for Westport and plans to be involved in some capacity. He declined further comment. Pulte Homes is building townhouses in conjunction with Turner's redevelopment in Locust Point.

I love Greg's Bagels, only been there a few times. I don't go on that side of the alameda much.

Oh, and has anyone got anymore info on the 2 polcie accidents? Has 1, 2, or 3 police officers died? This has been really tragic info for the ploice department

Growth of jobs in Md. slows
Unemployment rate inches up to 3.5% in April, below U.S. average
By Jamie Smith Hopkins
Sun reporter
Originally published May 20, 2006




Employment growth slowed in Maryland last month, creeping up by just 700 jobs as unemployment also inched upward, the government said yesterday.

Unemployment was 3.5 percent in April, compared with 3.4 percent the previous month, according to preliminary Labor Department numbers adjusted for seasonal variations. The share of Marylanders who are out of work and searching for employment remained well below the national rate of 4.7 percent.

Over the past 12 months, employers added 30,700 jobs in Maryland, also a slowing pace. But local recruiting has been increasing, experts said - which suggests the problem isn't that businesses don't want to hire, but that they're having trouble finding workers. A job doesn't count until it's taken.

"We can't add jobs as fast as the rest of the nation because we do not have people to fill the jobs," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute.

U.S. employment increased at a 1.5 percent pace over the past 12 months. In Maryland, the job base grew by 1.2 percent.

"I don't want to say [the numbers] are disappointing, because they're not - job growth is still relatively strong in Maryland," said John Hopkins, associate director for applied economics at RESI, Towson University's research and consulting arm. "I think we've just kind of plateaued a bit. ... The job market might be a little bit underperforming as a result of the unavailability of labor."

Virginia, which has an even lower unemployment rate, is adding jobs at a faster clip - but that's possibly because the size of its labor force is keeping up better than Maryland's, Hopkins said. Virginia is adding residents more quickly than Maryland is, and the metro area around Washington keeps expanding south and west.

Clinch warned against reading too much into Maryland's monthly job increase because the Labor Department's attempt to take into account regular seasonal variations in hiring might have skewed the picture. Without those adjustments, employers added 22,000 jobs last month. Though it's still not as good as April last year, it's better than April 2000, at the height of the boom.

But either way the jobs are counted, there's a worker shortage, Clinch said. He thinks it's critical to develop better mass transit in the Baltimore metro area to link lower-skill residents in the city with jobs they would quality for - which are often in the suburbs. Difficulties reaching suburban job centers help drive up the city's unemployment rate. And joblessness is even worse in the city than it appears because many out-of-work residents have given up actively searching and are not counted in the official tally.

"Washington has an integrated mass transit plan that works, combining two states and an independent city, whereas Baltimore is in one state but has an utterly dysfunctional transit system," Clinch said.

Traffic will only get worse because the national military base reshuffling - known as BRAC - is expected to bring tens of thousands of jobs to the Baltimore area, he said.

Baltimore region unemployment was 3.8 percent in March, the most recent month for which figures are available. It ranged from a high of 6 percent in the city to a low of 2.5 percent in Howard County.

Businesses clearly want to hire. Recruiting is up in the metro area, said Jesse Harriott, vice president of research for Monster Worldwide Inc., which produces national and local indexes of recruiting activity.

"Across the board, Baltimore's doing well," he said. "Baltimore is seeing more recruiting activity than it's seen in the past 11 months that we've been tracking."

Statewide, the sectors that have performed best in the past 12 months include education and health services, up by 9,100 jobs; government, up 8,400 jobs; and construction, up 4,700 jobs. Manufacturing continued to contract, declining by 3,200 jobs.



jamie.smith.hopkins@baltsun.com

I'm curious, what is the potential that you see in Pimlico? I'd love to see the the track re-done and racing return to some better status, although I don't see that happening without slots. But as for the neighborhood, It's mainly deteriorated residential without much charm, even if it were cleaned up. If Pimilco were re-done with some additions like hotel-food for the slottists, the entire complex would be a long way from the harbor which is where most toursits come. Without a transit line, transportation would be dicey and once people were there, there isn't much aside from the hypothetical horse and gambling mecca to do there. Currently the surrounding area doesn't seem like something that would make toursists feel very comfortable. Maybe my vision is deadened by the current appearence of the place; what do you see in it?


I agree. There is nothing there to save. The area would be better served by starting over. A new track WITH SLOTS, and a hotel or two. Then start new construction to replace the delapidated areas.

Passenger numbers up at BWI, dip at Dulles, National

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport served about
1.81 million passengers in March, a slight increase of 2.2 percent from about 1.7 million passengers last year.

But it was a different story at the airport's main rivals, Dulles International and Reagan National airports.


Is this the first time BWI has been number #1 in the area in terms of passengers?

Sounds good. :)

I'm curious, what is the potential that you see in Pimlico? I'd love to see the the track re-done and racing return to some better status, although I don't see that happening without slots. But as for the neighborhood, It's mainly deteriorated residential without much charm, even if it were cleaned up. If Pimilco were re-done with some additions like hotel-food for the slottists, the entire complex would be a long way from the harbor which is where most toursits come. Without a transit line, transportation would be dicey and once people were there, there isn't much aside from the hypothetical horse and gambling mecca to do there. Currently the surrounding area doesn't seem like something that would make toursists feel very comfortable. Maybe my vision is deadened by the current appearence of the place; what do you see in it?

Maybe it is just a wish to see some serious money being put into the race track. I'd hate to see us lose the Preakness, or the Preakness decline in stature because Pimlico is such a crappy track.

I also think the city needs to invest in some neighborhoods away from the harbor. I agree with you that Lower Park Heights may not have have the potential that some other, less blighted areas have. Maybe my wish for the area to have a rebound has to do with its rich history. In the 1930's - 60's the area was a thriving Jewish community. As hundreds of Russian Jewish families moved into lower Park Heights from the schtetl of around Lombard St., it was a sign to them that they had "made it," and achieved the "American Dream." You can still see some of this today. Just drive north of Northern Pkwy on Park Heights one Saturday. You will see countless Orthodox families walking along the street, either going to Temple, or just taking a family stroll. I've always thought that this is just another great example of the diversity this city has to offer. Baltimore has an amazingly rich Jewish history and one of the fastest growing Orthodox communities in the country. (By the way, I'm not even Jewish. I learned all about the area when I was working on my Master's degree about ten years ago.)

Another thing you are definately right about Scando, the area thrived for one reason: great public transportation! The streetcar system connected all of the communities with downtown, where the jobs were.

I picked up a book at some shop in Fells Point over the weekend titled "Enterprising Emporiums - The Jewish Department Stores of Downtown Baltimore". It was published by the Jesiwh Museum of Maryland and the chapters I've read so far have been quite good. It has a fair amount of pictures from the 1870 forward. It's interesting to see what some of the still standing buildings on the West Side were. I'm not talking about Hecht's, Hutzlers, or Stewarts, but many of the supporting structures around Howard and Lexington. It also gives a history of how Department Stores developed nationwide. While I'm not Jewish either, I never miss an opportunity to add to my Baltimore book collection!

Maudibjr - BWI was number one in passengers for about 5 years. Independence Air started up and practically gave seats away which is why they went out of business. They cost BWI the top spot for the past 2 or 3 years. We just had to wait for capitalism to take it's course. It's good to be number one again!

In my opinion if the city made the track and the surrounding neighborhoods a priority as they have done in other parts of the city the entire area could turn around. I don't find it hard to imagine coffee shops, retail establishments, bed & breakfast/hotel, restaurants etc. It's not impossible just not probable because that isn't what the city feels is important at this time. Right/Wrong or Indifferent.

I also don't understand why everyone is so short sighted when it comes to the gambling issue. If, and I say if the so call people who are looking out for us in Annapolis decide to expand gambling why are we willing to settle for just slots? If your going to do it do it right the first time and add table games as well. It will only be a short time before the surrounding states add table games. Why not beat them to the punch?

I was passing through Memphis last week on a business trip and I decided to go down and hang out on their famous Beale Street where the Blues clubs, bars and restaurants are. It seemed to me that the entire focus of the nightlife of the city was centered around Beale Street. People were parking in parking lots on the edges of the downtown and were streaming towards Beale as if they were heading to a major league baseball or football game. I was impressed.

I was thinking about how Baltimore could transform into a nightlife destination like this. We don't have a single concentrated nightlife destination area like Bourbon St in N.O. or Beale St. in Memphis as our attractions are more spread out around the city (the Powerplant area/Inner Harbor or Fells Point or Charles Street or Federal Hill). I came to the conclusion that maybe we shouldn't try to concentrate in one location and maybe just improve in each of those areas.

In my opinion if the city made the track and the surrounding neighborhoods a priority as they have done in other parts of the city the entire area could turn around. I don't find it hard to imagine coffee shops, retail establishments, bed & breakfast/hotel, restaurants etc. It's not impossible just not probable because that isn't what the city feels is important at this time. Right/Wrong or Indifferent.

There is also a massive problem with the bootstraps that you can pull up in an area like that. The residential areas around Pimlico are not quaint or centralliy located like Federal Hill and wouldn't look that good even if they were fixed up. So why would anybody want to invest there? There are places there that are pretty low income and it would be necessary to massively evict or relocate them in order to gentrify the place. There just isn't much to build on. Another commentator mentioned the Jewish history of that area but that appears to be long gone and the area really doesn't have much that speaks to any particular heritiage or style. It's mainly an old, deteriorated early in-the-city suburb. It's really hard to re-start an area that just doesn't have much to build on. I don't know the answer but I'm not that optomistic.

City construction stills the music again
By JEN DEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer
May 23, 2006

The Hammerjacks nightclub was resurrected on Baltimore’s East Side after losing its West Side home to stadium parking. On Saturday the club will be quieted again in order to make room for a 60-story mixed-use tower. “Yes, the rumors are true. May 27 Hammerjacks will be closing their doors forever.”

That is the voice-mail message left by Hammerjacks, a Baltimore nightclub once legendary for luring big-name rock performers to Charm City during the 1980s and 1990s. The club has traveled a tortuous path to its current incarnation as a venue for the hip-hop and dance set. Hammerjacks was forced to move from its long-time home on South Howard Street in 1997 to make room for parking spaces for Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. It reopened in 2000 on Guilford Avenue just north of City Hall and led a more humble existence ever since.

Once again the club will close. Developers are buying the Hammerjacks building at 316 Guilford Ave. as part of a footprint on which plans call for a 60-story skyscraper that could be completed by 2010. The deal is expected to close Monday. “Hammerjacks has been an institution in this city for quite some time,” said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. “I’m not sure if it will resurrect itself elsewhere.”

Although the Hammerjacks voice-mail said the club will close its doors “forever,” it is unclear whether a new club by the same name would open in another Baltimore location. Club owner Michael Hunter did not return phone calls for comment. “Hammerjacks was successful as a place to go party,” said Mariano Mumpower, a Baltimore DJ who goes by the stage name Soulminer. “They had hip-hop shows. Big names in gangster rap music came there.”

Fowler said he regrets seeing an end to the era. But he believes new construction and residents will be better for downtown. “Downtown still is the spot for night life, and the loss of one bar won’t hurt that image one bit,” Fowler told The Daily Record in an interview last week

For many, the Hammerjacks era ended when the club closed in 1997, said Bud Becker, an advertising and marketing consultant for the club from 1986 to 1992. Band Guns ‘N’ Roses made its East Coast debut at Hammerjacks, he said. Nirvana, Poison and Motley Crue were among other bands whose tour buses stopped there.

“It was the premier rock venue on the East Coast,” Becker said.

Original owner Lou Principio reluctantly sold the building to the city in 1997 to make way for the stadium parking, according to reports that year in the Baltimore Sun. Principio then reopened the club on Guilford, targeting a different demographic. But the Hammerjacks on Guilford never became the icon for hip-hop fans that the South Howard venue was for rock fans, Mumpower said.

“You don’t really hear too much about it because Power Plant Live has really taken over a lot of that dance crowd,” Becker said, referring to the sprawling downtown complex created by developer The Cordish Co. According to land records, Principio sold the Guilford Hammerjacks in 2004 to 316 Guilford Avenue LLC, a limited liability company that lists Hunter, the club’s new owner, as the property’s resident agent.

The music will stop altogether at 316 Guilford Ave., now controlled by RWN Development Inc. and Rockville-based Bresler & Reiner Inc. The developers are flirting with the idea of opening a restaurant in the space while they finalize their plans to build a 60-story, mixed-use tower there.

The companies also plan to build another 60-story tower just blocks away from the Hammerjacks spot, on top of property where a more rock-oriented club, Sonar, operates on Saratoga Street. One…., another nightclub, sits on the opposite side of Saratoga Street. Mumpower wonders what effect the towers will have on the area’s music scene. “That completely changes that whole area,” Mumpower said.

In my opinion if the city made the track and the surrounding neighborhoods a priority as they have done in other parts of the city the entire area could turn around. I don't find it hard to imagine coffee shops, retail establishments, bed & breakfast/hotel, restaurants etc. It's not impossible just not probable because that isn't what the city feels is important at this time. Right/Wrong or Indifferent.

I also don't understand why everyone is so short sighted when it comes to the gambling issue. If, and I say if the so call people who are looking out for us in Annapolis decide to expand gambling why are we willing to settle for just slots? If your going to do it do it right the first time and add table games as well. It will only be a short time before the surrounding states add table games. Why not beat them to the punch?

This morning two residents of Park Heights jumped the fence of Pimlico and stabbed a trainer in the stables at Pimlico for no reason almost murdering him. That area is so drug addicted, crime infested, STD infected, and full of disinvestment that the only way you can fix that area is to knock it down and start over. Do you really think the current residents of that area are going to sit at Starbucks? And what would the city do to get people to come to Pimlico. "Pimlico Slots and Racetrack, get off 83, step on the gas, get inside the fence and dont get mugged on the way out? Cmon man get real. Where would you put all those people?

I have a question for some of the old time formers. Has Baltimore's skyline EVER been displayed at the top of these pages? The city shown appears to change daily. It would be nice to see good old Baltimore up there at least once since this is one of the more active cities on this site. I've been coming here for over 3 years, that's over 1,000 days and I've never seen it displayed. I think we are one of the top 1,000 cities in the world don't you?

I have a question for some of the old time formers. Has Baltimore's skyline EVER been displayed at the top of these pages? The city shown appears to change daily. It would be nice to see good old Baltimore up there at least once since this is one of the more active cities on this site. I've been coming here for over 3 years, that's over 1,000 days and I've never seen it displayed. I think we are one of the top 1,000 cities in the world don't you?

Some of places they show are not what I would even consider urban a city. Seems quite bias to certain parts of the world too.

Hot spot turns up heat on the city
Restaurant owners press for an exception to law reserving waterfront for industry

By Jill Rosen
Sun reporter

May 23, 2006

When Baltimore officials ceremoniously signed a law to insulate the city's harbor industries from the seemingly insatiable waterfront housing market, they did so at a Locust Point shipping terminal for symbolism.

In a part of town where heavy industry was butting up against upscale homes and creating friction, they drew a line. No more homes, hotels, white-collar offices or restaurants were to cross into the "Maritime Industrial Overlay District" for 10 years.

Not two years later, a popular South Baltimore restaurant is trying to hop the border.

The owners of Little Havana, a Key Highway hot spot that young people pack on warm nights to sip mojitos, are campaigning hard for an exception to the law. They bought a piece of land just inside the protected area and hope to move the restaurant there when their lease expires.

Tim Whisted, Little Havana's co-owner, says that after a decade in business, he should be offered the same protection by the city as those shipyards and factories:

"I employ people just like they do and I deserve the right to continue my business just like everyone else. We're asking them to just make an exception so that we can all live in harmony there."

Industrial businesses that fought for years to get the protected district forcefully oppose an exception of any kind.

"What precedent does that set?" asked Kathy Broadwater, deputy executive director of the Maryland Port Administration. "If you do this, why not the next one? And why not the one after that?"

Signed into law in September 2004, the overlay district wraps around Baltimore's harbor from Curtis Bay to Canton.

Its goal is to prevent the ever-gentrifying waterfront from pushing out shipping companies and the auxiliary businesses that thrive around them - an industry that still employs 15,700 people and provides the city and state with $216 million in taxes yearly.

With their lease set to expire in 2006, the Little Havana owners bought the site of a former boiler company two years ago, just as the city was enacting the overlay district. (Their lease has since been extended two years.) The waterfront lot, less than an acre, is next to the Domino plant.

Little Havana's owners, oblivious to the site's built-in prohibitions, thought they had found the perfect place, just 1,400 feet down Key Highway from the current restaurant, with a building on the water that's ripe for conversion.

"This property suits our restaurant perfectly," Whisted says. "We need to stay in our same customer base. If not, we would lose our business, basically."

Determined to follow through with the move, Whisted and his partners have launched a crusade to persuade city leaders to let them do it.

They've pleaded with customers to send letters to City Council members and hired politically savvy advisers to help their mission - attorney Martin Cadogan, who is Mayor Martin O'Malley's campaign treasurer, and Al Barry, a longtime development consultant and former assistant director of the city's planning department.

Councilman Edward L. Reisinger, who represents South Baltimore, has gotten so many letters, they're filling a box in his office.

"I realize just how important industry is to the City," reads one, "but industry will not be harmed by allowing Timmy to operate his restaurant on his property. ... No[t] allowing the move to happen makes absolutely no sense to anyone with a logical mind."

And another: "No one likes the idea that there will be less port-related business in the future, but it seems inescapable. ... Allowing Little Havana to move down the street would preserve a valued neighborhood restaurant."

Reisinger is unmoved. In fact, he says that even if every community group in his district stood up in favor of the restaurant's move, he still would not support it.

"They should not move the boundaries," the councilman says. "As a matter of fact, I think they should extend the life of the law for another four or five years."

The mayor's office, despite the insider connections, seemed equally cool to the idea. "From our perspective, rules are rules," says the mayor's spokeswoman, Raquel Guillory.

Those who've anchored their livelihoods on the harbor say the city had better hold the line on the boundaries and not make a change because someone "didn't do due diligence" before buying some property.

"You don't need a bar slapped next to one of the largest factories in the city of Baltimore," argues Rupert Denny, general manager of C. Steinweg Baltimore Inc. and the spokesman for Private Terminal Operators, a group representing a dozen private stevedores.

"They want to close the door after the horse is gone."

Whisted says he's willing to sign an agreement with Domino - or any other industrial property owner - pledging not to complain about their noise or grime or any other factory realities.

His offer, he says, has been soundly rebuffed.

"They won't even discuss it," he says with a bitter laugh, then quickly adds that he's still hoping the city will come though, and soon his customers will be sipping their mojitos under the pink glow of the Domino sign.

"I gotta believe they'll go to bat for me," Whisted says, "when push comes to shove."



jill.rosen@baltsun.com

New multiplex coming to Inner Harbor East
A 7-screen art house is to open next spring
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2006

Baltimore will get its first new movie complex in more than 20 years next spring - a bet on downtown's growing lure as a place to live and play as well as work.

A seven-screen cinema run by Landmark Theatres, a chain devoted to art and independent films, will open next spring as part of the long-planned entertainment centerpiece in Harbor East, the $1 billion waterfront community east of the Inner Harbor.

The announcement was made yesterday by the developers, H&S Properties Development Corp. and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

While the developers said they expect the new multiplex to become a key entertainment attraction, it also increases competition for the city's existing theaters, which target much the same audience.

Baltimore hasn't had a new movie theater since United Artists opened what was considered a showpiece, nine-screen theater at the Inner Harbor in 1985. But the theater gradually saw its customers opt for newer suburban theaters with stadium seating and easy parking. The theater fell into disrepair and closed in 2000.

But now, both Landmark and Harbor East's developers believe that the proliferation of upscale condos and the growth in downtown living will ensure suc- cess of a new cinema that will complement The Charles Theatre, the Senator and the Rotunda.

"There's room for another project to come in and a lot of movies out there," said Michael S. Beatty, president of H&S Properties.

H&S and Struever announced the lease signing yesterday from Las Vegas, where the International Council of Shopping Centers is holding its annual convention. "We think this is a great package."

Landmark, which opened its first art and independent film theater in Seattle 30 years ago, saw an opportunity in Baltimore to grow a chain that now spans both coasts, with 59 theaters in 23 markets.

The Los Angeles-based chain has two theaters in the region, one in Bethesda and another in Washington.

"We're very confident this is going to become the entertainment center of Baltimore," said Kevin Parke, president of Landmark Theatres.

"We think there's going to be a strong demand for these films," Parke said. "The definition of art and independent films has expanded, and now we have a broader audience for documentaries and independent studio productions. ... We feel like the base of consumers for independent films has broadened as well, as we've seen in D.C. Baltimore is another sophisticated city with a large group of people interested in seeing these films."



Competitors' view
But competitors said the new cinema will have an impact.
"It'll be harder for us, but we have low overhead, so we'll be able to survive fine," said James "Buzz" Cusack, a partner in The Charles Theatre, which has been a mainstay of the Station North Arts District since its renovation into a five-screen complex in 1999.

An additional theater, though, could make it tougher to get films, he said.

"A lot of these smaller movies don't want two prints out in the same area, so that could be difficult," he said. "Now, sometimes the Senator and we want the same movie and only one of us gets it."

Harbor East developers have long envisioned an art film theater as a key entertainment attraction of the mixed-use community, on the waterfront near Little Italy and Fells Point.

While other negotiations over the years with national or local theater operators never came to fruition, H&S Properties had always had its sights set on Landmark, the nation's largest chain devoted to art and independent films.

"We've always known we wanted a high-end art theater in the project," Beatty said. "From Day 1, Landmark was always that operator but we couldn't get them. As our project developed ... and we built more and more restaurants and retail, Baltimore got on the radar screen."

The 1,400-seat cinema will feature a lobby bar, gourmet concession stand, stadium seating and digital projectors. The theaters will vary in size, with the largest seating about 300, Parke said.



Other features
The multiplex will become part of a mixed-use block bordered by Aliceanna, Exeter, President and Fleet streets. Construction is under way on a Hilton Garden Inn and a Hilton Homewood Suites, 220,000 square feet of office space, 122 condos and 20 live-work lofts.
The block also will have 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and a health club.

Developers announced yesterday that Arhaus, a high-end home furnishing store, will open there, and City Sports, an urban sports retailer, will move there from a temporary address in Harbor East.

The earlier plans for a cinema at Harbor East had called for Crown Theaters to operate an 18-screen, 4,500-seat stadium style theater. About three years ago, Madstone Theaters planned to open a six- or seven-screen facility.

The problem with MIZOD (maritime industrial zoning overlay district), is that it attempts (albeit very poorly) to alter the inescapable forces of a free market. While I certainly understand the concept of proper zoning, making such a long term, inflexible law, was shortsighted and ill-conceived, in my opinion. Cities need to be able to react quickly to market trends in order to ensure successful and smart growth.

Is the port one of our most valuable economic assets? Of course. But look what this law has done. Since I highly doubt Little Havana will be able to pull off a coup of sorts, the bar will close and the industrial property that they own will sit vacant for 8 more years because there will be no industrial takers. Their employees lose their jobs, a property sits blighted, and progress halts.

And while protecting Domino Sugar, and its 500 employees is a noble goal for the city, again, the market will decide whether or not Domino Sugar lasts another 100 years. Since the factory is built as a sugarcane refinery, and sugarcane only grows in tropical climates, globally, there is a disconnect on the continued viability of sugarcane refineries in non-tropical climates. If the plant closes down (due to market conditions beyond the control of Baltimore) then why must we sit and watch the property deteriorate?

Again, the problem with MIZOD is not the concept of protecting industry, it's the inability of the city and government leaders to respond to the market in a timely manner. Likewise, it prevents the city from making logical and rational decisions it otherwise could have made. If I were Ed Resinger, I'd be concerned that this could become a campaign issue.

Other features

The multiplex will become part of a mixed-use block bordered by Aliceanna, Exeter, President and Fleet streets. Construction is under way on a Hilton Garden Inn and a Hilton Homewood Suites, 220,000 square feet of office space, 122 condos and 20 live-work lofts.
The block also will have 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and a health club.

Developers announced yesterday that Arhaus, a high-end home furnishing store, will open there, and City Sports, an urban sports retailer, will move there from a temporary address in Harbor East.

The earlier plans for a cinema at Harbor East had called for Crown Theaters to operate an 18-screen, 4,500-seat stadium style theater. About three years ago, Madstone Theaters planned to open a six- or seven-screen facility.

I really like the fact that Hilton is getting more involved in the downtown market. Right now, Hilton has three hotels being built downtown - the Convention Center Hotel, and both hotels being constructed in Harbor East are both under the Hilton flag.

Although Starwood Hotels will be the dominate force initially, there's a chance that Hilton could also be involved in Harbor Point. A Westin and likely Starwood's newest flag, Aloft - W Hotels, will be the first hotels errected in Harbor Point.

The article also mentioned that City Sports is moving across the street from its current location. I was there last night buying a jump rope and the girl said that they are actually in Banana Republic's space.

City construction stills the music again
By JEN DEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer
May 23, 2006

The Hammerjacks nightclub was resurrected on Baltimore’s East Side after losing its West Side home to stadium parking. On Saturday the club will be quieted again in order to make room for a 60-story mixed-use tower. “Yes, the rumors are true. May 27 Hammerjacks will be closing their doors forever.”

That is the voice-mail message left by Hammerjacks, a Baltimore nightclub once legendary for luring big-name rock performers to Charm City during the 1980s and 1990s. The club has traveled a tortuous path to its current incarnation as a venue for the hip-hop and dance set. Hammerjacks was forced to move from its long-time home on South Howard Street in 1997 to make room for parking spaces for Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. It reopened in 2000 on Guilford Avenue just north of City Hall and led a more humble existence ever since.

Once again the club will close. Developers are buying the Hammerjacks building at 316 Guilford Ave. as part of a footprint on which plans call for a 60-story skyscraper that could be completed by 2010. The deal is expected to close Monday. “Hammerjacks has been an institution in this city for quite some time,” said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. “I’m not sure if it will resurrect itself elsewhere.”

Although the Hammerjacks voice-mail said the club will close its doors “forever,” it is unclear whether a new club by the same name would open in another Baltimore location. Club owner Michael Hunter did not return phone calls for comment. “Hammerjacks was successful as a place to go party,” said Mariano Mumpower, a Baltimore DJ who goes by the stage name Soulminer. “They had hip-hop shows. Big names in gangster rap music came there.”

Fowler said he regrets seeing an end to the era. But he believes new construction and residents will be better for downtown. “Downtown still is the spot for night life, and the loss of one bar won’t hurt that image one bit,” Fowler told The Daily Record in an interview last week

For many, the Hammerjacks era ended when the club closed in 1997, said Bud Becker, an advertising and marketing consultant for the club from 1986 to 1992. Band Guns ‘N’ Roses made its East Coast debut at Hammerjacks, he said. Nirvana, Poison and Motley Crue were among other bands whose tour buses stopped there.

“It was the premier rock venue on the East Coast,” Becker said.

Original owner Lou Principio reluctantly sold the building to the city in 1997 to make way for the stadium parking, according to reports that year in the Baltimore Sun. Principio then reopened the club on Guilford, targeting a different demographic. But the Hammerjacks on Guilford never became the icon for hip-hop fans that the South Howard venue was for rock fans, Mumpower said.

“You don’t really hear too much about it because Power Plant Live has really taken over a lot of that dance crowd,” Becker said, referring to the sprawling downtown complex created by developer The Cordish Co. According to land records, Principio sold the Guilford Hammerjacks in 2004 to 316 Guilford Avenue LLC, a limited liability company that lists Hunter, the club’s new owner, as the property’s resident agent.

The music will stop altogether at 316 Guilford Ave., now controlled by RWN Development Inc. and Rockville-based Bresler & Reiner Inc. The developers are flirting with the idea of opening a restaurant in the space while they finalize their plans to build a 60-story, mixed-use tower there.

The companies also plan to build another 60-story tower just blocks away from the Hammerjacks spot, on top of property where a more rock-oriented club, Sonar, operates on Saratoga Street. One…., another nightclub, sits on the opposite side of Saratoga Street. Mumpower wonders what effect the towers will have on the area’s music scene. “That completely changes that whole area,” Mumpower said.

So are these twin towers being built for sure?

I have a question for some of the old time formers. Has Baltimore's skyline EVER been displayed at the top of these pages? The city shown appears to change daily. It would be nice to see good old Baltimore up there at least once since this is one of the more active cities on this site. I've been coming here for over 3 years, that's over 1,000 days and I've never seen it displayed. I think we are one of the top 1,000 cities in the world don't you?

Well guys, we're going to have to do some work and submit some Baltimore banners! They are planning to change the size, and new banners are being submitted here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=346135). I will try to work on some, although I have to say there is some pretty stiff competition in the above thread which my photography can't compete with!

So are these twin towers being built for sure?

Until the first tenants move in, there is no for sure. Look at One Light Street. They've broken ground on that property already and still nothing. I think it is still too early to say whether this project will be a success on another One Light Street, but given that it's got two developers behind it, both with decent portfolios under their belts, I'd say this one has a decent shot of going up.

Does the location make it vulnerable to any nimbyism?

Does the location make it vulnerable to any nimbyism?
Not unless you're a RAT! <(..)> :)

I was passing through Memphis last week on a business trip and I decided to go down and hang out on their famous Beale Street where the Blues clubs, bars and restaurants are. It seemed to me that the entire focus of the nightlife of the city was centered around Beale Street. People were parking in parking lots on the edges of the downtown and were streaming towards Beale as if they were heading to a major league baseball or football game. I was impressed.

I was thinking about how Baltimore could transform into a nightlife destination like this. We don't have a single concentrated nightlife destination area like Bourbon St in N.O. or Beale St. in Memphis as our attractions are more spread out around the city (the Powerplant area/Inner Harbor or Fells Point or Charles Street or Federal Hill). I came to the conclusion that maybe we shouldn't try to concentrate in one location and maybe just improve in each of those areas.

This is a great point. I was in Philadelphia last weekend, and their CBD is developing along the same lines. First of all Philly has a decent publuc transportation system that provides easy access to their Center City. I noticed that certain uses are concentrated, rather than spread out over a large area. There are districts devoted to theater (they have 4 legitimate), retail, office, bars, resaurants and residential.

In an earlier posting there was a quote, I believe it was from someone at Arch Wheeler, that Balt. was four years behind Philly. I am not sure I see it that way, Baltimore seems unfocused as to what it wants to be. There seems to be a more helter-skelter development style. From what I have seen in Philly, when you have a concentration of uses i.e. bars and restaurants, there are more of them, and more pedestrain traffic. Bar and restaurant competition give the consumer many more choices, and for the bar scene, more of a nightly crawl opportunity.

The residential scene is similar to Balt., many conversions of office buildings and renovations to the existing housing stock near the central business district. I was impressed. Ten years ago Philly was kind of grimmy and run down. I think this kind of concentration puts more pedestrian traffic on the street. Going around Baltimore, once you leave the Inner Harbor, the streets are deviod of people. If you notice the many postings of Balt. neighborhoods there is hardly anyone on the street.

Hammerjacks is an example of waht is wrong with city planning, they were a thriving business, then get chased out - now gone again. Ther are two ther clubs in jeapordy. If there were an area devoted to this type of entertainment, clubs would develop around each other. People would know where to go to find these venues. It wouldn't matter so much if one closes there are more to choose from. These 60-story buildings relpacing the clubs are going to be speculative. There is really no residential or even mixed use in that area. So they are going to replace three established clubs to gamble on the success of their project. What you could have here is all loosing. Who's to say these buildings would ever be erected? We have seen this before. Business destroyed, building razed, then a surface parking lot. I hope Clark isn't involved here.

Anyway I'll stop my rambling and get back to work.

Well guys, we're going to have to do some work and submit some Baltimore banners! They are planning to change the size, and new banners are being submitted here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=346135). I will try to work on some, although I have to say there is some pretty stiff competition in the above thread which my photography can't compete with!
Wow. Thanks for the info Jeremai. I didn't even know you could submit banners! I may resize this one and see what it looks like at that resolution. If it doesn't look good, I won't submit it because I want us to be seen in a positive light!
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/images/Index%202.jpg

I wonder if Memphis has a big problem with drunk driving? If everyone parks in decks on the edge of the entertainment district to go to the bars and clubs, then they must be coming from a decent distance. And they must have to drive home afterwards...

I personally like the way Baltimore nightlife is configured. It's not as if someone made a decision to develop it spread all over the place, it happened that way on it's own. And there has to be underlying reasons why (people have listed a few logical reasons--different areas attract different people, people want to hang out near where they live, etc...).

I think if you had one concentrated area of nightlife, you would really only attract out-of-town chains and souless corporate entities, while the spread out development has combined new places with existing dives and Baltimore institutions that have been given new life. A lot of my friends have been drinking at the Lithuanian Hall lately. Would a place like that ever exist or ever attract people in a designated 'entertainment district?'

Baltimore's nightlife has always been an area of interest for me. Having lived in Miami and London, both revered for their nightlife, I am often disappointed in the way that Baltimore nightlife has developed. The benefits of concentrating nightlife are diverse. 1. It attracts more people. Take South Beack for instance. Any night of the week the streets of South Beach are packed, and yet a good number of those people will never set foot in a club. The club district, not the actual club, is the destination. People love people watching, and what better place to people watch than a club scene where people are dressed their best and acting their worst? 2. It creates for a greater diversity of nightlife options. Competition breeds invention and innovation. Nightclubs can be highly profitable, but in order to be profitable, you have to attract people. The only way to do this is to stand out above the rest, offer something that no one else does. Not only does this improve the number options that one has, but it also includes the overall quality of each individual spot. 3. It might seem counter intuitive, but concentrating nightclubs into a single district is actually safer. Sure, you have drunks fighting here and there, and people do get out of hand, but for the most part these are problems easily fixed by the presence of a few police officers. The oresence of so many people hinders the opportunity for worse crimes. A single woman walking down the street at 3am in South Beach might get a few catcalls, but she won't get her purse stolen. 4. It creates a tourist destination. No one is going to fly in and stay a few nights in Baltimore so they can go out to Hammerjacks every night. But they will fly in and stay a few nights for the opportunity to experience a different club every night and tell their friends back home that they partied hard in some hot spot.

Sorry for the rambling, but I think nightlife has done wonders for the cities that have chosen to embrace it. Sure, it creates problems, but the benefits are far greater.

Wow. Thanks for the info Jeremai. I didn't even know you could submit banners! I may resize this one and see what it looks like at that resolution. If it doesn't look good, I won't submit it because I want us to be seen in a positive light!
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/images/Index%202.jpg

Great pic of Baltimore. I love all the cranes being shown, and I think whoever chooses the banners has a thing for cranes. They seem to be pretty common. I think you could improve this picture by cutting off some of the sky at the top, and maybe some of the harbor in the forefront. Did anyone take any good pics during the Volvo Ocean Race? I bet those would make great banners with all the ships and city all dressed up.

That's Great Info

Jeremai, that was very clever of you to discover. I myself often wondered why no banners with Baltimore ever show up on this forum. Wadaguy, I liked your banner but I think it looks a tad bit too generic. I would prefer a nightime view so that the B of A building and the National Aquarium are visable. I think they are much more iconic to people that are not familiar with Baltimore. What do you think?

Hammerjacks is an example of waht is wrong with city planning, they were a thriving business, then get chased out - now gone again. Ther are two ther clubs in jeapordy. If there were an area devoted to this type of entertainment, clubs would develop around each other. People would know where to go to find these venues. It wouldn't matter so much if one closes there are more to choose from. These 60-story buildings relpacing the clubs are going to be speculative. There is really no residential or even mixed use in that area. So they are going to replace three established clubs to gamble on the success of their project. What you could have here is all loosing. Who's to say these buildings would ever be erected? We have seen this before. Business destroyed, building razed, then a surface parking lot. I hope Clark isn't involved here.
I think the city has put into place a policy Downtown where you can't tear something down unless you have something to put up. They did learn something from J. Clark and his Light Street mess. If I am not mistaken, you have to show financing in place for a project before you can clear the site. These towers will impact some very historic buildings especially along Guilford and Saratoga Streets. Demolition for a parking lot I doubt will be an option.

As a photographer of downtown and surrounding areas, it usually takes me forever to get a shot of buildings without people in my photographs. Most of my pictures are devoid of people because my interest is in the architecture and not people on the streets. And believe me when I say, there are usually many of them walking ever so slowly and disrupting my shots!

I like having entertainment options. Anyone who has ever been to Fells Point, Cross Street, Canton Square, the Harbor Prominade, or Power Plant Live at night knows that they are almost always crowded. This is especially true on weekends. Baltimore wouldn't be Baltimore if everything was centralized.

I think we are following the New York model. New York has Times Square (our Inner Harbor) which is a central space known for entertainment and tourists. But they also have many other venues. Harlem (North and Charles), Grenwich Village (Mt. Vernon), Little Italy (Little Italy), The East Village (Fells Point), SoHo (Canton/Federal Hill) all of which offer a different experience abet on a smaller scale than NY. The point being is that they cater to a different clientel. It's subtle, but detectible.

I would rather see lots of stable areas offering a variety of experiences than one big area lumped together. We are blessed to have places like the above, along with Charles Village, Hampden, Waverly, and even some not so nice places like The Block. I think they all serve a purpose. That's what makes Baltimore, well, Baltimore.

The future of this town will not be built on tourists. They are only here 5 months out of the year. The citizens of Baltimore will ultimately determine what is good, what is bad, what will be successful, and what will fail. If a club closes and there is an unmet need for a specific type of entertainment, I trust that the markeplace will fill it. In short, I like Baltimore the way it is hon! The only thing I would change is to have each of the neighborhood areas I've cited above to continue to improve. Fortunately, they all seem to be doing that.

P.S. I've been to Beale Street. I've walked on Beale Street. I've stumbled on Beale Street - and Baltimore, you're no Beale Street. THANK GOD! I wan't one bit impressed with it. Fells Point has just as many bars, clubs, restaurants, and people - and a lot more atmosphere. We are sooooo blessed NOT to hear country songs like "You're The Reason Our Children Are So Ugly" coming out of our bars. I'll take Baltimore over Memphis any day.

We are sooooo blessed NOT to hear country songs like "You're The Reason Our Children Are So Ugly" coming out of our bars. I'll take Baltimore over Memphis any day.
:hilarious: :hilarious:FUNNY as hell. That's gotta' be the craziest name of ANY song that i've eer heard. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's Great Info

Jeremai, that was very clever of you to discover. I myself often wondered why no banners with Baltimore ever show up on this forum. Wadaguy, I liked your banner but I think it looks a tad bit too generic. I would prefer a nightime view so that the B of A building and the National Aquarium are visable. I think they are much more iconic to people that are not familiar with Baltimore. What do you think?

I have these two pics from Friday that I can stitch... shame about B of A though :(

http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/BaltimoreAprilMay06/100_2374.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/BaltimoreAprilMay06/100_2375.jpg

Brilliant Pics Jeremai!

They would really look good joined together. It is a pity that the T.Rowe Price building is blocking the view of the B of A building. That building looks especially good at night because of the lighting of the gold gilt cone at the top of it.

Governor, mayor are in Las Vegas
The taxpayer-funded trips to a shopping-center convention could boost campaign accounts

By John Fritze
sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2006
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. are in Las Vegas today on taxpayer-funded trips that ultimately could prove lucrative for their campaign accounts - even if neither steps inside a casino.

As they have done in past years, O'Malley and Ehrlich are attending the spring convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York-based trade association for the retail industry that has steered thousands in campaign donations to both candidates.

While city and state officials say the convention is important for economic development, spokesmen for both campaigns would not comment on whether fundraising would take place at the conference.

City and state officials said it would cost about $50,000 for each delegation, though the city uses private donations to offset some of the travel expense. Ehrlich and O'Malley were in Las Vegas yesterday and expect to remain there today.

"This is a trip that the mayor has made for the last five years that has resulted in significant economic development in the city of Baltimore," said O'Malley campaign spokesman Rick Abbruzzese, who would not comment on whether campaign events will take place - because, he said, the campaign never discusses fundraising strategy.

Weeks after last year's conference, the International Council of Shopping Centers cut O'Malley's campaign a $4,000 check, according to state election finance records. John Bucksbaum, chief executive officer of Chicago-based General Growth Properties and a trustee of the organization, contributed $4,000 to the mayor.

Ehrlich received a $1,000 contribution from the trade group in October and $1,000 from a trustee, Gary D. Rappaport, in December, state records show. How many of the conference's roughly 40,000 attendees give to the campaigns is unknown because the trade organization does not disclose who buys tickets.

"Governor Ehrlich has attended this conference for a number of years, and his primary focus while in Las Vegas will be not only to tout but to boost Maryland's outstanding retail economy," said Ehrlich campaign spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver, who also would not comment on fundraising.

Rappaport, chief executive of McLean, Va.,-based Rappaport Companies, also contributed $1,000 to O'Malley in January. Rappaport said he would have made contributions to both candidates regardless of whether they attended the conference.

"To me, the one has nothing to do with the other," Rappaport said. "If they weren't here, they'd be missing the opportunity that their competition, other states and cities, [is] having."

Economic development officials credit the conference with helping secure retail development in the state and noted that hundreds of elected representatives from across the country regularly attend. Supporters say the conference brings large retailers such as Best Buy together with developers and government officials.

"It is very important, probably the most important show of its kind in the retail industry," said Aris Melissaratos, secretary of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development.

Melissaratos, who is not attending, said the conference advanced redevelopment of shopping malls in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties and helped bring a Wegmans supermarket to Prince George's County.

Celeste Amato, director of business development for the Baltimore Development Corp., said the city conducts dozens of meetings with decision-makers at the convention.

"Face-to-face meetings make a difference," said Amato, who is in Las Vegas. "From a business development perspective, it impresses Realtors and developers when they can shake hands with the mayor of Baltimore."

O'Malley and Ehrlich are involved in what is expected to be the state's most expensive gubernatorial race. Disclosure statements detailing last year's fundraising show that Ehrlich collected $4.6 million, compared with O'Malley's $4.3 million.

O'Malley's Democratic primary rival, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan - who raised about $1.3 million last year - is not attending the Las Vegas event and did not receive a contribution from the organization. A Duncan campaign spokeswoman, Jody Couser, questioned whether the other candidates in the race wanted what happens this week in Vegas to stay there.[LOL]

Ehrlich and O'Malley, she said, "appear to want to bring a little Vegas back to Maryland, whether it's slots or campaign cash."

john.fritze@baltsun.com

New multiplex coming to Inner Harbor East
A 7-screen art house is to open next spring
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2006

Baltimore will get its first new movie complex in more than 20 years next spring - a bet on downtown's growing lure as a place to live and play as well as work.

A seven-screen cinema run by Landmark Theatres, a chain devoted to art and independent films, will open next spring as part of the long-planned entertainment centerpiece in Harbor East, the $1 billion waterfront community east of the Inner Harbor.

The announcement was made yesterday by the developers, H&S Properties Development Corp. and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

While the developers said they expect the new multiplex to become a key entertainment attraction, it also increases competition for the city's existing theaters, which target much the same audience.

Baltimore hasn't had a new movie theater since United Artists opened what was considered a showpiece, nine-screen theater at the Inner Harbor in 1985. But the theater gradually saw its customers opt for newer suburban theaters with stadium seating and easy parking. The theater fell into disrepair and closed in 2000.

But now, both Landmark and Harbor East's developers believe that the proliferation of upscale condos and the growth in downtown living will ensure suc- cess of a new cinema that will complement The Charles Theatre, the Senator and the Rotunda.

"There's room for another project to come in and a lot of movies out there," said Michael S. Beatty, president of H&S Properties.

H&S and Struever announced the lease signing yesterday from Las Vegas, where the International Council of Shopping Centers is holding its annual convention. "We think this is a great package."

Landmark, which opened its first art and independent film theater in Seattle 30 years ago, saw an opportunity in Baltimore to grow a chain that now spans both coasts, with 59 theaters in 23 markets.

The Los Angeles-based chain has two theaters in the region, one in Bethesda and another in Washington.

"We're very confident this is going to become the entertainment center of Baltimore," said Kevin Parke, president of Landmark Theatres.

"We think there's going to be a strong demand for these films," Parke said. "The definition of art and independent films has expanded, and now we have a broader audience for documentaries and independent studio productions. ... We feel like the base of consumers for independent films has broadened as well, as we've seen in D.C. Baltimore is another sophisticated city with a large group of people interested in seeing these films."



Competitors' view
But competitors said the new cinema will have an impact.
"It'll be harder for us, but we have low overhead, so we'll be able to survive fine," said James "Buzz" Cusack, a partner in The Charles Theatre, which has been a mainstay of the Station North Arts District since its renovation into a five-screen complex in 1999.

An additional theater, though, could make it tougher to get films, he said.

"A lot of these smaller movies don't want two prints out in the same area, so that could be difficult," he said. "Now, sometimes the Senator and we want the same movie and only one of us gets it."

Harbor East developers have long envisioned an art film theater as a key entertainment attraction of the mixed-use community, on the waterfront near Little Italy and Fells Point.

While other negotiations over the years with national or local theater operators never came to fruition, H&S Properties had always had its sights set on Landmark, the nation's largest chain devoted to art and independent films.

"We've always known we wanted a high-end art theater in the project," Beatty said. "From Day 1, Landmark was always that operator but we couldn't get them. As our project developed ... and we built more and more restaurants and retail, Baltimore got on the radar screen."

The 1,400-seat cinema will feature a lobby bar, gourmet concession stand, stadium seating and digital projectors. The theaters will vary in size, with the largest seating about 300, Parke said.



Other features
The multiplex will become part of a mixed-use block bordered by Aliceanna, Exeter, President and Fleet streets. Construction is under way on a Hilton Garden Inn and a Hilton Homewood Suites, 220,000 square feet of office space, 122 condos and 20 live-work lofts.
The block also will have 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants and a health club.

Developers announced yesterday that Arhaus, a high-end home furnishing store, will open there, and City Sports, an urban sports retailer, will move there from a temporary address in Harbor East.

The earlier plans for a cinema at Harbor East had called for Crown Theaters to operate an 18-screen, 4,500-seat stadium style theater. About three years ago, Madstone Theaters planned to open a six- or seven-screen facility.



lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2006-05/23564443.jpg
Mount Vernon's chief town crier
Bob Niles is the cultural district's executive director and strives to tell more people about its offerings
By June Arney
sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2006
Bob Niles has been selling entertainment for years.

Much of the time, he did it from Rockefeller Center as a high-powered executive with NBC. But these days his home base is Baltimore, and his mission more local. Niles' new job as executive director of the Mount Vernon Cultural District is to establish a brand for the neighborhood, to bring in more visitors and to get them to stay longer.





"It's an area that invites you to slow down and enrich your life by taking in what's around you," said Niles, 57. "It's a very special urban, cultural village. The challenge we have is to make more people aware of it."

The Mount Vernon Cultural District, which encompasses the area bounded by Eutaw Street, Mount Royal Avenue, the Jones Falls Expressway and Mulberry Street, is rich with cultural traditions that include the First Thursday concerts, the Book Festival, the Flower Mart and the Christmas lighting of the Washington Monument.

The district is home to major cultural attractions, including the Walters Art Museum, Maryland Historical Society, Center Stage, the Peabody Institute, where an estimated $300 million has been invested over the past 10 years.

Niles walks the 20 minutes from his turn-of-the-century rowhouse in Federal Hill to his office in the Downtown Partnership's headquarters.

From his North Charles Street office, Niles scurries around to various attractions in Mount Vernon throughout the day.

"I think the programming is solid," he said. "It's almost like this is an oasis where you can nourish yourself."

Niles opted for a new life in Baltimore after a 24-year career at NBC, where he held a variety of senior marketing positions, most recently as senior vice president of network development and digital media strategy. When NBC moved to phase out his department, Niles decided to change direction - and his workaholic lifestyle. It also afforded him the chance to spend time with his then teenage children.

As he and his wife of 3 1/2 years, freelance journalist Christina Cheakalos, brainstormed about where to relocate on the East Coast, Baltimore came up on a short list along with cities such asRaleigh, N.C., and Portland, Maine.

"We came down on a Friday afternoon and in about 10 minutes looked at each other and said, 'This feels great,"' Niles said.

The couple moved here in the fall of 2004, settling in Federal Hill so their Labradoodle Tom could frolic in the neighborhood parks.

"One of the reasons we moved to Baltimore was to simplify our lives," Cheakalos said. "We wanted to live in a place that had all the good things about a city and the problems that make it real."


Began in March
Niles was doing consulting, and keeping his eye on a Web site about nonprofits when the Mount Vernon job opened in January. At the same time, a friend of his wife's also flagged the position.

The two sides decided they were a match. Niles took the job - at about a quarter of his NBC salary - and started in March.

"On the marketing level, we felt we needed a plan," said Connie Caplan, president of the Mount Vernon Cultural District board. "Bob came from a broadcast background. He understood marketing. It seemed like a perfect fit."

"Bob was the one who suggested looking at ourselves as a cultural urban village," Caplan said. "I think that was a good way of casting ourselves."

Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership and a member of the Mount Vernon Cultural District board, considers the city lucky to have Niles.

"He's a recent transplant, and I've found a lot of transplants really fall in love with the city and want to spread the word," he said. "As more residents are moving into Mount Vernon and the rest of downtown, it's important for us to keep those people. It's important for Bob to focus on how to keep those people interested in the cultural amenities of the district while also reaching out to tourists, students and business people."

For his part, Niles relishes that his new job allows him to indulge his passion for history, which he studied as an undergraduate, while tapping into his professional experience and his knack for getting people to work together.


Attract families




In the coming months, Niles hopes to develop a plan and metrics for measuring success as he works on upgrading the organization's Web site, devising ways to attract families with children, and ponders methods for shuttling people around the district's attractions.

Although his main role is to bring visitors in, it is possible that such an effort also could help attract residents to the area, he said. It has not been decided whether the branding effort would include some form of advertising campaign.

The nearby State Center project is one that Niles plans to watch closely. That complex of state-owned office buildings, which house about 3,500 workers, is to become a 25-acre hub of offices, shops, a hotel and mixed-income housing centered on the Metro and light-rail stops. Located at the edge of Mount Vernon, such a project could generate a lot of traffic through the cultural district, Niles said.

Niles' enthusiasm for Baltimore has earned him the moniker "Mr. Believe" among friends.

Nicholas P. Schiavone, a former colleague from NBC who is founder and president of a strategic business consulting firm in Rye, N.Y., that bears his name, has experienced "Mr. Believe" in action during many phone conversations with Niles.

"For a while I thought he was in the chamber of commerce or the travel bureau," Schiavone joked. "I thought he was getting a commission. Bob's affinity for Baltimore comes from the heart, it's not a cerebral thing. He's smart enough to understand it and to do something of service with it."

The men worked together at NBC selling the 1992 Olympics to companies such as Kodak, Visa and Coca-Cola by persuading them to wrap sponsorship messages around real stories about athletes that incorporated idealism and patriotism.

"Bob was the type of person who created conditions for creativity and growth," Schiavone said.

Niles takes on projects and makes them a mission, said Steve Friedman, vice president of CBS News Morning Programming, who has known him for 20 years.

"He comes up with ideas and sells them to the people he needs to sell them to," Friedman said. "He thinks Baltimore is the greatest city in the world now. I can tell it in his voice."

Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum and a founder of the Mount Vernon Cultural District who served on the search committee that hired Niles, thinks that the former TV executive has a clear grasp of the organization's goals.

"I think he finds this whole process of engaging with the city personally energizing," Vikan said. "I think what's rewarding for him at this stage in his life is exactly what we need. This is not a place to drive around; this is a place to walk and a place to linger. I think he really gets it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Niles

Age: 57

Current job: Executive director, Mount Vernon Cultural District

Born: March 23, 1949, in Flint, Mich.

Education: B.A. University of Virginia, 1971; M.B.A. Harvard University, 1977

First Job: Age 13. Cleaned kennels for a veterinarian for 75 cents an hour in Fenton, Mich.

Career: Press secretary for U.S. Rep. Donald W. Riegle Jr., a Michigan Democrat, May 1973 to June 1975. Joined NBC management training program in 1977. Within six months, he was manager of TV network financial analysis. From there, he worked as director of financial planning, director of TV network pricing, vice president of TV network sales marketing, vice president of NBC research, senior vice president of affiliate relations, senior vice president of network development and senior vice president of digital media strategies.

Family: Married Christina Cheakalos, a freelance journalist, in 2003; two adult children from a previous marriage: Alexandra, 22, and Peter, 20.

june.arney@baltsun.com

I like having entertainment options. Anyone who has ever been to Fells Point, Cross Street, Canton Square, the Harbor Prominade, or Power Plant Live at night knows that they are almost always crowded. This is especially true on weekends. Baltimore wouldn't be Baltimore if everything was centralized.

I think we are following the New York model. New York has Times Square (our Inner Harbor) which is a central space known for entertainment and tourists. But they also have many other venues. Harlem (North and Charles), Grenwich Village (Mt. Vernon), Little Italy (Little Italy), The East Village (Fells Point), SoHo (Canton/Federal Hill) all of which offer a different experience abet on a smaller scale than NY. The point being is that they cater to a different clientel. It's subtle, but detectible.

I would rather see lots of stable areas offering a variety of experiences than one big area lumped together. We are blessed to have places like the above, along with Charles Village, Hampden, Waverly, and even some not so nice places like The Block. I think they all serve a purpose. That's what makes Baltimore, well, Baltimore.

The future of this town will not be built on tourists. They are only here 5 months out of the year. The citizens of Baltimore will ultimately determine what is good, what is bad, what will be successful, and what will fail. If a club closes and there is an unmet need for a specific type of entertainment, I trust that the markeplace will fill it. In short, I like Baltimore the way it is hon! The only thing I would change is to have each of the neighborhood areas I've cited above to continue to improve. Fortunately, they all seem to be doing that.

P.S. I've been to Beale Street. I've walked on Beale Street. I've stumbled on Beale Street - and Baltimore, you're no Beale Street. THANK GOD! I wan't one bit impressed with it. Fells Point has just as many bars, clubs, restaurants, and people - and a lot more atmosphere. We are sooooo blessed NOT to hear country songs like "You're The Reason Our Children Are So Ugly" coming out of our bars. I'll take Baltimore over Memphis any day.

Thanks for the good input on this topic PeterSmith, Gsol, pepperjack, Wadaguy. I think that we can agree that Baltimore is blessed with several unique nightlife spots that cater to different tastes, along the lines of NYC. I wouldn't want to see a replica of Beale Street which is catering mostly to tourists, but I feel it would be interesting to see a consolidation of the main city nightlife entertainment in one or two high visibility areas with the other areas acting as places to go before and after the main 'party'. Just a thought.

I'm sure some of you have seen this, but if I'm not mistaken at the beginning and end of the "Bacardi and Cola" television commercial, they do a panoramic flyover of the downtown Baltimore skyline at night. It looks impressive. Bacardi must be based locally and someone in their Ad department must be a Charm City skyline fan.

i was a little bit insulted by those ads because the point of them they're kinda tacky, so they chose bmore as the tacky city

ermm, I sing to that song, only because of the city. Is that too embarrasing? HAs enyone else heard of Struever coming to a site in Dundalk? Heard it in the "family talk". Can't find out anything on google, help me out?

Yeah I see that ad occasionally too. I believe that flyover was digitally remastered because there were buildings in the shot that aren't in our skyline. I have to admit the commercial was quite tacky, but the skyline shot was awesome. Almost looked like LA.

Originally Posted by PeterSmith
Does the location make it vulnerable to any nimbyism?

Not unless you're a RAT! <(..)> :)

I have heard one of the alternate forms of nimbyism. I read one article about the historic warehouses in the area and how they are endangered. I have to admit that I have long looked at those historic warehouses and wished them gone. Not all history is worth preserving.

....I like having entertainment options. Anyone who has ever been to Fells Point, Cross Street, Canton Square, the Harbor Prominade, or Power Plant Live at night knows that they are almost always crowded. This is especially true on weekends. Baltimore wouldn't be Baltimore if everything was centralized.

I think we are following the New York model. New York has Times Square (our Inner Harbor) which is a central space known for entertainment and tourists. But they also have many other venues. Harlem (North and Charles), Grenwich Village (Mt. Vernon), Little Italy (Little Italy), The East Village (Fells Point), SoHo (Canton/Federal Hill) all of which offer a different experience abet on a smaller scale than NY. The point being is that they cater to a different clientel. It's subtle, but detectible. ....

I think that the essence of what is a city rather than a town is that a city is more than one place. Places like St Micheals or Oxford are basically towns (wonderful ones at that), ringed around their centers, but you can visualize in your mind where it starts and ends and it's one basic entity. A city should have lots of neighborhoods with different characters and styles. That's what I like about cities like Baltimore where I can pick an area depending on my mood.

I would rather see lots of stable areas offering a variety of experiences than one big area lumped together. We are blessed to have places like the above, along with Charles Village, Hampden, Waverly, and even some not so nice places like The Block. I think they all serve a purpose. That's what makes Baltimore, well, Baltimore.

The future of this town will not be built on tourists. They are only here 5 months out of the year. The citizens of Baltimore will ultimately determine what is good, what is bad, what will be successful, and what will fail. If a club closes and there is an unmet need for a specific type of entertainment, I trust that the markeplace will fill it. In short, I like Baltimore the way it is hon! The only thing I would change is to have each of the neighborhood areas I've cited above to continue to improve. Fortunately, they all seem to be doing that.

The future of this city will be based on tourism but not only tourism. It's also based on business, government, nonprofit, academic, retail, financial, etc. Since I work downtown and frequently eat lunch around the harbor, I see tourists every day and on some level it seems like a blood bag for the economy. Every annoying kid is worth $50 per day. That said, however, I also enjoy having places in the city to go that are interesting but not full of over-soda-ed kids and people with cameras. The more of those other places there are, the better things get. My latest favorite is Belvedere Square, which has the enviable combination of books, music, movies, food and booze. And it's local to my neigborhood. Things like this actually impress me more than risky, tenuous plans for tall buildings that havn't happened yet because I know that it's where people live that makes things happen and if people want to be there then the big buildings will follow.

ermm, I sing to that song, only because of the city. Is that too embarrasing? HAs enyone else heard of Struever coming to a site in Dundalk? Heard it in the "family talk". Can't find out anything on google, help me out?

They don't have anything listed on their web site in Dundalk (http://www.sber.com/developing/default.asp ) but I can imagine some opportunities there. Maybe you ought to start a campaign. Streuver likes to go places where he's wanted.

Just got back to reading the forum after having been away a couple of weeks due to a death in the family.

Amazing how much can happen in such little time. 2 60 story buildings in that area would transform the city!! Liberty Place in Philly comes to mind as having had a similar effect. And with 10 Light St., things are sure looking "up"!!

Wouldn't be surprised if the buildings at Harbor Point would be significant hieght too!! :runaway:

Welcome back Micrip. My condolences on your loss. It's true what you said. A lot can happen in little time. By being away at college, I can't see what's going on at first hand, so a lot of you guys provide me with all I need to represent my hometown.

Baltimore nightclub is to close Saturday
Hammerjacks, heavy metal, rock icon, has been sold to developers
By Lorraine Mirabella, Rob Hiaasen and Sam Sessa
Sun reporters
Originally published May 24, 2006

Hammerjacks, once a Baltimore icon of heavy metal and rock, will close Saturday after the sale of its building to developers.

The club never regained its legendary status after its reincarnation in 2000 in a two-story brick building on Guilford Avenue, where disc jockeys spinning dance club numbers and hip-hop were more common than live music.

But in the days before the cavernous club under an Interstate 395 overpass was razed and paved over for Ravens stadium parking, bands such as Guns 'N' Roses and the Ramones could practically make the expressway vibrate.

The nightclub's Web site is running a countdown to last call, down to the millisecond. It says the club has been sold.

A message on its voice mail says: "The rumors are true. May 27 Hammerjacks will be closing their doors forever."

Club owner Michael W. Hunter Jr. did not return calls yesterday. Neither did developers Bresler & Reiner Inc. of Rockville and Richard W. Naing of RWN Development Group, who have presented the city with redevelopment plans for Guilford Avenue north of City Hall.

But it's likely Hammerjacks and other buildings between Saratoga and Pleasant streets, such as a parking garage and self-storage facility, will be torn down to make way for a tower with housing and ground-level shops, the city planning director said. That would continue a redevelopment frenzy that has taken hold downtown and has begun along the Guilford Avenue corridor with new apartments in the Saratoga Court building at Guilford and Saratoga.

For some in Baltimore's club scene circles, especially those who remember the old Hammerjacks as a cultural phenomenon, news of the sale, first reported by The Daily Record, hardly registered.

Don Wehner of Up Front Promotions, a regional promotion company, booked acts for a decade at the old Hammerjacks, which featured entertainers such as Tupac Shakur, Queen Latifah, Marilyn Manson and local bands like Jimmie's Chicken Shack. For Wehner, the club he knew and loved is gone.

"Hammerjacks closed in the fall of 1997," Wehner said. At its current location, the club "didn't even make a dent in the live music world - maybe not even in the DJ world."

The newer Hammerjacks did find a niche as an outlet for Baltimore's unique urban club music called the "B-More" sound - ultra-fast, drum-driven dance music. Along with Club Choices and the Paradox, Hammerjacks also has featured some of the best-known local producers and supporters of the B-More sound, including DJ Rod Lee and DJ "Club Queen" K-Swift.

"I know them both, and with all due respect to them, the Hammerjacks that exists is not the Hammerjacks that made the music scene in Baltimore," Wehner said.

Seth Hurwitz, a regional concert promoter and co-owner of the 9:30 Club in Washington, also fondly remembers the old Hammerjacks in the 1980s during the era of the big-hair bands.

That was a time when the club, in a converted brewery building in an industrial patch of South Howard Street, had an image "as a haven for big-haired, scantily dressed, hard-rock gals and their longhaired boyfriends in tight jeans," The Sun's former pop music critic, J.D. Considine, wrote in 1997. Despite that image, he wrote, "the appeal was far broader."

Hammerjacks remained vital to Baltimore's music scene in the 1980s and 1990s. It featured two clubs -a two-story bar with DJs and a concert hall that had opened in 1985 - where 3,000 fans could rock the night away.

"It was a big part of the landscape," said Ron Furman, owner of the Max's on Broadway bar in Fells Point, who occasionally helped promote shows at Hammerjacks. "It personified that style of music, dress, what was being played on mainstream radio at the time. It had some of that MTV feel to it, but it was definitely that blue-collar working man's bar at the same time. Everybody felt comfortable in there, and it had the allure of having a dark side."

"It was rock 'n' roll," Furman said. "They played all those 'hair' bands, and it had that illusion of being rough. It was a drinking man's bar, but at the same time vast and big. It was a place where you could see acts in a bar atmosphere. You could see the Guns 'N' Roses of the world."

In 1997, the Maryland Stadium Authority purchased Hammerjacks in a deal to acquire three tracts on South Howard Street for $3.1 million. The former owner, Louie Principio, told The Sun at the time that he believed the property was worth at least $4.4 million, but he was tired of the fight. "I feel like someone punched me in the stomach," he said then. Principio could not be reached yesterday.

Principio went on three years later to open the new Hammerjacks on Guilford Avenue. He planned to bring bands in a more limited way and reserve weekends for DJs playing mainstream rock 'n' roll and dance music.

Drummer John Allen played at the newer Hammerjacks, most recently with rock group SR-71 in 2002, and also played at the previous location.
Though the newer Hammerjacks threw few rock shows, Allen said his band's gig there seemed like past concerts at the South Howard Street club.

"The night that we played it, it had a great, great feel to it," Allen said. "It felt like the old one. It was packed and people were rocking out. I think in some respects the Hammerjacks prior to the one on Guilford was a point in time, and sometimes it's really hard to capture that."

The city's musical landscape changed significantly after the new Hammerjacks opened. Rams Head Live, a concert hall in Power Plant Live that cost more than $10 million and holds 1,600 opened in late 2004. Nationally touring club acts found new homes there and at Sonar, a refurbished warehouse near Hammerjacks on Saratoga Street with a 1,200-person capacity that opened shortly before Rams Head Live. In 2003, the 8x10 Club on Cross Street also received a $2.5 million makeover.

Hammerjacks wasn't a major player anymore, some in the club business said yesterday.

"It was not an important live music venue - not in my world, the rock concert world," said Hurwitz, of the 9:30 Club. "The old Hammerjacks is really the story. This is not even the same story, but it is a good reason to reminisce."

Hammerjacks on Guilford will likely be replaced with a tower at least 40 stories tall of condominiums or apartments and ground-level retail, Otis Rolley III, the city's planning director, said yesterday.

Rolley said the city supports the concept of the plan. Developers have presented conceptual plans but have not filed specific plans with the city, he said.

"The preference of the city is to activate all of downtown on both sides of the JFX," Rolley said. "You want height here in downtown. You want people living right near their workplaces with access to conventional retail."

The Guilford Avenue corridor is underused, prime downtown space near City Hall dotted with self-storage and garages, he said.

"We could get more for the city and the neighborhood other than the existing uses," Rolley said.

As for Hammerjacks closing, he said: "You would have to assume it wouldn't be closing if it were highly successful."

The closing reflects nothing more than supply and demand, Hurwitz said. In this case, "it's a real estate deal - and if that is more important than what was happening in the club, that kind of says it all right there," he said.



lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

Eerik posted this in another thread. It is the locations for the two tall towers. :)
Thanks, Eerik.

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/downtown/sw.jpg

^^ Here are the comments made by Eerik, concerning these two projects...

"A good contact "in the know" remarked that despite the promised low real-estate costs for condos, vis-a-vis the lower cost for the assembled land, this project (some still claim it to be only rumored) does not pan out financially. A former writer for the Baltimore Business Journal said she heard the concept of two 60-storey towers was "accidentally leaked" at some dinner-party as an idea or concept for future development, from which two towers could rise if the market was right. Supposedly, this is only an investment purchase that could lead to future massive-scale development.

Likewise, a contact at the Planning Department questioned the two towers on two fronts: 1) engineering costs since the development land is former marsh, and 2) historic issues; towers (especially the proposed tower closer to City Hall) would dwarf not one, but several historic structures: the Peale Museum, City Hall and Zion Lutheran Church.

A separate contact at a real estate company claimed there are some issues with the purchase of land at the site surrounding the Peale: there are at least two city-owned right-of-ways that would need special approval for purchase. I also heard that the Klein store was in question.

However, the one note most promising for actual constructions is that Hammerjacks will be closing. No one that I spoke with could explain that one..."

That is absurd that the buildings aren't going up on that parking lot instead of removing buildings that are in use...

I really hope these towers go up. I'm so skeptical now.

The issue does have a few mysteries surrounding it. Hammerjacks closing does appear to indicate that these two towers will be moving forward, but isn't this closing a little premature given that they haven't even picked an architect to design the building, or aren't even sure what will go there aside from a really big building. Take the case of Four Seasons and Victor's. Victor's didn't close until just near the groundbreaking. Have any other businessesthat are located on these properties, if any exist, closed down?

City bid to seize bar is blocked
Judge rejects Baltimore's plan to condemn The Magnet and redevelop Charles North area
By Jill Rosen
Sun reporter
Originally published May 24, 2006

By rejecting Baltimore's plan to seize a bar for its Charles North redevelopment effort, a Circuit Court judge has complicated that urban renewal plan and called into question the city's economic development tactics.

Judge John Philip Miller, in an opinion released yesterday, ruled that city economic development officials failed to show "sufficient grounds" to warrant taking the bar through eminent domain.

Land-use officials say this could be the first time the court has blocked the city from a "quick take" seizure.

"The Plaintiff impassively asserts that the Charles North Project will likely come to a temporary halt unless Plaintiff is awarded the Property in Interest immediately," Miller wrote. "The Court, based on all evidence, is not satisfied the Plaintiff has met its burden."

The city is attempting to condemn The Magnet at 1924 N. Charles St., and about 20 other properties in the area, to assemble sizable tracts to offer developers. The goal is to jump-start the depressed area, which is sandwiched between Mount Vernon and Charles Village and sits along the busy Charles Street corridor.

The city plans to challenge the ruling.

"I would simply say we respectfully disagree with Judge Miller, and we will be seeking reconsideration of the matter," Elva Tillman, a city special solicitor, said yesterday.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's development arm, declined to discuss the specifics of the ruling but said yesterday that Baltimore's use of the "quick take" process for Charles North is no different than the hundreds of other instances the city has used eminent domain.

"This is not unique in any way. This is the way the city's done things for the last 40 years," Brodie said. "It's called urban renewal."

However, in his ruling, Miller questioned the city's procedure of moving to seize the bar before having a specific plan for the site. Typically, the BDC leaves it up to developers vying for the seized property to decide whether they want to build homes, shops, offices or something else.

Citing last year's Supreme Court ruling that affirmed government's right to seize private property for economic development, Miller wrote that Kelo v. New London showed that to take property for economic development, a city must show "a carefully considered development plan."

Baltimore, the judge ruled, did not.

Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Scott Bullock, who argued Kelo before the Supreme Court on behalf of the property owners and was aware of Baltimore's Charles North case, said it shows how in the aftermath of Kelo, courts are increasingly scrutinizing property seizure cases.

"It demonstrates that the courts are now embarking to set their own course when it comes to eminent domain abuse," Bullock said. "It seemed like this case was so egregious and so sloppy."

If the Circuit Court decision stands, Baltimore's long-standing way of achieving urban redevelopment could be turned on its head.

"It certainly would create a problem," Tillman said.

Brodie added: "That's something we'll have to see about."

Attorney John C. Murphy, who represents the owner of The Magnet and a number of other small property owners who are challenging the city's use of eminent domain in Charles North and in other neighborhoods, said Miller's ruling could have repercussions for the city. He said it "evens out the playing field quite a bit."

"It's certainly a substantive restriction on the power of eminent domain," Murphy said. "In my humble opinion, this is a big deal."

Though the Kelo decision prompted states across the country to rush to pass legislation that would crack down on government's condemnation powers, similar efforts fell flat this year in Annapolis.

While some, including Murphy, fought hard for laws that would restrict property seizure for economic development, eminent domain advocates, led by Baltimore officials, fought just as fiercely to preserve the status quo.

Without eminent domain, they argued, Baltimore would never have been able to turn the Inner Harbor from decrepit docks into a tourist attraction.

The goals of bar owner George Valsamaki in challenging the city's seizure are unclear. Murphy said the city offered Valsamaki $140,000 for the property.

Valsamaki did not return phone calls yesterday.

The ruling greatly disappoints Dale Dusman, president of the Charles North Community Association, who's been waiting for years to see improvement in his stretch of Charles Street.

He's nervous that the decision might delay - if not ruin - the redevelopment plans.

"If this is going to be the case, we're going to have a problem with every property they want to take," he said. "We have really great potential here, but certain buildings have to go."



jill.rosen@baltsun.com

I really hope these towers go up. I'm so skeptical now.

In the last 36 hours, what has changed surrounding this project? Absolutely nothing. The details were just as foggy a couple of days ago as they are now. To be honest with you, Im encouraged by the fact that the planning director is aware of the concepts and seems to have at least spoken with the developer.

There arent very many projects in this city that I await with bated breath and this isnt one of them. Right now, aside from actually purchasing some of the buildings, the developer hasnt poured nearly as much money into these buildings as ARCWheeler has into its project. I guess thats why most of us feel more comfortable about 10 IH being constructed.

Lets not get all 'gloom and-doom' with this project. There's no denying that Baltimore has been burned by developers in the past, but thats no reason to assume that this story isnt fact and the developer doesnt plan to develop these properties. Remember just a few weeks ago people thought the sky was falling on the 10 Inner Harbor tower. Clearly that tower is going to happen.

Nation’s Mayors Talk About Retail…and a Lot More
Globe Street
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: May 23, 2006 06:20am

LAS VEGAS-MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson noted that nationally, there has been a migration back into the nation’s cities, and in making that statement he set the table for a panel of mayors to explain why that’s happening and how more cities can make it happen. The setting was the ICSC Town Hall Meeting, “Meet the Mayors,” in a Monday morning general session during the organization’s annual Spring Convention here.

Mayor Beverly O’Neill of Long Beach, CA, current president of the US Conference of Mayors, lauded that organization’s relationship with ICSC for helping hers become “a city transformed.” She explained that after military cutbacks set Long Beach on its heels, “we depended on the shopping center industry to change the city,” particularly in terms of waterfront redevelopment.

Picking up on the waterfront theme, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley said the process “takes visionary people, and we’ve continued to build on that,” a reference to the fact that his city is one of the prime examples of waterfront redevelopment. He admitted that after all these years, it’s still a work in progress, but “our downtown population has doubled. We’ve even brought in 18 supermarkets,” admittedly an accomplishment for any city.


Indeed, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman admitted that despite all the growth his city and the region have seen, downtown Las Vegas still needs a lot of work. Among other things, “I want a grocery store downtown.” Carlson raised the issue of eminent domain, with O’Malley responding, “we couldn’t have accomplished what we have without it. But we don’t use it in a cavalier, reckless, irresponsible way.”

What do you say to critics of eminent domain? While admitting that abuses in some places have caused a backlash, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay explained that, “you need to have a system in place to make judicious use of it and avoid abuses. We haven’t had any controversy in St. Louis.” And according to Mayor Wayne Seybold of Marion, IN, his city’s approach was to go to large owners of underutilized land “and make them partners.”

As far as the often difficult effort to attract retailers into the cities, Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, which has seen significant in-migration of people, “our pitch is that people are coming back, and they need retail. And we’ve launched a marketing campaign to invite people in.” Mayor Kay Barnes of Kansas City, MO explained that a lot of growth is coming from young people moving back into the city, “and that attracts retail.”

And for Mayor Ross Ferraro of Carol Stream, IL, the pitch was simple: “We have no property tax.” He noted that his city also has sales tax incentives, “and we’ve also streamlined the permitting process.” On the subject of red tape, Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus, OH noted that his city had plenty of it when he took office, “but we’ve changed that with a one-stop shop. Cities need to reinvent themselves.”

Mayor Anthony Williams of Washington, DC concurred: “You have to remove the obstacles so investment will take its course. We had to get the message out that, ‘the lights are on’.” He also urged cities to “prioritize, because you can’t do everything at once.”

In terms of the aesthetics of redevelopment, “we bring developers to the table early on, before the permitting process,” explained Mayor Richard Sullivan, Jr. of Westfield, MA, where the goal is to blend development with the historical fabric of the city. That’s also the case in Boston, with that city’s Mayor Thomas Menino calling aesthetics “a challenge. Design is very important to us, and we have a community process.”

Menino admitted, however, that despite the best intentions of that process, “you still have the meeting-goers. They hate their wives, they hate their boyfriends, they had a bad childhood and they hate everything, and they come out just to beat us up.” Long Beach Mayor O’Neill admitted that the public process can be discouraging to developers, but urged the latter to “talk to the neighborhood. It’s a process of education.”

Concluded Columbus Mayor Coleman, “retail is part of the picture, obviously. But the cities themselves have to step up to provide good housing, jobs and infrastructure to set the table for retail."

This project might already be scaled down. If you notice the SUN article refers to it as a 40 story building. Also from Eeric's post, there appears to be some problems with the soil in that area. Also the city doesn't want to dwarf City Hall and the Peale Museum. So once this project is seriously debated, you can see the pitfalls on the horizon.

Another serious issue is the denial of the city to seize a club on N. Charles St. under eminent domain. This is a backlash to the Connecticut case which allowed for private property to be seized by a city and given over to another private developer. This case caused a lot stir especially among conservatives over the rights of a municipality to do this. I can visualize this case as a test to override the Conn. case. It can go the distance to the Supreme Court. This is a BIG issue for a lot of private property holders.

But what this means to Balt. is an end of its major means to devlop large parcels of land. Perhaps the city can offer the bar owner "an offer he can't refuse" to moot the case. But this issue will not go away.

Yeah, I also saw the Sun's reference to a 40 story tower. Also, my feeling is that these two towers will be developed independently of each other. Does anyone else get that feeling? I think the argument of it dwarfing City Hall and other buildings in a little thin. City Hall is pretty tall itself, and isn't 414 Water St. going up at 31 stories next to it? As for the other buildings, do they expect low rise properties to not get dwarfed in downtown? I do respect some of the history there though. Does the developer plan to demolish some of these historic structures, or simply build near them/over them? Where is the Peale property exactly in reference to these properties? Is it part of them or just adjacent to them?
Anyway, my feeling is that height should not be an issue if we're building in downtown (unless it's related to the engineering side of the project). I'll admit that I can't quite picture what that place in downtown looks like, but my guess, from the pictures posted, is that it's underutilized, being right next to a highway.

TA DA!

For the 26th-straight year, Johns Hopkins University led the nation in the amount of money it spends on research.

According to a report by the National Science Foundation, Hopkins spent $1.375 billion on research and development in fiscal 2004, up from $1.244 billion the year before. Hopkins was followed by the University of California, Los Angeles, which spent $773 million on research in fiscal 2004, down from $849 million the year before.

Hopkins had led the National Science Foundation's list since 1979, when those rankings were revised to include Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel. That 3,900-person lab, which gets most of its funding from the military, accounts for nearly 50 percent of Hopkins' research spending.

The National Science Foundation's study also found that industrial funding of science and engineering research around the country declined by 2.6 percent in fiscal 2004, the third straight year of declines.

"Discoveries and innovations that provide lasting benefit to humanity are the ultimate goals of the scientific, medical and engineering research done at Johns Hopkins," William R. Brody, president of Hopkins, said in a statement. "But we are also gratified that our scientists' success in winning support for their research has a major economic benefit at home here in Maryland."

2006-2008 DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT REPORT
http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/images/upload/8/pdf/2006_Dev_Report.pdf

Page 6 - "Don't be surprised if someone announces a major new Downtown tower in the next two years."

Huge updated listing of all developemt projects at the end of the report.

The Zenith tower is really coming along. It looks to be up to the 8th or 9th floors. Its going to look soo great in that area when completed. :)

Yea the Zeinth is looking great to bad it's not going to be taller when it's done.

Yea the Zeinth is looking great to bad it's not going to be taller when it's done.

How many floors is it slated to be? What about the boutique hotel next to it?

How many floors is it slated to be? What about the boutique hotel next to it?
The Zenith's gonna' be 21 floors. The boutique hotel's gonna' be 8 floors, i think.

Zenith is going to have a nice presence on that corner. Its not big by any means, but it will certainly make a difference. The hotel looks like its going to be brick (no surpise there). I still dont think anyone has ever seen a rendering of this thing.

Does anyone know if the Midtown brand is still involved with the condos at Canton Crossing?

The Zenith will not be that tall but it will be tall enough to notice when you're approaching the city via 395. :) It will definitely livin up that area though.

2006-2008 DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT REPORT
http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com/images/upload/8/pdf/2006_Dev_Report.pdf

Page 6 - "Don't be surprised if someone announces a major new Downtown tower in the next two years."

Huge updated listing of all developemt projects at the end of the report.
Yeah, I read that the other day. VERY ENCOURAGING!.
We will probably hear something more on these developments next week. :D

Eerik posted this in another thread. It is the locations for the two tall towers. :)
Thanks, Eerik.

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/downtown/sw.jpg
...and next to this, the 30-story tower planned for next to Port Discovery, on the balloon site. If all 3 of these get built (and that's a big if) imagine the view southbound on the JFX, let alone the dramatic change as viewed from Federal Hill.

I wish that Johns Hopkins would build a high-rise taller than 12 floors.

...and next to this, the 30-story tower planned for next to Port Discovery, on the balloon site. If all 3 of these get built (and that's a big if) imagine the view southbound on the JFX, let alone the dramatic change as viewed from Federal Hill.
And don't forget the highrise Mercy Hospital expansion 1 block away!

According the the development report, it will cost $270,000,00 which should buy a lot of building. Also, a new Mercy garage at Guilford and Saratoga will cost $20,000,000. So you're looking at $290,000,000 in new construction next to these towers.

GRAND AGAIN
$27M restores luster to downtown palace
By JEN DeEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer

The former Masonic Temple in Baltimore’s financial district celebrates its grand reopening as the Tremont Grand today, the culmination of a $27 million restoration by the owner of downtown Baltimore’s Tremont Plaza and Tremont Park hotels.

Built in 1869 as a palatial headquarters for Maryland’s Freemasons — a fraternal society that traces itself to the Middle Ages — the structure now serves as rentable meeting and party space. With its marble floors and hallways, towering stained-glass windows and other decorative flourishes, the five-story building is expected to become one of Baltimore’s trendiest function spots. Some of the Grand’s 19 rooms have been open since September, hosting events ranging from weddings to business luncheons. About $2.5 million in business has already been scheduled through 2007, said Mike Elliott, the Tremont’s director of sales and marketing.

“Our booking pace and the business that’s coming in thus far is generally what we expected would happen,” Elliott said. “We’re expecting to do $5 million or $6 million the first year and to have it grow eventually well beyond the $10 million mark after a few years.” That is a far cry from the Grand’s near fate as a parking garage. After the Masons abandoned their temple in 1994 for a new headquarters in Baltimore County, Baltimore leaders pushed the idea of demolishing the excess building to make way for a garage.

But William C. Smith, owner of Baltimore’s Tremont hotels, quashed those plans when he bought the building in 1998 with the aim of restoring the former temple. Eight years later, the building’s historical elements have been resurrected. Its elaborately carved railings and moldings, painted ceilings and sparkling chandeliers give the feeling of entering a bygone era.

But the spaces have been updated to reflect modern life. The dark masculinity of the ritual rooms were brightened with softer colors and, in some cases, plush carpeting, Elliott said. The rooms were also retrofitted with amenities such as air conditioning, sound systems and Internet access. And a garage built over what was once a surface parking lot between the Tremont Plaza and the Grand includes an enclosed walkway between the buildings.

While the first floor was once dedicated to ground-level retail uses, most of that space has been redesigned. A former marble shop, for example, now serves as a luxurious ladies bathroom. One street-accessible retail spot will remain, however. A gelato and pastry shop called the Tremont Café is expected to open in the building by mid-summer, Elliott said.

“Thankfully we saved the Masonic Temple from being demolished,” said Tyler Gearhart, executive director of Preservation Maryland, an advocacy group for historical preservation. “Next to the Basilica, it’s one of the most significant renovations in Baltimore City in recent memory.” The Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic cathedral in the United States, is undergoing a two-year, multimillion dollar renovation just blocks from the Tremont. The Basilica should be completed in November.

“I can’t imagine a better use for the building than what the Tremont has created here,” said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. “It’s one of the best things to happen in downtown this year, without a doubt.”

IT'S NEXT TO THE CHURCH
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/images/Photographs%20Balto%202006%20Page%2006%2002.jpg

Zenith is going to have a nice presence on that corner. Its not big by any means, but it will certainly make a difference. The hotel looks like its going to be brick (no surpise there). I still dont think anyone has ever seen a rendering of this thing.

Does anyone know if the Midtown brand is still involved with the condos at Canton Crossing?
The Midtown Brand (better known as KSI Services, Inc.) and ed hale parted ways on the development of the canton crossing condo part of the project, so when it does finally get built, KSI has no part in it at all.

Speaking of Ed Hale and KSI, has there been any other news in regards to the Greektown project? Wasn't it up-ed to 20 stories earlier? I can't quite remember.

Haven't heard or seen a thing.

Also the site for the 'Greektown North' development has a 'for sale--industrial land' sign on it. I know there was a zoning meeting notice hung up around February. Is there any way to check the outcome of that meeting? The for sale sign doesn't give me a good feeling.

'This is what we want it to look like'

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/574/images/news/ms.rotunda.-cover.jpg
05/24/06
By Larry Perl

Hekemian & Co.'s re-imagined Rotunda shopping mall as seen from a planned plaza, looking east toward Elm Avenue. The existing building is at left.
Hekemian & Co's redevelopment of the Rotunda would include a major bookstore and a health club, project point man Chris Bell told the Roland Park Civic League at its annual meeting.

A vacant office building (and one-time power plant) on the 11-acre site would be turned into a restaurant and a planned plaza that could accommodate concerts and a farmers' market, said Bell, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for New Jersey- based Hekemian.

The $100 million project also calls for a relocated, expanded Giant supermarket, 300 luxury apartments, 100 condominiums, a plaza, a boulevard, 50,000 square feet of additional retail, the repositioning of 140,000 square feet of existing retail and 1,600 parking spaces, twice as much as now.

"This is what we want it to look like," Bell said May 17, showing color slides of artist renderings to a civic league audience of 75. Most of the housing would be in two towers, one 22 stories and the other 10. The announced height of the taller tower drew gasps from the audience. The historic Rotunda building and its retail space and offices would remain. The stores and the two-screen movie theater will be repositioned to face outward, Bell said. Most parking would be in an underground garage, but people could park outside stores, too.

The Giant is the centerpiece of the project, said Bell and land-use consultant Al Barry. The current, 58,000-square-foot store, which is small by today's standards, would be closed, and a 70,000-square-foot Giant would be built on what's now the back parking lot. "In many ways," Barry said, "Giant is the foundation upon which the development will stand."

But Bell signaled there may be at least one other big anchor. "We're working with a major bookstore," Bell said. He would not name the bookstore, health club or restaurant. Bell said Hekemian's goal is to make the mall a pedestrian- friendly "work, live, play environment," accessible to Hampden's boutique- rich business corridor, 36th Street, also known as the Avenue.

With the Zurich insurance company next door and several assisted-living centers nearby, the area is an employment center, with about 3,000 workers who might shop and eat at the Rotunda, Bell said.

Construction is expected to start next summer and will take about two and half years, Bell said. Most residents who attended the league meeting appeared intrigued by Bell's presentation.

"I think it's wonderful. I'm excited about it," said Louise Phipps-Senft, new first vice president of the league's board of directors. But some were concerned about the impact on traffic, just as their counterparts in Hampden are.

"I just can't understand how you can bring all those additional cars into the neighborhood and maintain the intersections as they are," without major road improvements, said Christine McSherry. Barry said all 16 intersections in the immediate mall area are rated by the state as A's or B's, except one, according to a traffic study commissioned by Hekemian.

"Even D's are acceptable, and we're not even close to that," added Bell. But he said there's not much Hekemian can do to improve th coner of Falls Road and 41st Street, which is rated as an F-rated, or failing, intersection.

Resident Phil Spevak said he's afraid Rotunda traffic would make it more difficult for local residents ito get around. "I hope you will concentrate not on making it easier for people to drive there, but on making it easier not to drive there," he said. Resident Lisa Boyce questioned the validity of last summer's traffic study, saying she saw a traffic surveyor sleeping in his truck.

Hekemian officials talked to the Maryland Transit Administration early in the redevelopment planning process "to lend our support to keeping the Hampden shuttle bus," as a way to ease congestion on area streets, Barry said. The MTA considered eliminating the so-called "Shuttle Bug," or No. 98 bus, as part of a consolidation of bus service in Baltimore, but decided to keep the shuttle after an outcry from riders.

Hekemian does not need zoning approval for the project as planned, but might make changes based on its own cost analysis and on concerns by area residents about traffic issues, Barry said. The detailed renderings Bell showed of pedestrians and motorists in a re-imagined mall weren't just for the benefit of the community, but also for marketing purposes.

"They're going out to Vegas with me," said Bell, who planned to attend this week's spring convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas to recruit retailers to the mall. Bell said he hoped to have a complete lineup of retailers by the end of this year.

Speaking of Ed Hale and KSI, has there been any other news in regards to the Greektown project? Wasn't it up-ed to 20 stories earlier? I can't quite remember.
Yep, you're right. KSI's has developed renderings that show TWO 23-story high-rise condominium buildings and TWO 14-story condo and apartment complexes and townhomes. This will definitely become good news for that side of town. Sounds like a winner to me.

'This is what we want it to look like'

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/574/images/news/ms.rotunda.-cover.jpg
05/24/06
By Larry Perl

Hekemian & Co.'s re-imagined Rotunda shopping mall as seen from a planned plaza, looking east toward Elm Avenue. The existing building is at left.
Hekemian & Co's redevelopment of the Rotunda would include a major bookstore and a health club, project point man Chris Bell told the Roland Park Civic League at its annual meeting.

A vacant office building (and one-time power plant) on the 11-acre site would be turned into a restaurant and a planned plaza that could accommodate concerts and a farmers' market, said Bell, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for New Jersey- based Hekemian.

The $100 million project also calls for a relocated, expanded Giant supermarket, 300 luxury apartments, 100 condominiums, a plaza, a boulevard, 50,000 square feet of additional retail, the repositioning of 140,000 square feet of existing retail and 1,600 parking spaces, twice as much as now.

"This is what we want it to look like," Bell said May 17, showing color slides of artist renderings to a civic league audience of 75. Most of the housing would be in two towers, one 22 stories and the other 10. The announced height of the taller tower drew gasps from the audience. The historic Rotunda building and its retail space and offices would remain. The stores and the two-screen movie theater will be repositioned to face outward, Bell said. Most parking would be in an underground garage, but people could park outside stores, too.

The Giant is the centerpiece of the project, said Bell and land-use consultant Al Barry. The current, 58,000-square-foot store, which is small by today's standards, would be closed, and a 70,000-square-foot Giant would be built on what's now the back parking lot. "In many ways," Barry said, "Giant is the foundation upon which the development will stand."

But Bell signaled there may be at least one other big anchor. "We're working with a major bookstore," Bell said. He would not name the bookstore, health club or restaurant. Bell said Hekemian's goal is to make the mall a pedestrian- friendly "work, live, play environment," accessible to Hampden's boutique- rich business corridor, 36th Street, also known as the Avenue.

With the Zurich insurance company next door and several assisted-living centers nearby, the area is an employment center, with about 3,000 workers who might shop and eat at the Rotunda, Bell said.

Construction is expected to start next summer and will take about two and half years, Bell said. Most residents who attended the league meeting appeared intrigued by Bell's presentation.

"I think it's wonderful. I'm excited about it," said Louise Phipps-Senft, new first vice president of the league's board of directors. But some were concerned about the impact on traffic, just as their counterparts in Hampden are.

"I just can't understand how you can bring all those additional cars into the neighborhood and maintain the intersections as they are," without major road improvements, said Christine McSherry. Barry said all 16 intersections in the immediate mall area are rated by the state as A's or B's, except one, according to a traffic study commissioned by Hekemian.

"Even D's are acceptable, and we're not even close to that," added Bell. But he said there's not much Hekemian can do to improve th coner of Falls Road and 41st Street, which is rated as an F-rated, or failing, intersection.

Resident Phil Spevak said he's afraid Rotunda traffic would make it more difficult for local residents ito get around. "I hope you will concentrate not on making it easier for people to drive there, but on making it easier not to drive there," he said. Resident Lisa Boyce questioned the validity of last summer's traffic study, saying she saw a traffic surveyor sleeping in his truck.

Hekemian officials talked to the Maryland Transit Administration early in the redevelopment planning process "to lend our support to keeping the Hampden shuttle bus," as a way to ease congestion on area streets, Barry said. The MTA considered eliminating the so-called "Shuttle Bug," or No. 98 bus, as part of a consolidation of bus service in Baltimore, but decided to keep the shuttle after an outcry from riders.

Hekemian does not need zoning approval for the project as planned, but might make changes based on its own cost analysis and on concerns by area residents about traffic issues, Barry said. The detailed renderings Bell showed of pedestrians and motorists in a re-imagined mall weren't just for the benefit of the community, but also for marketing purposes.

"They're going out to Vegas with me," said Bell, who planned to attend this week's spring convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas to recruit retailers to the mall. Bell said he hoped to have a complete lineup of retailers by the end of this year.


Yes This Is It Exactly

Wada guy, thanks for the reference to the Downtown Baltimore Report 2006-2008. Those final pages do have a lot of information are summed up in a neat little package. It could almost be called "development porn". LOL!

Wow more news of towers going up. There are going to be 20 story towers sprouting up everywhere.

Yea 20 story one's are good but I would rather see more 40+ story towers built.

Yes This Is It Exactly

Wada guy, thanks for the reference to the Downtown Baltimore Report 2006-2008. Those final pages do have a lot of information are summed up in a neat little package. It could almost be called "development porn". LOL!

LOL! I received the report by mail (if anyone else would like an old fashioned printed version you can request it by emailing mbear@dpob.org) and studied all the facts and figures in the back. Even my wife was interested, and now she's reading Jane Jacobs... she's turning into a skyscraper geek like me :hahaha:

^^ That's cool. :D

Anymore news about the two 60 story towers?

Aquarium plans in question
Deadline nears for a payment on expansion to Middle Branch
By John Fritze
Sun reporter
Originally published May 25, 2006

A $110 million expansion of the National Aquarium in Baltimore -- hailed as a major redevelopment for the Patapsco River's Middle Branch -- has been delayed at least a year and now faces a critical deadline to determine whether the project will proceed, city and aquarium officials said.

The aquarium, which is expected to draw nearly 2 million visitors to the Inner Harbor this year, failed to make an $8 million payment to purchase 20 acres of city property -- the first step in building a proposed aquatic center -- more than a year after the transaction was approved by the city Board of Estimates.

Now, the city's development agency has given the aquarium until June 14 to produce the payment or drop its plans for the waterfront site, used for a 140,000-square-foot service garage for city vehicles. Officials said there is hope that a deal can be reached, but they also said the two sides are not actively negotiating.

"We are really at the end, and we're either going to do it or not," said Andrew B. Frank, an executive vice president and a leading deal maker for the Baltimore Development Corp. "We're all motivated to make it happen. There has been so much time invested."

Withdrawal from the expansion would be a significant blow to the revival of the Middle Branch, a long-neglected industrial area. At the time of its approval, city leaders said the project would not only bring development to one contaminated property, but also spur residential and business growth on adjacent sites.

Word of the delay comes shortly after the aquarium opened its $74.6 million Australian pavilion, an exhibit that has excited the city's tourism industry but that was months late and millions over budget -- potentially limiting the pool of private donations officials have said would be needed for the Middle Branch expansion.

Molly Foyle, a spokeswoman for the aquarium, characterized the land transaction as "in a waiting pattern" but denied that the delay had anything to do with the institution's finances. She said aquarium leaders still hope to broker a deal, and that would involve purchasing the city garage.

"The next 30 days are going to be telling," Foyle said. "It may look like the water surface is smooth, but there's a lot of activity underneath."

In the first phase of construction, the aquarium proposed converting the city's central garage to an animal care facility that would be used to house off-exhibit marine animals -- from extra turtles to a "retired" eel -- and to quarantine and treat sick animals. The $8 million payment was to be used to help the city build a garage at 3800 E. Biddle St.

The original schedule called for construction to begin on the garage by June 1 last year and for the Department of Public Works to move its mechanics there this August. Though Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. is waiting to begin work on the new facility, the project never got under way because the payment never materialized.

A decision is needed now, Frank said, before the company's bid proposal expires.

"That definitely raises some red flags for me," said City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., whose district includes the aquarium and who said he was not aware of the delays. "It's a huge tourism draw, and they've been doing an excellent job marketing themselves."

The new campus, which would be called the Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation, was to be completed by 2008 and was expected to include a park and conservation area. Over the long term, the aquarium also envisioned a conference center, a hotel and possibly a fishing pier.

Foyle said the urgency for the expansion was initially driven by a deadline to move the aquarium's off-exhibit animals from their current home, a Fells Point warehouse, by 2008. But, she said, the aquarium now believes it may have more freedom to extend its lease.

When the project came before the Board of Estimates in late 2004, city officials discussed the $8 million payment, according to minutes from the meeting. City Council President Sheila Dixon, the board's chairwoman, insisted that BDC honor its commitment to the new garage.

"It is a vital service," Dixon said at the time. "I just hope -- I would like the minutes to reflect that in moving forward that we do not shortchange that project. I don't want us to get amnesia down the road."

The $8 million payment became an issue again this month when the Department of Public Works presented its fiscal year 2007 budget to the City Council. The garage is one site used to maintain a fleet of more than 5,400 motorized vehicles and other equipment, including police cars.

Nancy Hinds, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, said the aquarium is among the city's most important cultural institutions and a major attraction for convention organizers. While the new center itself might not attract visitors, its ancillary features, such as the park, could.

"Wherever I go, people come up and say to me that our aquarium is great," Hinds said. "A lot of people who come to Baltimore start their trip at the aquarium."



john.fritze@baltsun.com

the old exxon site next to canton crossing is getting leveled. all of the structures on the site are being demolished. there are a few piles of ruble and 2 buildings are half way standing. brewers hill is about to open soon. the parking lot next to boston st is done ,just fenced off and looks great. there is also a lot of digging going on next to hale's tower. i wonder if it is the 8 story office building that he was planning to build??? :)

I think it is the 8 story building, yes. :)

Small city developers strive to be next Struever Bros.

In a tiny second-floor office on The Avenue in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood, two young men are working to secure a future as the next big name in city development, one house at a time.

- JEN DEGREGORIO

^^
Interesting.....

Anybody know what else is planned for Canton Crossing?

just drove down to inner harbor east on my lunchbreak. the vue's up to 19 floors. DAMN, that tower's being put up quicker than i thought.

just drove down to inner harbor east on my lunchbreak. the vue's up to 19 floors. DAMN, that tower's being put up quicker than i thought.

10 more flrs to go. Yeah the Vue is going to have some decent height to it. It will almost be as tall as the Marriot. Same thing for the Four Seasons towers.

Auctioneer gives hope to old block
Once hot Howard St. area set to get facelift

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.howard26may26,0,1049733.story?coll=bal-pe-business

By Meredith Cohn
Sun reporter
Originally published May 26, 2006
Dreams are free. Walls to put around them cost $4,756,500.

That was the total price of eight buildings auctioned off yesterday in the 300 block of North Howard Street, until now a block untouched by the push to revitalize the downtown's west side. The buildings, sold in six parcels, were largely vacant and in need of repair, but under peeling paint and musty smells 20 bidders glimpsed the promise of a gentrifying corridor.

Over a frenzied 45 minutes, the prices climbed in $5,000 increments and the buildings were sold to five buyers.

Two of the five said they had no immediate plans, and another said he would build housing atop street-level stores. A fourth planned a jewelry exchange with multiple merchants selling their wares, and the last buyer's plans were unknown.

"I've been trying to buy the building for a long time, and I got it, and another one, too," said a smiling Ahmed Elsigai, who owns the King Tut jewelry store on the first floor of 300-302 N. Howard St., which he bought along with 304 N. Howard St. for about $1.3 million.

"I got a two-for-one deal. I want to fill the whole thing with jewelry merchants. I think it's a good idea in this market. I hope the city will help."

He said 304 N. Howard had been empty for at least eight years and he was glad to see it and the others on a path to redevelopment. Other buyers agreed.

The owners of the soon-to-close Hammerjacks nightclub also scooped up a pair of buildings.

Michael Hunter Jr. and Gavaskar Sharp and another investor paid about $1.23 million for 315 and 317-319 N. Howard St. Hunter said the west side could be returned to the thriving retail center it once was.

He pointed to Power Plant Live, a bustling hub of nightlife that replaced a gritty and abandoned swath, as an example of what can happen when investors focus. The city and the investors benefit, he said.

"This area is coming full circle, 360 degrees, because people are putting money back in," said Hunter.

His real estate adviser and architect, Russ Robertson, said the buildings would be transformed into a "mixed-use, transit-oriented development," taking advantage of the light rail that runs in front of the property.

Over at 301-303 and 305-307 Howard St., a principal of HSN LLC of Rockville, who declined to give his name, said the corridor would likely take another four or five years to blossom, and he planned to take some time to determine market demand for his buildings. They were the day's largest and most expensive at about $1.4 million.

Maxine Sisserman of Baltimore who bought 320 N. Howard St., next to another building she owns, said she would have to have its structural soundness assessed before deciding the best use.

The eighth building, 306-310 N. Howard, was bought by Montgomery County investors whose intentions were unknown.

The eight buildings were sold by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the estate of Alan Berman. Joel Winegarden, the Weinberg Foundation's vice president of real estate, said he was "very satisfied" with the prices, all above their minimum bidding price.

"They are great buildings, very reasonably priced, and they should be easy to redevelop," he said.

The foundation, which still has substantial real estate holdings, is focusing on larger redevelopments and wanted to free up the auctioned buildings so they wouldn't continue to sit underused.

Ronald M. Kreitner, executive director of Westside Renaissance Inc., watched the auction and said the sale prices reflected the "bullishness" for the west side. The 300 block, he said, had the greatest number of properties for which there were no redevelopment plans, although many individual buildings dotting North Howard Street still need attention.

"Hopefully this is going to initiate a process of reinvestment in the buildings," he said.

The auction drew 20 registered bidders and at least another 50 onlookers.

Paul Cooper, a vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc., led the auction standing on a folding chair.

With the aid of a microphone, Cooper encouraged the bidders, who crowded the sidewalk and spilled into the street.

"I considered it a well-attended sale, and bidding was very competitive," he said. "That absolutely says something about the west side. Considering the prices they paid, I don't think the buyers are in a position to sit and hold. Rather I expect they'll proceed with development."

meredith.cohn@baltsun.com

Sketches on table for complex
Originally published May 26, 2006
The conversion of a Locust Point mill into an apartment and retail complex is beginning to take shape.

Though plans are still on the drawing board, sketches presented yesterday to the city's design review board show 250 apartments, a three-story office building, a 52,000-square-foot grocery store, an additional 50,000 square feet of retail space and about 900 parking spaces.

The nine-acre site, the former home of the Chesapeake Paperboard plant, is between Fort Avenue and Key Highway.

To build the mixed-use project on the industrial property, developer Mark Sapperstein will need the city to approve a zoning change.

He plans to keep all of the buildings to a maximum height of 60 feet in an effort to blend into the generally low-slung neighborhood.

Sapperstein is also a partner in the Silo Point project, another Locust Point conversion, which will include upscale townhouses and condominiums on the site of a former grain elevator.



[Jill Rosen]

That's great news about the Vue and Four Seasons. How tall is the Mercy expansion expected to be?

That's great news about the Vue and Four Seasons. How tall is the Mercy expansion expected to be?

I think The Sun said 18 or 19 floors.

(WJZ) Fallston, Md. Members of the Liquid Natural Gas Opposition Team (LNGO) met Thursday for a public hearing at the Harford County Library to voice their concerns about the the proposed liquid natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point Shipyard. The hearing comes after recent revelations that Governor Ehrlich's personal lawyer, who represents the shipyard's owners, may have illegally lobbied legislators and other government officials without following state ethics laws and procedures.

WJZ's Dennis Edwards reports that the proposed pipeline could transform the shipyard into a major distribution center, allowing highly concentrated natural gas from third-world countries to be imported, stored, and loaded into the line, which would run through Baltimore and Harford Counties and north to Philadelphia.

"We do not want an liquid natural gas facility because it's to dangerous and it's just unsafe in a heavily populated area," says Sharon Beazley of the LNG Opposition Team.

At the hearing, Beazley reported the potential danger of shipping, handling, and transporting highly concentrated natural gas. Beazley says her group fears that the pipeline, along with dredging, could irreparably harm Chesapeake Bay Wildlife and the crab industry.

In a letter obtained by Eyewitness News, the LNGO accuses David Hamilton, a lawyer for the pipeline constructors who also has close ties to the Ehrlich Administration, of lobbying lawmakers without a license. The group says they have requested sanctions for Hamilton if he refuses to register as a lobbyist.

Hamilton did not return phone calls from Eyewitness News, and a spokesperson for Governor Ehrlich was unavailable. LNGO leaders hope to build public opposition to the pipeline plan over the next six to 18 months.

7 screen cinema Landmark Theaters coming to the Vue with locations on E Street in D.C. and Bethesda. Also, in Atlanta, San Fransisco, Boston, Manhattan N.Y., Boulder Colorado,etc..

http://www.landmarktheaters.com

^^ Definately great news! :)

I think The Sun said 18 or 19 floors.
my wife's best friends mother works at mercy and said they are going to completely redo the hole hospital and add a lot more space over the next couple of years. and plan to add a couple of towers from what she said. pretty cool. i think all of the hospitals in the city are finnaly starting to realise that hopkins is going to be a major compitition! :)

Small city developers strive to be next Struever Bros.

In a tiny second-floor office on The Avenue in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood, two young men are working to secure a future as the next big name in city development, one house at a time.

- JEN DEGREGORIO

^^
Interesting.....

Streuver started out like that. There was a period where he and his small crew were rehabbing rowhouses in Federal Hill and Bill himself was sleeping on friends' sofas or under a tarp in his pick-up. Good luck to people who can stick with that until they do well.

7 screen cinema Landmark Theaters coming to the Vue with locations on E Street in D.C. and Bethesda. Also, in Atlanta, San Fransisco, Boston, Manhattan N.Y., Boulder Colorado,etc..

http://www.landmarktheaters.com

This is great. As a movie fan, I go to the Charles, Rotunda and Senator often but would love to have another option. There are a lot of movies in the art-house genre that never make it to Baltimore and this should do a lot to expand the possibilities, especiallly since this seems to be their speciality.

'This is what we want it to look like'

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/574/images/news/ms.rotunda.-cover.jpg
05/24/06
By Larry Perl

Hekemian & Co.'s re-imagined Rotunda shopping mall as seen from a planned plaza, looking east toward Elm Avenue. The existing building is at left.
Hekemian & Co's redevelopment of the Rotunda would include a major bookstore and a health club, project point man Chris Bell told the Roland Park Civic League at its annual meeting.

A vacant office building (and one-time power plant) on the 11-acre site would be turned into a restaurant and a planned plaza that could accommodate concerts and a farmers' market, said Bell, senior vice president of development and acquisitions for New Jersey- based Hekemian....

"This is what we want it to look like," Bell said May 17, showing color slides of artist renderings to a civic league audience of 75. Most of the housing would be in two towers, one 22 stories and the other 10. The announced height of the taller tower drew gasps from the audience. The historic Rotunda building and its retail space and offices would remain. The stores and the two-screen movie theater will be repositioned to face outward, Bell said. Most parking would be in an underground garage, but people could park outside stores, too.....

But Bell signaled there may be at least one other big anchor. "We're working with a major bookstore," Bell said. He would not name the bookstore, health club or restaurant. Bell said Hekemian's goal is to make the mall a pedestrian- friendly "work, live, play environment," accessible to Hampden's boutique- rich business corridor, 36th Street, also known as the Avenue.

With the Zurich insurance company next door and several assisted-living centers nearby, the area is an employment center, with about 3,000 workers who might shop and eat at the Rotunda, Bell said.....

"I think it's wonderful. I'm excited about it," said Louise Phipps-Senft, new first vice president of the league's board of directors. But some were concerned about the impact on traffic, just as their counterparts in Hampden are.....

When do they start...not too long I hope. This sounds great. I was looking at the lot in a recent trip to the Giant there and the way they seem to be positioning it, I don't even think the tall buildings will loom that much over the neighborhood. They will be on the east side of the parking lot, next to the large, 5 storey insurance company buildings which are uphill from the rowhouses to the east. My bet is that the buildings won't even be very visible from the rows. To the south, they will be at the north end of the lot, away from Hampden and to the west, there are already two senior highrises on Roland Ave. It's such a great area, that it has to be a success. It's much like a larger version of Mt Washington Mills which as also been a big success.

I think The Sun said 18 or 19 floors.
This is great, but I hope they find a way to do this without demolishing those old homes on St. Paul Place. Thought I read somewhere that the tower is to go where the Saratoga St garage is now, but a future phase involves tearing down the homes.

State narrows bidders for WTC
Select group gets deadline for offers on harbor landmark
By Lorraine Mirabella
Originally published May 27, 2006
State officials have narrowed the field of potential buyers of Baltimore's World Trade Center, the slim, pentagonal tower that has marked the Inner Harbor for three decades.

The state Department of Transportation put the 30-story office tower on the market in December. Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said yesterday that the state has given a select group of bidders a new deadline by which to submit firm offers. Flanagan did not disclose that deadline.





"We've had a very good response from a very large number of bidders, but what we've decided to do at this point is narrow the field down to a smaller group of interested parties who have given us preliminary proposals that are all very close together in price," Flanagan said.

Those potential buyers will continue in a period of in-depth due diligence before making final offers, the secretary said.

"From there, we'll determine which offer, if any, is in the best interest of the state," Flanagan said.

He declined to say how many offers the state has received or how many potential buyers would compete for the waterfront property at 401 E. Pratt St., which is currently 30 percent vacant.

Commercial real estate experts and state and city officials expect strong interest in the tower because of its prominence, historical significance and waterfront location.

The government plans to sell the signature tower as an office building and keep its Maryland Port Administration headquarters there three to five years, state officials said yesterday.

Under the urban-renewal plan for the Inner Harbor, a new owner would have the option of changing the use from office to hotel, residential or retail or some combination of the four.

City officials say they're hoping some form of public use for the iconic building will continue under new ownership.

"The building has always been viewed as a public building, and as it transfers from public ownership to private ownership, we'd like to see the use continue to contain some form of public aspect to it," said Andrew B. Frank, executive director of the Baltimore Development Corp.

The city has secured a 20-year extension of public access to the top-floor observation deck.

Flanagan said the state chose to narrow the bidders to a manageable number based on advice from Colliers Pinkard, the commercial brokerage handling the sale. Philip C. Iglehart, a managing director of investment services group at Colliers Pinkard, could not be reached yesterday.

Real estate experts have said the 278,000-square-foot trade center could fetch a price similar to recent sale prices of other downtown office towers. These include 300 E. Lombard St., which sold for a then-record $172 per square foot in 2004, and 100 E. Pratt St., which this year sold for $207.5 million, or $312 a square foot, the highest price ever paid for a Baltimore office property.

But the World Trade Center's prime spot on the harbor has also been a drawback for occupants. The building has a history of flooding, including severe water damage two years ago from Tropical Storm Isabel that disrupted businesses and displaced tenants for months.

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2006-05/23633838.jpg The 30-story, I.M. Pei-designed World Trade Center has been a landmark on the Inner Harbor's waterfront for three decades.
(Sun photo by Amy Davis)
Apr 23, 2002

a new movie theater, a downtown grocery store(Super Fresh) or at State Center and a 70-100 store new downtown shopping district are critical if Baltimore wants to be ranked among the top 7-10 cities in the country.

They are talking about 425,000 sq feet of total retail at Harbor East/Point. I'm hoping state center will include a shopping center with a Target type store. The Chesapeake Paper site proposal in Locust Point could also add a new grocery store plus 50,000 sq feet of retail.


This is great. As a movie fan, I go to the Charles, Rotunda and Senator often but would love to have another option. There are a lot of movies in the art-house genre that never make it to Baltimore and this should do a lot to expand the possibilities, especiallly since this seems to be their speciality.

When do they start...not too long I hope. This sounds great. I was looking at the lot in a recent trip to the Giant there and the way they seem to be positioning it, I don't even think the tall buildings will loom that much over the neighborhood. They will be on the east side of the parking lot, next to the large, 5 storey insurance company buildings which are uphill from the rowhouses to the east. My bet is that the buildings won't even be very visible from the rows. To the south, they will be at the north end of the lot, away from Hampden and to the west, there are already two senior highrises on Roland Ave. It's such a great area, that it has to be a success. It's much like a larger version of Mt Washington Mills which as also been a big success.

I was there yesterday counting stories at the senior highrises. I don't think they will dominate the whole neighborhood either. Can you imagine what the views will be like from the upper floors? They should be awesome.

By the way. I tried to pick up some food at the Giant there yesterday. It had been closed by the City Health Dept. People in the Rite Aid were talking about rats. :uh:

Hey, has anyone seen the movie, "Charm City"? I saw it at BlockBuster Video today. Was temped to buy it, but I wondered if any of you guys have seen it yet?
It's fairly new.

Thanks. :)

I was there yesterday counting stories at the senior highrises. I don't think they will dominate the whole neighborhood either. Can you imagine what the views will be like from the upper floors? They should be awesome.

By the way. I tried to pick up some food at the Giant there yesterday. It had been closed by the City Health Dept. People in the Rite Aid were talking about rats. :uh:


It Was Mice & Insects in the Bakery

There was an article in the Maryland section of today's Sun regarding this. Apparently someone called 311 and reported the Giant to the Health Dept. and they closed it down. I think that they have reopened it because I saw people with Giant grocery bags early this moring near the Rotunda.

Really though I don't know why anyone would want to shop at that Giant. It is always thilty dirty, they have a very limited selection of things and the ailes are very narrow. I always go to the SuperFresh because it is a much nicer store and their produce is almost Eddies quality. However, since the Wegmans opened in Hunt Valley in October, we do the bulk of our shopping there. Giant has gone down hill for years now since it was acquired by that Dutch company who just milks it for the profits.

a new movie theater, a downtown grocery store(Super Fresh) or at State Center and a 70-100 store new downtown shopping district are critical if Baltimore wants to be ranked among the top 7-10 cities in the country.

They are talking about 425,000 sq feet of total retail at Harbor East/Point. I'm hoping state center will include a shopping center with a Target type store. The Chesapeake Paper site proposal in Locust Point could also add a new grocery store plus 50,000 sq feet of retail.
My friend lives in Bolton Hill and he told me over drinks at Bertha's last week that the State Center development team has started meeting with the community. The Bolton hill folks were NOT HAPPY with the initial proposal. Apparently Magic Johnson is also involved with this development, but that wasn't the issue that got the Bolton Hill folks upset. It was the retail and where it will be located. What the developers wanted to do is locate all the retail of the project right next to Bolton Hill along Dolphin Street instead of closer to the MLK side of the site. They also want to reopen all the streets that are currently closed that at one time went into Bolton Hill. This would establish the original city street grid again. According to my friend, the developers are in for a fight.

The good thing is that the purpose of community meetings is to get input, compromise, and come up with a plan. I bet it's going to take more than one meeting to work all this out! :runaway:

On another topic, if you have an extra $2,900,000 laying around, you can buy Bertha's in Fells Point and all the "Eat Bertha's Muscles" bumber stickers you will ever need. It's for sale and that's the asking price. :cheers:

We went to the American Truck Historical Society's Antique Truck show today at Carroll Park. Afterwards we stopped by Camden Crossing as it was right down the street and I hadn't actually seen it before. The houses around the perimeter of the development are complete and many appear to be occupied. There is still a huge space in the middle of the site where construction hasn't begun yet though.

Here are a couple of pictures:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2453.jpg

http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2456.jpg

While part of the development is fenced off from adjoining streets / alleys, some of the houses have their fronts on Poppleton Street. This is the view directly across the street from these mid-$400s-priced houses:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2447.jpg

I'm assuming this lone row-less-home is the last holdout and is to be demolished for something:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2458.jpg

Here's a bonus pic of the truck show :). You can also see Camden Crossing in the middle in the transition from trees to 'scrapers:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2441.jpg

Hey, has anyone seen the movie, "Charm City"? I saw it at BlockBuster Video today. Was temped to buy it, but I wondered if any of you guys have seen it yet?
It's fairly new.

Thanks. :)

Hadn't even heard of it until I saw your post! You've probably already seen this, but you can view some clips here (http://davisionpictures.com/charmcity.html). I have to say it doesn't look like something I'd really be interested in watching.

Hadn't even heard of it until I saw your post! You've probably already seen this, but you can view some clips here (http://davisionpictures.com/charmcity.html). I have to say it doesn't look like something I'd really be interested in watching.

Another proud moment in Baltimore's history! *rolls eyes*

I'm assuming this lone row-less-home is the last holdout and is to be demolished for something:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2458.jpg


The funny thing about this pic is that its the house next to the one my Mom was born in 60 years ago! I took her over there (Pigtown) on a tour of places she lived as a child. Nothing is the same. One of the streets she lived on doesn't even exist any longer! Most of the area is still about as ghetto as you can get, but hopefully that will be changing soon!!

Hey, has anyone seen the movie, "Charm City"? I saw it at BlockBuster Video today. Was temped to buy it, but I wondered if any of you guys have seen it yet?
It's fairly new.

Thanks. :)

I own the movie. It's good in my book cause it's filmed in Baltimore LOL. But it's like a low budget flim with drug dealers in the projects. It has a good story line but the flim was shot poorly.

I'm sorry, but any movie/tv show that shows Baltimore in a light that is familiar to the image that the rest of the country believes about us I'm against! Where's Barry Levinson been?

I absolutely agree Chris. It's time for that pathetic image of our city to go.

Most of the neighborhood know as Poppleton is slated to be torn down. 1,200 new and renovated homes are to be built in poppleton to totally rebuild the neighborhood between Barre Circle and the UMAB BioPark. The camdem crossing homes are very nice but they should be for $600,000. Barre Circle right next door the hometeading neighborhood home range in gerneral from 275,00 to $450,000. Most of Barre Circle's homes were built between 1815 and 1900, and every signle home in the community has been renovated since the late 1970's

We went to the American Truck Historical Society's Antique Truck show today at Carroll Park. Afterwards we stopped by Camden Crossing as it was right down the street and I hadn't actually seen it before. The houses around the perimeter of the development are complete and many appear to be occupied. There is still a huge space in the middle of the site where construction hasn't begun yet though.

Here's a bonus pic of the truck show :). You can also see Camden Crossing in the middle in the transition from trees to 'scrapers:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2441.jpg
Do you have any more of the truck show? I wanted to go and didn't make it. These are the kind of events that give Baltimore its flavor!! :) :cheers:

^^ Nice pictures. :)

Do you have any more of the truck show? I wanted to go and didn't make it. These are the kind of events that give Baltimore its flavor!! :) :cheers:

I sure do. I'll just post the links so as not to clutter up the thread:
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2398.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2399.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2401.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2405.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2408.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2409.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2412.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2413.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2414.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2417.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2418.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2419.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2420.jpg
http://images3.fotop.net/albums3/jeremai/Camden_Crossing/100_2443.jpg

I'm sorry, but any movie/tv show that shows Baltimore in a light that is familiar to the image that the rest of the country believes about us I'm against! Where's Barry Levinson been?

Yea I wish they would make more movies like Ladder 49. But I still love HBO's The Wire.

The funny thing about this pic is that its the house next to the one my Mom was born in 60 years ago! I took her over there (Pigtown) on a tour of places she lived as a child. Nothing is the same. One of the streets she lived on doesn't even exist any longer! Most of the area is still about as ghetto as you can get, but hopefully that will be changing soon!!

That's pretty neat that you know that house! The thing that amazed me on Saturday driving along Washington Blvd. in Pigtown was the amount of work being done to houses. We passed several that were actively being rebuilt / rehabbed. Regeneration going on right before your eyes!

Does anyone know anything about 300 Pratt st?

Yea I wish they would make more movies like Ladder 49. But I still love HBO's The Wire.

It's an interesting question. Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity? While I really liked Ladder 49, you have to admit that it did in part portray Baltimore as a grimy ghetto that is always burning down. Just a little while ago, I was channel surfing and saw the beginning of a really bad Sci Fi Channel movie called "Mansquito" (the title tells the plot). As a helicopter cruised over "the city", I noticed the odd steeple on the Shaffer Tower and realized that the night time skyline was none other than Baltimore, home of evil human/mosquito hybrids. After many Years and hundreds of murders of affluent people, New York continues in spite of Law and Order and CSI. Phoenix Az continues in spite of numerous murders only solvable by a Medium. It's only a movie/TV. We need to worry about the truth, not the movies.

I was there yesterday counting stories at the senior highrises. I don't think they will dominate the whole neighborhood either. Can you imagine what the views will be like from the upper floors? They should be awesome.

By the way. I tried to pick up some food at the Giant there yesterday. It had been closed by the City Health Dept. People in the Rite Aid were talking about rats. :uh:

You can get a hint of the view from the parking lot, especially in winter. It's the best distant view of downtown and I know of and when you get up above the trees in these buildings it should be great. As for the Giant, they need to not only clean it up (shameful compared to Super Fresh) but they need to have employees that don't act like your business is getting in the way of their magazine reading.

http://home.comcast.net/~sniggle_lizard22/rotundaview.jpg

You can get a hint of the view from the parking lot, especially in winter. It's the best distant view of downtown and I know of and when you get up above the trees in these buildings it should be great. As for the Giant, they need to not only clean it up (shameful compared to Super Fresh) but they need to have employees that don't act like your business is getting in the way of their magazine reading.

http://home.comcast.net/~sniggle_lizard22/rotundaview.jpg

Yet another shot of downtown that I've never seen before! Just imagine 10 Inner Harbor and the twin 60 story towers in that shot! I hate to wish my life away, but I can't wait to see the city in 10 years or so!!!!

That's pretty neat that you know that house! The thing that amazed me on Saturday driving along Washington Blvd. in Pigtown was the amount of work being done to houses. We passed several that were actively being rebuilt / rehabbed. Regeneration going on right before your eyes!

It is amazing.. the city is getting ready to take several derelict businesses along washington blvd there as well.. give that area 5 years and it should be just as vibrant as other parts of the city

It's an interesting question. Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity? While I really liked Ladder 49, you have to admit that it did in part portray Baltimore as a grimy ghetto that is always burning down. Just a little while ago, I was channel surfing and saw the beginning of a really bad Sci Fi Channel movie called "Mansquito" (the title tells the plot). As a helicopter cruised over "the city", I noticed the odd steeple on the Shaffer Tower and realized that the night time skyline was none other than Baltimore, home of evil human/mosquito hybrids. After many Years and hundreds of murders of affluent people, New York continues in spite of Law and Order and CSI. Phoenix Az continues in spite of numerous murders only solvable by a Medium. It's only a movie/TV. We need to worry about the truth, not the movies.

Speaking of the Baltimore skyline.. has anyone else seen these "Bacardi and Cola.. they get the job done" ads? I swear the skyline for the city they're in is Baltimore..

Yep...its Baltimore. Well...they superimposed a few buildings, but for the most part...its Baltimore.

Its neat that they picked Baltimore. Its not like they're located anywhere near the city.

Renewal project stalled in city
Baltimore group blames Weinberg Foundation for superblock standoff
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 29, 2006









Revitalization of six blocks at the heart of Baltimore's west-side renewal effort has stalled because of a standoff between the city and a private foundation that owns more than half the land.





The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation says it intends to push ahead with Baltimore-based Cordish Co. to redevelop its 17 properties included in the so-called superblock project.

City economic development officials, who say they have made numerous attempts to strike a deal with the foundation, blame it for holding up the project and say that condemnation would be a last resort.

And the New York developer tapped to build apartments and stores in the core of Baltimore's old retail district says it will back out if the Weinberg Foundation refuses to give up the land.

Economic development officials want the foundation to sell, swap properties or work with the New York developer on the project, according to M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm.

The 3.6-acre superblock is the largest redevelopment site on the west side and is considered the linchpin for bringing residents, shops and businesses to a deteriorated stretch between Charles Center to the east and the University of Maryland complex to the west.

"This is the last big piece in the east-west connection, and these blocks are in poor shape," Brodie said.

The stalemate could threaten the momentum of the west-side redevelopment, which has included projects such as the Hippodrome's rebirth as a live theater, the Bank of America's Centerpoint apartment and retail project, and the conversion of the former Hecht's department store into apartments, said Ronald M. Kreitner, executive director of Westside Renaissance Inc.

"The superblock is currently, clearly, a blighting influence on the area, so it's unacceptable for the redevelopment not to proceed," Kreitner said. "People have made decisions based on the redevelopment plan that includes all of the superblock. It's not simply those who have invested here, but people who've chosen to live in the area, locate offices or start up or continue retail operations. There are literally hundreds of decisions that have been made premised on the superblock redevelopment moving forward."

David Hillman, who converted the former Hecht's in 2001 into the 173-apartment Atrium, said he's had to discount rents because the Howard Street building sits across from the superblock.

"The Atrium is losing half a million [dollars] a year -- fully occupied -- because of the neighborhood," said Hillman, chairman and chief executive of Southern Management Corp. "The view is pretty awful. We look at the superblock, which looks like a super-debacle."

Early last year, the city selected New York-based Chera Feil Goldman Group to redevelop the bulk of the superblock, bounded by Howard, West Clay, Liberty and West Fayette streets, including 12 of the Weinberg buildings.

"If the Weinberg Foundation holds out, we wouldn't proceed," said Isaac Chera, a partner. "We'd be left with a Swiss cheese group of properties. We wouldn't be able to do the type of project we want to do."

He said his team submitted its proposal for 225 apartments and 64,500 square feet of shops with the understanding that the city would assemble the properties. The team's exclusive negotiating privilege with the city to develop the project expires at year's end. Though it has invested time in interviewing architects and courting retailers such as Zales, Junior's restaurant out of Brooklyn, N.Y., and hip retailer H&M, the developers say they can't move forward without more certainty.

"We owe it to the people of this city to move forward," Chera said. "We were told they have a 'quick take' [condemnation] program. It would be a shame to have this stall indefinitely, and who knows what will happen with the economy?"

But the Weinberg Foundation has always intended to redevelop the properties itself, never to sell them to the city, said Shale Stiller, president and chief executive of the foundation. And with Cordish's development expertise, the joint venture has the ability to redevelop the entire superblock, he said.

"We are prepared to go ahead," Stiller said. "We have all the financing to do it. We would hope we could get started on this right away. This area is the hole in the doughnut in terms of downtown development. This could be such a shot in the arm for downtown Baltimore, but nothing ever happens."

Stiller said the city has no authority to acquire properties for urban renewal from an owner with the plans and the means to do its own renewal project.

City development officials contend that the Weinberg Foundation never pushed forward with redevelopment after its first project, the transformation of the former Stewart's department store, at Howard and Lexington streets, into offices that will become the headquarters for Catholic Relief Services next year.

A plan by the foundation to convert one of its properties, the former Greyhound bus terminal on West Fayette Street, into a much-needed garage never came to fruition, Brodie said. And when the city asked for proposals from developers for the superblock in late 2004, the foundation was not among the applicants, he said.
Now, after more than a year of discussions, the city and the foundation have failed to reach an agreement, Brodie said.





"They don't want to sell to the city, and they don't want a joint venture with Chera Group," Brodie said. "They think their property is worth twice what we think. We are not talking about fine points. We've reached a dead end with the foundation, which is disappointing and frustrating."

Brodie said the city could move to condemn the property.

"That's a last resort," he said. "We never rush forward with eminent domain. With a $2 billion charitable foundation, that's not an easy prospect."

But some, including Kreitner of Westside Renaissance and developer Hillman, say they've seen little action by the Chera group.

"It appears that the developers who have been awarded the development rights have been reluctant to proceed with the project, and there hasn't been any evidence of progress on their part," Kreitner said.

"They're not making any moves that anybody that was serious about it would do," Hillman said.

David S. Cordish, chief executive of the Cordish Co., said the foundation's west-side properties offer an opportunity to breathe new life into the old retail district.

"It is a little early in the process for us to have developed specifics; however, our focus will clearly be ground-level entertainment and retail with residential above," Cordish said in an e-mail to The Sun.

Stiller said he hopes the partnership could re-create some of the successful Cordish mixed-use projects elsewhere around the country. He said Cordish had represented the foundation in meetings with members of the Chera group about a joint venture but that no agreement was reached. And he's seen no progress on their part, he said.

"To my knowledge, they haven't done anything of significance in the last year and a half," Stiller said.

Caught in the middle are the merchants who are trying to eke out a living on streets dotted with boarded-up and vacant storefronts. New York Fashions moved into the 200 block of W. Lexington St. 14 years ago. Back then, the pedestrian mall section of the street had about 14 shops. Now the apparel store is one of four, said its general manager, Lee Reinhardt.

"It's difficult, but we're hoping for the best," said Reinhardt, who said the shop, which owns its building, hopes to remain there in a redeveloped superblock. "There's been quite a bit of decrease in sales volume. If people walk up the street and see vacancies, the enthusiasm of going there to shop isn't there anymore. It seems like it has taken so long to get nothing started."



lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

continue to let the city down. They are a large reason much of the area still looks like slums.

continue to let the city down. They are a large reason much of the area still looks like slums.

If it were anyone else who owned those properties, they would have already been taken by eminent domain. However, I don't think any Baltimore politicians would have the courage to stand up to these West Side bullies and take the properties that they allowed to deteriorate. The Weinbergs were responsible for the decay of the west side, there is no reason they should be allowed to benefit from its rebirth

It's an interesting question. Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity? While I really liked Ladder 49, you have to admit that it did in part portray Baltimore as a grimy ghetto that is always burning down. Just a little while ago, I was channel surfing and saw the beginning of a really bad Sci Fi Channel movie called "Mansquito" (the title tells the plot). As a helicopter cruised over "the city", I noticed the odd steeple on the Shaffer Tower and realized that the night time skyline was none other than Baltimore, home of evil human/mosquito hybrids. After many Years and hundreds of murders of affluent people, New York continues in spite of Law and Order and CSI. Phoenix Az continues in spite of numerous murders only solvable by a Medium. It's only a movie/TV. We need to worry about the truth, not the movies.
Your right about Ladder 49 they did make all the buildings look old and ghetto. I heard that they're going to make a new Hairspray movie. It's going to have John Travolta and Queen Latifah in it. Maybe it will show Baltimore as a city that is turning around with lots of new development and redevelopment projects.

Yet another shot of downtown that I've never seen before! Just imagine 10 Inner Harbor and the twin 60 story towers in that shot! I hate to wish my life away, but I can't wait to see the city in 10 years or so!!!!

http://home.comcast.net/~sniggle_lizard22/rotundaview.jpg
i dont want to bust your bubble ,but this picture is backwards looking at this direction world trade center and alex brown building should be on the oppisite side of legg mason tower.

http://home.comcast.net/~sniggle_lizard22/rotundaview.jpg
i dont want to bust your bubble ,but this picture is backwards looking at this direction world trade center and alex brown building should be on the oppisite side of legg mason tower.

That shot is actually correct. It was shot from northwest Baltimore. :)

That shot is actually correct. It was shot from northwest Baltimore. :)

It is definately correct.

Speaking of TV shows, is "The Wire" coming back? I haven't seen it promoted on HBO.

Renewal project stalled in city
Baltimore group blames Weinberg Foundation for superblock standoff
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 29, 2006

Revitalization of six blocks at the heart of Baltimore's west-side renewal effort has stalled because of a standoff between the city and a private foundation that owns more than half the land.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation says it intends to push ahead with Baltimore-based Cordish Co. to redevelop its 17 properties included in the so-called superblock project.

City economic development officials, who say they have made numerous attempts to strike a deal with the foundation, blame it for holding up the project and say that condemnation would be a last resort.

And the New York developer tapped to build apartments and stores in the core of Baltimore's old retail district says it will back out if the Weinberg Foundation refuses to give up the land.

Economic development officials want the foundation to sell, swap properties or work with the New York developer on the project, according to M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm.

The 3.6-acre superblock is the largest redevelopment site on the west side and is considered the linchpin for bringing residents, shops and businesses to a deteriorated stretch between Charles Center to the east and the University of Maryland complex to the west.

"This is the last big piece in the east-west connection, and these blocks are in poor shape," Brodie said.

The stalemate could threaten the momentum of the west-side redevelopment, which has included projects such as the Hippodrome's rebirth as a live theater, the Bank of America's Centerpoint apartment and retail project, and the conversion of the former Hecht's department store into apartments, said Ronald M. Kreitner, executive director of Westside Renaissance Inc.

"The superblock is currently, clearly, a blighting influence on the area, so it's unacceptable for the redevelopment not to proceed," Kreitner said. "People have made decisions based on the redevelopment plan that includes all of the superblock. It's not simply those who have invested here, but people who've chosen to live in the area, locate offices or start up or continue retail operations. There are literally hundreds of decisions that have been made premised on the superblock redevelopment moving forward."

David Hillman, who converted the former Hecht's in 2001 into the 173-apartment Atrium, said he's had to discount rents because the Howard Street building sits across from the superblock.

"The Atrium is losing half a million [dollars] a year -- fully occupied -- because of the neighborhood," said Hillman, chairman and chief executive of Southern Management Corp. "The view is pretty awful. We look at the superblock, which looks like a super-debacle."

Early last year, the city selected New York-based Chera Feil Goldman Group to redevelop the bulk of the superblock, bounded by Howard, West Clay, Liberty and West Fayette streets, including 12 of the Weinberg buildings.

"If the Weinberg Foundation holds out, we wouldn't proceed," said Isaac Chera, a partner. "We'd be left with a Swiss cheese group of properties. We wouldn't be able to do the type of project we want to do."

He said his team submitted its proposal for 225 apartments and 64,500 square feet of shops with the understanding that the city would assemble the properties. The team's exclusive negotiating privilege with the city to develop the project expires at year's end. Though it has invested time in interviewing architects and courting retailers such as Zales, Junior's restaurant out of Brooklyn, N.Y., and hip retailer H&M, the developers say they can't move forward without more certainty.

"We owe it to the people of this city to move forward," Chera said. "We were told they have a 'quick take' [condemnation] program. It would be a shame to have this stall indefinitely, and who knows what will happen with the economy?"

But the Weinberg Foundation has always intended to redevelop the properties itself, never to sell them to the city, said Shale Stiller, president and chief executive of the foundation. And with Cordish's development expertise, the joint venture has the ability to redevelop the entire superblock, he said.

"We are prepared to go ahead," Stiller said. "We have all the financing to do it. We would hope we could get started on this right away. This area is the hole in the doughnut in terms of downtown development. This could be such a shot in the arm for downtown Baltimore, but nothing ever happens."

Stiller said the city has no authority to acquire properties for urban renewal from an owner with the plans and the means to do its own renewal project.

City development officials contend that the Weinberg Foundation never pushed forward with redevelopment after its first project, the transformation of the former Stewart's department store, at Howard and Lexington streets, into offices that will become the headquarters for Catholic Relief Services next year.

A plan by the foundation to convert one of its properties, the former Greyhound bus terminal on West Fayette Street, into a much-needed garage never came to fruition, Brodie said. And when the city asked for proposals from developers for the superblock in late 2004, the foundation was not among the applicants, he said.

Now, after more than a year of discussions, the city and the foundation have failed to reach an agreement, Brodie said.

"They don't want to sell to the city, and they don't want a joint venture with Chera Group," Brodie said. "They think their property is worth twice what we think. We are not talking about fine points. We've reached a dead end with the foundation, which is disappointing and frustrating."





Brodie said the city could move to condemn the property.

"That's a last resort," he said. "We never rush forward with eminent domain. With a $2 billion charitable foundation, that's not an easy prospect."

But some, including Kreitner of Westside Renaissance and developer Hillman, say they've seen little action by the Chera group.

"It appears that the developers who have been awarded the development rights have been reluctant to proceed with the project, and there hasn't been any evidence of progress on their part," Kreitner said.

"They're not making any moves that anybody that was serious about it would do," Hillman said.

David S. Cordish, chief executive of the Cordish Co., said the foundation's west-side properties offer an opportunity to breathe new life into the old retail district.

"It is a little early in the process for us to have developed specifics; however, our focus will clearly be ground-level entertainment and retail with residential above," Cordish said in an e-mail to The Sun.

Stiller said he hopes the partnership could re-create some of the successful Cordish mixed-use projects elsewhere around the country. He said Cordish had represented the foundation in meetings with members of the Chera group about a joint venture but that no agreement was reached. And he's seen no progress on their part, he said.

"To my knowledge, they haven't done anything of significance in the last year and a half," Stiller said.

Caught in the middle are the merchants who are trying to eke out a living on streets dotted with boarded-up and vacant storefronts. New York Fashions moved into the 200 block of W. Lexington St. 14 years ago. Back then, the pedestrian mall section of the street had about 14 shops. Now the apparel store is one of four, said its general manager, Lee Reinhardt.

"It's difficult, but we're hoping for the best," said Reinhardt, who said the shop, which owns its building, hopes to remain there in a redeveloped superblock. "There's been quite a bit of decrease in sales volume. If people walk up the street and see vacancies, the enthusiasm of going there to shop isn't there anymore. It seems like it has taken so long to get nothing started."

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

Those fucking Weinbergs are gonna fuck up everything with the Westside. I want Junior's cheesecake without having to travel to Brooklyn to get it. I want to go to H&M without having to go to Towson. The city needs to move and move fast or this project will be set back.....AGAIN.

The secret of selling Baltimore
By Sumathi Reddy
Sun reporter
Originally published May 29, 2006
There was a moment when Gary Vikan was sitting on the 12th floor of the Legg Mason building last fall looking at a dizzying array of charts and numbers.

The charts were designed to convey the feelings and attitudes outsiders had of the great city where he lived and worked.

But he was dumbstruck. Apparently all the people who lived within 250 miles of Baltimore and had never been here weren't particularly impressed. Those who had, however, were quick to give Baltimore top marks.

The divergence of opinions was such that even officials of Longwoods International, the tourism research firm presenting the data, said they had rarely seen such a stark divide.

"The disparity between the two was enormous," said Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum, who served as chairman of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association's repositioning task force.

And then it clicked. Baltimore was a well-kept secret. It needed a new image. A makeover, so to speak.

"Get in on it," he would think months later when the taglines were presented. "Get in on our great secret."

And so began the $500,000 process that involved thousand of surveys inside and outside Baltimore, interviews with all the top officials in Baltimore, and a series of focus groups in the Philadelphia, Washington and northern New Jersey areas.

In marketing-speak, it's called "branding" or "repositioning."

The product was unveiled Wednesday.

"Baltimore - get in on it" is the slogan, accompanied by a logo with Baltimore-themed objects. Think crabs and baseball, beer and birds.

The "brand identity," to be used in all marketing and tourism-related materials, is meant to highlight the city's laid-back, spontaneous sense of fun that is also easy and convenient.

The process was time-consuming and thorough, and even somewhat silly at times, say participants, who recall an early brainstorming meeting.

Landor Associates, a New York-based consultant, held the brainstorming, free-association-type workshop at the Marriott Inner Harbor.

It was a half-day session in October at which most of the repositioning task force convened. The task force was made up of an array of the city's movers and shakers that included Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership, and Donald Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

Questions and ideas were tossed around.

"If Baltimore were a car, what would it be?"

"If Baltimore were a food, what would it be?"

"Are we a martini, or are we a beer?"

After dividing into small groups, members came up with their own visual ideas of Baltimore by using a matrix of images, said Bill Pencek, director of Baltimore City Heritage Area.

For his group it was crabs, microbeer, stadium seating at Camden Yards and an updated VW.

Fowler remembers picking a Jack Russell terrier as a dog, "something sort of spunky and fun."

A month later, some members of the task force were called together to review the research that highlighted the disparity between perceptions of Baltimore.

"That was one of our big 'aha' moments," said Michael Erdman, senior vice president of Longwoods International in Toronto.

Erdman said his company has worked with 25 states and as many regional or city destinations, and it has never seen such a disparity in scores.

Survey respondents were asked to rank the city on 75 factors, including safety at tourist spots, kid-friendly atmosphere, exciting destination, and "this is a place I must see once in my lifetime."

Generally, there might be a 10 percent difference between those who have been to a location and those who haven't. But for Baltimore, the disparity was 50 percent in many cases.

"This was a real revelation for Baltimore," Erdman said, "which suggests that you don't have a problem with the product, it's the image and perception in the marketplace."

At a later meeting, Landor showed various images.

There was one that stuck out in Vikan's mind. It was a chubby boy with three tufts of hair sticking up and a bubble above his head representing his thoughts on where to go that weekend - New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, New York.

It was time to disrupt that thinking process, Vikan thought, and ensure that Baltimore is a player.

Focus groups, segments of which were played to members of the committee, followed.

The findings of the focus groups - during which the consultants fleshed out the city's strengths, areas that distinguish it from nearby cities - were similar.

"That was really insightful, because there really wasn't much talk about The Wire or Homicide or The Corner," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp. "People who hadn't been here didn't have a negative impression or a positive impression. We just weren't on the screen."

The greatest differentiating strengths could be boiled down to two words: breeze and ease.

The breeze being the laid-back atmosphere and Inner Harbor. The ease being the convenience of getting to Baltimore and the access to sites within a 30-minute walk.

They devised a "brand platform," to be the center of marketing campaigns: "Baltimore is a colorful city with an easy, breezy, open feeling that gives people the freedom to kick back, be spontaneous and allow the energy of the city to guide each adventure. Baltimore's vibrant harbor at the heart of the city sets the stage for easy access to all major venues."

At January and February meetings involving part of the task force, members played with dozens of potential taglines and logos, eventually narrowing them to those that were put before out-of-state focus groups.

Focus groups in March played with the final taglines and logos, and the ones that resonated most were again presented to the task force.

Members can recall several finalists:

• The city you savor

• All city, no hurry

• Easy to enjoy

• Breeze into Baltimore

• Enjoy the pace Vakin wasn't immediately taken with "Get in on it."

"I didn't dislike it," he said. "But you really have to go away and just sit on it. What has legs has legs."

This, he determined after playing it over in his mind, was a subtle but clever phrase.

"The 'Get in on it' is the secret," Vikan said. "Baltimore's the best-kept secret. Once you get the secret, you've got it. You're in on it."

sumathi.reddy@baltsun.com

I hope everything goes through with the Superblock it will be a great edition to Baltimore City.

I'm sure Honolulu Harry is looking up from hell and laughing his ass off. It just amazes me that they've sat on these properties for 20+ years and when somebody comes along with an interest in revitilizing the area, suddenly they have their own plans in the works. Bullshit! If the city doesn't seize those properties now, 20 years from now I guarantee those properties will still be vacant.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/graphic/2006-05/23659077.jpg

Speaking of TV shows, is "The Wire" coming back? I haven't seen it promoted on HBO.
Yes HBO is going to start airing the forth season of The Wire in September.

http://home.comcast.net/~sniggle_lizard22/rotundaview.jpg
i dont want to bust your bubble ,but this picture is backwards looking at this direction world trade center and alex brown building should be on the oppisite side of legg mason tower.

I hate to bust YOUR bubble, but if you stand in the parking lot of the Rotunda and aim roughly south, this IS the view. No Photoshop, no image reversal, only some added compression to take the photo to a reasonable downloable size. That's the view as it is.

It's an interesting question. Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity? While I really liked Ladder 49, you have to admit that it did in part portray Baltimore as a grimy ghetto that is always burning down. Just a little while ago, I was channel surfing and saw the beginning of a really bad Sci Fi Channel movie called "Mansquito" (the title tells the plot). As a helicopter cruised over "the city", I noticed the odd steeple on the Shaffer Tower and realized that the night time skyline was none other than Baltimore, home of evil human/mosquito hybrids. After many Years and hundreds of murders of affluent people, New York continues in spite of Law and Order and CSI. Phoenix Az continues in spite of numerous murders only solvable by a Medium. It's only a movie/TV. We need to worry about the truth, not the movies.

Ah Mansquito is a great movie. I didn't notice the skyline shots at first. The scene in the movie at the hospital features a host of police battling mansquito. If you look closely you'll notice the police cars say "Baltimore Police" right on the side. And when the swat team pulls up it says Baltimore County Swat on the back of the truck. Only afterwards did I realize the skyline shots were from Baltimore. You make a good point though, a movie is only a movie(even if it is a hilarious B movie), and tv shows are only tv shows. I believe reality is much more powerful than an image created via the tv or movie theater.

Ah Mansquito is a great movie. I didn't notice the skyline shots at first. The scene in the movie at the hospital features a host of police battling mansquito. If you look closely you'll notice the police cars say "Baltimore Police" right on the side. And when the swat team pulls up it says Baltimore County Swat on the back of the truck. Only afterwards did I realize the skyline shots were from Baltimore. You make a good point though, a movie is only a movie(even if it is a hilarious B movie), and tv shows are only tv shows. I believe reality is much more powerful than an image created via the tv or movie theater.

It's a surprise to see how many movies have been filmed here, including such greats as Hillbilly Robot and Joe Nosferatu Homeless Vampire. For a complete list, see Big List of Baltimore Movies (http://www.imdb.com/List?endings=on&&locations=Baltimore,%20Maryland,%20USA&&heading=18;with+locations+including;Baltimore,%20Maryland,%20USA). What surprises me more is when a movie is set here but filmed somewhere else like all those X Files episodes that happened somwhere around here but were filmed in British Columbia and that comedy "Saved" that was supposed to be set in Towson, but again, filmed in BC. Over the years I have ran into lots of film shots and occasionally seen real *stars*. I guess that's why we have a State agency that promotes Md as a film destination. Everybody in those Hadad's trucks need lunch and hotel rooms.

I hate to bust YOUR bubble, but if you stand in the parking lot of the Rotunda and aim roughly south, this IS the view. No Photoshop, no image reversal, only some added compression to take the photo to a reasonable downloable size. That's the view as it is.

It's definately correct. If you are north of downtown looking south, Alex Brown is certainly east (or left) of Bank Of America. Duh!

I'm sure Honolulu Harry is looking up from hell and laughing his ass off. It just amazes me that they've sat on these properties for 20+ years and when somebody comes along with an interest in revitilizing the area, suddenly they have their own plans in the works. Bullshit! If the city doesn't seize those properties now, 20 years from now I guarantee those properties will still be vacant.

It's a tradition. For all those years, Harry also said he had big plans for the property. One thing the foundation IS good at though, is making sure that anything they're involved in has a big sign with their name on it.

Ah Mansquito is a great movie. I didn't notice the skyline shots at first. The scene in the movie at the hospital features a host of police battling mansquito. If you look closely you'll notice the police cars say "Baltimore Police" right on the side. And when the swat team pulls up it says Baltimore County Swat on the back of the truck. Only afterwards did I realize the skyline shots were from Baltimore. You make a good point though, a movie is only a movie(even if it is a hilarious B movie), and tv shows are only tv shows. I believe reality is much more powerful than an image created via the tv or movie theater.

I hate to disagree, but so many people are either stupid of naive. The mass media, radio/tv/movies, has a most powerful effect on what we believe. Take the War of the World's radio broadcast of 1939. People were literally running for their lives as they though Martians were invading. More recently, when JAWS was originally released, how many people either stopped or thought twice about swimming in the ocean while at the beach?

Anyway, what I'm saying is if Baltimore is portrayed in a bad light, and surveys continue to make us one of the most dangerous cities, then that's what the rest of the world is going to believe.

It's a tradition. For all those years, Harry also said he had big plans for the property. One thing the foundation IS good at though, is making sure that anything they're involved in has a big sign with their name on it.

That's most definitely for sure! They've buttered up their image with those signs, but we in the know, know better!

The secret of selling Baltimore
By Sumathi Reddy
Sun reporter
Originally published May 29, 2006
There was a moment when Gary Vikan was sitting on the 12th floor of the Legg Mason building last fall looking at a dizzying array of charts and numbers.


While "Get In On It" isn't all that bad, is that the best they could do? How about "Baltimore: The Well-kept Secret" or "Baltimore: The Secret Is Out"? I could see them take a comical spin to it or even cool serious yet flashy one. Maybe those slogans were copyrighted already?

While "Get In On It" isn't all that bad, is that the best they could do? How about "Baltimore: The Well-kept Secret" or "Baltimore: The Secret Is Out"? I could see them take a comical spin to it or even cool serious yet flashy one. Maybe those slogans were copyrighted already?
I love that slogan, "Baltimore The secret is Out". Did you come up with that one? It's alot better then "Get In On It". I still love Charm City to.

I love that slogan, "Baltimore The secret is Out". Did you come up with that one? It's alot better then "Get In On It". I still love Charm City to.

Yeah, I just made that up on the spot.

I hate to bust YOUR bubble, but if you stand in the parking lot of the Rotunda and aim roughly south, this IS the view. No Photoshop, no image reversal, only some added compression to take the photo to a reasonable downloable size. That's the view as it is.
Dude is right, he is in Middle-East, or around Hopkins, right?

While "Get In On It" isn't all that bad, is that the best they could do? How about "Baltimore: The Well-kept Secret" or "Baltimore: The Secret Is Out"? I could see them take a comical spin to it or even cool serious yet flashy one. Maybe those slogans were copyrighted already?

Maybe its just me or I never realized I am dyslexic, but when I see the phrase "Get in on it", I don't quite absorb the entire statement immediately. When I first looked at it, I come away with "Get on it" or "Get it" or somthing other than absorbing the complete phrase. I still look at it can't quickly recall it. I still think "get it on" (I don't think that is the image these wholesome promoters want to give of Baltimore unless they are promoting The Block). How many of you immediately retained the entire phrase?

I don't think I'm unique. I think the real problem with this promotion is the reader will not pickup the entire statement at first glance. It just doesn't flow, perhaps its a series of three two-letter words. Visually that is what I find tricky about it. Of course if you hear on the radio or TV that might be different.

Then once you get the statement the next question is get in on what. This makes no sense or logic. How much did they pay some consultant to come up with this? Even the Balt. Promotions officer quoted in the Sun story had to mull this over before he got it.

Maybe its just me or I never realized I am dyslexic, but when I see the phrase "Get in on it", I don't quite absorb the entire statement immediately. When I first looked at it, I come away with "Get on it" or "Get it" or somthing other than absorbing the complete phrase. I still look at it can't quickly recall it. I still think "get it on" (I don't think that is the image these wholesome promoters want to give of Baltimore unless they are promoting The Block). How many of you immediately retained the entire phrase?

I don't think I'm unique. I think the real problem with this promotion is the reader will not pickup the entire statement at first glance. It just doesn't flow, perhaps its a series of three two-letter words. Visually that is what I find tricky about it. Of course if you hear on the radio or TV that might be different.

Then once you get the statement the next question is get in on what. This makes no sense or logic. How much did they pay some consultant to come up with this? Even the Balt. Promotions officer quoted in the Sun story had to mull this over before he got it.

Uh Oh! You are not alone. when I read the first article in the Sun I thought I was reading "Get it on" as well. The slogan is too weak IMO, too much of a neutral middle ground. I think "The Secret Is Out, Get In On It" is clear and conscise without being too specific or vague. Maybe they can amend the sloagn to say this.

Maybe its just me or I never realized I am dyslexic, but when I see the phrase "Get in on it", I don't quite absorb the entire statement immediately. When I first looked at it, I come away with "Get on it" or "Get it" or somthing other than absorbing the complete phrase. I still look at it can't quickly recall it. I still think "get it on" (I don't think that is the image these wholesome promoters want to give of Baltimore unless they are promoting The Block). How many of you immediately retained the entire phrase?

I'm with you. Too many two letter words in a row. I came up with "Get It On", as well.

I guess Im in the minority when I say I dont really have a problem with the current slogan.

Im amazed by how much we dislike things about Baltimore that outsiders love. Perhaps thats the case with this.

I guess Im in the minority when I say I dont really have a problem with the current slogan.

Im amazed by how much we dislike things about Baltimore that outsiders love. Perhaps thats the case with this.

"We aim for the best, we don't settle for less!" :)

I'm with you. Too many two letter words in a row. I came up with "Get It On", as well.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I also see "Get it on" when I first read posts about it here.

Silver Springer, I just drove back to my office in Columbia from DC and saw a "statue" thing that looks like your avatar outside a parking garage on Colesville Road. Now I get it :)

I have a new question I've been meaning to ask; have any of you seen many of the terrapin art project statues yet? I have only seen two - the one at Harborplace at Light & Pratt, and one across the street from Montgomery Park (seemed a strange location as there isn't much street life). They don't seem to be as numerous as the crabs were last year.

^There are plenty of Testudos located around the state, but they're mostly concentrated on the UM campus and in various places around the DC metro.

Here's a site which illustrates where each is located.

There are a bunch in downtown Silver Spring.

TWO Great links concerning 10 Inner Harbor!

:D

http://www.wheelerbrothersholdings.com/index.html

and...

http://www2.arcproperties.com/residential/property.phtml?pid=19

http://www2.arcproperties.com/graphics/residential/photos/19_photo.jpg

If you have questions concerning 10 Inner Harbor, direct them to:

Contact: Claudia Graff
Phone: 973-249-1000
Email: cgraff@arcproperties.com

Do we know when this project is supposed to go before the city for approval?

Do we know when this project is supposed to go before the city for approval?
That would be a great question to ask Claudia. ;)

^There are plenty of Testudos located around the state, but they're mostly concentrated on the UM campus and in various places around the DC metro.

Here's a site which illustrates where each is located.

Testudos? :dunno:

Can you post the link? Thanks!

^There are plenty of Testudos located around the state, but they're mostly concentrated on the UM campus and in various places around the DC metro.

Here's a site which illustrates where each is located.

Perhaps my screen had loading problems, but I couldn't see the link, so I went searching myself and found this site. Here is the link for anyone else who might not have gotten waj's link http://www.feartheturtle.umd.edu/fttsculptures/

Aztec Warrior Terp is my favorite.

^^^wow....Im an idiot. I copied the link but forgot to paste it in the post.

Thats what happens when I post at work. lol.

Interesting article on Quarry Lake - a new lake forming north of Mount Washington, which homes are being built around.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.lake30may30,0,1166972.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Thought i'd go for a bike ride this afternoon. Got some shots of west shore park, harbor east, patterson park, butchers hill, hopkins area, city hall, the ritz site and federal hill park.......enjoy.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02499.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02501.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02502.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02503.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02507.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02510.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02512.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02514.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02515.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02516.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02518.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02519.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02519.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02527.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02524.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02532.jpg

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I also see "Get it on" when I first read posts about it here.

Silver Springer, I just drove back to my office in Columbia from DC and saw a "statue" thing that looks like your avatar outside a parking garage on Colesville Road. Now I get it :)

I have a new question I've been meaning to ask; have any of you seen many of the terrapin art project statues yet? I have only seen two - the one at Harborplace at Light & Pratt, and one across the street from Montgomery Park (seemed a strange location as there isn't much street life). They don't seem to be as numerous as the crabs were last year.

Lol, I hope they didn't scare you cause they are huge! There are actually four posted at each main artery leading into the CBD. It’s supposed to be the "official" symbol of Silver Spring but some will swear by the acorn, which is kind of true. I guess the acorn represents historic Silver Spring while the blue spring logo represents the modern Silver Spring. The penguin is the unofficial logo but I like the blue spring the best.

The media\art firm hired to design the blue spring insignia does an impeccable job of incorporating the logo into different themes,

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/RSC/SilSprng/adpic2.jpghttp://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/RSC/SilSprng/Images/Logos/bikewaysLogo.jpghttp://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/RSC/SilSprng/Images/Logos/WIFI-Hotspot-Sign.gifhttp://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/RSC/SilSprng/Images/thanksgivinglogonew.jpghttp://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Content/RSC/SilSprng/Images/silverspringlogoZ.jpg

Sorry for high-jacking the thread.

Thought i'd go for a bike ride this afternoon. Got some shots of west shore park, harbor east, patterson park, butchers hill, hopkins area, city hall, the ritz site and federal hill park.......enjoy.



http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02514.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c11/mturner125/bikeride/DSC02516.jpg


Where are the homes in the first picture and are they building anymore like them? For the second picture, is that the John Hopkins BioPark construction grounds?

Where are the homes in the first picture and are they building anymore like them? For the second picture, is that the John Hopkins BioPark construction grounds?

I have a feeling that those homes are quite old, so the answer would be, no they won't be building anymore like them!!

Interesting article on Quarry Lake - a new lake forming north of Mount Washington, which homes are being built around.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.lake30may30,0,1166972.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

I went out there one day out of curiosity and that is one big freakin hole. It's going to take years for that thing to fill up with rain water. I saw a picture with dump trucks at the bottom and they looked like ants. I understand that the hole is almost 500 feet deep. The land there is so wasted that I don't feel bad about it being used up for houses.

Just when Weinberg's machinations seem to be portending a new Westside Blues, there is one good piece of news. A DC developer wants to open a pool hall and Centerpoint wants to revive the Towne theater (finally!). There appears to be talk about moving Everyman Theater there, which needs a new home to accomdate growth. I'd hate to see them leave Charles North but they are boxed in and don't seem to have enough room to grow. It's all in the BBJ - Link to Article (http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2006/05/29/story4.html)

And.....we also have a great seafood market. Faidley's continues to have the most atmospheric raw bar around. From the BBJ Too (http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2006/05/29/tidbits1.html)

Might be a dumb question, but what in the world is going on at Patterson Park? They've been working there for quite a while now and I don't really see any info about the work.

I hope things go well with the Super Block or maybe they need a new developer.

Great pix, southbalto! :) Thanks for posting them!
Harbor East is looking better and better! :D The West Shore Park is looking better.
The 1st Mariner Tower looks SO STUBBY! What's up with that? :? :)

I think in that first pic of the First Mariner building is taken from a higher grade. It looks slightly taller in the second picture.

The 6,000-square-foot Bedrock will open in two phases, said Geoff Dawson, co-owner of Bedrock Management Co. The first phase, which includes the bar and billiards, will open in July and replaces night club The Vault. Executives haven't specified a date for the opening of the restaurant, which will serve burgers, salads and wood-oven pizza. Bedrock officials are pouring $600,000 to renovate the spaces at 401 and 405 W. Baltimore St.

Bedrock is the latest in a line of new food and drink establishments that have opened within the last year, as vendors seek to capitalize on the growth in the west side's residents, said Ronald Kreitner, executive director of WestSide Renaissance Inc.

This is great. There's a Bedrock in DC in Adam's Morgan sort of near Rock Creek Park. Its a 21 and over place with a definite retro feel to it. Should be great for the area. Here's the website: http://www.bedrockbilliards.com/bedrockbilliards.html

I've been waiting for The Vault to be reborn as something else. Progress is being made!!

And BTW....progress is still being made at the Abell Building too.

I was a little skepticle at first when I head a pool hall was opening in the West Side. That had seedy written all over it. But after looking at the website, it definitely looks very upscale, and definitely a good addition to the neighborhood.

I would love to see Everyman get a new home, but I also am hesitant to see them leave Station North. The West Side also has a lot of potential for a blossoming arts scene, but I would hope they would not steal from the momentum taking place elsewhere.

Perhaps my screen had loading problems, but I couldn't see the link, so I went searching myself and found this site. Here is the link for anyone else who might not have gotten waj's link http://www.feartheturtle.umd.edu/fttsculptures/

Aztec Warrior Terp is my favorite.

Thanks for that. I didn't realize it's a regional thing; the Sun article made it sound like a city project, following up on the crabs.

Great pictures, southbalto!

I was a little skepticle at first when I head a pool hall was opening in the West Side. That had seedy written all over it. But after looking at the website, it definitely looks very upscale, and definitely a good addition to the neighborhood.

Oh yeah. Having been to the one in Adams Morgan, I can assure you...this isnt one of those seedy places. They typically draw good crowds and should work well in the neighborhood.

I am very happy about this....

Museums' art is priceless; viewing it will be free
By Glenn McNatt and Linell Smith
Sun reporters
Originally published May 31, 2006

After nearly a quarter-century of assessing admission fees, the city's two largest art museums - the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum - soon will be free of charge.





The initiative, part of an unusual collaboration between city and county governments and the two art institutions, will be announced today at a ceremony in Druid Hill Park and will go into effect Oct. 1.

The new policy, modeled on that of several other museums nationwide, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Cincinnati Art Museum, is aimed at boosting attendance, increasing visitor diversity and raising the city's profile as a tourist destination.

"Once you open the door and eliminate the fee, you've changed your relationship with the community," said Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum.

Under the agreement, the city and Baltimore County have pledged to give an additional $200,000 to each of the museums next year, for a total of $800,000 in additional revenue. The institutions have asked the city and the county for a similar commitment over the next two years, administrators said.

In addition, Anne Arundel County is giving an additional $30,000 to each institution this year in support of the effort, and both museums hope to persuade Harford, Howard and Carroll counties to contribute.

"This is an investment in the future of the entire metropolitan area," Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said in a statement. "I am delighted that both museums are approaching this initiative together for the benefit of the people."

Last year, the 72-year-old Walters, renowned for collections that span 5,000 years of art, attracted 133,484 visitors. The BMA, founded in 1914 and known for its Matisse and early Modernist works, drew 243,485 visitors.

Of the 30,000 schoolchildren who typically visit the Walters each year, more than 70 percent come from the surrounding counties. About 60 percent of the 25,000 who visit the BMA come from county schools.

Both museums were free until 1982, when they began charging $2 to offset operating costs; currently each charges a $10 general admission fee for adults.

"Both the BMA and the Walters were already thinking about free admission, and neither museum knew the other was trying to offer it," said Doreen Bolger, the BMA director. "This puts the city on the map as recognizing the importance of the arts."

The new admissions policy will coincide with Free Fall Baltimore, a citywide promotion aimed at making cultural activities more accessible to residents and visitors during October, which has been designated National Arts and Humanities Month.

As part of Free Fall Baltimore, a separate $750,000 grant from the city will be used to help area cultural organizations present free performances, classes and other programs throughout the month. The elimination of admission fees at the Walters and the BMA will be a highlight of the program.

"Creating access to cultural institutions is a priority, because everybody needs to develop audiences to thrive, and we know for a fact that admissions are a barrier to accessibility," said Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

"This says Baltimore is on a level with D.C., where the municipal museums are free, and from a tourism standpoint it's a wonderful opportunity to promote the city."

Since the Cincinnati Art Museum eliminated its general admission fee in 2003, attendance has increased about 17 percent, to 267,493. Last year, about 25 percent of the visitors were first-time museum-goers, said museum spokeswoman Natalie Hastings.

"There are a lot of barriers to museum access, but we felt admission was one of the main ones. Now that we've made it easier for everyone in the community to come, we've seen a more diversified audience," she said.

At the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, community groups such as the Red Hat Society, an organization whose membership is limited to women older than 50, have begun meeting in the museum.

"A group of women in red hats, maybe 15 or 20 of them, visit our museum once a month," said Kaylen Whitmore, marketing director at the Minneapolis museum. "Would this be their regular gathering spot if it weren't free? I don't think so. This has become a place for people of limited means - or excessive means - to come and make connections with each other and the art we have on view."

Free admission is also a boon for parents.
"For a family of four to go to a movie -- without popcorn or soda - can cost $35," Whitmore said. "We have free admission and free parking. We make a great destination, especially on Sundays when we do family programming and hands-on art activities."

The Minneapolis institution attracted about 475,000 visitors last year, even though part of its building has been under construction, she said. In the late 1980s, when the museum charged a fee, it drew an annual average of about 309,000 visitors.

At the BMA, minority attendance has more than doubled, from 7 percent to 18 percent, on the first Thursday of each month, when admission is free, museum officials said.

Walters officials estimate that 25 percent of those who visit the museum do so during the three hours each Saturday when the museum charges no admission fee.

"What this suggests is that we're going to get more people and more diversity" when admission is free, Vikan said. "You walk the galleries on Saturdays and you see a lot more people, a more diverse, younger crowd and lots of families."

The Walters, which has an operating budget of $11.8 million, and the BMA, which has an operating budget of $11.2 million, will use the additional city and county funds to offset revenue they lose from dropping admission fees and an anticipated temporary drop in membership (membership typically includes free admission). Admission fees make up about 2 percent of the museums' overall annual operating budgets.

The switch to free admission - although admission will be charged for some traveling exhibits - will require both museums to change their business models slightly to make up for lost revenue. Plans call for more aggressive fundraising targeting individuals and foundations.

"Each of us knew we couldn't do it alone; the government money gave us a jump-start," said Suzanne F. Cohen, chairwoman of the BMA board. "It never would have worked if it hadn't been a partnership from the start."

Initial reactions from potential museum-goers suggest that the new policy will be welcomed.

"I've got six kids," said Crystal Jones, 26, who lives in the city and works at a supermarket. "If it was free, they could go."

Matthew Fischel, 27, an independent filmmaker in Mount Vernon who can't regularly afford the museums' admission fees, called the news "just fantastic. ... There's a lot of good things that can happen to a city, and making the museums free is high on the list."

glenn.mcnatt@baltsun.com linell.smith@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Sam Sessa contributed to this article.

^^ Speaking of BMA, does anyone know when the expansion will begin, if it already hasn't?

"The center, to be called the Easter Seals⁄Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Inter-Generational Center, is expected to open in September 2007. It is anticipated to serve more than 15,000 children, adults and seniors with disabilities, and their families and caregivers over the next decade. The center will help those with disabilities live independently and be successful, Reeves said."

This property has sat stagnat for quite sometime,now I know why.

Harbor East

Took a walk around HE on Saturday to see the progress of the buildings that are going up there. It certainly doesn't feel like you are in Baltimore but because it has been grafted onto the existing city streets, they have managed to keep the feel of a real city and enhance it at the same time. I had a look at some of the new shops that have opened there and I was very impressed. For example there is one that sells furniture and decorative items that are eco friendly. There is another that sells newspapers and magazines that would be impossible to find at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders. I think these one of a kind shops are more interesting than your run of the mill Pier 1 and it helps to set this area off as a destination shopping area with offerings that you just can't find at the local malls. With the Four Seasons due to break ground soon, the new Landmark Cinema complex, new residences and restaurants, this area is really going to take off. Not only that but it will have a built in affluent/educated residential population that will be able to support these shops and restaurants.

I was a little skepticle at first when I head a pool hall was opening in the West Side. That had seedy written all over it. But after looking at the website, it definitely looks very upscale, and definitely a good addition to the neighborhood.

This pool hall is huge news for the area. Buffalo, Atomic and Bedrock Billiards are some of the most popular bars in DC. They're basically more huge bars/lounges with pool tables where most people go to socialize, drink, eat and watch games instead of playing pool. It's an awesome addition to Baltimore night life and will bring a lot of people to the area. I can't wait until it opens.

Great news about the West Side projects. The pool hall worried me at first too, but now that I've read more about it and heard reviews of the DC based locations, I'm confident that this will be a good addition to the area.

Now if we had a world class arena next door to it, that would draw people to different events and end up with them patronizing this place, Maggie Moores etc... before and after, that would be even better, but cest la vie...

Harbor East

Took a walk around HE on Saturday to see the progress of the buildings that are going up there. It certainly doesn't feel like you are in Baltimore but because it has been grafted onto the existing city streets, they have managed to keep the feel of a real city and enhance it at the same time. I had a look at some of the new shops that have opened there and I was very impressed. For example there is one that sells furniture and decorative items that are eco friendly. There is another that sells newspapers and magazines that would be impossible to find at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders. I think these one of a kind shops are more interesting than your run of the mill Pier 1 and it helps to set this area off as a destination shopping area with offerings that you just can't find at the local malls. With the Four Seasons due to break ground soon, the new Landmark Cinema complex, new residences and restaurants, this area is really going to take off. Not only that but it will have a built in affluent/educated residential population that will be able to support these shops and restaurants.

I was down there about 3 weeks ago. I was in the South Moon Under Staore. I asked one of the sales persons in there about the foot traffic, considering they were sort of pioneering retailers. She said that business was much better than they anticipated for the first year. I think that bodes well for the whole area. :)

Harbor East

Took a walk around HE on Saturday to see the progress of the buildings that are going up there. It certainly doesn't feel like you are in Baltimore but because it has been grafted onto the existing city streets, they have managed to keep the feel of a real city and enhance it at the same time. I had a look at some of the new shops that have opened there and I was very impressed. For example there is one that sells furniture and decorative items that are eco friendly. There is another that sells newspapers and magazines that would be impossible to find at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders. I think these one of a kind shops are more interesting than your run of the mill Pier 1 and it helps to set this area off as a destination shopping area with offerings that you just can't find at the local malls. With the Four Seasons due to break ground soon, the new Landmark Cinema complex, new residences and restaurants, this area is really going to take off. Not only that but it will have a built in affluent/educated residential population that will be able to support these shops and restaurants.

I was down there about 3 weeks ago. I was in the South Moon Under Store. I asked one of the sales persons in there about the foot traffic, considering they were sort of pioneering retailers. She said that business was much better than they anticipated for the first year. I think that bodes well for the whole area. :)

Surprised no one has commented on this from the Sun article on the auction of the West Side properties.

""I've been trying to buy the building for a long time, and I got it, and another one, too," said a smiling Ahmed Elsigai, who owns the King Tut jewelry store on the first floor of 300-302 N. Howard St., which he bought along with 304 N. Howard St. for about $1.3 million.

"I got a two-for-one deal. I want to fill the whole thing with jewelry merchants. I think it's a good idea in this market. I hope the city will help.""

This is definitely what the West Side does NOT need. This guy's jewelry store screams GHETTO to the highest degree. He's got signs out front advertising 14k gold rings and such. The fact that he wants to fill another building with more trashy jewelry merchants on top of his already trashy store, is NOT good news for the West Side. These merchants are some of the biggest problems with the area. They don't put any care into their stores and have left the area looking terrible. It's really a shame someone else didn't snatch this property up.

I'm starting to hold little hope for the Westside turning around except for Eutaw St around the Hippodrome. The Weinberg Foundation continues to screw things up. They should have sold the N. Howard St properties to proven developers rather than auction them off to the highest bidder.


Surprised no one has commented on this from the Sun article on the auction of the West Side properties.

""I've been trying to buy the building for a long time, and I got it, and another one, too," said a smiling Ahmed Elsigai, who owns the King Tut jewelry store on the first floor of 300-302 N. Howard St., which he bought along with 304 N. Howard St. for about $1.3 million.

"I got a two-for-one deal. I want to fill the whole thing with jewelry merchants. I think it's a good idea in this market. I hope the city will help.""

This is definitely what the West Side does NOT need. This guy's jewelry store screams GHETTO to the highest degree. He's got signs out front advertising 14k gold rings and such. The fact that he wants to fill another building with more trashy jewelry merchants on top of his already trashy store, is NOT good news for the West Side. These merchants are some of the biggest problems with the area. They don't put any care into their stores and have left the area looking terrible. It's really a shame someone else didn't snatch this property up.

This is definitely what the West Side does NOT need. This guy's jewelry store screams GHETTO to the highest degree.

I thought this initially. However, I don't think everything new should be upscale. This is still a gritty town.

Plus, I think there's more foot traffic in that area than any in the city...including the Harborplace.

Those "ghetto" stores are packed all day long. It may not be much to look at, but they add to the coffers.

I thought this initially. However, I don't think everything new should be upscale. This is still a gritty town.

Plus, I think there's more foot traffic in that area than any in the city...including the Harborplace.

Those "ghetto" stores are packed all day long. It may not be much to look at, but they add to the coffers.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that every square inch of the West needs to be filled with Starbucks, Ann Taylor, Gap and Bannana Republic, but if these kinds of stores are still going to be there, I would like to see them update their storefronts, keep their sidewalks clean, and just generally try to look nice. Too many of these ugly, dirty, lets fact it - dangerous looking places will deter professionals and families from moving to, shopping at, and generally exploring the area.

I wouldn't be opposed to a jewelry exchange being set up in one of the buildings, I'd just like to see it look and operate a little nicer.

Harbor East

Took a walk around HE on Saturday to see the progress of the buildings that are going up there. It certainly doesn't feel like you are in Baltimore but because it has been grafted onto the existing city streets, they have managed to keep the feel of a real city and enhance it at the same time. I had a look at some of the new shops that have opened there and I was very impressed. For example there is one that sells furniture and decorative items that are eco friendly. There is another that sells newspapers and magazines that would be impossible to find at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders. I think these one of a kind shops are more interesting than your run of the mill Pier 1 and it helps to set this area off as a destination shopping area with offerings that you just can't find at the local malls. With the Four Seasons due to break ground soon, the new Landmark Cinema complex, new residences and restaurants, this area is really going to take off. Not only that but it will have a built in affluent/educated residential population that will be able to support these shops and restaurants.

I agree I was down there about a week ago. It's amazing how great it is already and still you know you are in Baltimore. Does anyone know if they're still going to have a outdoor ice staking rink over in harbor east? When all the new developments are done.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that every square inch of the West needs to be filled with Starbucks, Ann Taylor, Gap and Bannana Republic, but if these kinds of stores are still going to be there, I would like to see them update their storefronts, keep their sidewalks clean, and just generally try to look nice. Too many of these ugly, dirty, lets fact it - dangerous looking places will deter professionals and families from moving to, shopping at, and generally exploring the area.

I wouldn't be opposed to a jewelry exchange being set up in one of the buildings, I'd just like to see it look and operate a little nicer.

...and as long as they utilize the entire building and not just the front of the first floor, like so many current businesses there do, including this one.

Don't ask me how I found this, but finally we have a name for that mysterious boutique hotel by Camden Yards.

Developers who plan to build an eight-story, 126-room hotel at Washington Boulevard and Greene Street told city officials last week that they would name it The Inn at Camden Yards in honor of the nearby ballpark.

But Rob Meeks, a partner with Next Realty Mid-Atlantic of Alexandria, Va., told the Board of Estimates that the name could have reflected another local landmark that sits close by and is almost as well-known as the park.

"We thought about calling ourselves The Inn at Pickles Pub," he said.

- Laura Vozzella

I thought this initially. However, I don't think everything new should be upscale. This is still a gritty town.

Plus, I think there's more foot traffic in that area than any in the city...including the Harborplace.

Those "ghetto" stores are packed all day long. It may not be much to look at, but they add to the coffers.

A few years ago, I recall that part of the plan was that the "ghetto" stores would move further up Howard St when all the upscale stuff was built on the first few blocks. At the time I thought that was an improvement over the original plan to flatten the place and build anew. In my fairly regular walks to the Lexington Market, I always note that there is no place in the city with more foot traffic and retail business. It may not be the type of yuppie-fied retail that is being built in Harbor East but it works on its own level and it would be a mistake to just chase that away. Since it doesn't appear that the big department stores will ever return and it doesn't appear that Howard will compete with Harbor East any time soon, a mix of different levels of retail could breathe life into the area and get the momentum moving.

...and as long as they utilize the entire building and not just the front of the first floor, like so many current businesses there do, including this one.

I can envision the upper floors of those buildings being residential. Considering that the stores don't stay open late, with improvements, that wouldn't be a bad place to have an apartment (provided the area improves generally). I guess they'd have to evict the pidgeons first.

Checked out the pictures taken by Southbalto, very nice. Love the port area. Also love the brick so often used in eastern cities. Wish we had areas like that where I live.

Don't ask me how I found this, but finally we have a name for that mysterious boutique hotel by Camden Yards.

Developers who plan to build an eight-story, 126-room hotel at Washington Boulevard and Greene Street told city officials last week that they would name it The Inn at Camden Yards in honor of the nearby ballpark.

But Rob Meeks, a partner with Next Realty Mid-Atlantic of Alexandria, Va., told the Board of Estimates that the name could have reflected another local landmark that sits close by and is almost as well-known as the park.

"We thought about calling ourselves The Inn at Pickles Pub," he said.

- Laura Vozzella

Google always amazes me. A search for "The Inn at Camden Yards" gives you a link to Baltimore Sun Article (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.deals14jul14,1,4395539.story?coll=bal-home-headlines). I guess it's not a mystery anymore what's going in there but it is a mystery how Google gets all of the information.

I really understand what you're saying Xander and I agree. Many storefronts are unattractive with the hard gum on the sidewalks or the vicarious flow of trash in the gutters. Maybe it's time for the city to invest in more corner trash cans downtown and make stiffer penalties for those who are responsible for such garbage. Why can't the city be like Tampa. Whenever I'm there I always see numerous people sweeping and cleaning the area. It's time for us to take pride in our city and its beautiful surroundings.

To be fair, Tampa isn't exactly in the same industrial, historical, political, economic, or demographic situation as Baltimore, not to mention it's much smaller. Then again, a good Baltimore city investment might be to appropriate money to (closely-watched) third party street and sidewalk cleaners and city landscapers.

The West Side definitely needs to decide what it wants to be. The city evidently wants to see it grow more upscale with additions such as Hippodrome, Superblock, Centerpoint, etc. But you're the area already has a very strong market, so is it worth jeopardizing that? What we don't want though, is to try attracting upscale businesses while at the same time allowing the more "ghetto" buinesses to make themselves more permanent in the area by expanding and what not, if the city doesn't want them there for the long run. What might end up happening is that establishments such as Bedrock Billiards, which is upscale and yuppie in DC's Adams Morgan, but take on the negative pool hall stereotype that we fear in a place like the West Side.

In my opinion, with already established institutions such as Uni of Maryland and Hippodrome, which can't really be moved, it makes sense to move the West Side to a more upscale atmosphere.

If this thing is really gonna take off like the city wants it to, the ghetto shops will get displaced elsewhere eventually. Do you really think Abercrombie or H&M or Junior's or Border's will agree to a longterm lease next to what would look like a seedy establishment. As long as the city enforces some sort of design standards, Im fine with this guy remaining. If he's able to fund or finanace 1.2 mill or whatever he paid, Im sure he can (and the city should force him to) improve the facade, signage, etc. If not, then put another Starbucks there. lol.

Call me crazy, but I still maintain that the Superblock will be a real asset to the city and I think its improvement is merely a fact of when opposed to a question of if. The Weinbergs cant stop this forever (regardless of how hard they try).

How big of an organization exactly is the Weinberg Foundation? Does anyone know anyone that works with the Foundation?

If this thing is really gonna take off like the city wants it to, the ghetto shops will get displaced elsewhere eventually. Do you really think Abercrombie or H&M or Junior's or Border's will agree to a longterm lease next to what would look like a seedy establishment. As long as the city enforces some sort of design standards, Im fine with this guy remaining. If he's able to fund or finanace 1.2 mill or whatever he paid, Im sure he can (and the city should force him to) improve the facade, signage, etc. If not, then put another Starbucks there. lol.

Call me crazy, but I still maintain that the Superblock will be a real asset to the city and I think its improvement is merely a fact of when opposed to a question of if. The Weinbergs cant stop this forever (regardless of how hard they try).


I sent an e-mail to the weindberg foundation last week regarding the standoff with the city. I'd encourage all of you to do the same.....

contact info is on the site.

Midtown Manhattan houses one of the busiest diamond districts in the country... 47th St between 5th and 6th Ave. It's a jam-packed block with hundreds of private jewelers. It does look very seedy with everything old and crammed with cheesy neon signs in the windows.

But...

It's right around the corner from Rockefeller Center and the most expensive shopping imaginable on 5th Ave. My best friend bought his engagement ring there and where I bought my watch (at least 40% off retail... if you pay cash and don't mind bartering). I know Baltimore's a different town, but it's just an example of why a jewelry district isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Tax incentive targets tenant
City weighs subsidy to Harbor East builder to keep education firm in town
By Jill Rosen
Sun reporter
Originally published June 1, 2006


Baltimore is poised to give a $3.5 million tax break to the developers building a huge, mixed-use project in Harbor East, now one of the city's healthiest and most expensive neighborhoods. But unlike the other breaks Harbor East has garnered, this one, city officials say, was designed not to get a project built but to hold on to a trophy company that was threatening to leave town. The developers of 800 Aliceanna St., a $201 million project that will include offices, hotels, condos and a movie theater, have promised to use the subsidy to lower rents for their anchor office tenant, Laureate Education Inc.

Though city development officials say the cost is well worth retaining one of the few publicly traded companies still based in Baltimore, critics question giving more assistance to an already-thriving part of town and wonder whether Laureate - which threatened to leave town once before and got money to stay - was ever serious about leaving.

As City Council members today begin considering the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) package, M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of Baltimore Development Corp., the city's development arm, will try to convince them the deal is not only sound, but critical.

"It's exactly the kind of company we want to hang on to," Brodie said of Laureate, formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems. "It is not that we are helping [Laureate] pay the freight for the most expensive office building in town. It's not."

H&S Properties Development Corp., the company owned by Baltimore bakery magnate John Paterakis, is teaming with Struever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse to develop the 27-story building at 800 Aliceanna. Though the building will have many components, the 15-year PILOT would apply only to the 205,000 square feet of office space, 20 live/work units and a 665-space parking garage.

As Paterakis developed Harbor East through the past decade, he has benefited from tax breaks on nearly every phase of the project, once an industrial no man's land and now one of Baltimore's trendiest areas, with an organic grocery store, expensive boutiques and even pricier apartments and condos.

The last PILOT the city approved was a $13.6 million break in 2004 for Paterakis' Spinnaker Bay apartments in Harbor East.

Years earlier, the developer won $20 million in subsidies to build the Marriott Waterfront hotel there.

He also wanted tax breaks for the building that houses a Whole Foods market and a Courtyard by Marriott, but the city refused.

Now H&S and Streuver are talking with the BDC about incentives for their sprawling Harbor Point development just approved to rise next to Harbor East on the former Allied Signal site. The developers haven't asked for help to build the Harbor East Four Seasons hotel, but Lawrence J. White, Struever's development director, said that, too, would be a reasonable request.

White has little patience with questions about why Harbor East, with all its success, still needs help. He says that the development gives Baltimore much more than it gets from the city.

"The idea that we're somehow taking money away - the money wouldn't be there at all if we weren't developing," White said. "Harbor East will pay millions and millions in taxes - even with this."

The site is also eligible for tax credits under Maryland's Enterprise Zones program.

Brodie said the BDC carefully vetted the deal to make sure the agency wasn't "unduly enriching the developer."

He said that while the city would be forgiving $3.5 million in property taxes over 15 years, the development would be paying the city more than that in other fees - $3.1 million over the first 10 years.

Officials with Smart Growth America, a national coalition concerned with development issues, say incentives are intended to revive struggling urban areas. And then, said the organization's spokesman, David Goldberg, they shouldn't target one tenant, unless that company brings "big, incredibly lucrative jobs" or "something that benefits the entire community."

Laureate employs about 450 people, a third of whom are city residents earning an average of $40,000 a year. Company officials have told the BDC they expect to double their employees as they double their office space in the 800 Aliceanna building.

Because the deal would be between the city and the developers, Laureate is not required to add employees.

In 2000, when city and state officials offered then-Sylvan incentives to stay in Baltimore - the company had said it was considering a move to technology-rich Northern Virginia - a condition of the deal was that Sylvan would add several thousand employees. When that didn't happen, it had to repay some of the money.

In 1996, Sylvan moved to the then-nascent Harbor East from Howard County. The company was the site's first tenant.

On CEO Douglas L. Becker's first visit to the site, the developer lifted him in a bucket crane to show him what a view from an office there might be like.

"It took a lot of courage - no, courage isn't the right word. It took a lot of vision to see the area could become the success it has," Becker said, adding that he believes city incentives rightly recognize his company's risk and commitment.

"The city should help, and we're grateful that they are."

Greg LeRoy, founder of Good Jobs First, a Washington-based organization that has questioned government's use of economic development incentives, recently wrote the book The Great American Jobscam, detailing how companies play into local governments' fear of losing jobs in order to win tax breaks.

LeRoy's organization studied Baltimore's incentives program in 2002 and found "high costs, low benefits and a lack of safeguards" for the city. He said he's skeptical about this latest PILOT.

"The fact that they're already in the neighborhood suggests they're where they want to be. Did they really make a credible threat to move?" he asked. "The BDC's doing this is likely to trigger similar requests from other companies. Why wouldn't another tenant go to the BDC and say we want $5 off as well? It's a slippery slope."

Becker said he absolutely considered moving the company, though "we never took it to the level of an auction" between Baltimore and another site. He said Laureate has no need to be in Baltimore other than the fact that he enjoys being in his native city.

"In terms of being flexible and free to go and doing our business anywhere, we certainly are," he said. "We could be located anywhere - any country, any city."

Laureate wants to rent 138,000 square feet in 800 Aliceanna. The PILOT would reduce the rent there to about $30 per square foot.

According to MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, rents like that would put 800 Aliceanna among the city's most expensive office space, rivaling the current most expensive rents at 500 E. Pratt: $34.50 per square foot.

The PILOT appears poised to sail through the city approval process. Baltimore's Planning Commission recently approved it unanimously, and City Council members seem to think it's a good deal.

"It keeps jobs here. It keeps Laureate here, an international learning system here - and I think that's essential to us," Councilman James B. Kraft said.

It's not a "jewelry district" in Baltimore like it is in NYC. In Philadelphia, there's a similar jewelers row like in New York City that's old, historical, and somewhat dirty and seedy-looking in Center City, but as in NYC, it's full of legitimate and higher-quality jewelry makers. Baltimore's jewelry stores on the West Side wouldn't be selling high-quality jewelry, they'd be selling cheaper knock-offs, which is perfectly fine if the store looks aesthetically pleasing, clean, and safe from the outside and on the inside. So the comparison with NYC and B'more doesn't really fit here.

Greg LeRoy, founder of Good Jobs First, a Washington-based organization that has questioned government's use of economic development incentives, recently wrote the book The Great American Jobscam, detailing how companies play into local governments' fear of losing jobs in order to win tax breaks.

LeRoy's organization studied Baltimore's incentives program in 2002 and found "high costs, low benefits and a lack of safeguards" for the city. He said he's skeptical about this latest PILOT.

"The fact that they're already in the neighborhood suggests they're where they want to be. Did they really make a credible threat to move?" he asked. "The BDC's doing this is likely to trigger similar requests from other companies. Why wouldn't another tenant go to the BDC and say we want $5 off as well? It's a slippery slope."

Becker said he absolutely considered moving the company, though "we never took it to the level of an auction" between Baltimore and another site. He said Laureate has no need to be in Baltimore other than the fact that he enjoys being in his native city.

"In terms of being flexible and free to go and doing our business anywhere, we certainly are," he said. "We could be located anywhere - any country, any city."

Laureate wants to rent 138,000 square feet in 800 Aliceanna. The PILOT would reduce the rent there to about $30 per square foot.

According to MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, rents like that would put 800 Aliceanna among the city's most expensive office space, rivaling the current most expensive rents at 500 E. Pratt: $34.50 per square foot.

The PILOT appears poised to sail through the city approval process. Baltimore's Planning Commission recently approved it unanimously, and City Council members seem to think it's a good deal.

"It keeps jobs here. It keeps Laureate here, an international learning system here - and I think that's essential to us," Councilman James B. Kraft said.

I am so tired of reading about this. These companies really are playing the government.

In the long run would it just be cheaper to lower the corporate tax rate?

M. Hirsh Goldberg: Get in on quirky Baltimore
PDF | Email
M. Hirsh Goldberg, The Examiner
Jun 1, 2006 7:00 AM (1 day ago)

BALTIMORE - Baltimore spent $500,000 for a new slogan — “Get in on it” — to attract tourists to the city’s treasures. I hope the campaign does not overlook presenting some of the quirky features of the city:


» One of the major arteries into the city’s downtown changes names four times. Starting off as Maryland Avenue, the southbound thoroughfare becomes Cathedral Street (as it nears and passes the Cathedral), then becomes Liberty Street (for several blocks), after which it becomes Hopkins Place (as it passes the 1st Mariner Arena) before ending at Pratt Street. Tell me one other city in which drivers have to cope with a street with four names.

» Three major media figures flopped here. Leon Uris, the novelist who wrote “Battle Cry” and “Exodus,” failed English three times while a student at Baltimore City College (which in characteristic Baltimore fashion is not a college but a high school). Barry Levinson, the movie director, graduated near the bottom of his class at Forest Park High School. And Oprah Winfrey was demoted as a news co-anchor and almost fired as a reporter while working at WJZ-TV. Don’t tell me Baltimore isn’t a tough town.

» The sculpture of Babe Ruth, the great homerun slugger and Baltimore’s favorite son, in the plaza in front of Oriole Park shows the left-handed hitter holding a right-hander’s glove.

» At the turn of the 20th century, Baltimore’s port rivaled New York City for handling the flow of immigrants. But whereas New York screened newcomers through Ellis Island, Baltimore welcomed newcomers at Locust Point. Where else but in Baltimore could a port of entry for immigrants swarming into this country have ‘locust’ in its name?

» Out-of-towners invariably misspell one of the city’s greatest benefactors. Johns Hopkins, the merchant, left a fortune that helped to build a world-class university and hospital. Not recognizing the unusual spelling of his first name (the “s” was based on an ancestor’s last name) marks someone as not from Baltimore. But lots of people make this mistake. A Google search of the incorrect ‘John’ Hopkins shows 4.8 million listings.

» The city has long been known for The Block, the red-light district featuring booze and beauties. In its heyday The Block stretched a number of blocks (so much for Baltimore-style math). But its most surprising feature may be its location. Baltimore’s Sin Strip sits across the street from the headquarters of the City Police Department. How wild can a city get?

» Baltimore almost became the home of the mayor of two cities. Theodore R. McKeldin, a native Baltimorean, twice served as governor of Maryland and twice as mayor of Baltimore. President Lyndon Johnson selected him as his first choice to be the first mayor of Washington, D.C., when Congress authorized the city in 1967 to have a mayor. But McKeldin, then in his last year as mayor, declined the offer, sparing Baltimore from becoming possibly the only city to lose its mayor to another city.

» But Baltimore has provided five other cities with their sports franchises. The Washington Wizards in basketball were originally the Baltimore Bullets. In football, the Indianapolis Colts descend directly from the Baltimore Colts. And, in baseball, the Orioles spawned the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants (nee New York Giants) and Los Angeles Dodgers (nee Brooklyn Dodgers) when the team split up in the late 1800s, not to return to major league baseball until 1954. So in Baltimore, when you root for the home team, you have to ask which one.

I could go on, but I need to stop so I can “get in on it.”

M. Hirsh Goldberg is president of M. Hirsh Goldberg & Associates LLC, a Baltimore-based public relations and marketing agency. He has served as press secretary to a governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore. He is the author of five books and numerous op-ed articles and columns. His e-mail address is mhgoldberg@comcast.net
Examiner

I am heading to B-more this weekend and I am looking for the best place for hard shell crabs as well as other types of seafood. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The Port of Baltimore is no more.

The port was formally renamed the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore in honor of the longtime maritime industry advocate and former congresswoman. Bentley was honored at the port's black-tie tricentennial celebration Thursday night at the newly remodeled $13 million cruise terminal located at South Locust Point.

"For more than five decades, the name of Helen Delich Bentley has been synonymous with the Port of Baltimore," Gov. Robert Ehrlich said in a news release. Referring to Bentley as a longtime supporter of the maritime industry in Baltimore, the governor said, "She has always been known as the 'mother of the port.'"

Bentley, 82, started covering the port as a Baltimore Sun reporter in the 1940s. She produced a television series titled "The Port that Built a

City and State" in the 1950s while still working as a maritime reporter and editor at the daily newspaper. In 1969, Bentley became chairwoman of the United States Federal Maritime Commission. She was Republican congresswoman in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 1995 -- serving on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committees.

In 1995, Bentley started Lutherville-based Helen Bentley and Associates Inc. She continues to head the maritime consulting firm and is a consultant to the Maryland Port Administration.

The black-tie event was one of many activities the Port Tricentennial Committee, headed by Bentley and including maritime industry executives and local and state government officials, organized to celebrate the port's anniversary. Others included cake cutting at Lexington Market, interactive exhibits at the Inner Harbor Waterfront Festival and photo exhibits in the World Trade Center lobby.

On April 19, 1706, Maryland's colonial legislators designated Whetstone Point -- located adjacent to Fort McHenry -- an official port of entry for the state's tobacco trade with England.

The port leads the country in roll-on/roll-off cargo, automobile importing and exporting and paper importing, state officials say. From 2003 to 2004 the port moved from 19th to 14th in the country in cargo volume. In 2003 it improved from eighth to seventh nationally for the total value of cargo among U.S. ports, according to statistics from the United States Maritime Administration.

I am heading to B-more this weekend and I am looking for the best place for hard shell crabs as well as other types of seafood. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I love the Rusty Scupper seafood restaurant in the Inner Harbor.

Obreckyi's Crab house on Pratt St past Fells Point and Bo Brooks on Boston St in Canton are great for Hard Shell crabs. LP Streamers on Fort Ave(Locust Point) is also very good.



I love the Rusty Scupper seafood restaurant in the Inner Harbor.

RustyScupper is overrated, I'm going to Giovanni's in edgewood for my b-day 'morrow. Try Greektown, you'll fing something!

RustyScupper is overrated, I'm going to Giovanni's in edgewood for my b-day 'morrow. Try Greektown, you'll fing something!


Happy Birthday Sean :drunk: :dance:

I am heading to B-more this weekend and I am looking for the best place for hard shell crabs as well as other types of seafood. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Living in Locust Point, I'm partial to LP Steamers. It's sort of a dive, but that's all part of the charm. The crabs are great, steamed with Old Bay I think. Unpretentious with cheap beer, all the makings of a wonderful South Baltimore establishment. I highly recommend it. It's on Fort Avenue about a half a mile before Fort Mchenry.