Baltimore Development News

[DrzBrooklynChulo90]

Originally Posted by Tricia_Lvs_Baltimore

The Legg Mason building is growing to be very massive. And the Four Seasons is going to twice the size of this? Wow, I can't imagine.

Not twice the size but 154ft taller..That's still a huge chunk taller though!Can't Wait until Legg Mason's complete because when they're done with that tower, the Four Seasons should be guaranteed to move a whole LOT quicker

[StevenW]

Hey, I thought can't say said that the new Legg Tower was going to be 370 feet tall?

[waj0527]

Signage went up on the NW corner of the Verizon building on Pratt Street for Sullivan's Steakhouse. I'm not sure in which retail space that place will go, but it sure beats seeing a vacant ground-level retail spot on Baltimore main boulevard. .

[House3780]

Originally Posted by StevenW

Hey, I thought can't say said that the new Legg Tower was going to be 370 feet tall?

He also said they ran out of money and sent all the workers home halting construction

[StevenW]

Yes, but I believe he said that in jest. The height debate of Legg Tower at the time was pretty straight forward. Concerning the whole construction-halting-thing, I think he was just saying that to play to the fears of some of us, (including myself), and our continual critiquing of everyday progress on 4 seasons. Kidding around, you know?

[micrip]

Originally Posted by StevenW

DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is sweet!!!

I'd love to see a full-block, birds eye view of this, to get a feel of the overall proportions. Looks like it extends into what is now Hopkins Place, as it must if it's going to be 18,000 seats. This is a radical design!!! Not like Baltimore at all.

[PeterSmith]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...,4538431.story

Shopping center, grocery planned for East Baltimore site

By Lorraine Mirabella | lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com
11:43 AM EST, December 18, 2008

Shopping center developer Black Oak Associates plans to build Monument Street Marketplace, a 250,000-square-foot retail and office project, on the site of a former landfill in East Baltimore.

The board of the Baltimore Development Corp. today reviewed the proposal for the 27-acre, city-owned site on East Monument Street near Edison Highway. The Owings Mills-based developer offered the plans in response to the city's June request for development proposals, Deborah Hunt Devan, a board member, said today during a board meeting.

The developer hopes to bring in a grocery that could serve neighborhood residents, Devan said. The board met in closed session to review the financial aspects of the project.

[waj0527]

Thats great news. I hope it doesn't take too long to actually happen. That neighborhood seems to have stalled. As is, I'm not totally sold on the vision. The new homes are literally sitting on an island opposet Kennedy Krieger and there hasn't been much progress in the way of rehabs. Hopkins' actual medical campus is looking good though. I take the Metro to Shot Tower from there to get to my office.

[30 Floors Up]

I am so happy that General Growth Properties is trying to sell Harborplace and the Gallery!

Since they have controlled those properties, it has become painfully clear to me that they have no viable vision for what they could become if managed correctly. In short, they don't know what they are doing and it shows.

I take pleasure in knowing that most of General Growth's problems are a direct result of them buying the Rouse Company. That is what put them into so much debt.

The new owners should be able to pick them up at a bargain price and have money left over to make the changes which are ever so needed.

Saying adios to General Growth downtown is a great gift. Thank you Santa!

[30 Floors Up]

Debt-choked GGP puts Harborplace & The Gallery up for sale
ROBBIE WHELAN
Daily Record Business Writer
December 18, 2008 7:06 PM

General Growth Properties, the beleaguered Chicago real estate trust that owns nine prime retail properties in Maryland, is looking for a buyer for downtown Baltimore’s Harborplace & The Gallery, two shopping centers that were at the heart of the city’s downtown revitalization.

The listing is part of a larger sale of the company’s Festival Marketplace portfolio, which includes, in addition to the two Baltimore properties, New York’s South Street Seaport and Boston’s Faneuil Hall.

“The only thing I can tell you now is Harborplace is among a group of properties for which General Growth is seeking partners, investors or buyers,” wrote David C. Keating, a spokesman for GGP, in an e-mailed statement. “This is a part of our company's effort to reduce debt and improve our balance sheet.”

New York brokerage DTZ Rockwood LLC has been retained to market the properties. On Thursday, a Rockwood vice president who is managing the transaction declined to comment on the matter but confirmed that the properties have been put in play.

According to DTZ Rockwood’s marketing materials, which were posted on the real estate section of Baltimore’s Citybiz Web site, the 285,000 square feet of retail space at Harborplace & The Gallery have an occupancy rate of 85.6 percent and generated $114 million in sales in the past year. The malls have another 260,000 square feet of office space, which is 77.3 percent occupied.

The properties were developed by The Rouse Co., with Harborplace opening in 1980 and The Gallery in 1987. GGP took over all of Rouse’s assets as part of a $7.2 billion acquisition of the company in 2004.

J. Kirby Fowler, president of Baltimore’s Downtown Partnership, said that even though as of a few days ago, officials at GGP had expressed interest to him in expanding the malls and supporting a $100 million city plan to redesign Pratt Street in the Inner Harbor, the for-sale signs didn’t come as much of a surprise.

“Their challenges are nationwide, and it’s not just these properties at all,” he said. “There were significant concerns when General Growth took over from Rouse several years ago. … Rouse was a locally owned company that cared deeply about Harborplace & The Gallery, and General Growth was a company from Illinois, and there was some concern whether they would have the same concern as Rouse for these properties.”

GGP, which owns more than 200 retail properties in 44 states, has seen its stock fall 93 percent in the last three months in response to fears that the company would not be able to pay more than $1.5 billion in debt obligations. Its stock was trading at $1.58 per share Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, officials at GGP said lenders had agreed to a two-month extension on $900 million of debt service, originally due earlier this month, on two of its highest-profile assets, Las Vegas’ Fashion Show and Palazzo malls. Another $600 million in debt is scheduled to come due in March.

Fears of GGP’s impending bankruptcy have been circulating since September, when the company announced that it would be liquidating “both core and non-core” pieces of its $29.5 billion in assets, meaning both regional mall properties as well as smaller office properties, to pay off its mounting debts.

But for Thomas L. Fidler, a principal with MacKenzie Retail LLC, the Lutherville-based commercial real estate firm, the announcement came as a bit of a surprise.

“These are critical performing assets for GGP,” he said. “In addition, they reflect GGP’s commitment, about two years ago, to lifestyle, open market centers, and it’s surprising that they would be selling what I consider their A+ real estate assets. … It’s an indication that they now understand the predicament they’re in.”

Others, including Bill Miller, a principal with the Towson office of NAI KLNB, were not quite as surprised.

“These are desirable assets,” he said. “Whether those are financeable assets, I don’t know. The lenders that are out there, if you went down a pecking order of industrial, office and retail, retail would be at the bottom. … With the economy where it is … there’s probably in retail, more susceptibility to tenants going out and lenders are looking typically for tenants that have some strength behind them, and are going to weather a downturn, and that they’re going to get the asset back if the owner can’t pay the debt.”

[30 Floors Up]

If you like good architecture and incredible wealth, this is a nice read.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/19...ltimore&st=cse

“We’re not particularly proud of the 23-karat-gold toilet seat.” - in Baltimore - Whoda thunk it?

[StevenW]

Another good link you'd like, wada.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business...,5542052.story

[30 Floors Up]

Thanks. That is the front page picture/story in today's Sun.

[30 Floors Up]

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Built To Last: Ten Enduring Landmarks of Baltimore’s Central Business District

Click on the individual building link. The real good stuff is displayed when you open the PDF file link. There is lots of information for all of these buildings which most of us pass every day in our travels.

http://www.nps.gov/history/hdp/exhibits/baltimore/

[Balmurfan]

Developer of Locust Point project looking for $100M

Pikesville developer Mark C. Sapperstein has halted construction at McHenry Row, the former Chesapeake Paperboard Co. site slated to include Baltimore’s first Harris Teeter supermarket, as he seeks additional financing to pay his contractors.

Crews were told to stop work about a month ago, Sapperstein said, and agreed to the furlough while he and Chesapeake Paperboard Centre LLC line up a complex financing deal involving four different lenders. That deal could close within the next three weeks, but Sapperstein said the project is far enough along the delay should not affect the project’s completion.

“I stopped my job purposely because I haven’t closed yet, but am about to close on a huge, $100 million construction loan,” Sapperstein said. “I’ve been funding this myself, and there is no reason for [contractors] to keep spending money until we close.”

The nationwide credit crunch has delayed the start of a number of prominent planned Baltimore developments, but McHenry Row is one of the first city projects to be delayed after construction has started.

[Exrexnotex]

I figured they stopped working. At least, It's good to know that he is getting that loan and work will resume. Damn recession

[Northern]

Looking through BBJ's Book of Lists found some interesing info...

Largest commercial real estate deals in the Baltimore area
1. Nottingham Properties office portfolio $363.9M
2. Legg Mason lease at Harbor East $192.8M/15yrs
3. Gateway Commerce Center $125.8M
4. Westview Corporate Center $95.9M
5. 2 Hopkins Plaza and 10 E. Baltimore st. $78M

Wealthiest zip Codes in the Baltimore area (2008)
1. 20777 Highland Howard Co.
2. 21153 Stevenson Baltimore Co.
3. 20759 Fulton Howard Co.
4. 21029 Clarksville Howard Co.
5. 21738 Glenwood Howard Co.

Largest Projected Job creations in the Baltimore area (2009)
1. T Rowe Price Group Inc. 1400 jobs
2. Merkle Inc. 550 jobs
3. Northrop Grumman Corp. 500 jobs
4. BGE Home Products & Services Inc. 400 jobs
5. Franklin Square Hospital Center 300 jobs

Largest Shopping Centers in the Baltimore area
1. Mall in Columbia 1.4M sq.f/202 stores
2. Arundel Mills 1.3M sq.f/170 stores
3. Owings Mills Mall 1.3M sq.f/155 stores
4. Westfield Annapolis 1.2M sq.f/173 stores
5. White Marsh Mall 1.2M sq.f/142 stores

[StevenW]

Great stats, wada! Thanks!

[rockin'.baltimorean]

Originally Posted by Balmurfan

Developer of Locust Point project looking for $100M

Pikesville developer Mark C. Sapperstein has halted construction at McHenry Row, the former Chesapeake Paperboard Co. site slated to include Baltimore’s first Harris Teeter supermarket, as he seeks additional financing to pay his contractors.

Crews were told to stop work about a month ago, Sapperstein said, and agreed to the furlough while he and Chesapeake Paperboard Centre LLC line up a complex financing deal involving four different lenders. That deal could close within the next three weeks, but Sapperstein said the project is far enough along the delay should not affect the project’s completion.

“I stopped my job purposely because I haven’t closed yet, but am about to close on a huge, $100 million construction loan,” Sapperstein said. “I’ve been funding this myself, and there is no reason for [contractors] to keep spending money until we close.”

The nationwide credit crunch has delayed the start of a number of prominent planned Baltimore developments, but McHenry Row is one of the first city projects to be delayed after construction has started.

hmmm, sapperstein sounds like he has a plan, but i dunno'. i hope he's able to get this loan....

[vivo]

http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/loc...08redline.html


Local News

[Print] [Email]
End of the line for transit route?

By Stephen Janis
Examiner Staff Writer 12/19/08
Feds withdraw crucial red line funding



Two million dollars in federal funds designated for engineering studies of route alternatives for the proposed Red Line transit system has been withdrawn by the Federal Transit Administration.

The funds were part of a congressional earmark that Maryland Transit Administration planners allowed to lapse after missing a deadline for filing paperwork last year with the FTA.

The lost funding marks a setback for backers of the proposed 12-mile light rail of rapid bus transit system slated to run between Woodlawn and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, which is currently in the planning stage.

"I am deeply disappointed that the administration chose to ignore the intent of Congress by redistributing these funds," said Sen. Barbara Milkulski, D-Md., a strong supporter of the project. "I will continue to fight for these funds."

In June The Examiner reported that MTA planners allowed the earmark to lapse after missing a key deadline for filing paperwork required to use the funds authorized by Congress.

But MTA officials blamed FTA restrictions on the lapse, promising last summer to file necessary paperwork to restore the lost funding.

"We are surprised and disappointed as well," said Jawauna Greene, spokeswoman for the MTA. "We would like the money, but the planning of the project is going forward," she said. "Bear in mind it's only $2 million for a $1.6 billion project ,and the money will be there when needed."

Baltimore City Red Line coordinator Danyell Diggs also blamed federal officials for the loss of funds.

"This is just one final anti-transit action by the Bush administration on its way out the door," said Diggs in an e-mail.
"We are looking forward to January 20 and a president who values transit as a means of strengthening communities."

Milkulski spokesman Cassie Harvey said FTA officials decided to redistribute the funds outside Maryland after Congress failed to re-authorize New Starts, a federal program that funds mass transit projects nationwide.

Federal Transportation Administration officials did not return calls for comment.

Maryland is not the only state to lose funding for mass transit projects, Harvey said, noting FTA has cut funds in 16 other proposed transit projects in 12 states. Among other area projects affected is the proposed Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit bus or light rail line in Virginia.