Baltimore Development News

[CharmCityTech]

Originally Posted by KLynch

How is the mindset in Charles Village these days? Such a beautiful neighborhood but too many bad headlines lately!

I guess the improvement of Remington, Station North, Barclay and Waverly will only help!

Honestly, despite the recent headlines, I feel the same about the area as I did before, overall one the better areas of the city but like anywhere, not completely immune to crime. My perception from most of the people im friends with in the area students and non-students seems to be the same. Id say the hopkins crowd is either somewhat oblious to it or choose to confine themselves to the campus area. I am concerned really concerned though, and if I actually owned my house, I would probably have more thoughts about it..but im a student (UB) and a bmore native, so I just go about things as anyone else would..

[30 Floors Up]

Originally Posted by KLynch

I just hope he stays alive long enough for the State to finish their Study! Seems now he just wants to build it to put a lasting stamp on this city, and hope they convention happens. If your legacy was a new arena and possibly an NBA team.... that is pretty good!

Willard: Please take and aspirin a day, eat you fruits and vegetables, and drink in moderation!

[RedDawg]

Walking by the Parkway today I noticed two new locks replacing the former ones which were conveniently left for collection. Maybe the City/BDC has finally grown a pair to deal with C.D.

[KLynch]

Originally Posted by RedDawg

Maybe the City/BDC has finally grown a pair to deal with C.D.

Cormony Development should be banned from ever getting involved with another Baltimore City development. They have just become a high end slum lord. They draw up a bunch of plans, get everyone excited... and then you don't hear from them for years. They don't care about Baltimore, they are from Montgomery County.

The city needs to learn from their mistakes and quit giving high importance developments to out of towners who don't care. Port Covington... joke, Gateway South twice a joke let's hope not three, Parkway Theatre... joke, Super Block... joke.

[30 Floors Up]

YEA! The powers that be have rejected the College Park and Baltimore professional schools merger!

[CharmCityTech]

I Never really understood why this was a good idea to begin with..

[pepperjack]

Go Corrigan!


The organizer of the Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival says he’d consider leading the Baltimore Grand Prix if its debt problem is resolved.

Lee Corrigan, president of Elkridge-based Corrigan Sports Enterprises, said he has considered making a pitch to the city to take over the three-day racing event.

The idea, however, has become less appealing after learning that Baltimore Racing Development LLC, the organizing group of the event, reportedly owes as much as $12 million in unpaid debts. He said he doesn’t believe the city should pitch in to help the race out, but if the IndyCar Series or the American Le Mans Series did, he’d consider running the race.



http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...-corrigan.html

[RedDawg]

Originally Posted by KLynch

Cormony Development should be banned from ever getting involved with another Baltimore City development. They have just become a high end slum lord. They draw up a bunch of plans, get everyone excited... and then you don't hear from them for years. They don't care about Baltimore, they are from Montgomery County.

The city needs to learn from their mistakes and quit giving high importance developments to out of towners who don't care. Port Covington... joke, Gateway South twice a joke let's hope not three, Parkway Theatre... joke, Super Block... joke.

BTW, by "C.D." I did not mean "Cormony Development.

[k25150]

Originally Posted by cgunna

I wish we had an arena.

We could then easily get the Hornets. A team apparently no one else wants.

Let's go Hackerman!

If anything, the NBA will contract. Way too many teams and only 7 are making money. The league borrowed money from China 2 years ago. They are still in bad shape even with the new agreement in place.

There is a new elite league forming. Baltimore is on their radar. They prefer smaller arenas like ours. How do I know? PM me.

Don't look on the web. You won't find anything. Everything is tight lipped.

You heard it here first.

[rockin'.baltimorean]

Originally Posted by cgunna

I wish we had an arena.

We could then easily get the Hornets. A team apparently no one else wants.

Let's go Hackerman!

you saying this made me realize two things...

1. it probably explains why chris paul wants to leave so bad...
   
2. i never knew the hornets are league-owned...

[RedDawg]

Originally Posted by KLynch

Cormony Development should be banned from ever getting involved with another Baltimore City development. They have just become a high end slum lord. They draw up a bunch of plans, get everyone excited... and then you don't hear from them for years. They don't care about Baltimore, they are from Montgomery County.

The city needs to learn from their mistakes and quit giving high importance developments to out of towners who don't care. Port Covington... joke, Gateway South twice a joke let's hope not three, Parkway Theatre... joke, Super Block... joke.

In Cormony's defense, they were sold (awarded?) a huge elephant-in-a-poke. Not once during the entire period were they able to gain access to the inside of the theatre to even analyize the scope of the project in any detail and with any confidence. Blame whom you will for that failure but it was not Cormony.

Being from Montgomery County does not, and should not automatically brand you as a do-nothing developer. They got generally high marks for Miller's Court. In hindsight it probably could have helped to have partnered with somebody having proven credentials in the highly specialized field of historic theatre restoration, but I wouldn't count them out yet.

[scando]

Originally Posted by RedDawg

Walking by the Parkway today I noticed two new locks replacing the former ones which were conveniently left for collection. Maybe the City/BDC has finally grown a pair to deal with C.D.

Ooohhhh...Baltimore style progress...shiny new locks on the metal security doors.

[scando]

Originally Posted by KLynch

How is the mindset in Charles Village these days? Such a beautiful neighborhood but too many bad headlines lately!

I guess the improvement of Remington, Station North, Barclay and Waverly will only help!

It's always seemed like Charles Village suffers by having the main north-south drags go right through the neighborhood. Any thug going north or south goes through Charles Village.

[KLynch]

Originally Posted by RedDawg

In Cormony's defense, they were sold (awarded?) a huge elephant-in-a-poke. Not once during the entire period were they able to gain access to the inside of the theatre to even analyize the scope of the project in any detail and with any confidence. Blame whom you will for that failure but it was not Cormony.

Being from Montgomery County does not, and should not automatically brand you as a do-nothing developer. They got generally high marks for Miller's Court. In hindsight it probably could have helped to have partnered with somebody having proven credentials in the highly specialized field of historic theatre restoration, but I wouldn't count them out yet.

They knew they where getting into an eminent domain situation, they should have been prepared to deal with it. They got no where in 3 years. Not that the BDC is the gospel of all things right, but they clearly saw enough to take them off the project.

Probably a combo of no progress on Gateway South, no progress on this... let's just get someone else. Millers Court was a Manekin project... those guys know what they are doing.

[rockin'.baltimorean]

Originally Posted by KLynch

Probably a combo of no progress on Gateway South...

no progress??? cormony never had a legitimate chance to make any progress on gateway south whatsoever!

with the news that we're gettin' a casino next to m&t bank stadium, we still need a new bus station to coincide with this change......right? If i'm not mistaken, Cormony's Gateway South project included just that!

long story short, the Gateway South was destined to fail from the start....

[purpleorange]

as i understand it, when they were ready to go the city pulled the land because they needed it for slots ... and i heard the city never let them in the parkway theater and pulled it to try to get more $ in a new rfp ...

[RedDawg]

Originally Posted by KLynch

Millers Court was a Manekin project... those guys know what they are doing.

IIRC, Cormony was "partnered" with Manekin on Miller's Court (in what proportion I do not know), but Manekin was also "partnered" with Cormony on the Parkway, so to the extent Manekin "know(s) what they are doing", it could have worked. Even so, IMHO, $12.2M is about a quarter of what it would take (now three years later) to do all three buildings in a comprehensive, integrated, historically sensitive manner. And if you build what will be a much needed parking garage that incorporates the McDonalds next door and the rest of the empty/underutilized space on that block, you can probably add another $15-20M depending on how high/deep/big you want to go.

[RedDawg]

Originally Posted by pfd103

Here's a quick picture tour of the Bromo Seltzer Tower that I put together.

http://www.bmoreinterested.com/2011/...zer-tower.html

Speaking of the Bromo-Seltzer Tower, here's a photo of W. Baltimore & Fremont c. 1932 I posted a long time ago, but I have a new link for it. Has anyone ever proposed a serious project to replicate the B-S tower bottle in less-weighty modern materials? THAT would be a REALLY kick-ass project!

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by RedDawg

Speaking of the Bromo-Seltzer Tower, here's a photo of W. Baltimore & Fremont c. 1932 I posted a long time ago, but I have a new link for it. Has anyone ever proposed a serious project to replicate the B-S tower bottle in less-weighty modern materials? THAT would be a REALLY kick-ass project!

This truly is a phenomenal photo of the intersection of Baltimore Street and City Boulevard, later renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. It provides an invaluable glimpse into what the periphery of downtown once was.

[RedDawg]

Originally Posted by Eerik

This truly is a phenomenal photo of the intersection of Baltimore Street and City Boulevard, later renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. It provides an invaluable glimpse into what the periphery of downtown once was.

I will look for the higher resolution images of this photo I have somewhere that more clearly show the street sign in the lower left portion of the picture (just above the word "corner" in the caption). I remember it as being Fremont (misspelled in the caption as Freemont). But for sure, when I physically went to that corner in 1974, 4 x 5 Speedgraphic in hand, and convinced someone in the City to admit me into the boarded-up building, I took an identical set of photographs from the same floor/window. This was easy enough to determine from the sight lines to the Fisher building which was still standing at that time. The original image(s) are from an overlapping two negative set I bought in an Annapolis antique store in 1974, and carefully printed as a panorama. The cross street in 1974 WAS Fremont. City Blvd/MLK would be another block east, maybe 100 yards or so in front of. or behind the streetcar, depending on its direction of travel. It's probably eastbound since it is on the right (South) side of Baltimore Street. Just out-of-view on the left is the old firehouse that is still on the north side of the street, now converted to condos. It is probably just to the east of the Orioles Restaurant building.

I also need to find those (1974) negatives and will post the comparison print when I do. Sadly, I loaned the original 1932 negatives (2 1/2" by 3 1/2" I believe) to a photographer friend to have them digitized. He did produce a fairly high resolution digital file about five years ago, which I have, but he then passed away unexpectedly. The negatives were never found in his extremely disorganized apartment. Today's technology would probably have allowed a digital image with about twice the resolution as was possible then.