BALTIMORE | Projects: proposed, under construction or approved [Archive] - Page 6

Atlriser

Mar 20, 2007, 7:19 PM

You can tell that the Wall Street Journal author is not from Baltimore. While the article is technically correct, I view Harbor East as just a natural extension of downtown. Legg Mason is only moving 9 blocks from where they are now located. Someone who is not familiar with the city would read that article and think that they are moving miles away.

I wonder why people just can't accept the fact that downtown has simply EXPANDED? :koko: I'll say it again; Downtown and Harbor East are separated by nothing and are contiguous to each other. You can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

A positive person would have crafted that article to say something along the lines of “Downtown Baltimore’s expanding footprint just got even larger. Legg Mason, the giant mutual fund manager, has committed to constructing a new 28 story corporate headquarters tower as part of a mixed use complex that will also contain a 36 story Four Seasons Hotel.”

It's all in the wording!

I'm not from Baltimore so I don't know the terrain and closeness of areas but I was just thinking about your comments. Cities have sections that develop names overtime but that doesn't mean they aren't 'downtown'. Think of NY City, as places develop they have to be given names for referrence and such for everyday citizens and visitors alike. Look at it as a plus that the area is being called Harbor East. In essence that means it can funtion as a city in it's own right but not that it's a separate area from the city itself. It does mean Baltimore is expanding IMO.

I know here in Atlanta, there are sections that were always just Downtown, Midtown or Buckhead up until the past couple years. Now they've developed additional monikers for certain sections because of the incredible growth such as West Midtown, SoNo, Centennial Hill, Peachtree Boulevard (a section of Buckhead between it and Midtown about to see an explosion in growth) and such. SoNo and Centennial Hill are actually right downtown and as a long time resident I laughed when I first heard the term SoNo refusing to acknowledge the area as anything other than downtown. Both areas are growing and revitalizing so fast (developing highrise skylines and large increases in population) that they've begun to be labeled by these new monikers by some and the names have stuck. So now when someone says I live at Centennial Hill everyone knows exactly the area they are referring to downtown instead of just saying downtown like they probably would have said 5 years ago.

Now if a business moved 9 blocks in Atlanta, they could be in SoNo, West Midtown, Midtown, 4th Ward, Westend, Castleberry Hill, Howell Mill and many more but they'd still be downtown just a different section of it depending on where they were originally. This is because downtown has essentially expanded in size (population & highrises) eventhough not the area itself. Harbor East is a section of downtown Baltimore is all it means to me as an outsider. Sounds great in my book like Baltimore has different areas and sections to it like most big cities do.

30 Floors Up

Mar 21, 2007, 11:31 AM

I am very familiar with Atlanta and I agree with much of what you said above. I think what bothered me about the article is that they were inferring that the CBD is experiencing an exodus of companies. That simply isn't true. For every company that has left, new ones have moved in. It is good for a Downtown to have empty space because it forces the owners to upgrade their structures in order to be competitive. Our Downtown vacancy rate is only 10%, so that isn't bad.

The author used Legg Mason as an example to illustrate her point. It is, quite literally, a 5 minute walk from where they are currently located to where they are moving. So they haven't left downtown at all.

Like Atlanta, our downtown is already divided into specifically named areas. We have the West Side, Inner Harbor, Mt. Vernon, Government Center, and now Harbor East. To me, all these neighborhoods fall under the umbrella name of Downtown. For some reason, the author thinks Harbor East isn't downtown. It is!

The difference between Harbor East and the other areas I mentioned above is that it used to be a rail road yard and now it is highly urban. Whereas the other areas have always had a commercial/businees component to them.

BTW, here is what it looks like in a photo montage/rendering. The "traditional Downtown" is in the background. The tallest buff colored tower (left, horizon) is the current Legg Mason building.

Everything under the number 1 in the picture is Harbor East and most of it has all ready been constructed. Legg Mason is moving to the blue glass building to the left beneath their current HQ. It is the last building before the canal hits the left edge of the picture.

That building will now be taller and there will be a 36 story Four Seasons hotel in the complex too. As you can see, it all looks like "Downtown" to me and, I think, to most other people also! ;)

http://img201.echo.cx/img201/5764/image15kf.jpg

Part of Harbor East under construction last summer:
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Federal%20Hill%20View%2008.jpg

Arriving via. water. BTW, the vacant land in the below picture near the water is Harbor Point. They just started work on that. It's another Harbor East.
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/01%20Baltimore%20Skyline/East%20Boat%2003.jpg

Harbor Pont site plan:
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/7379/image35mv.jpg

StevenW

Mar 21, 2007, 1:14 PM

Very exciting project! :yes:
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/7379/image35mv.jpg

pfd103

Mar 21, 2007, 2:12 PM

Very exciting project! :yes:
http://img201.echo.cx/img201/7379/image35mv.jpg

Didn't I just read about a major setback on this? I think it had to do with the chrome report coming back worse than they though...

Anyone have any insight?

StevenW

Mar 21, 2007, 2:20 PM

:previous:
Didn't hear that. All I know that there have been some changes in the plans. A higher tower or something like that. I'll have to look into it. :yes:

marc1969

Mar 21, 2007, 2:53 PM

I was just in Baltimore yesterday for a conference and saw the silo condo conversion project for the first time (from across the water in Fells Point). Looks pretty impressive. I also noticed another very tall construction crane near by but couldn't tell what it is for. Is there something else going on in that part of town or is it part of the same project?

StevenW

Mar 21, 2007, 7:49 PM

:previous: Not sure about that, marc.

pfd103

Mar 25, 2007, 7:50 PM

Here are some drive-by shots of the Verizon building...
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/pfd103/IMG_0593.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/pfd103/IMG_0592.jpg
Very pleased to see how quickly this has been progressing, and the O's banners up.

:tup:

StevenW

Mar 26, 2007, 12:58 AM

Thanks. :)

30 Floors Up

Mar 26, 2007, 3:38 PM

Here are some drive-by shots of the Verizon building...

I hope some "real" stores go in there. Anything but more eateries! :worship:

I found these slightly dated clips, but they are fun to watch and show off the city very well! I like the first one the best. Watch it to the end.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8812748916833942692&q=Baltimore+Building&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8204961570944842247&q=Baltimore+Building&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=591460375926003018&q=Baltimore+Building&hl=en

pfd103

Mar 26, 2007, 4:33 PM

30 Floors Up

Mar 26, 2007, 4:49 PM

Here's a question for everyone...just curious about the responses.

If you were given $100 Million to do any project in Baltimore that you wanted what would it be?

I think I would look to define the skyline a bit more, and perhaps rebuild the tower building on the west end of the city. One other idea I had would be to build a Statue (of Armistead, Smith, or Key) on Fort Carroll to welcome ships into the harbor (and provide another site to see for tourists). Obviously this would be hard just due to the fact that this fort has become a nature preserve of sorts.
:previous: For rats?

Well $100 million doesn't buy what it once did. You can hardly construct a proper building for that. But in keeping with the spirit of the question, what I would like to see are the remaining parking lots on Charles Street repopulated with structures. The building that is going up at 1200 N. Charles has really changed the feeling of the street in that area. I'd like to see the other 3 or 4 lots between Downtown and Penn Station disappear with some midrise structures built in their place!

pfd103

Mar 26, 2007, 5:21 PM

:previous: For rats?

Well $100 million doesn't buy what it once did. You can hardly construct a proper building for that. But in keeping with the spirit of the question, what I would like to see are the remaining parking lots on Charles Street repopulated with structures. The building that is going up at 1200 N. Charles has really changed the feeling of the street in that area. I'd like to see the other 3 or 4 lots between Downtown and Penn Station disappear with some midrise structures built in their place!

Actually, fort Carroll has just about every local non-predatory bird living on it right now...and some really thick poison ivy.

True 100 Mil won't get you the sears tower, but if I said 100 Billion, someone would propose bulldozing Harbor East, or extending the inner harbor to Penn station. I like the idea of getting rid of the parking lots. I had heard an interesting story about the home that's now part of the Walters. Apparently it was slated to be turned into a parking lot before a couple bought it up and gave it to the city to preserve it. Just imagine if they hadn't...

StevenW

Mar 26, 2007, 9:09 PM

I would construct a huge indoor entertainment/tourist attraction.
Underground parking, bowling lanes, (including duck pins of course), other games and pool tables, major motion picture cinema, (8 to 10 screens) and a skatepark with surrounding seating, food, drinks and retail all in one big facility. Might take $200 million, though. ;)

waj0527

Mar 27, 2007, 1:17 PM

pfd103

Mar 27, 2007, 3:00 PM

I wonder what type of retail is going into the Verizon Building.

Henry H. Lewis, LLC is the GC for phase construction of our baseball facility in Aberdeen. I wonder if any of my contacts there would know whats going on at the Verizon Building. its worth a shot.

Outdoor dining is coming (sorry Wada) at the very least...maybe a Parisian style street cafe if we're lucky. It could be nice, but we'll see.

http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/02/12/story1.html

jamie_hunt

Mar 27, 2007, 5:14 PM

True 100 Mil won't get you the sears tower, but if I said 100 Billion, someone would propose bulldozing Harbor East, or extending the inner harbor to Penn station. I like the idea of getting rid of the parking lots. I had heard an interesting story about the home that's now part of the Walters. Apparently it was slated to be turned into a parking lot before a couple bought it up and gave it to the city to preserve it. Just imagine if they hadn't...

Affirmative on building out the Charles Street lots.

Regarding the home that's now part of the Walters ... assume you're thinking of the Hackerman House (a.k.a. the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding-Hackerman house) at 1 W. Mt. Vernon Place. Construction magnate Willard Hackerman did buy it and give it to the city, but it was never going to be a parking lot. Condos, maybe, which would have meant breaking up a very handsome interior. Now houses Walters' Asian art collection.

You may be thinking of Walters' late 1950s plan to demo every building on that side of W. Mt. Vernon Place except the TJGH house to expand their galleries. Neighborhood activists beat that back; the 1974 wing on Centre Street was all that was built. Or you may be thinking of the three homes between the hotel and the Walters' parking lot on the west side of Cathedral south of Monument. The Walters is/was interested in aquiring those for a parking garage with a large gallery or storage/maintenance facility on top.

As for the $100 million question (give or take several hundred million bucks): run Camden Line commuter rail up Howard Street tunnel to arena site; excavate site for underground parking/commuter rail station with link to Balto Street subway station and escalator to HoSt light rail; rebuild arena to NBA specs; plunk a supertall on top, with the highest point on the corner of Howard and Baltimore (which would look great coming in on I-395). Voila: supertall, new arena, intermodal transport center.

Not askin' for much.

jamie_hunt

Mar 27, 2007, 5:20 PM

Outdoor dining is coming (sorry Wada) at the very least...maybe a Parisian style street cafe if we're lucky. It could be nice, but we'll see.

Would be nice if they'd "lively up" the plaza connecting the Convention Center, the Hyatt, and the skybridge to HP. Dead zone now.

FWIW: first round of retail there got clobbered 'cause the city wouldn't let the landlord put signs along Pratt and Light Street. When the landlord did anyway, city made them take the signs down.

pfd103

Mar 27, 2007, 6:17 PM

Affirmative on building out the Charles Street lots.

Regarding the home that's now part of the Walters ... assume you're thinking of the Hackerman House (a.k.a. the Thomas-Jencks-Gladding-Hackerman house) at 1 W. Mt. Vernon Place. Construction magnate Willard Hackerman did buy it and give it to the city, but it was never going to be a parking lot. Condos, maybe, which would have meant breaking up a very handsome interior. Now houses Walters' Asian art collection.

You may be thinking of Walters' late 1950s plan to demo every building on that side of W. Mt. Vernon Place except the TJGH house to expand their galleries. Neighborhood activists beat that back; the 1974 wing on Centre Street was all that was built. Or you may be thinking of the three homes between the hotel and the Walters' parking lot on the west side of Cathedral south of Monument. The Walters is/was interested in aquiring those for a parking garage with a large gallery or storage/maintenance facility on top.

As for the $100 million question (give or take several hundred million bucks): run Camden Line commuter rail up Howard Street tunnel to arena site; excavate site for underground parking/commuter rail station with link to Balto Street subway station and escalator to HoSt light rail; rebuild arena to NBA specs; plunk a supertall on top, with the highest point on the corner of Howard and Baltimore (which would look great coming in on I-395). Voila: supertall, new arena, intermodal transport center.

Not askin' for much.

I actually heard the story from a man working the second floor exhibits in the house...so it sounds like he was a bit off.

30 Floors Up

Mar 28, 2007, 5:56 PM

READY. SET. SHOP! :notacrook:

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Filene's%20Basement%2003.jpg

The new Filene's at Lockwood Place, Pratt Street, Downtown Baltimore.

StevenW

Mar 28, 2007, 10:15 PM

Looks nice. :)

marc1969

Mar 29, 2007, 3:41 PM

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but yesterday's Sun had a story about how the City and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation settled their disagreement. Today this story was printed. It's great to see how aggressively they want to make this happen!

West-side facelift
With a big hurdle to redevelopment cleared, beleaguered old retail district could begin getting a new look next year

By Lorraine Mirabella
sun reporter

March 29, 2007

Baltimore's traditional retail district could begin taking on a new shape by next year with an expanded superblock development that would inject hundreds of new residents, workers and shoppers in the long-moribund area of downtown.

After putting to rest a feud and looming legal fight that had stalled renewal plans, city officials, one of the city's biggest charities and area property owners said they can finally start rebuilding a deteriorating six-block area viewed as a critical link in the city's west-side revitalization.

City development officials and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday in which the city and the foundation will swap properties in the part of downtown's old retail district dubbed the "superblock."

The swap will enable Lexington Square Partners LLC, a development team headed by Chera Feil Goldman Group of New York, to proceed with a development of 400 to 500 market-rate apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail space and parking in an area bounded by Howard, West Lexington, Liberty and West Fayette streets.

The developers said they are working through a schematic design in hopes of submitting it to Baltimore Development Corp. tomorrow. The Weinberg-owned properties constitute more than half of the properties in the development area and had been the focus of a dispute between the foundation and the city, which had been moving to condemn the buildings.

In exchange for giving up its properties, the Weinberg Foundation will get properties north of Lexington Street for a development it plans with Baltimore-based Cordish Co.

Renewal on that block is expected to complement an adjacent foundation project, the conversion of the former Stewart's department store into Catholic Relief Services' world headquarters.

Cordish Co. envisions building a mixed-use tower with apartments, offices or both, with retail on the first level and parking above the shops, said David Cordish, president and chairman of Cordish Co.

In an e-mail yesterday, Cordish promised that the project would be "world-class and change the environment around it."

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

The success of the two projects and whether they will spur additional redevelopment on the west side depends on bringing in enough new residents, who would support retail shops and restaurants, said John McIlwain, a senior resident fellow for housing at the Washington-based Urban Land Institute.

"That area is sort of a gap between some fairly decent neighborhoods, and filling in that hole for Baltimore will really solidify that whole downtown area," he said. "If you have people walking the streets and retail, it will also bring the crime rate down. That whole area is close enough to waterfront, it should be an attractive area."

Projects around the west side have spurred additional redevelopment, including the restored Hippodrome Theatre, the Centerpoint apartment and retail project, and the Weinberg Foundation's redevelopment of Stewart's.

But since the city first adopted an urban renewal plan for the west side in 1999, the six-block superblock area has languished as stores have closed and shoppers have gone elsewhere.

During a news conference and signing ceremony at City Hall yesterday, Weinberg Foundation President Shale D. Stiller credited Mayor Sheila Dixon with helping to resolve the standoff between the city and the foundation.

The turning point, he said, came during the unveiling of the Stewart's building, which had been refurbished for Catholic Relief Services.

After Stiller expressed the foundation's commitment to the superblock development, Dixon, who at the time was set to succeed Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley as mayor, approached him and said, "'Whatever I can do to help, you just call on me,' and that's what she's done," Stiller said. "What all of us want to do is move forward and get the superblock done and have the long travail of eight years come to an end."

At yesterday's event, Dixon called the land swap agreement a "key step in reaching our mutual goal of mixed-use development on the north and south side of Lexington and east of Howard."

Though the land-swap deal removes a big obstacle to redevelopment, hurdles remain.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of Baltimore Development Corp., said that because the city will get more property in the swap than the foundation will, the city must determine through appraisals and possibly arbitration over the next few months the amount to be paid to the foundation.

In January, the city approved an agreement to sell 37 properties, more than half of them owned by the foundation, on 3.6 acres bounded by West Fayette, Howard, Lexington and Liberty streets, and Park Avenue - to Lexington Square for $21.6 million.

The city still must acquire properties to turn over to both development teams and will probably be forced to use condemnation powers to do so.

Two lawuits are challenging BDC's award of the development rights and subsequent land sale agreement to the Chera/Dawson Group, which formed Lexington Square to complete the project.

For the Weinberg-Cordish project between Lexington and Clay streets, the city needs to acquire property owned by Nam Koo, owner of the New York Fashions retail chain, which has its flagship store and warehouse in a former movie theater at Lexington Street and Park Avenue.

"He wants to stay in his property" and is prepared to challenge any taking of his property, said Koo's attorney, John C. Murphy. "He has been holding on all these years hoping to stay."

Several other owners of property south of Lexington Street that are in the Lexington Square development area have filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of BDC's selection of the Chera/Dawson Group during a closed meeting in 2004. That case was sent back to Baltimore Circuit Court by the Court of Appeals and is set for trial July 30, Murphy said.

Another lawsuit against BDC has been filed by companies controlled by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos and developer David Hillman. That suit also asks that the deal with Chera/Dawson be declared illegal.

The lawsuit argues that the agreement between the city and Lexington Square Partners improperly included a key parcel not listed in the original bid package and inappropriately allows the developer to deduct nearly half of the $21.6 million purchase price for expenses such as demolition and environmental remediation. An attorney for the plaintiffs, M. Albert Figiniski, could not be reached yesterday.

Despite the remaining challenges to redevelopment, the signing of the agreement signals progress, business leaders said.

"It's important that the superblock move forward and begin its revitalization because it is a true signature portion of the redevelopment of the west side," said Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

"Because it has been held up, that's always put some skepticism on whether the rest of the west side was going to develop. The fact that this is moving forward will raise the hopes and expectations of the tremendous benefits that west-side revitalization can mean to the city."

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

jamie_hunt

Mar 29, 2007, 4:57 PM

It's great to see how aggressively they want to make this happen! Right. Empty properties pay no bills. Right now, Lexington Street at noon on a weekday is as empty as 7 a.m. on Sunday morning.

30 Floors Up

Apr 3, 2007, 11:18 AM

Just like the swallows come back to Capistrano each March, and politicians flock to Washington every November, the tourist invade Baltimore starting in April! :cucumber: :banana: :pepper:

A VISITING SWEDISH TALL SHIP

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Aquarium%2019.jpg

SATURDAY'S TOURISTS

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Tourists%2003.jpg

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Tourists%2002.jpg

AMERICANS ARE GETTING FAT! :omg:

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Tourists%2001.jpg

FILENE'S

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Filene's%20Basement%2004.jpg

URBAN OUTFITTERS!

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Urban%20Outfitters%2001.jpg

INSIDE URBAN OUTFITTERS - STOCKING THE STORE

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/03%20Downtown%20Inner%20Harbor/Urban%20Outfitters%2002.jpg

Which leads me to this. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but General Growth Properties seems to be transforming the Pratt Street Pavilion from a food court/festival market place to a traditional mall. The Urban Outfitters is huge and takes up a lot of space that once was food stalls on the 2nd level. This has led to the creation of dead spaces and corridors that lead to blank walls. They have blocked doors that once went outside with clothing displays. The character of that pavilion has really changed and not for the better I might add.

I suspect that they are looking for other large retailers for the rest of the food court space on the 2nd floor, and that eventually the small stores and eateries there now will be no more. The Hooters, at the other end, has expanded and takes up twice as much space as it once did. Those two stores alone occupy space that at one time contained at least 10 different businesses. The remaining businesses on the Light Street side seem to be struggling because there is no foot traffic there. The circular layout has been compromised.

jamie_hunt

Apr 3, 2007, 1:08 PM

General Growth Properties seems to be transforming the Pratt Street Pavilion from a food court/festival market place to a traditional mall. The Urban Outfitters is huge and takes up a lot of space that once was food stalls on the 2nd level. ... I suspect that they are looking for other large retailers for the rest of the food court space on the 2nd floor, and that eventually the small stores and eateries there now will be no more. The Hooters, at the other end, has expanded and takes up twice as much space as it once did. Those two stores alone occupy space that at one time contained at least 10 different businesses.

You're probably right. Renting to fewer, larger stores is easier than renting to a lotta little ones -- all the better to pay down the massive debt GGP incurred buying out Rouse. Suspect that over the next decade, as retail expands on Pratt and along Aliceanna and Thames, HP will reinvent itself once more as a "festival marketplace." Probably in time for its 40th birthday in 2020.

Ktulured55

Apr 7, 2007, 9:19 AM

:previous: In short, no.

There will be a 6 or 7 story hotel going up where the old Baltimore Brewing Company use to be at Pratt Street and I-83. East of I-83, all the public housing that once was around the main Post Office has been demolished and rebuilt as a new mixed income neighborhood. Closer to the harbor there is Little Italy. City Hall, and other Municipal buildings are West of I-83.

The only way I can see to fill in the small gap between the Harbor East skyline and the rest of downtown is if some really tall sturctures built near Gay or Fallsway. Truth be told, I'll be dead by the time that happens 40 or 50 years from now! :hell:

The gap is only visible from certain angles. When you come into the harbor via. water you can't tell it is there! When you come into the city via. I-95 on the south, it is visible but doesn't look bad. As I-95 curves north, it just looks like one dense skyline.

I always wondered if any Italian cities had "Little America" neighborhoods. I'm going to investigate that when I go to Rome next year. ;)

it has been a while guys.... this page is doing awesome!!! in regards to what you were talking about here. I have to say... thank god for the 750 E Pratt St. building or it would be bare there! and that was the only tall thing built in Baltimore in the 90s. I remember how excited I was when they built it. What I don't like is that Lockwood place is only 3 stories. They could have put another 15 on top to use for apartments!!

StevenW

Apr 8, 2007, 3:31 PM

It really should be getting quite close to some big news of some sort with ArcWheeler or some other project. It's been quiet lately. Too quiet.
We need some noise. Some good noise. :yes:

30 Floors Up

Apr 9, 2007, 12:06 PM

It really should be getting quite close to some big news of some sort with ArcWheeler or some other project. It's been quiet lately. Too quiet.
We need some noise. Some good noise. :yes:

AMEN!

We need news on 300 East Pratt, 1 Light Street, AND 10 IH.

I don't know if the news drought is because there is no news OR are we not reading about it because of the cut backs at the Sun. I'm working my magic to get it flowing! :wizard:

MasonsInquiries

Apr 9, 2007, 7:04 PM

it's good to see the harbor drawing the nice-size crowd that it normally does.:)

StevenW

Apr 9, 2007, 8:31 PM

AMEN!

We need news on 300 East Pratt, 1 Light Street, AND 10 IH.

I don't know if the news drought is because there is no news OR are we not reading about it because of the cut backs at the Sun. I'm working my magic to get it flowing! :wizard:

I've been working my e-mail magic, lately.
Hopefully we'll hear something soon. :slob: :shrug: :sly: :frog: :whip:

30 Floors Up

Apr 10, 2007, 10:35 AM

Sperry Van Ness Opens Baltimore Office
BALTIMORE-Joining a growing number of brokerage houses that want to serve Baltimore from a local office, Sperry Van Ness, an Irvine, CA-based brokerage firm, will be opening its own office here in May. Leading the team is newly hired managing director Anthony Casalena, who is in the process of looking for additional real estate specialists to bring on board as well.

Sperry Van Ness has an office in Bethesda and nearby Columbia, Casalena tells GlobeSt.com. It also recently joint ventured with a local firm on the Eastern Shore to better target that part of the state and the nearby perimeter of the Delmarva peninsula. This will be the company’s first Downtown Baltimore office, however, he says. “Right now it is a very exciting market to be in; there is a lot of redevelopment going on in the city.”

Casalena, who was vice president for Coldwell Banker Commercial, specializes in the sale of office and industrial properties. He is looking to add brokers that focus on multifamily and retail, among other asset classes.

he office will focus primarily on investment sales, but also handle office leasing and some retail leasing when the office is better established. “We see investment sales as our niche – we bring a lot of exposure to the market from outside investors. We also can, thanks to our national network, introduce local investors to opportunities elsewhere.”

StevenW

Apr 10, 2007, 8:23 PM

No answers yet from my e-mails. :(
And the waiting continues....

StevenW

Apr 11, 2007, 1:28 AM

Third developer in three years looking at One Light Street
JEN DEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer
April 10, 2007 7:07 PM
Yet another developer is eyeing One Light Street, a piece of land just blocks from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor that has not lured a buyer despite its prime downtown location and years on the market.

A Maryland group said it wants have the site under contract this year to study the creation of a mixed-use project, said J. Joseph Clarke, a Baltimore developer who is marketing One Light Street for owner Mirecourt Associates.

Clarke declined to identify the group.

That would be the third developer to hold a contract for the property in as many years. Two previous proposals for the site fell through after developers allowed their contracts to expire. In 2004, an Atlanta investor wanted to create a residential tower at One Light Street but dropped the plan in 2005. A Washington developer later floated a plan for a mixed-use skyscraper, but allowed its contract to expire in December.

Plans for One Light Street go even farther back. In 1989, Washington Capital Guidance Corp. wanted to build a 45-story office tower on the site, which was then home to the old Southern Hotel building, which has since been razed. But the office tower, and other versions of that plan, never came.

“It’s a feasibility issue,” Clarke said. “Developers did an awful lot of study, but they weren’t certain of the market, and they left.”

But observers say they cannot fathom why One Light Street, which has a 30,000-square-foot footprint at Light and Redwood streets, has taken so long to sell while properties around it have traded for top dollar in recent years.

Philadelphia developer ARCWheeler LLC is readying to break ground on a 59-story condominium tower at 414 Light St., a project that would also include a hotel, spa and retail space. UrbanAmerica LP, a New York company, has announced similar plans for a parking lot at 300 E. Pratt St., the former home of the News American newspaper, which it purchased last year for nearly $30 million. The Bush Cos., of Washington, is selling units in 414 Water St., a 31-story condominium tower under construction.

“There are so many positive influences that surround the property,” said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc., a group that advocates for downtown development. “It’s really an empty space that’s begging for a building.”

One Light Street consists of a parking lot and three vacant buildings along Baltimore Street that are slated for demolition. City zoning allows a variety of uses for the site, Clarke said. With strength growing in downtown’s commercial and residential market, Fowler said he thinks a variety of uses could succeed there.

The city’s office market has perked up in recent years, with vacancy rates in top-tier buildings at about 11 percent for the first quarter of this year, according to data from real estate firm CB Richard Ellis. That compares to 12.3 percent during the corresponding period last year.

Downtown has seen more than 3,000 new housing units come on line since 2000. Condominiums that cost more than $750,000 are considered “overbuilt,” according to Downtown Partnership data. But there is still demand for condominiums that cost less than $500,000.

Hotels have also done well, with two being built at Redwood and Calvert streets. Another boutique hotel is planned for the corner of Redwood and Charles streets.

“We believe that there is a lot of interest in the site,” Fowler said of One Light Street. “It’s time to see some action there.”

Richard “Dicky” Darrell, a leasing agent with Columbia-based Manekin LLC, speculated that One Light Street’s owners could be holding out for a higher price than buyers are willing to pay. Clarke would not say how much Paris-based Mirecourt wants for the property.
“I think he’s got a great site,” Darrell said. “But maybe … the numbers don’t work.”

StevenW

Apr 11, 2007, 9:17 AM

New Baltimore Arena?! BREAKING NEWS!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just on FOX 45:

First on Fox tonight.

Could Baltimore be home to a new sports arena?

There's a good chance of that happening.

The 1st Mariner Arena is 44 years old and clearly needs to be replaced.

The indication is the city would like to rebuild on the current site, if the project ever gets underway.

That would leave the city without an indoor venue for as much as five years.

Baltimore businessman Ed Hale, who owns the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team, doesn't like that idea, and he wants to build his own venue.

Hale has earmarked a parcel on Boston Street near I-95 for a new arena for his team.

He envisions a 12,000-15,000 seat facility that would host not only the Blast, but also the circus, ice shows and concerts that currently play at the old arena.

Hale says he's already done the preliminary canvassing.

There have been no timetables set for either the building of the proposed arena or the demolition of the old one, which, coincidentally enough, hale owns the naming rights for.

Hale says he'd like to get underway with the project as soon as possible.

---------------

And:

Hale wants to build new arena—

BALTIMORE (AP) -
A Baltimore businessman wants to build a new arena to take the place of aging First Mariner Arena.

Ed Hale, chairman and C-E-O of First Mariner Bank and owner of the Baltimore Blast soccer team, says the new arena would be built on a site in Canton.
First Mariner Arena has been standing downtown since 1963, and city officials have been considering ways to replace it.

Hale says the new arena would be smaller -- between 12-thousand and 15-thousand seats. He says there's no point building a bigger one because it's extremely unlikely that Baltimore would land an N-B-A or N-H-L team.

The site Hale prefers would be at Boston Street and I-95, next to a residential and retail development he's planning. Hale says he's spoken to political leaders, including Mayor Sheila Dixon and Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, about his plans. He's hoping to put together a public-private partnership to get the arena built.

Facts:

1st Mariner Arena has 11,000 permanent seats (3 levels in a horseshoe shape) facing a 58' deep x 117' wide x 42' high wooden permanent proscenium stage. Temporary seating is used on the floor and/or the stage for various event configurations. With floor seating concert or meeting capacity is 13,500; other shows and sporting events capacities range from 11,000 to 14,000. The Arena can also be curtained down to a 5,000-person capacity with a portable stage house center. The ice system was completely replaced in 1997.

marc1969

Apr 11, 2007, 12:09 PM

New Baltimore Arena?! BREAKING NEWS!
Hale says the new arena would be smaller -- between 12-thousand and 15-thousand seats. He says there's no point building a bigger one because it's extremely unlikely that Baltimore would land an N-B-A or N-H-L team.

IMO, I don't agree with this logic. While it may be unlikely that Baltimore will ever get an NBA team again or an NHL team (look how long it took the NFL to bring football back!), building a small arena would guarantee it never happens! Besides, I can tell you that many people are tired of traveling to the Verizon center in DC for a good concert. With Merriweather in Columbia slowing fading away with age, there aren't really any other good, large concerts in the Baltimore metro area. A larger arena could also draw big time events such as the ACC Tournament or even National Tournaments.

StevenW

Apr 12, 2007, 1:49 AM

:previous: Yes, very bad logic, indeed. :yes:

MasonsInquiries

Apr 12, 2007, 5:14 AM

marc1969

Apr 12, 2007, 11:46 AM

Towering vision for west side
Plans are shown for retail shops, apartment towers

By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published April 12, 2007
Monica LopossaySun photographer

More than two years after being chosen to transform the heart of downtown Baltimore's old retail district into a revitalized urban neighborhood, developers unveiled yesterday the first detailed plans for a three-block area of the superblock showing two apartment towers as tall as 14 stories and a mix of local and national retailers.

Lexington Square Partners LLC plans a $250 million mixed-use project with 400 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 900 parking spaces and 300,000 square feet of retail with small shops lining the street and destination retailers on two upper stories along Fayette, Howard, Lexington and Liberty streets on Baltimore's west side.

During a news event with Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday at City Hall, the developers said they are talking with national chains and plan to market the project at next month's International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas. Developers, who have no commitments yet from retailers, envision anchoring the project with chains such as Circuit City or Best Buy, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Victoria's Secret and H&M.

"This represents a bold and new statement for the west side," that would include both small merchants who hung on as the area deteriorated and national chains, Dixon said.

The blighted swath of downtown is the largest redevelopment site on the west side and 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.

"We hope to re-create the retail that the area used to be," said John Smallwood, vice president of development for BLDG Management Co. Inc., a New York-based real estate investment company headed by Lloyd Goldman.

BLDG is one of the partner companies in Lexington Square, along with Next Generation Chera LLC, the Feil Organization and the Dawson Co. "We have a long road ahead and need the residents and businesses to get behind this vision," Smallwood said.

Plans, which still must undergo public scrutiny and city design review, show apartment towers at Fayette and Howard streets and at Lexington Street and Park Avenue, with cars able to enter a garage from Park Avenue. The garage would have a rooftop garden that would be accessible from the apartment towers.

Developers are hoping to take title on the land from the city by the end of the year, start construction early next year and complete the project within two to three years after that.

Since the city adopted an urban renewal plan for the west side in 1999, several large projects have spurred additional redevelopment, including the restored Hippodrome Theatre, the Centerpoint apartment and retail project and conversion of the former Stewart's department store into the world headquarters for Catholic Relief Services.

But the superblock, a stretch of six blocks, has languished. City efforts to acquire property dragged on. Stores were either relocated or closed. Lawsuits challenged the city's selection of a developer and right to acquire and sell property. And shoppers, finding fewer offerings, went elsewhere.

Area merchants, who have watched as various versions of redevelopment plans failed to materialize, are still waiting "with bittersweet anticipation," said Linda Frangioni, president of the Market Center Merchants Association, which represents 400 merchants in the shopping district around Lexington Market.

"We've been waiting so long for something to happen, getting our hopes up and having it fall through again," said Frangioni, whose Grandma's Candle Shop was relocated from West Baltimore Street to Saratoga Street to make way for redevelopment. "We want to see this happen."

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of Baltimore Development Corp., said the city and the developers were trying to work with existing small merchants. In one case, the BDC reversed its position this week and told Yon O. Park, owner of Modern Mode at 105 W. Lexington St., that she will be able to stay.

Last month, the city cleared a major hurdle that had stalled the project when it reached an agreement with the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation over Weinberg-owned properties included in the Lexington Square project. The two sides agreed to a land swap that will allow Weinberg and the Cordish Co. to redevelop a block on the north side of Lexington Street.

But other hurdles remain. The city must still acquire properties to turn over to both development teams and will probably be forced to use condemnation powers to do so.

It also faces several lawsuits. Several owners of property in the Lexington Square development area challenged the validity of BDC's selection of the developer in 2004 in a closed meeting. That case was sent back to Baltimore Circuit Court by the Maryland Court of Appeals and is set for trial July 30, said attorney John C. Murphy, who represents the property owners.

Another lawsuit against BDC has been filed by companies controlled by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos and developer David Hillman. That suit argues that the agreement between the city and Lexington Square Partners improperly included a key parcel not listed in the original bid package and inappropriately allows the developer to deduct nearly half of the $21.6 million purchase price for expenses such as demolition and environmental remediation.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, M. Albert Figinski , said yesterday that the city has until the end of the month to answer the complaint. He said he has not seen the Lexington Square plans.

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

MasonsInquiries

Apr 12, 2007, 3:37 PM

:previous: i can't wait to see the renderings. this project is really going to help that area alot. it can't get any worse than what it is now.........:jester:

StevenW

Apr 13, 2007, 12:06 AM

Panel approves Legg tower, with reservations
Baltimore Business Journal - 5:17 PM EDT Thursday, April 12, 2007by Daniel J. SernovitzStaff

Baltimore City's urban design panel reluctantly gave its blessing Thursday afternoon to the proposed Legg Mason Tower, a 550,000-square-foot building at Inner Harbor East that the Baltimore-based money manager hopes to move into by the summer of 2009.

Members of the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel said they had several concerns about some of the project's details, including how far it imposes onto the waterfront promenade, but were confident those issues would be addressed before building construction begins.

As proposed, H & S Properties Development Corp. and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse hope to build a pair of high-rise towers at Harbor East, a 38-acre mixed use development on the edge of Fells Point and east of the city's downtown core. The second tower would include a Four Seasons hotel and additional residential units.

Several members of the panel said they felt the developers need to give more thought to the significance of the project, and its marquee tenants, to convey a sense of how much they mean to Baltimore and its economy. Some of those touches included making the entrance to the buildings more architecturally significant.

"I think about the importance of Legg Mason, and I think of the importance of the Four Seasons, and there's nothing about this that announces the importance of those two" companies, Planning Department Director Doug McCouch said.

The developers will need to return to the panel for final design approval of the buildings, but the panel voted unanimously to approve schematic plans for the project. Their vote sends the development to the city's planning commission, which will need to consider legislation that will ultimately be sent to the City Council for approval.

Michael Beatty, president of H&S, said after the meeting that he agreed with many of the panel's suggestions and will try to incorporate them into the project's final design.

30 Floors Up

Apr 13, 2007, 12:39 PM

:previous: i can't wait to see the renderings. this project is really going to help that area alot. it can't get any worse than what it is now.........:jester:

Here they are. Freshly stolen from SSC courtesy of Urbane!

[http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/6864/dscn1179jz9.jpg

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/7521/dscn1180dp6.jpg

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/8316/dscn1189sg9.jpg

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/7986/dscn1188xx0.jpg

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2706/dscn1187dr6.jpg

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5951/dscn1184nx0.jpg

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7868/dscn1185yy2.jpg

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/3457/dscn1178ly5.jpg

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/7254/dscn1177mq2.jpg

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/8277/dscn1186bm3.jpg

Dear Lexington Square Partners. I'm not wowed by your drawings by any means, but I understand that this is a difficult project to construct because there are so many older building that are being preserved. Rather than just say I don't like it, I'm going give you guidance on what you should do to make it better. Listen up and take copious notes! I'm giving you free advice as an insider who knows the area and your target audience well. ;)

I think a few changes could go a long way to making this a better project. The first thing I would suggest is to raise the height of at least one of the towers by about 10 floors. The two towers simply are to uniform in height and look. If you have to, lower the height of one and raise the height of the other. Also, you should clad one of the towers in a different material. if that is to expensive, do one in red brick and one in biege brick. Be creative. Use biege brick and black morter. Dye is cheap.

Unfortunately, it appears as though most of the old buildings will be getting a facade-ictamy (street wall preserved, rest demolished). I guess this is the only way to provide the large floor plans that stores such as Marshall's, TJ Max, etc require. The old buildings have different floor heights that simply don't match up. I understand this so that is not an issue with me. In this case, you have my blessing. I know that makes you happy. :)

Secondly, I really don't like how the street level "stores", especially on Lexington Street but also on Howard, are ALL exactly the same height - 3 stories. I would suggest making a few areas 5 stories, a few 4, etc. This will break up the massiveness of the project. The difference in heights is what makes Centerpoint so visually successful. You can keep the retail on floors 1-3, but add a few apartments above some of the space in strategic locations. I realize that the end result is 1 unified building, but it doesn't have to have the same height along the street.

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/06%20Downtown%20Westside/Center%20Point%2001.jpg

This is an old area of Baltimore. The current blocks are not uniform in height as you can see from the Centerpoint picture above. Making the "store" fronts uniform makes YOUR project look as though it should be setting in the middle of a rich farmer's field who just sold his land for development in suburbia.

Lastly, I would encourage making the retail portion of the project as transparent as possible. That means using plenty of glass and lights. Make is so that when someone is walking down the street, they see shoppers inside and WANT to come in. I'm not just talking about the first floor, but the 2nd and 3rd floors too. This has the added advantage of making the area less dangerous because it works two ways. Not only can people see in, but they can also see out. Use glass, and lots of it, with exciting displays and colorful lights to look at. If you are worried about smash and grab crimes, they make speciality glasses that are almost indestructible. It will be worth the investment in the long run. May I also suggest the liberal use of neon!

IMO, just doing these 3 things will make this project much better then what it looks like now! :2cents:

jamie_hunt

Apr 13, 2007, 1:33 PM

Here they are. Freshly stolen from SSC courtesy of Urbane!
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/8277/dscn1186bm3.jpg

Appears the roof garden atop the parking garage isn't going to get much sun after say, 11 a.m. Which is probably fine in July and August, but will make it unpleasant the rest of the year.

A single tall, slender tower along Park Ave would improve that. Add "green roofs" on the retail component and things really get better!

30 Floors Up

Apr 13, 2007, 2:03 PM

Appears the roof garden atop the parking garage isn't going to get much sun after say, 11 a.m. Which is probably fine in July and August, but will make it unpleasant the rest of the year.

A single tall, slender tower along Park Ave would improve that. Add "green roofs" on the retail component and things really get better!

Park Avenue? I would say Lexington. Since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, to get the most sun year around I would say the tower should be on the north part of the site. The sun is usually a little south in Baltimore since we are north of the equator. Park would be due east and the tower would block the sun from hitting the roof garden for half a day.

My northern facing unit at Water Street will ever get sun which is fine with me because I like it dark. But the southern facing units will be in the sun all day long - until 300 East Pratt Street is built. :cool:

You brought up a very good point. I wonder if the architects even think about such things? I know they do when they design baseball parks, but I don't know if they do when they do mixed use projects like this?

gt2437

Apr 13, 2007, 5:41 PM

30 Floors Up

Apr 13, 2007, 7:16 PM

anyone have any info on the Mercy Hospital Expansion? It went up very quick next to 83 (modular pieces), but the floor layout does not make sense. Each modular section (three deep) is at a slightly different level making each complete floor having sections that are a few feet different.

Thx!

There is a new zoning notice up on the garage to be demolished (Calvert @ Pleasant Streets) that asks for a variance to use the property as a Hospital. I don't think they are going to start construction until sometime next year. They still have to demolish the old garage and do site work.

StevenW

Apr 13, 2007, 9:39 PM

wada, has the "pyramid" top gone on your tower, yet? :)

gt2437

Apr 14, 2007, 3:56 AM

There is a new zoning notice up on the garage to be demolished (Calvert @ Pleasant Streets) that asks for a variance to use the property as a Hospital. I don't think they are going to start construction until sometime next year. They still have to demolish the old garage and do site work.

ah very good!! What building am I thinking of? It's just west of 83 before it dumps onto President Street. The elevator shaft is closest to the expressway and is probably 8 or more floors.

StevenW

Apr 14, 2007, 12:29 PM

:previous: You may be refering to one of the Naing projects, maybe. :shrug:

30 Floors Up

Apr 16, 2007, 11:02 AM

wada, has the "pyramid" top gone on your tower, yet? :)

Nope. But you can see where the cornices will be (it will have 2). I'm wondering how they are going to install all this. They no longer have a crane. Will they bring in a portable one? Will they construct a temporary one on the roof? Stay tuned. :)

30 Floors Up

Apr 16, 2007, 11:04 AM

ah very good!! What building am I thinking of? It's just west of 83 before it dumps onto President Street. The elevator shaft is closest to the expressway and is probably 8 or more floors.
That is the replacement parking garage. The hospital will be somewhere between 18 and 20 stories.

gt2437

Apr 17, 2007, 3:04 PM

That is the replacement parking garage. The hospital will be somewhere between 18 and 20 stories.

Excellent, thanks for the info!!! :)

30 Floors Up

Apr 18, 2007, 1:26 AM

:wizard:

THE MOST RECENT 414 WATER STREET PHOTOS:

THE FRONT 4/14/07

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/01%20My%20New%20Home%20414%20Water%20Street!/03%20From%20%20Lockwood%20Garage/414%20Lockwood%2065.jpg

Construction techniques never stop amazing me. They long ago removed the tower crane, but they still have to raise the pyramid shaped roof over the elevator shaft and install the cornices around where the brick color changes and at the very top top of the building. If you look closely, you can see a gray band of concrete block between the biege and the red brick. The lower cornice will go there. It is going to be interesting to see how they do this. BTW, it looks like the cheaped out on the back since there is no band of block, hence I suspect no lower cornice. It will only get the cornice at the top.

I think that the pyramid will hardly be noticable from the street. You should be able to see it from Federal Hill though.

In addition, the area between the original garage and the new construction still needs to be enclosed with cast concrete panels. I suspect they will just bring in a portable crane for that job and lift them up to be attaced. I'm wondering, do they make 400 foot tall portable cranes. Anyone? If they do, I've never seen one. Time will tell!

AND THE BACK 4/13/07

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/01%20My%20New%20Home%20414%20Water%20Street!/02%20From%20%20Baltimore%20St/414%20Balto%2066.jpg

marc1969

Apr 18, 2007, 12:05 PM

...calm down:D It's not the 10 Inner Harbor project. But I did have strong doubts that this tower would ever be built.

Tower plan appears headed for defeat
Canton proposal goes before panel
By Jill Rosen

A $75 million proposed waterfront tower that has riled Canton for nearly two years might become the first significant Baltimore project to die in recent memory.

The Icon, which goes before the City Council's land use committee this evening, faces unambiguous opposition from key city leaders, including the council member representing the Southeast Baltimore district and Mayor Sheila Dixon. With no overt support on the council and a thumbs-down from the mayor who must ultimately sign the bill, officials say the project is likely to die in committee.

Rest of the story: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.ci.icon18apr18,0,3547296.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

30 Floors Up

Apr 19, 2007, 10:40 AM

:previous: You know, this doesn't bother me at all. I really don't want to see a wall of high rises directly on the water and that seems to be the way we are heading development wise. If this were a downtown tower, then I'd be concerned.

30 Floors Up

Apr 19, 2007, 10:44 AM

22,000 New Jobs Foreseen in Fort Meade Area
Army Projections Far Exceed Earlier Estimates on Effect in Anne Arundel and Howard :cheers:

By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 19, 2007; Page B02

A Pentagon reorganization of military bases could bring about 22,000 federal and private-sector jobs, 7,700 schoolchildren and $61 million in construction projects to the Fort Meade area, according to an Army study made public yesterday. The job growth projections -- part of an environmental impact statement required by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission plan -- go well beyond earlier forecasts that focused on the transfer of about 5,400 people to the post in Anne Arundel County.

The figure is nearly double the state's estimate of 12,000 jobs that could come to Anne Arundel and Howard counties. The Army Corps of Engineers factored in job gains at the nearby National Security Agency, other defense-related organizations and businesses leasing property at the post.

"It does mean on a daily basis we're going to have 22,000 . . . people coming into our county, into our fort," said Robert C. Leib, a special assistant overseeing base realignment issues for the Anne Arundel county executive. "That's an issue for us to plan for, and we're doing that."

Leib said local officials were pleased that the study aligns with the "growth we believe we're going to experience" but said his office is likely to ask the Army to expand the parameters of its study beyond the immediate vicinity of the post. Kent Menser of Howard's BRAC office agreed, saying at a public hearing last night that the Army report "does not adequately address the region of influence." He was the only person to comment at the hearing near Fort Meade that drew about 50 people from the community.

The Army said that roads will be stressed by the expansion and that planned work will not be completed to accommodate the new traffic until years later. Noting that the widening of Route 175 near Meade won't be finished until after the workers begin arriving in 2011, the Army said there would be "challenges and degradation to levels of service in the intervening years."

Studies cited in the Army report found that the traffic delays at intersections along Route 175 could increase significantly, in one instance "from fifteen seconds to more than five minutes" during the peak morning period. The state has earmarked $2.5 million for planning the Route 175 project, which could cost as much as $600 million.

Communities will also be coping with a demand to expand schools. The Army report said an estimated 7,700 school-age children could accompany the military and civilian workers. Local officials believe that families arriving with the highly educated workers won't necessarily settle around Fort Meade, instead choosing top schools as far as 45 minutes away.

The report also made clear that the base realignment will prompt an economic boom, with more than $61 million projected to be spent on construction projects directly related to the transfer of workers. Meade plans to lease 540 acres to developers that will construct office buildings to support the growth. But the construction will also result in the loss of trees and open spaces on the post, the Army report said.

Jurisdictions will receive federal help in preparing for the growth. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) announced in a written statement yesterday that Anne Arundel and Howard counties and Laurel will share a $1.4 million federal planning grant. The state is also moving forward to address needs including transportation, higher education and the availability of housing for the more than 28,000 new households.

StevenW

Apr 21, 2007, 2:20 PM

A new name for GM site
Broening birthplace of Monte Carlos and Astros now home to the Chesapeake Commerce Center
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published April 20, 2007
For 71 years, the auto plant on Broening Highway churned out Monte Carlos and El Caminos and, later, Safari and Astro vans.

But neither the Chevy nor the General Motors brands, nor any of their models will live on in the name of the new East Baltimore industrial park slated to replace the demolished van plant.

Instead, its developers, who solicited help from the community in renaming the site, have settled on "Chesapeake Commerce Center," a nod to the purpose and geographical identity of the new park.

The name, announced yesterday amid a shower of confetti at the Bricklayers Union Hall in Dundalk more than a month after the start of a naming contest, ended up being a hybrid of nearly 200 names submitted by community members.

Duke Realty Corp., which said it wanted to acknowledge the neighborhood ties to a site that employed area residents for decades before closing in 2005, wanted a name that captured the "unique history and heritage of the Broening Highway site."

As it turned out, that did not mean incorporating "GM," "Chevy" or "Astro," which are trademarked, said John H. Macsherry Jr., vice president of development and leasing for Duke.

The name suggestions ranged from the lengthy: Chesapeake Harbor International Business and Industrial Park, and Chesapeake Distribution Facility, Baltimore Division, to the confusing: The Plant at Can-Dalk, (a reference to the Canton and Dundalk neighborhoods) to those with GM references: "Astro Commerce Center."

"We had names that if you were local, you'd understand it to some degree, but that would have to have a paragraph to go along to explain what the name meant," Macsherry said. "Then, we had names that might have some trademark violation, that represented other companies."

By combining the best of the suggestions, Duke officials said, they've come up with a winning combination.

"We wanted to come up with a name that would speak to our corporate clients and decision-makers in a manner that would reflect the park's capability for warehousing and distribution," Macsherry said. "We also wanted a name that would identify the area's geographical location."

Or as Duke Senior Vice President H. Andrew Kelton said after a large white sign bearing the new name was unwrapped, "It's time to stop calling it the former GM site and take the next step."

For the developers, who envision building a total of 3 million square feet of office, office/warehouse or distribution centers over the next five to seven years, that means breaking ground by early summer on the first two buildings. Those facilities include a 342,500-square-foot distribution center with loading docks on both sides and a 117,500-square-foot office warehouse.

During yesterday's ceremony, Duke presented a $1,500 check to Southeastern Neighborhoods Development for its outreach programs, to thank the umbrella community group for getting the word out about the naming contest.

Elaine Welkie, chair of SEND, said many in the community had approached her to say they had sent in a name. But most refused to tell her their ideas.

"They were afraid someone else would take their idea," Welkie said. "Everyone was really proud about what they submitted."

Welkie said she had expected that the name would have more of a local flavor, but thought Duke's strategy of appealing to customers on a national level made sense.

"I think it's good as a national name," she said. "It's got enough of a flavor that people know it's a Baltimore location. We're looking forward to new jobs in the area."

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

StevenW

Apr 22, 2007, 7:14 PM

Doracon's new website is up and running now: http://www.doracon.com/about.aspx

:)

jason111

Apr 29, 2007, 11:58 AM

Any news yet on the BIG projects?

marc1969

May 1, 2007, 3:50 PM

I'm posting this news because the stat about the size of the workforce in the 1940's at this plant boggles my mind!

Middle River unveils new missile project
Lockheed Martin plant will make them for Army and Navy

The "C" Building on Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Middle River campus churned out Mace and Matador guided missiles during the 1940s and 1950s, Pershing Missile Launchers during the 1960s and Patriot Missile Launchers during the 1970s. Yesterday, Lockheed officials unveiled its latest reincarnation: Non-Line Of Sight missile launchers for the Army and Navy.

It's new business for the campus and allowed Bethesda-based Lockheed to expand its work force there by 20 percent to 650 - a far cry from the more than 53,000 who built 120 military planes a month at its peak in 1943 during World War II.

Full Story:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.lockheed01may01,0,244956.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

StevenW

May 2, 2007, 8:55 AM

Bookings surge at convention headquarters hotel
Baltimore Business Journal - 12:49 PM EDT Tuesday, May 1, 2007by Julekha DashStaff

The sales staff at the Baltimore convention headquarters hotel has booked 100,000 room nights from 2008 through 2015 as of mid-April.

That is three times as many room nights as the hotel booked in December, said Matthew Dykstra, director of sales for Hilton Hotels Corp. The bookings represent 50 groups and $18 million in revenue, he said.

Dykstra presented the results at an April 20 Baltimore Hotel Corp. board meeting, at which time he said he anticipated booking another 24,000 rooms over the next several weeks.

A common metric used in the hotel industry, room nights for a meeting is equivalent to the number of attendees multiplied by the number of days the group stays. A 500-person meeting staying for three nights would result in 1,500 room nights to the city. The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association sets an annual target of booking 360,000 room nights per year.

Hilton is targeting conventions with a maximum of 600 rooms needed on peak nights for the hotel. Hilton does not identify the groups for privacy reasons, Dykstra said.

The first business groups will stay at the hotel in September or October, said Irene Van Sant, project analyst director at Baltimore Development Corp. said.

The hotel company has hired two additional sales staff to sell the Baltimore convention headquarters hotel, which brings the total sales staff to four.

Nearly 70 hotels are under construction or in the planning stages in the Baltimore area -- primarily Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County -- over the next several years, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. in Hendersonville, Tenn. That includes about 10 Hilton (NYSE: HLT) brand properties, two of which are slated to open at Harbor East this summer.

30 Floors Up

May 4, 2007, 12:57 PM

Now we know. It will be 44 stories and 494 feet tall.

New plan for Legg headquarters, green building requirements OK’d
JEN DEGREGORIO, Daily Record Business Writer, May 3, 2007 6:34 PM

The Baltimore Planning Commission Thursday gave its blessing to three major pieces of legislation, two that would advance the construction of Legg Mason’s new headquarters at Inner Harbor East and another that would require green buildings in city-funded projects.

The commission approved amendments to both the urban renewal plan for Inner Harbor East and the planned unit development, or PUD, previously approved for the Four Seasons Hotel project. H&S Properties Development Corp., which is developing the Four Seasons with Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, asked for the amendments to make room for Legg Mason’s new headquarters.

The original plan for the Four Seasons project included the hotel and a condominium tower, which were to have risen between the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel and the Spinnaker Bay residential community. Thursday’s amendments allow developers to replace the condominium with a 530,000-square-foot office tower for Legg Mason, the financial firm that plans to relocate from its home on Light Street. The amendments would also allow an increase in the height of the Four Seasons from 309 feet to 494 feet.

No community residents spoke in opposition to the new plan. “It’s pretty exciting to see what’s going on over there,” Peter Auchincloss, chairman of the commission, said of the Inner Harbor East area, which is emerging as a new city shopping and residential destination. The commission also approved a City Council bill that would require commercial developers to build certified green buildings if they receive loans, tax credits or other benefits from the city. The approval was contingent upon amendments to the original bill, which was introduced by Councilman James B. Kraft in February.

The amendments would require that by 2010, developers receiving city assistance should have their buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, a national group that rates buildings on their environmental efficiency. Such developers should have a “silver” grade of certification. The amendments would also require by 2010 that privately funded projects have green elements, although the buildings would not need certification.

Auchincloss voiced concern about the bill. He pointed out that the city is poised to approve a different bill requiring housing developers to include affordable units in new projects receiving city assistance. “How many layers of stuff do we want to risk dropping on the economic development community?” Auchincloss asked during a working session held before the official meeting.

Kraft said the council has heard testimony from the development community, which largely supports the legislation. At a retail real estate conference held in Washington in March, Baltimore developer C. William “Bill” Struever spoke to a group of developers in favor of green building.

In an interview Thursday, Owen Rouse, a senior vice president and partner with Columbia-based developer Manekin LLC, said he supported green building but did not think the government should force developers’ hands. Rouse’s company recently built a new headquarters building for itself in accordance with the Green Building Council’s standards.

“I think it ought to be a free-market determination,” Rouse said of green building. Legislation approved by the Planning Commission will return to the City Council for further consideration. Kraft said he expected the full council to vote on the green building legislation this summer. It was unclear yesterday when the council would vote on the Inner Harbor East bills.

30 Floors Up

May 4, 2007, 1:03 PM

I'm posting this news because the stat about the size of the workforce in the 1940's at this plant boggles my mind!

It's new business for the campus and allowed Bethesda-based Lockheed to expand its work force there by 20 percent to 650 - a far cry from the more than 53,000 who built 120 military planes a month at its peak in 1943 during World War II.

Full Story:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.lockheed01may01,0,244956.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

Yep. At that same time, Bethelem Steel employed almost 60,000 at the steel mill and 2 ship yards. Almost half the Liberty ships were constructed here. The John Brown is one of them. There are only two left afloat. The John Brown here and one in San Francisco. Harborview now stands where one of the ship yards was located. This city played a very big part in winning WW II - especially when you factor in GM, Bendix, and other companies that were churning out war supplies in B-More.

jason111

May 5, 2007, 7:54 PM

:) wow, 494 feet tall .....wait that means that this will be the new tallest if it goes up before 10 IH and 300 right?

jason111

May 5, 2007, 8:04 PM

also do you have any pics of what it'll look like?

StevenW

May 6, 2007, 8:45 PM

not yet :previous:

marc1969

May 7, 2007, 12:08 PM

:) wow, 494 feet tall .....wait that means that this will be the new tallest if it goes up before 10 IH and 300 right?

3rd Tallest:

Legg Mason Building 529ft
Bank of America Building 509
Legg Mason Building(new) 494
William Donald Schaefer Tower 493

30 Floors Up

May 8, 2007, 11:08 AM

TWO YEARS OF CHANGE FROM ATOP FEDERAL HILL:

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Ritz%20Carlton%2001.jpg

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Federal%20Hill%20View%2005.jpg

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Federal%20Hill%20View%2012.jpg

LAST WEEK
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Ritz%20Carlton%2017.jpg

LAST WEEK
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/05%20Downtown%20Southside/Ritz%20Carlton%2016.jpg

TWO YEARS OF CHANGE FROM THE CONVENTION CENTER:

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/06%20Downtown%20Westside/Hilton%2002.jpg

http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/06%20Downtown%20Westside/Hilton%2011.jpg

LAST WEEK
http://www.baltimoreguy.com/photogallery/02%20Baltimore%20Buildings/06%20Downtown%20Westside/Hilton%2013.jpg

StevenW

May 8, 2007, 8:30 PM

I love the time line pix, wada. :)

30 Floors Up

May 11, 2007, 11:06 AM

Thanks Steven.

Now is the time when all the super talls should stick with their plans. By the time the units are ready for occupancy, the housing slump will have passed and the market should be on the rebound. If they started construction today, it would be 3.5 years before anyone could move in. It took 2 years to build Water Street and they didn't even have to do foundation work.

With Water Street and the Vue sold out, and the Ritz almost sold out, what condos are left on the market DOWNTOWN? I don't consider Locust Point and Canton to be Downtown. I can only think of a few small projects that don't total 100 units when added together. Apparently some people understand this and are forging ahead.

Swirnow, HarborView hoping to start 2 more towers this year
JEN DEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer

Developer Richard Swirnow is preparing for the final steps of a real estate project that has transformed 14.5 acres of South Baltimore shoreline from a shipyard to a posh — though often controversial — residential community. Swirnow and his associates Thursday presented plans to the city planning department for the next phases of their HarborView development, which over the last two decades has filled up land once home to Bethlehem Steel Corp.’s ship repair yard.

Four more residential towers are on the books for property east of Key Highway in the city’s Federal Hill neighborhood, adding to the existing low-rise pier homes, townhouses, apartments and massive HarborView tower that has become an icon for Swirnow’s project.

Swirnow said he expects to break ground before the end of the year on the Pinnacle, a 17-story residential tower that will rise beside the HarborView tower. Designs are also being drawn up for a 26-story residential building just west of the Pinnacle that could be under construction by the end of the year.

Swirnow controls two additional parcels of land south of the HarborView tower and pier homes, where in the next five years he plans to build two more residential towers. About 580 residential units already exist at the HarborView development.

The city’s Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel yesterday discussed plans with Swirnow and his team. Panel members were generally supportive, although they asked Swirnow to try to bring the buildings closer to Key Highway to create a pedestrian-friendly environment. The panel must approve each residential tower separately before Swirnow can build them.

Federal Hill residents spoke against the new buildings, which they feel will obstruct water views and keep neighbors away from the harbor. They also protested a proposed amendment to the area’s urban renewal plan that would allow Swirnow to alter some the plan’s original design constraints. The City Council is currently considering that amendment.

“It’s the same old argument, not in my backyard,” Sonny Morstein, who owns Morstein’s Jewelers in Federal Hill, said during a phone interview Thursday. “I sympathize with the neighbors. ... Views are going to be affected.” But, he added, “From the business point of view, I suspect we’re going to get some wonderful customers.”

HarborView is perhaps the quintessential example of Baltimore’s metamorphosis from a blue-collar, industrial town to a city driven by tourism and white-collar businesses, such as financial firms and health care companies. But Swirnow said he is simply feeding what he sees as an insatiable appetite for waterfront living.

“There has been a demand, and we’re trying to meet that demand,” he said Thursday. In an e-mail to The Daily Record yesterday, M.J. “Jay” Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., called Swirnow’s project “a pioneering concept that has been the catalyst for development along Key Highway.”

marc1969

May 11, 2007, 12:50 PM

I remember in the early 90's when the HarborView was built, they had ads in local papers and magazines with headlines like "A New City is Rising on the Inner Harbor." They had renderings of an area with several 30+ highrise buildings around the current HarborView. Then the market turned and they couldn't even sell the units in the one project they built. What a different time for Baltimore. It would be really neat if someone had that picture to post.

marc1969

May 11, 2007, 12:58 PM

Not a good article. But some potential positives sprinkled in there
...
Developers scale back towering condo plans
Timing feared wrong for 60-story skyscrapers

By Jamie Smith Hopkins
Sun reporter

May 11, 2007

Condo jitters are rippling through major downtown Baltimore projects on the drawing boards.

A developer planning twin towers that could be the tallest in Baltimore presented designs for the first phase yesterday - a garage with ground-floor retail - but said the towers themselves will have to wait until the condo market picks back up.

Richard W. Naing of RWN Development Group, which is handling the Guilford Avenue project, said he thinks the time wouldn't be ripe to start construction until the many condos in the pipeline have had a chance to sell and regional job growth from the military base restructuring revs up. That could be three to four years, he said.

Meanwhile, his key competition - two other companies planning downtown skyscrapers - said yesterday that they've pulled back on the number of condos they plan to build. New York-based UrbanAmerica now says its proposed Pratt Street building might have 250 condos and 300 hotel rooms, rather than vice versa. Philadelphia-based ARCWheeler, taking another look at plans for its Light Street skyscraper, thinks it will keep the loft and condo component below 200 units instead of nearly 300.

Richmond S. McCoy, president and chief executive of UrbanAmerica, said he remains optimistic because Baltimore's housing market is "outperforming most markets."

But Naing thinks it's not a good time to be selling or building condos.

"It's not just the market, it's also the perception," he said. "Right now the perception is very negative - you couldn't even get financing if you wanted to."

RWN Development, which worked for years in Washington before branching out to Baltimore, said it has not pushed back its timetable. Home sales were already slowing drastically as the company assembled land last year.

It paid about $21 million for three properties: the Saratoga Court Apartments at Saratoga Street and Guilford Avenue, which it plans to keep; the Guilford Avenue parking garage next door; and the Hammerjacks building next to that. It plans to pull down the garage and Hammerjacks.

Naing had said he intended to build two 60-story towers with a mix of condos and apartments. Yesterday he said the skyscrapers might be different heights - one shorter than 60 stories, one taller - and include a hotel.

UrbanAmerica said yesterday that its skyscraper could be as tall as 50 stories, while ARCWheeler said its building would probably have about 55 floors - at a height of between 650 feet and 750 feet.

The Legg Mason building on Light Street is currently Baltimore's tallest, at 35 stories and about 530 feet.

UrbanAmerica, which had planned to start work this year, said it could break ground on its project, between South and Commerce streets, in the first few months of next year.

ARCWheeler thinks groundbreaking on its 2-acre site next to the Hyatt Regency might be a year away, but it needs to settle on the best mix of uses first.

"It's been adjusted to accommodate the shifting market," said John Voneiff, an ARCWheeler partner, noting that the company is considering whether to include office space and more than triple the parking. "It's a big project, and we want it to be right. ... We want a real vertical community."

Baltimore has fewer condo units being actively marketed now than it did a year ago, in part because several projects were dropped, said William Rich, director of the condominium practice at real estate information company Delta Associates in Alexandria, Va. Even so, sales have slowed so much that it would take more than four years to sell them all at the current pace, compared with less than two years this time in 2006, he said.

"If they all were to come online now," Rich said of the skyscraper projects, "that wouldn't bode well."

Naing, who this week bought the Brexton building in Mount Vernon with plans to turn it into a boutique hotel, said he hopes to begin work on the first phase of the Guilford project around August. The 660-space garage would include about 9,000 square feet of retail.

His team presented those plans to the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel yesterday. The most notable element was a "green screen" on the Guilford side of the garage's façade that would have plants twining up and down a metal trellis.

The panel thought the design needed more work in light of the tower that Naing expects to put on top of it one day.

"It's going to be a squat little entrance to a major building," panel member Gary Bowden said.

jamie.smith.hopkins@baltsun.com

MasonsInquiries

May 13, 2007, 2:54 PM

TWO YEARS OF CHANGE FROM ATOP FEDERAL HILL:
it's a shame that the people that live in federal hill have their view snatched from them and basically, they can't do a thing about it. but all this building in that area is for the best, though. i'm confident of that much.

MasonsInquiries

May 13, 2007, 2:56 PM

Naing had said he intended to build two 60-story towers with a mix of condos and apartments. Yesterday he said the skyscrapers might be different heights - one shorter than 60 stories, one taller - and include a hotel.

UrbanAmerica said yesterday that its skyscraper could be as tall as 50 stories, while ARCWheeler said its building would probably have about 55 floors - at a height of between 650 feet and 750 feet.

The Legg Mason building on Light Street is currently Baltimore's tallest, at 35 stories and about 530 feet.
i'm confident with what we're getting. i think in the end, we'll be pleased with what we get from these 3 towers.

30 Floors Up

May 15, 2007, 11:06 AM

City is urged to replace arena
1st Mariner's 'useful life' over, report says
By Jill Rosen and Childs Walker, Sun reporters
Originally published May 15, 2007
http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2007-05/29805414.jpg
First Mariner Arena, Baltimore's largest indoor entertainment venue, has "served its useful life," and the city must build another before it starts losing events, a new report warns.

Though the 45-year-old arena has recently boasted such draws as the Rolling Stones and the Miss USA pageant, an analysis released yesterday suggests that a more modern setting would attract minor league sports teams and bolster the appeal of downtown's west side.

Rejecting the idea of repairing the building's aging systems, which could cost nearly $60 million, the report commissioned by the Maryland Stadium Authority recommends that Baltimore demolish the arena and build a bigger one on the same site or elsewhere.

"The report clearly indicates the current facility is beyond its useful life," said Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, one of a number of city and state organizations that sponsored the study. "We have to take that next step and make those difficult decisions."

By recommending that the replacement arena seat 15,000 to 16,000, adding no more than a few thousand seats to the current capacity, the report assumes that Baltimore will never lure a major league hockey or basketball franchise, either of which would require 18,000 to 20,000 seats.

A new venue could attract arena football and minor league hockey, the analysis says, bring more than 200 new jobs and generate about $1 million in additional tax revenue. Officials say the private sector would have to bear the brunt of the estimated $162 million construction cost.

In the next month or two, Baltimore Development Corp. will begin seeking developers interested in the project. The city would consider giving up ownership of the arena, said BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie.

"We would like to see what kind of financing ideas there are, hopefully creative ones," Brodie said. "We're looking for some combination of private and public [financing], and that would include various options of who owns what."

Built in 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center, 1st Mariner Arena is owned by the city and managed by SMG. The Beatles played there shortly after it opened, and Elvis Presley performed there in 1977, the year he died. More recently, the arena drew the Rolling Stones and Christina Aguilera, but it typically attracts family-oriented events such as Disney ice shows, the circus and Wiggles Live, scheduled for August.

The arena was last renovated more than 20 years ago, and its shortcomings have long rankled city leaders. Brodie called it a miracle that the arena books as many events as it does, with its run-down mechanical and electric systems, poor sight lines, tight corridors and bathroom shortage.

In 1998, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke hired a consultant to study locations for a 20,000-seat venue, hoping to attract more professional sports teams to the city. The proposal went nowhere. The city also proposed a new arena when the region was trying to land the 2012 Olympics.

Weeks ago, Edwin F. Hale Sr., whose professional soccer team, the Baltimore Blast, anchors the arena, said he would like to build his team a new venue in Southeast Baltimore. Advocates for downtown, including the Downtown Partnership and Westside Renaissance, want the arena to stay downtown. Hale, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of 1st Mariner Bank and bought the arena's naming rights four years ago, has called that idea "laughable."

He also has said that it would be a mistake to replace the arena with another one too small for National Hockey League or National Basketball Association games. Hale did not return phone messages yesterday. Baltimore has no chance for major league hockey or basketball, Stadium Authority officials said yesterday. "It's just not there," said Chairman Robert L. McKinney. "The market can't absorb it when there's a team 40 miles down the road."

Chicago-based sports marketing consultant Marc Ganis agreed that it would be "almost impossible" for Baltimore to attract an NBA or NHL franchise. "With Washington on one side and Philadelphia on the other, it would be very, very difficult," he said. "So I certainly think they're correct in proceeding with that assumption."

The report is optimistic, however, about Baltimore's chances of attracting the Arena Football League and minor league hockey with a new arena. Both organizations have expressed interest. "The AFL views Baltimore as a viable market in its quest to achieve a league of 28 to 32 teams in the next 10 years," said league spokesman Chris McCloskey. "Is it a good football market? Obviously, Baltimore meets that requirement. If a new, state-of-the-art arena were in place, that would be a major factor in attracting us."

The league garners higher television ratings in Baltimore than in any other city that doesn't have an arena team. The AFL has 19 franchises and would like to expand to Boston, Washington and South Florida.

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder owns the rights to a potential Washington franchise, which could be an impediment for Baltimore. Generally, when the AFL moves into a National Football League market, it gives the owner of the city's NFL team first shot at buying the new AFL franchise.

The Ravens said any talk of owning a Baltimore AFL franchise is premature. "We are all for more events in downtown Baltimore," said team spokesman Kevin Byrne. "Anything else, it's way too early to say."

Baltimore also has potential as a hockey town, said Brian McKenna, commissioner of the ECHL. The city would be one of the largest cities in the 28-franchise league, which has teams in Long Beach, Calif., suburban Atlanta, Las Vegas and San Diego. "We've long believed Baltimore could be a good market for hockey, given the right arena and the right ownership," McKenna said.

Baltimore has been home to a number of minor league hockey franchises, including the Skipjacks and the Bandits. The Bandits left for Cincinnati in 1997, blaming low attendance and concerns about the state of the arena.

Officials said the location of a new arena would largely depend on the places that developers suggest. City leaders seemed equally comfortable with the current downtown site and building elsewhere, then demolishing the old arena and encouraging mixed-use development there.

"We are not wedded to the idea that that has to be the only location," Fry said. Brodie said later, "We're not engaged or even dating."

If the arena ends up in another location, the 1st Mariner site, blocks from the Convention Center, the under-construction Hilton hotel and the renovated Hippodrome Theatre, would be desirable for redevelopment, said Downtown Partnership President Kirby Fowler. "I have no doubt someone would want to snatch up that site if they could get it," he said.

MasonsInquiries

May 22, 2007, 1:26 AM

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2007-05/29805414.jpg

:previous::previous: this piece of crap has gotta' go. its glory days are finished!!

StevenW

May 23, 2007, 9:02 AM

Projects exacerbate city traffic woes
Baltimore Business Journal - May 18, 2007by Daniel J. SernovitzStaff

Nicholas Griner | Staff
Traffic heads east on Fleet Street near Harbor East at rush hour.
View Larger New developments such as Harbor East and Canton Crossing are transforming southeast Baltimore City, but those projects also are creating traffic headaches for motorists who traverse that corridor during rush hour.

It's a problem the city says could get much worse and cost at least $10 million to Band-Aid and another $212 billion to completely overhaul, according to a recently completed study by the city's transportation department.

By 2012, nearly 65 percent of all southeast Baltimore's major intersections could fall below passing grades, the study says.

What that means is motorists will find themselves waiting through several cycles of traffic lights before they can get through the intersection. Some of the area's busier roadways might seem that way now, but only three out of 34 intersections fail now. If the city does nothing, that figure will jump to 22 out of 34 intersections within five years.

If changes aren't made, "the whole thing goes to hell," Baltimore City Planning Commission member Javier Bustamante said at a recent meeting.

Southeast Baltimore is one of the fastest-growing parts of the city, and within it, there are a handful of major projects expected to add new residents, office workers and vehicles to the area.

In total, more than 6.5 million square feet of office and residential space will be under construction or planned by 2020, adding more than 20,000 new motorists to the roadways during afternoon rush hour. That much new traffic, the study noted, will result in longer delays and congestion at a majority of the areas busiest intersections.

As a long-term fix, the city expects to spend about $212 billion on transportation projects. Those include possibly extending the proposed Red Line, an east-to-west rail line, into the area, expanding Boston Street to four lanes, adding a new MARC commuter rail stop at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and rebuilding Central Avenue.

In the short term, the city's transportation department has come up with about $10 million in smaller projects officials hope will minimize congestion while they work on those larger projects.

The report includes a series of recommendations that will cost the city between $4.6 million and $8.45 million to implement. That estimate does not include running costs of $1.2 million to $2.25 million to fund initiatives such as adding traffic control officers to major intersections during peak times.

Among the studies recommendations:

Either converting Fleet and Aliceanna streets to one-way streets between Boston and President streets or restricting parking on Eastern Avenue during rush hour;
Promoting the use of alternate routes through Canton and Fells Point, including Fayette and Orleans streets;
Removing mid-block traffic lights along Broadway;
Reconfiguring and widening President Street;
Improving the city's mass transportation system; and,
Prohibiting commercial truck parking on Central Avenue during certain times.

StevenW

May 23, 2007, 9:03 AM

Westport looks to line up retail
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2007

Baltimore developer Patrick Turner plans to start construction March 1 in an ambitious plan to develop the formerly industrial shores of the Middle Branch, with the first buildings in the $1.4 billion community - including a 65-story, mixed-use skyscraper - to get under way by 2009.

Turner, president of Turner Development Group, has spent several days this week introducing his Westport project to retailers at a major shopping center convention in Las Vegas. Tomorrow, the developer will present a site plan to the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel.

Turner, reached yesterday at the International Council of Shopping Centers convention, said he is nearly finished buying property for the 50-acre project. Plans call for it to include 2,000 apartments, condos and townhouses, 300,000 square feet of shops, 3 million square feet of office and entertainment uses, and two hotels with a total of 500 rooms. Turner plans to settle soon on an estimated $3 million purchase of property owned by trash-hauling company Cockey's Enterprises Inc.

Despite the real estate slowdown that has caused some area developers to scale back or delay condo projects, Turner said the market will turn up by the time the Westport units are ready. Office demand, he said, will grow as a result of federal base realignment adding military and defense-related jobs. "We're talking about residential building coming on line in 2009," Turner said. "In multifamily, we already have people who want to build." A New York developer is interested in building a rental apartment tower next to the Westport light rail stop, he said.

Turner's company is in talks with hotel operators and townhouse builders. And he expects some of the office space to be filled by defense contractors who want to be in a central location near Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade.

While at the ICSC convention, Turner said he and brokers from CB Richard Ellis have been meeting with retailers about opening stores and restaurants in the Westport project.

"That's what we're chasing now," said Turner, who said retailers are finally looking seriously at Baltimore City. "People are looking at it real hard. In the past, they would cringe, and now they sit down and take notes."

The project has received site plan review approval from city planning officials. Tomorrow, the city's architecture review panel will assess the site plan from a design standpoint.

Turner said plans he unveiled last year have remained mostly intact, with a few changes. For one thing, the developer had to remove a proposed velodrome, a biking arena that could be used for sports or concerts, and rethink plans to create a beach on the waterfront. The proposed site of the velodrome, a former city park, is in a resource conservation district where construction is prohibited, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers preferred creating additional wetlands rather than a beach, Turner said.

Turner also was unable to save the facade of a former Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. power plant on the site. It is currently being demolished.

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

Hope his 'bite' is better than his bark.
__________________

marc1969

May 23, 2007, 12:51 PM

Westport looks to line up retail

Baltimore developer Patrick Turner plans to start construction March 1 in an ambitious plan to develop the formerly industrial shores of the Middle Branch, with the first buildings in the $1.4 billion community - including a 65-story, mixed-use skyscraper - to get under way by 2009.
__________________

This is good to read. It's nice to hear someone who has a start date and the positive outlook that the project will move forward as planned!

StevenW

May 23, 2007, 8:16 PM

:previous: I hope it does come to fruition.

marc1969

May 24, 2007, 1:56 PM

The last time I was in this area, I was impressed with all of the developement.

Struever scales back Charles Village plans
Housing slump noted in shift from luxury condos to rentals

By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter

May 24, 2007

A vision to inject luxury living into Baltimore's Charles Village has foundered amid a slumping housing market.

Instead of spacious condominiums with price tags as high as $700,000, developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse is now proposing smaller, market-rate and affordable apartments on a key site in the builder's "College Town" redevelopment project.

Named the Olmsted, the building in the 3200 block of St. Paul St. could end up taller and include about twice the number of units first proposed. The shift would be a marked contrast to the original plan to bring high-end housing and affluent residents to a neighborhood characterized by mostly modest rowhouses and businesses catering to students at nearby Johns Hopkins University.

When it was first unveiled, the plan called for an $83 million, 12-floor building with 107 condominiums, 15,000 square feet of stores, and a parking garage wrapped and hidden by the condos. The Olmsted was to be the last piece in a Struever-led revitalization of several blocks that has included two recently completed projects - Hopkins' Charles Commons student housing, anchored by a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and Village Lofts, 68 condominiums with ground-floor shops, across St. Paul Street.

But yesterday, company president and chief executive C. William Struever acknowledged that the scenario wasn't playing out as he had envisioned. Sales at the Village Lofts, completed about six weeks ago, have been slower than expected, Struever said. And after leveling a block of rowhouses on the west side of the street for the Olmsted, the fenced site has sat idle for months, with no activity and a sign heralding the condos removed. Crosswalks and sidewalks remain unfinished.

Struever blamed the national slowdown in the housing market and rising construction costs. "The market has been changing for about a year, in terms of the for-sale market," Struever said. Late last year, "we were ready to go and close our financing, and we mutually agreed to hold off," he said.

"We mutually agreed, with our partner and lender, to re-look at these things," Struever said.

Officials at Struever's partner, Canyon Johnson Urban Fund II, started by retired basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson, said yesterday they would defer to Struever as spokesman.

John McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute, said developers in many cities are now faced with similar decisions.

"It's easier to transform a neighborhood when the market is very strong, and obviously now we're in a trough," McIlwain said. "But we're in a period where rents are rising, and so the rental market is stronger."

Other developers of Baltimore condo projects have scaled back or delayed their plans in the wake of the slowdown.

Richard W. Naing of RWN Development Group, planning two towers on Guilford Avenue downtown that would be among the tallest in Baltimore, said they will not be built until the condo market picks up, possibly in three to four years. New York-based UrbanAmerica now says its proposed Pratt Street building in the Inner Harbor might have more hotel rooms and fewer condos than first planned. And Philadelphia-based ARCWheeler, taking another look at plans for its Light Street skyscraper, thinks it will keep the loft and condo component below 200 units instead of nearly 300.

In Charles Village, residents and business owners, including some who were skeptical of the viability of a high-end project from the start, worry about the future of a prime plot in the heart of the neighborhood.

"People are upset about the lack of development," said Dana Peterson Moore, president of the Charles Village Civic Association. "They've torn the buildings down and nothing is coming up. It looks bad and people are disappointed."

Stopping work on the streetscape has been disruptive, said Jerry Gordon, owner of Eddie's Market in Charles Village.

"They took out some trees and then all of a sudden everything stopped," Gordon said. "Crosswalks go halfway across the street and there's a big empty lot across the street. It's an unfinished symphony."

Struever said he plans to propose a modestly taller building, perhaps 14 stories, with about 200 rental units, including about 40 to 60 apartments that would qualify as affordable housing. He said the company planned to request tax-increment financing from the city to subsidize the cost of the affordable housing.

"We're saying, let's embrace affordable housing," Struever said. "Today it's the strongest part of the market, but hardly anything is being built for less than $400,000. ... We have a lot of people who make $50,000 or $60,000 and would love to live in the city and can't afford $400,000."

The revised plans would double the amount of retail space to 25,000 to 35,000 square feet, and would add about 60,000 square feet of office space.

It would include a garage of at least 400 spaces. Last year, the city's Board of Estimates authorized the Baltimore Development Corp. to use tax-increment financing and revenue bonds to finance $4.9 million for street improvements and the $15.8 million purchase of a major portion of the parking garage, which will offer much-needed public parking.

He hopes building can get under way by the end of the year and the project would be completed in about a year and a half.

Sandy Sparks, chair of the North Charles Village PUD Design Review Committee, which reviews designs for area projects, applauded the new plan. "The great news ... is that they figured out a way to make the project happen," she said. "We wouldn't want a project started and be half-finished and be a failure."

BDC president M.J. "Jay" Brodie said the revised design and mix of uses at the Olmsted was a necessary move.

"I'm confident with Struever Bros. and Canyon Johnson together and their good architects that there will be a design and a concept that is even better than the previous one," Brodie said.

Sun reporter Jamie Stiehm contributed to this article.

believeinbflo

May 24, 2007, 5:02 PM

buffalonian but during my time in DC i became a big orioles fan...anywho...i was watching the O's game last night and i noticed a big building underconstruction behind centerfield and in front of the clock tower, what project would that be?

im trying to follow baltimore development since there are some parallels between it and my city of buffalo (i dont mean that as an insult lol) but you guys have a pretty big list of projects to follow...good luck w. all of them

StevenW

May 25, 2007, 9:00 AM

:previous:
That's the Hilton Convention Hotel.
It will be a little bit taller than the building right next to it called the Zenith.
240 ft. tall, I believe. Over 750 rooms, I think.

30 Floors Up

Jun 1, 2007, 6:33 PM

:tup: Hot off the Press!

PLANNED SKYSCRAPER BOOSTS OFFICE SPACE AFTER HOUSING SLOWS
Baltimore Business Journal - June 1, 2007 by Daniel J. SernovitzStaff

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_image/85008-400-0.jpg?rev=2
The planned tower will be built on the former McCormick factory site.

The Philadelphia-based company developing the former McCormick spice factory in downtown Baltimore now hopes to carve out as much as 500,000 square feet of prime office space to land a signature corporate tenant in the proposed 59-story building at Light and Conway streets.

John Voneiff, director of southeast operations for ARC Wheeler LLC, said a softening in the residential market prompted his company to shave the planned residential units in the building to between 150 and 200, down from earlier plans for as many as 285 condominiums. He is now in talks with two major Baltimore-area companies, and has been contacted by a third considering becoming the building's signature tenant.

StevenW

Jun 1, 2007, 8:49 PM

http://www.silverspringscene.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/canton-crossing1.JPG

http://www.silverspringscene.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/canton-crossing2.JPG

http://www.silverspringscene.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/canton-crossing3.JPG

Canton Crossing.

StevenW

Jun 2, 2007, 10:58 AM

Imagine if these two projects get built in Baltimore. They are currently on hold. But, it looks promising. The developer is very serious about building them. They want the condo market to pick back up a bit before commiting. Plus there are TWO sets of two towers. They look almost identicle. But they are at two different addresses.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/youngtisme0/DCS-Design-GuilfordSites-Zo.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/youngtisme0/DCS-Design-Guilford-Sites-Z.jpg

If built, they would most certainly become the tallest in the city. They look to be in the upper 800 ft. height range. IMHO, of course.

waj0527

Jun 4, 2007, 1:08 PM

I think I like it. It's good to see to see what the developer expects in terms of the scope and scale of the project. This will be the be Baltimore's most massive project yet, no?

StevenW

Jun 4, 2007, 9:25 PM

:previous: :yes:

MasonsInquiries

Jun 6, 2007, 1:00 AM

I think I like it. It's good to see to see what the developer expects in terms of the scope and scale of the project. This will be the be Baltimore's most massive project yet, no?
yep, it would. i really hope this project gets the ok from the BDC. also, it's somewhat different than the other projects we have in this city. NO BRICK, NO HATS!

MasonsInquiries

Jun 6, 2007, 1:06 AM

Westport looks to line up retail
By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter
Originally published May 23, 2007

Turner said plans he unveiled last year have remained mostly intact, with a few changes. For one thing, the developer had to remove a proposed velodrome, a biking arena that could be used for sports or concerts, and rethink plans to create a beach on the waterfront. The proposed site of the velodrome, a former city park, is in a resource conservation district where construction is prohibited, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers preferred creating additional wetlands rather than a beach, Turner said.

i'm really sad to hear the the velodrome isn't it the plans. i was makign plans to use it.:D

PCM

Jun 6, 2007, 2:29 AM

marc1969

Jun 6, 2007, 7:17 PM

While I would love just as much as anyone to see more supertalls downtown, this structure feels out of place in an American City of this size. It feels very cold and lifeless- like something I'd see in Berlin at Potsdamer Platz. I'm not a fan.

However, if Inner Harbor and 300 east pratt go up, maybe it wouldn't be so dominating. Definitely happy to see brick avoided! BUt the exoskeleton look is pretty cold.

I agree. It looks like a building you would find in Hong Kong. What are the locations of them? (Maybe I missed it somewhere above:shrug: ) I'm not sure where there would be room downtown for buildings with what looks like such large floor plates. Just IMO...

marc1969

Jun 8, 2007, 12:23 PM

West side remake gains
Board of Estimates OKs key land swap in bid to renovate rundown retail area

By Lorraine Mirabella
Sun reporter

June 7, 2007

Baltimore's spending board approved a land swap yesterday that will allow developers to move ahead with plans to revitalize a blighted swath of the west side with new apartments, shops and offices.

The approval paves the way for the long-stalled superblock area in Baltimore's old retail district to be developed by two teams - one led by a New York developer and the other a partnership between the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Cordish Co.

But the city still needs to obtain a key parcel now owned by a retailer who has vowed to hang on.

The swap approved by the city's Board of Estimates was agreed to in March by the city and the Weinberg Foundation, one of the biggest property owners in the renewal area. Under terms of the deal, the foundation will receive city-owned or acquired properties on the north side of Lexington Street between Howard Street and Park Avenue. Weinberg and Cordish will redevelop the area, possibly with an office or residential tower.

In return, the foundation will convey properties it owns on the south side of Lexington Street to the city. That area will be redeveloped by Lexington Square Partners LLC, a team selected in competitive bidding by the city more than two years ago.

The Weinberg Foundation and Cordish are working with two potential tenants for a possible office tower, said David S. Cordish, the company's chairman. The team has committed to having ground-level retail outlets facing Lexington Street, he said.
"It is too early to predict the use or uses above the retail," Cordish said in an e-mail. "We have two major prospects we are working with in regard to an office tower. The tower could well be residential; it is too early to say."

Lexington Square plans a $250 million, mixed-use project with 400 one- and two-bedroom apartments in two towers as tall as 14 stories, 900 parking spaces and 300,000 square feet of local and national retail space in a three-block area bounded by Fayette, Howard, Lexington and Liberty streets.

The developers hope to take title on the land from the city by the end of the year, start construction early next year and complete the project two to three years after that.

Shale D. Stiller, president of the Weinberg Foundation, said the agreement with the city stipulates that the Weinberg/Cordish project is not required to move forward until Lexington Square starts construction on the south side of Lexington.

"We are eager to move ahead," Stiller said. "But no one is going to want to move into the small area we have on the north side until the stores and old buildings on the south side are torn down and something is going on. In terms of timing, we hope that [Lexington Square] gets moving very fast."

The agreement to swap properties resolved a dispute over the Weinberg-owned properties that had stalled the project, with the city initiating condemnation.

The agreement approved yesterday acknowledges that the properties the foundation is surrendering are worth more than those it is getting in return.

The city is now appraising properties included in the swap to determine a value and expects to begin negotiations with the foundation to settle on a payment, said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's development arm.

The Weinberg/Cordish project hinges in part on the city's ability to turn over properties it has promised in the land swap north of Lexington.

New York Fashions
Two of those buildings, one fronting on Lexington Street and the other a former movie theater on Park Avenue, have been the flagship store and warehouse for about two decades for New York Fashions, a local chain with stores in nearby malls.

The city is currently having the properties appraised with the intention of making an offer to the New York Fashions' owner, Nam Koo, Brodie said after the Board of Estimates approval.

"We will make a final offer," Brodie said. "We are also trying to meet with him about relocating. This is the only property left," to acquire for the land swap.

But Koo still doesn't want to move from his 12,000-square-foot store, one of the largest retail spaces on the west side, said his attorney, John C. Murphy.

"They really have no interest whatsoever in moving," Murphy said. "This is centrally located. And the flagship is well-located for downtown shoppers. It seems to me this is just totally arbitrary for the city to say we're going to give these properties to the Weinberg [Foundation]."

In the past the city has acquired many of its properties for urban renewal projects through a "quick take" seizure. But in decisions this year, Maryland's highest court has limited the city's use of that tool. The city could use the traditional - and lengthier - condemnation process.

Several property and business owners in the Lexington Square development area have filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of BDC's selection of Lexington Square Partners in 2004 at a closed meeting. That case was sent back to Baltimore Circuit Court by the Maryland Court of Appeals and is set for trial July 30, Murphy said.

Unanimous approval
The five-member Board of Estimates unanimously approved the land swap agreement yesterday after a protest by Arnold M. Jolivet, president of the American Minority Contractors and Businesses Association. Jolivet argued that the city should require the Weinberg/Cordish team to include a minority developer as an equity partner.

"It's been the policy of the city to require developers seeking city assistance to make a good-faith effort to involve minority developers and women developers," Jolivet said.

"There isn't any sound reason why this should be an exception. Without the city's assistance, this project wouldn't be a project," Jolivet said.

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com