Apartment Building

The University of Baltimore has announced plans by a private developer to build an 11-story, 323-bed apartment building for students on a university-owned parcel of land at the northeast corner of Maryland Avenue and West Biddle Street. The $27 million project marks the first time a developer has undertaken the new construction of student housing in midtown Baltimore, the university said in a news release. The developer, Bethesda-based Potomac Holdings, expects to break ground in April 2011 and to complete the project by summer 2012.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration is asking Baltimore's City Council to award a hefty tax break to a long-stalled west-side development project. Under legislation introduced by the administration, apartments to be built as part of the "Superblock" project near Lexington and Howard streets would receive a deep discount on property taxes for 20 years. City officials said it would not be feasible for the developers to build the 269-unit apartment building and 650-space underground garage without a tax incentive.

A one-alarm fire at a 20-story apartment building in the Charles North community last night injured three elderly residents. Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Canter said the fire broke out about 8 p.m. in a sixth-floor unit at 11 West Twenty Apartments in the first block of W. 20th St. Three residents suffered smoke inhalation - a male occupant of the unit, who was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, and two others, who were treated at the scene....

A two-alarm fire early Friday morning at an apartment complex in Reisterstown displaced residents of 11 units, Baltimore County fire officials said. Firefighters responded to an apartment building at The Preserve at Owings Crossing, located in the unit block of Caraway Road, shortly after 2 a.m. Friday and observed flames going through the roof, according to officials. The fire was brought under control around 5:30 a.m., officials said. Two people required medical attention at the scene and were transported to Northwest Hospital - one by ambulance and one by a family member, officials said.

A four-alarm fire early yesterday destroyed a vacant apartment building in Edgewood, part of an abandoned complex of buildings recently turned over to Harford County by Aberdeen Proving Ground, state fire officials said. No one was injured in the fire, which occurred at 3:50 a.m. in the 6500 block of Hawthorne Drive, but it took 100 volunteer firefighters two hours to control the blaze, said W. Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal. The first firefighters on the scene had to find alternate water supplies after finding the hydrant system for the complex had been disabled, he said.

Scores of residents, many of them elderly, were forced from an apartment building in Northwest Baltimore last night after a three-alarm fire broke out in a first-floor beauty salon. No serious injuries were reported. Fire Inspector Michael Maybin, a Fire Department spokesman, said the fire broke out about 11 p.m. in Marlene & Co. Hair & Nail Salon in the Imperial Condominiums in the 3600 block of Clarks Lane and sent smoke throughout much of the 10-story building, which has at least 60 units.

A Baltimore man was sentenced to 18 months in jail yesterday for breaking into the storage area of an Ellicott City apartment building through the drywall of the ceiling.Carl Daniel Forte, 32, is serving a sentence in Baltimore County for burglary and was linked by police there to more than 10 burglaries in November in which entry was gained through the ceiling.At Town & Country Greensview/West on Town and Country Boulevard, Forte and Gary Pernell Byrd, 33, pried open access panels in hallways, then crawled over the apartments before punching their way through ceilings.

A 33-year-old Columbia man was robbed outside his apartment in Harper's Choice village Monday night, Howard County police said yesterday.Sanford W. Salley Jr. was approached from behind by three men on the sidewalk outside his apartment building, Sgt. Steven Keller, a police spokesman said.One of the men put a black long-barrel revolver to Salley's head and demanded his money, a police report said. A second man took Salley's wallet, police said, and all three fled on foot.Salley was not injured in the incident.

Developers plan to build an upscale apartment building next to the PaperMoon diner in Remington, where the diner's owner once hoped to put a restaurant. Although the Remington Neighborhood Alliance board is opposed, some residents are supportive of the proposal, which would require City Council approval to rezone the land. PaperMoon owner Un Kim abandoned plans for a restaurant after community fears it would become a nightclub. The acre is under contract to developers Sandy Marenberg of Baltimore and Earl Armiger of Howard County.

A failing septic system at an apartment building near Aberdeen, described as a "very serious health risk," has been allowed to go unrepaired for more than two years, despite residents' and neighbors' complaints to the county health department."

A toddler fell three stories from an apartment building window Friday evening in Owings Mills, police said. The 2-year-old boy sustained life-threatening injuries in the fall and was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The fall occurred around 7 p.m. on Willow Bend Drive, police said. There was no update on the child's condition as of 10:15 p.m. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar

The death of a Baltimore County firefighter last year was caused by a confluence of "minor issues," according to the results of an investigation released Wednesday. "The report leads me to conclude that while there is always room for improvement, there was no single cause, no single reason for this death," Baltimore County Fire Chief John J. Hohman wrote in a letter preceding the investigators' conclusions. Mark Gray Falkenhan, 43, became the first Baltimore County firefighter to die in the line of duty in more than 25 years when he was trapped in a third-story apartment during a fire on Jan. 19, 2011, in Hillendale.

After a 25-year-old man was shot and wounded in Northeast Baltimore, police said residents pointed the arriving officers to an apartment building where they said two or three men had gone after the gunfire. Heavily armed members of the Police Department's tactical team went into the building in the 5900 block of Radecke Ave., in Cedonia. Police said the officers not only found the men hiding in a woman's apartment, but found a gun hidden in an air vent in a bathroom. One of the men was arrested in the shooting, which occurred on Friday.

Annapolis Police disclosed Saturday that they encountered a city alderman last week while raiding a an apartment where confidential sources had told police that PCP was being sold, an experience the elected official called “harrowing.” According to a statement sent out by police, a confidential informant gave police information about drug activity in an apartment building in the 1200 block of Madison St., and police obtained “no-knock” search...

A 22-year-old Morgan State University student was found shot to death inside his Charles Village apartment Thursday night, a killing that police said could be drug-related. The victim was identified as Brandon Hudson, who lived in a first-floor apartment in the 2900 block of N. Calvert St. Police said he had been shot in the head while lying on a couch. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi there was no sign of forced entry, and it was unknown when the shooting occurred. Guglielmi said detectives were "exploring multiple angles for a motive [and]

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I turned on a news broadcast just in time to find out about a 2-week-old baby girl who, along with her mother, had just been miraculously pulled out alive from the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck near Ercus, Turkey. They had been buried under the debris for nearly 48 hours. The baby girl was identified as Azra Karaduman. In the background, you could see collapsed buildings and devastation everywhere.

A two-alarm fire extensively damaged an apartment building in the 1100 block of N. Calvert St. yesterday, sending smoke through much of downtown Baltimore and forcing detours for northbound traffic during the afternoon rush hour.No occupants were injured, but one firefighter was treated at the scene for a cut to the hand.Central District police Officer Derry R. Howard said he was driving north about 3: 20 p.m. when he saw flames erupting from the front of the four-story apartment building at 1123 N. Calvert St.After reporting the fire, Howard entered the building and escorted Jenny Mikulski, 27, who was on the first floor, to safety.

The death on Sunday of a woman who went down a trash chute at a downtown Baltimore apartment building is not linked to the fatal plunge of a man in the same chute last year, city police said Wednesday. After 23-year-old Emily Hauze's body was found Sunday in a trash bin at the Park Charles building, detectives reviewed the file of the earlier victim, 30-year-old Harsh Kumar. Authorities confirmed their earlier conclusion that Kumar's death was an apparent accident. An autopsy report reviewed Wednesday shows that Kumar had been drinking alcohol and had simultaneously taken a powerful sleeping drug before he died.

A resident of a Northwest Baltimore apartment building was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Monday evening with injuries suffered when the person jumped from a second floor unit to escape a fire, according to the Baltimore City Fire Department. Firefighters were called to the blaze in the 3000 block of Thorndale Ave. at 9:10 p.m., said department spokesman Kevin Cartwright. They contained the fire to a single until and had it under control in 10-12 minutes, he said. No other injuries were reported.