Apartments

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Deputy state fire marshals on Sunday arrested a Joppa man who they believe set two small fires in a woman's apartment after getting into an argument with her. The Office of the State Fire Marshal said Ryan Lawrence Spann, 28, argued with a woman living at 209 Foxhall Drive, an apartment complex in Bel Air, before the woman left. Deputies said Spann then set two fires in the apartment with "ordinary household items," which the woman discovered when she returned home about 1 a.m. Sunday to smoke alarms sounding.

Residents of eight apartments in Aberdeen were displaced Tuesday afternoon following a fire in their building. The fire, reported around 3 p.m. in a building in the 300 block of South Parke Street, was determined to be accidental, started by contractors who were working in the building, Rich Gardiner, a spokesman for the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association, said Tuesday evening. The residents displaced are being helped by Red Cross Disaster Assistance, he said. Gardiner said it took about 65 firefighters from Aberdeen Fire Department, Aberdeen Proving Ground Fire Department, Susquehanna Hose Company and Level Volunteer Fire Company about 20 minutes to control the fire, which affected the eight units in the building.

H&S Properties Development Corp. plans to push its Harbor East development east across Central Avenue with an expanded Whole Foods Market, a possible department store and apartments on two sites, baker-turned-developer John Paterakis Sr. said Friday. The developer will convert the one-story, brown-painted H&S Bakery distribution center into one or two floors of retail space, with apartments above, Paterakis said. H&S Bakery revealed intentions last month to move the center to an East Baltimore office park, freeing up the real estate by the end of 2014, he said.

An early morning fire at a Randallstown apartment complex has displaced 16 people and damaged 12 units. One firefighter from the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company received minor injuries and has been treated and released from an area hospital. Firefighters responded shortly after 2 a.m., when the the Baltimore County 911 Center received several calls about a fire on the third floor of a building in the 3600 block Yennar Lane, near North Rolling Road. The fire spread quickly across the attic and through the roof of two adjoining buildings.

Yet another downtown commercial building is being converted to apartments. The red-brick building at 300 Cathedral St., known as Odd Fellows Hall, is currently being refurbished by a Washington-based developer, Broadwater Capital LLC, the Downtown Partnership said in a statement Monday. The building will contain 59 market-rate apartments and will begin leasing next summer, the partnership said. It is situated between West Pleasant and West Saratoga streets. “There continues to be a significant demand for professionals to move closer to their work and 300 Cathedral's proximity to Baltimore's City Center, Mount Vernon and the Westside provides tenants a Class-A living space that is within walking distance to major businesses, the Inner Harbor, Medical Centers and local restaurants,”  said Ahmad Hajj, a principal with Broadwater Capital, in the partnership's statement . Broadwater purchased the 72,000 square foot building in September for $1.1 million, according to state tax records.

The owner of a vacant nine-story office building at 11 E. Chase St. in Midtown-Belvedere is seeking city approval to convert the property to 56 apartments. A group called Daejan 11 E. Chase LLC, represented by Samuel Monderer, has applied to Baltimore's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals to convert the historic Algonquin building to residential use. Monderer also controls the neighboring apartment building at 1010 St. Paul St. and a parking lot between the two buildings. A zoning board hearing has been set for Tuesday.

A Virginia firm is planning to convert 10 Light Street, Baltimore's iconic red-brick office tower topped with green and gold, into apartments. “The 520,000 square foot, 34 story structure will be converted to 445 for-lease residences,” according to a statement on the website of Metropolitan Partnership Ltd., the Reston, Va., development firm that purchased the building in November for $6 million. Ten Light was completed in 1929 and last sold in 2002, for $5.3 million to the Nellis Corp.

The Algonquin was known as one of Baltimore's finest apartment buildings when it opened around 1914, with fluted columns, parquet floors, oak paneling and fireplaces in many of the residences. The renowned architect William Nolting, of Wyatt and Nolting, designed the building at 11 E. Chase St. and lived in apartment E-8 for nearly 20 years. In the 1940s, the nine-story building was converted to doctors' offices and became known as the Medical Arts Building. Now it's set to go back to its original use and name, under a $5 million plan to turn it back to "high-end" apartments.

Westminster Church Homes Foundation Inc. is host for a Celebration of Progress at 2 p.m. Sunday for 79 new apartments at Ridge Residences, 101 Timber Ridge Drive.The new residences will provide apartments for low-income and frail elderly citizens and include kitchen and dining room.The building is being built by Hostetter Construction Corp. of Hanover, Pa. Money for the $4.6 million project have come primarily from Housing and Urban Development and Community Development Administration. Local funds of $100,000 have been contributed, but $200,000 moreis needed to cover expenses not included in the mortgage.

A Washington, D.C., police officer was charged Tuesday with money laundering in connection with an alleged drug-trafficking scheme in the Pittsburgh and Baltimore areas. Federal authorities say more than $2 million in proceeds from cocaine was hidden. Officer Jared K. Weinberg, 28, was taken into custody Monday at the 4th District police station, according to a department spokeswoman. The charges in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh allege a broad conspiracy that includes meetings in which prosecutors say large amounts of cash were exchanged at apartment buildings in Howard County and at the Mall in Columbia.

As many times as it rolls around, I never outgrow the FlowerMart, which opened Friday and runs through Saturday. It's held in May and timed to take advantage of the best part of Maryland's spring. Any event that draws so many families, especially babies in strollers, mothers and grandmothers, to a hallowed Baltimore neighborhood gets my vote, even if, truth be told, I am not much of crab cake fancier. Mount Vernon has long fascinated me. I was not long free of those baby carriages when I was taken along Charles Street and spied an exotic retail mix of first-floor and basement-level shops selling old maps, rare clocks, books, antiques or other items not found at Woolworth's.

The proposed $60 million apartment-and-retail development proposed for the Towson Triangle is dredging up an old ambivalence about the character of the Baltimore County seat. Is it a college town? A community for families and children? A commercial downtown? A shopping and entertainment district? A home for empty-nesters? It is, and long has been, all of the above, coexisting in what is at times an uneasy balance that grows more uneasy periodically when any one segment of the community seeks to expand its presence.

About 100 firefighters battled a large fire in a block of apartments in eastern Baltimore County on Sunday night, the county Fire Department said, though no one was reported to have been injured in the blaze. The two-alarm fire was reported in the 9110 block of Abigail Drive, off Franklin Square Drive, about 8 p.m., and fire was showing from the second and third floors of an apartment, the department said. The fire was under control about an hour later. Investigators are working to determine what caused the fire and the extent of damages.

Forty-one years ago, Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel pulled off a series of staggering triumphs that The Sun compared to winning the Triple Crown: Maryland's first gun-control law; a unique, state-run auto insurance agency; and a higher gasoline tax to support Baltimore's first rapid rail line. He achieved this in the face of ferocious opposition from the National Rifle Association and the insurance and trucking industries. It took Mr. Mandel's enormous persuasive skills - including arm-twisting and deal-making - to win those monumental battles.

A handful of residents opposed to the rezoning of 91 acres in Fulton across from Reservoir High School spoke out during Monday's Planning Board meeting at Glenelg High School. More residents who don't want an apartment complex were in the audience. "For all its purported emphasis on enhancing quality of life for future residents, this amendment fails to account for the lives of those of us who have already chosen Fulton to raise their family," said Fulton resident Phil Hartten. The hearing was the second session held by the Planning Board as it considers comprehensive zoning requests.

A 28-year-old man was struck in the head with a gun and shot at in Perryman near Aberdeen on Wednesday night, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. Deputies responded to the 200 block of Perrywood Court about 7:20 p.m. after being called by the man, and found him there with a laceration on his head, said Capt. Chris Swain, a sheriff's office spokesman. The man, who was not identified, told police he was walking in the area when three men "came out of nowhere" and one of them "hit him with a gun and knocked him down," Swain said.

A Baltimore developer was given zoning approval Tuesday to build apartments on one of Hampden's last remaining vacant lots. The Baltimore Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals signed off on plans for 10 apartment units with 12 off-street parking spaces to be built on a triangular plot near the intersection of Roland Avenue, Hickory Avenue and West 34th Street. The development wraps around the corner lot and each apartment unit is designed to look like a modern rowhouse. According to the developer's renderings, four units will face Roland Avenue, six will look out onto Hickory Avenue and an entrance to the building will open onto the sidewalk off West 34th Street.

Developers converting older office buildings into apartments or building new complexes could get a significant tax break under a measure the Baltimore City Council approved Monday. The legislation is aimed at addressing a glut of vacancies in office buildings downtown, encouraging new or converted apartments in six other neighborhoods, and drawing new residents to the city. The list of requirements to qualify for the tax break is short: The development must be in one of the seven areas, must be a project involving at least 50 apartment units, and must have an environmentally friendly certification.

Howard County police have arrested a man they say set fire to an apartment in Columbia Friday and hurled obscenities at police officers before fleeing. Alejandro Adolfo Rodriguez, 25, of the 5300 block of Harpers Farm Road in Columbia, is charged with first- and second-degree assault, first- and second-degree arson, and malicious burning. Police spotted him walking in the 5400 block of Eliots Oak Road in Columbia and arrested him without incident at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, they said.