Bainbridge

PORT DEPOSIT -- On the hill high above this riverfront town, construction workers are taking the first steps toward transforming a run-down and abandoned Navy base into what is being promoted as one of the premier residential and business parks in the Mid-Atlantic region. "It's has been a long time coming," Mayor Robert Flayhart said of a billion-dollar-plus project that is considered the largest development in Cecil County history and one of the largest in Maryland. "We've waited so long," he said of a plan, seven years in the making, to redevelop the 1,200 acres of the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center, which closed in 1976.

A team of influential Maryland developers received preliminary approval last night to redevelop the Bainbridge Naval Training Center, a 1,200-acre facility on a hill overlooking Port Deposit that has been closed for nearly 30 years. The approval came in a split vote by the board of the Bainbridge Development Corp., and was followed by the resignation of two of its nine members in protest of the agency's handling of the redevelopment bid. The board's chairwoman, Cynthia Rossetti, also stepped down from her post, indicating that she may resign later from BDC - a quasi-public agency created by the General Assembly in 1999 to oversee development of the former Navy boot camp in Cecil County.

PORT DEPOSIT - Citizens living in and around this Susquehanna riverbank town have begun rallying their forces in preparation for a showdown tomorrow evening over the proposed development of the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center property on a hill overlooking Main Street. "We're here to let the Bainbridge Development Corp. know what we want and, more importantly, what we don't want at the site," Suzanne Wojtech told a meeting of about 20 area residents who gathered Wednesday evening at the Chesapeake Center.

Gentlemen, turn off your engines.A study to be released by the Maryland Economic Development Corp. says the cost of a proposed major motor sports facility at the old Bainbridge Naval Station site in Cecil County and the current economic downswing make such a project unrealistic.The report, due this week, recommends the development of a "mixed use" area -- with a golf course, residential area and industrial complex."There are at least four major reasons we've decided to go in another direction," said Hans F. Mayer, MEDCO's executive director.

The deteriorating former Bainbridge Naval Training Center will be turned into a $750 million upscale, mixed-use community featuring an office campus, retirement center, hotel, recreation facilities and diversified housing where people can live, play and work, according to the development team looking at the property. "I'm taken aback by all the [community] resistance to this project," said developer Clark Turner. "This project will set new standards and escalate the level of all future development in Cecil County.

A group of politically connected developers that includes Baltimore's John Paterakis wants to build a retirement community, hotels, offices and other businesses at the site of a closed naval training center in Cecil County, officials confirmed yesterday. Paterakis has been a proponent of allowing casino gambling in Maryland, but the group's lead partner says casinos aren't part of the plan for the proposed $500 million-plus project. "There's no thought of that at all - zero," said Richard M. Alter, president of Columbia-based Manekin LLC. However, Alter said the group would be interested if Maryland officials ever open the door to casinos at selected sites and decide that the 1,200-acre former training center in Bainbridge would be a good location.

State and local officials are beginning what they say is a critical phase in determining the course of redevelopment of the old Bainbridge Navy boot camp near Port Deposit.The 1,300-acre former Naval Training Center site has great potential for expanding Cecil County's commercial and industrial base and creating much-needed jobs in northeastern Maryland, the officials say. But no decisions on a redevelopment plan will be made without extensive public input, they said.The most publicized possible use is as a major auto raceway and test track for auto manufacturers.

During World War II more than 50,000 military and civilian personnel worked at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center on a plateau overlooking Port Deposit and the Susquehanna River. Survivors still have memories of the days they were stationed there. They remember Hall of Fame baseball player Stan "The Man" Musial washing windows of the barracks. They remember Jack Benny, Count Basie and the Andrews Sisters performing at the amphitheater. On Sunday, the Naval Training Center Historical Association Inc. will hold Bainbridge Sunday to welcome past associates back to the Navy boot camp that closed in 1976.

The development team that walked away from a plan to redevelop the former Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Port Deposit wants a new chance to present its ideas for the 1,200- acre site. "The Manekin team will give a presentation of its plans [for the property] Dec. 8," Cynthia Rossetti, chairwoman of Bainbridge Development Corp., announced Thursday. She said the meeting would be held at 7 p.m. in the Technology Center at Cecil Community College in North East. Rossetti said she did not know the details of the Manekin team's presentation, but she assumed that it would cover the team's plans for the entire site, including the Berkshire tract, which was to be the location of a technology park.

The Bainbridge Development Corp. mailed a letter Friday to the proposed developers of the former Navy base at Port Deposit inviting them back to give a new presentation of their plans for what is considered one of the prime real estate sites on the East Coast. The move to invite the so-called Manekin team back comes at a time when there are reports of other developers expressing interest in the property, including the Rouse Co. of Columbia; Kinsley Properties of York, Pa., and Lowe Enterprises Community Development Inc. of Reston, Va. Cynthia Rossetti, who took over as chairwoman of the BDC last month, said she would ask Richard Alter, president of Manekin LLC in Columbia, to update his organization's plan for Bainbridge.