Baltimore Development Corp

A veteran Hilton hotel manager has been named general manager of the publicly financed convention hotel now under construction near Oriole Park. Linda Norman has been selected by the Baltimore Hotel Corp. to head the 757-room Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel, the Baltimore Development Corp. announced yesterday. Norman, who begins her new job in mid-August, is charged with overseeing the construction of the $230 million hotel, which is scheduled to open a year later. Norman, who has worked for Hilton for 20 years, has been general manager of the Hilton Los Angeles/Glendale Hotel for the past three years.

A nonprofit group proposing to build 345 apartments, dozens of stores, a multiscreen theater and parking garages on the west side of Baltimore's downtown wants tax breaks from the city to help pay for the project, according to details released yesterday.The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is also asking the city to reopen a pedestrian-only section of Lexington Street to traffic and remove dozens of lighted arches over Howard Street, according to the proposal.City officials have not decided whether to approve the proposal.

Baltimore development officials will begin buying out and relocating after Christmas about 20 shops on the block opposite the Hippodrome theater as part of the city's efforts to rebuild downtown's struggling west side.Replacing the rundown block of stores bounded by Eutaw, Howard, Baltimore and Fayette streets will be hundreds of apartments and dozens of shops built by one of three developers competing for the project, city officials said yesterday.The proposals to be evaluated by the Baltimore Development Corp.

The major stakeholders in the city's proposed west side redevelopment plan yesterday launched a campaign to create a nonprofit corporation devoted to boosting the $350 million effort.Representatives of Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, the University of Maryland Medical System, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation said they support the creation of the West Side Development Corp.They met about 50 business leaders and state officials yesterday during a fund-raising lunch in the Camden Club at Orioles Park.

A nonprofit group proposing to build 345 apartments, dozens of stores, a multiscreen theater and parking garages on the west side of Baltimore's downtown wants tax breaks from the city to help pay for the project, according to details released yesterday.The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is also asking the city to reopen a pedestrian-only section of Lexington Street to traffic and remove dozens of lighted arches over Howard Street, according to the proposal.City officials have not decided whether to approve the proposal.

In Baltimore CountyCounty establishes hot line for residents to report potholesTOWSON -- County residents have a hot line to report potholes.The phone line will be staffed from 7: 30 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. County crews will be dispatched to make repairs after an initial assessment, said Charles R. Harrison, chief of the county Bureau of Highways and Equipment Maintenance.The number is 410-887-3560.3 Franklin High 9th-graders win essay contest on violenceTOWSON -- Three Franklin High School ninth-graders have won the Baltimore County Medical Association's essay contest.

Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration is negotiating with developers to try to discourage them from evicting merchants from a planned reconstruction of the struggling west side of downtown.The newly elected mayor, who as a City Councilman voted in May against an ordinance allowing the condemnation of more than 100 buildings as part of the redevelopment effort, wants developers to include as many threatened shopkeepers as possible, Tony White, his spokesman, said yesterday.Three developers have proposed building hundreds of apartments and dozens of shops across from the closed Hippodrome Theater on Eutaw Street.

Baltimore Planning Commission members approved a 440-space parking garage yesterday for the city's downtown that will require displacement of a dozen businesses, including a popular bar.The $12 million project, which includes demolition of six buildings and the construction of the garage, is designed to alleviate a parking shortage downtown. Parking studies have shown that the city needs 3,600 more spaces downtown for existing businesses."We have lost businesses because of a lack of parking in downtown," said Andrew B. Frank, a director of economic development for Baltimore Development Corp.

Learning lessons from Piper's move to the suburbsYour readers deserve more information on the circumstances surrounding Piper & Marbury's decision to relocate most of its personnel from downtown to a building in Mount Washington.For the past two years, the Baltimore Development Corp. met regularly with Piper's managing partner, Frank Burch, and its real estate representative (Colliers Pinkard) to identify, at Piper's request, suitable new office building opportunities in which Piper would be the major tenant.

Baltimore's new museum for children is not just a new museum for children.When Port Discovery opens Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting and a parade led by the Ravens marching band, it will be charged with two missions:To be a cheeky, Disney-infused "edu-tainment" center where children have a blast as they learn and dream.To be a $32 million high-voltage jump-start for the city's economically troubled east side.Port Discovery, one of the largest children's museums in the country, is promoted as the cutting-edge brainchild of an unprecedented partnership between Disney Imagineering and educators.

The Baltimore Development Corp., the quasi-public agency that has shepherded countless major building projects in Baltimore to completion, has certainly done its share of good over the years in helping to revitalize the city. But the progress the agency has made also has come at a cost: The BDC operates under a shadowy set of rules that, even agency alums acknowledge, are rarely codified and instead are more or less handed down from generation to generation in a kind of municipal oral tradition.

Baltimore officials awarded a demolition contract at the site of a proposed slots casino without public bidding, drawing concern from the city comptroller and the head of a contracting association. Rather than advertise the work as required for most city projects, the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's development arm, approached a handful of demolition firms and asked them to provide prices to knock down the Maryland Chemical building on Russell Street. The agency also sought estimates for a second project using the same selective method, to raze city-owned warehouses currently occupied by a nonprofit architectural salvage firm on Warner Street.

Baltimore City has won a legal fight over plans to redevelop a large piece of the west side, but the opposing sides are already readying for the next round. A Circuit Court judge on Friday dismissed claims in a lawsuit - filed by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos - that challenged the legality of a deal the city struck to redevelop the blighted "superblock" around the 200 block of W. Lexington Street. The suit, filed 2 1/2 years ago, was in Circuit Court because Maryland's Court of Appeals reversed an earlier ruling in favor of the city and sent the case back for a second look.

Affordable housing planned after luxury condo financing fell through A plan to build luxury condominiums on Baltimore's west side that has stalled amid the recession is being reborn as an affordable housing project, M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said Thursday. Brodie said Washington, D.C.-based Oak Street Developers Ltd. presented revised plans to the BDC's project committee and plans to proceed with new housing at North Howard and Madison streets, across from Maryland General Hospital.

City-owned property near Little Italy could become part of a $17 million apartment and retail complex under a plan proposed by A&R Development Corp. of Baltimore and accepted by the city. The Baltimore Development Corp. announced Tuesday that A&R has been selected over one other group that expressed interest in developing the parcels at 110 S. Central Ave. and 1120 Granby St. in the Jonestown/Washington Hill community. A&R proposed combining the city land with several privately owned parcels to create a five-story mixed-use project containing 107 rental apartments, 156 parking spaces and 18,000 square feet of street-level retail space at the intersection of Central Avenue and East Lombard Street.

BDC drafting city slots bill The Baltimore Development Corp. is drafting legislation that would allow slots to go forward in the city as it continues negotiations with the Baltimore City Entertainment Group, the sole bidder for gambling licenses in the city, according to a letter from the BDC. City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake had urged the Dixon administration to draft the needed zoning changes that would allow a gambling parlor to...

Baltimore officials voted yesterday to pay more than $1 million for three parcels of land owned by Gilbert Sapperstein, a liquor license broker and ex-convict who pleaded guilty to defrauding the city school system in 2005. The land deal was approved at a Board of Estimates meeting, which Sapperstein attended. The properties were listed for sale by Gwynn Associates LLP, a company that state records show shares the same address as Sapperstein's Baltimore County home. An official with Baltimore Development Corp.

In a rebuff to city economic development officials, Baltimore's Planning Commission has refused to approve creation of an urban renewal district in the West Covington area of South Baltimore, saying redevelopment plans should go forward but condemnation should not be used to forcibly displace thriving businesses and occupied homes. Panel members voted, 7-1, late Thursday not to recommend an urban renewal bill that would enable the city to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the mostly industrial property on 50 acres along the eastern shore of the Middle Branch and offer it for a privately developed mixed-use project.

The city agency that oversees Baltimore development has received a subpoena from the Maryland state prosecutor's office, which has been conducting an investigation into spending practices at City Hall. The Baltimore Development Corp., an arm of city government that brokers land deals on behalf of Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration, has been ordered to hand over documents by the end of next month, a top city lawyer told The Sun yesterday. City officials would not disclose the contents of the subpoena, but it was issued days before prosecutors raided the offices of a prominent development firm, Doracon Contracting Inc., in what appears to be a widening investigation into city government spending.

Many of the city's most prominent developers propose building Baltimore's new indoor sports and concert arena outside of downtown and pairing the facility with ambitious waterfront projects or struggling areas in need of a boost. Ed Hale wants the new arena in Canton, near his growing empire. Patrick Turner suggests Westport, where his $1.4 billion development is under way. Struever Bros. proposes a site north of Penn Station or keeping the current location downtown. Also possible is an 11-acre parcel south of the Orioles and Ravens stadiums, where state lawmakers are considering putting a slots casino.