BDC

The developers of Harbor East want the city of Baltimore to prepare their half-billon dollar property by installing $2.9 million worth of infrastructure and a promenade. H&S Properties and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse also seek a 15-year deferral on the taxes for an office building proposed for this property and to pay no taxes on a planned parking garage for 25 years. Those favoring this arrangement argue that such support will keep and expand business in the city and that this development will eventually pay off in jobs and taxes.

Plans for a prominent site on the eastern edge of downtown, in the heart of the city's entertainment district, have substantively shrunk since they were announced two years ago, according to Baltimore's economic development agency. Developer David Cordish intends to build only half as much as he formerly envisioned on land once home to a helium balloon ride that closed after a harrowing incident in 2004. Cordish had promised Baltimore Development Corp. that at the foot of a 250-unit high-rise of condominiums and apartments, he would build a Lucky Strike Lanes, an upscale bowling "lounge" - part of a network with 16 locations nationwide including Washington.

The Baltimore Development Corp. yesterday asked companies interested in redeveloping Rash Field into a harborside parking garage and recreational area to submit credentials and cost estimates for planning by Feb. 15. Plans for the park - on the north side of Key Highway across from Federal Hill Park - call for raising it high enough to accommodate a parking garage below, with the park covering the garage. The BDC's request yesterday called for interested companies to present past projects and approximate design costs.

Less than two months after purchasing a downtown office building for $1.1 million, a member of the mayor's Parking Advisory Board sold it to the city for $2 million for conversion to a parking garage.The transaction -- between parking board member Milton H. "Mickey" Miller Jr. and the Baltimore Development Corp. -- took place May 12, 56 days after Miller and a partner bought the property at 117 Water St.Andrew Frank, the BDC executive vice president who handled the purchase, said he did not know how much Miller paid for the nine-story building, but he believes the city got a fair deal, even considering Miller's 81.8 percent profit.

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 attorney and Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos has asked for a second extension in the exclusive negotiating privilege he has with the Baltimore Development Corp. to build a $150 million Grand Hyatt hotel downtown.The negotiating rights expired at 6 p.m. yesterday with no deal made final for the proposed 850-room hotel, which is to open in 2001 adjacent to the Baltimore Convention Center.In a letter delivered to the BDC yesterday afternoon, Angelos spokesman Tom Marudas asked for a 90-day extension.

Mark Sissman, deputy housing commissioner in Baltimore during the mayoral administration of William Donald Schaefer, is returning to city government after a 14-year hiatus.City officials said yesterday that Sissman will be an economic development consultant to the Baltimore Development Corp., working on a six-month contract to help identify sources of funds to carry out the city's $350 million plan to redevelop the west side of downtown and other large-scale projects.BDC President M. Jay Brodie said the development corporation has been negotiating to hire Sissman from Jan. 1 to June 30 and that Sissman would work out of BDC's offices.

The former Procter & Gamble site on 26 acres in Locust Point may change hands for the second time in two years. P&G vacated the waterfront site in 1995 and sold it a year later for nearly $7 million to A&E International Ltd., a Korean spirits maker that said it would manufacture Korean liquor there.Those plans never crystallized, and now Gerson P. Polun, a local architect and president of Fort Carroll Associates, a development company, said he has a contract for an undisclosed amount on the sprawling brick complex.

Peter G. Angelos' proposed downtown convention hotel tower is up for a vote by key city economic planners today in a move that could mean the construction of both that hotel and the controversial 750-room Wyndham hotel a mile away.While the outcome of the vote is uncertain, sources say that board members of Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-public agency that oversees downtown development for the city, are poised to approve Angelos' 850-room Grand Hyatt Hotel to be linked directly to the Convention Center.

Looking to boost Baltimore's image as a center for international commerce, the Baltimore Development Corp. has hired its first director of foreign trade zones operations.Suzanne B. Reil, 46, has 18 years' experience in creation and management of foreign trade zones, which allow businesses and individuals to import and store goods without paying customs duties and taxes.Reil's primary responsibility is to market Baltimore's current zone at the Point Breeze Business Center near the port to new businesses, as well as to establish up to four others, said M. J. "Jay" Brodie, the BDC president.

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.

The Baltimore Development Corporation, the city's quasi-public development arm, over the past year and a half awarded six contracts totaling $2.3 million to demolish buildings without publicly advertising the work, documents have revealed. Each of the six contracts was worth more than $25,000, the amount that is supposed to trigger public notice when work is requested by city agencies. Instead, the BDC asked companies for their prices, and, in the case of two contracts - including one for $1.5 million - did not award the work to the firm offering the lowest price.

The city's development arm announced Thursday it will cancel a $1.5 million contract to demolish eight downtown buildings at Calvert and Lombard streets, the second planned demolition to be halted since The Baltimore Sun reported that the agency was not following the city's open-bidding rules. "We're not planning to do any future demolition at this time," said Baltimore Development Corp. President M.J. "Jay" Brodie. "We are not going to follow this approach of BDC soliciting work." The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that the agency had awarded a $378,477 demolition contract at the proposed site of a slots casino after soliciting prices from a handful of firms rather than advertising the work publicly.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon directed the city's quasi-public development arm Tuesday to use a competitive bidding process for all future demolition projects, reversing a year-old policy and bringing the agency into line with city rules. The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that the Baltimore Development Corp. awarded a $378,477 contract to demolish the Maryland Chemical building to P&J Contracting, owned by Pless Jones, without publicly advertising that the job was available. Instead, BDC officials contacted a handful of city demolition firms and picked the lowest of three offers they received.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is making a push to keep the national headquarters of the NAACP in the city rather than see the civil rights organization move to Washington or Montgomery County. Representatives of the city's economic development agency have compiled a list of more than 15 locations in Baltimore's central business district that could meet the organization's space needs and visited four of them with NAACP personnel, according to Phil Croskey, director of development for the agency's west team.

Baltimore's efforts to redevelop a large tract on the west side has hit a formidable roadblock. A recent ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit challenging the legality of the development process. And there's little reason to expect that the driving force behind the lawsuit, attorney Peter G. Angelos, won't want his day in court. That leaves Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Development Corp., which is overseeing the project, in an untenable position. They can fight the lawsuit in court or try and reason with Mr. Angelos and company outside of court.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is expected to announce today that it has narrowed the list of potential sites for a new arena, and several developers believe the current location of the 1st Mariner Arena will be chosen for the new venue. Many of the city's most prominent developers have proposed building a new arena outside downtown, such as in Canton, on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, or near M&T Bank Stadium. But support appears to be growing for constructing an arena on its current location, on West Baltimore Street downtown.

Rosemont residents have long lobbied the city to inject new life into a West Baltimore warehouse that's stood mostly vacant since a supermarket company pulled out years ago. Now that hoped-for revitalization appears to be on the way. The Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday that it has found a company to redevelop the site. Himmelrich Associates Inc., a city real estate company best known for transforming the old Montgomery Ward catalog house and department store in Southwest Baltimore into upscale offices, is proposing a $22 million "community hub" with senior housing, offices, light manufacturing space and retail.

A two-story shopping and office complex is planned for a key intersection of the Lauraville business district in Northeast Baltimore, the Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday. The BDC selected developers JBL Great Baltimore Properties to build the $1.6 million project in the 4500 block of Harford Road and will begin negotiations to sell the developers the city-owned property. Montebello Crossing will be a 15,000-square-foot building with first-floor shops with outdoor seating and a second floor for studios, offices or other businesses.

When lawyer Robert A. Sapero gets hold of a property, there's no letting go. At least that's how he has treated the Chesapeake Restaurant, the long-shuttered eatery at North Charles and Lanvale streets that the city has tried to buy more than once from him and then seize unsuccessfully through condemnation. Mr. Sapero has held out, until now. He may have been covetous or just plain obstinate, but his recent change of heart about selling the cluster of rowhouses that include the former restaurant should reinvigorate efforts to revitalize the area.