Bdc

Let me see if I have this right: The firefighting companies across the street from my house (Truck Company 6 and Engine Company 26) are going to be periodically closed, meaning the city is playing Russian roulette with my family's safety. Firefighters, police officers and others are going to be laid off. The budget for repairing our teeth-rattling roads is going to be cut, and recreation centers for our children are going to be closed wholesale. However, the Baltimore Development Corporation, an organization which greases the wheels for wealthy developers and is only under limited control of our elected officials, will gain a $755,437 increase in their budget to grow to $4.04 million ("'Main Streets' projects might be cut," March 31)

The Baltimore City Council on Monday approved a new map for the city's enterprise zone that significantly realigns and diminishes its footprint, from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres. The zone is designed to support investment in and improvement of impoverished sections by offering tax breaks to businesses in the areas. The state reimburses the city for half the lost tax revenue. The new map, created by the Baltimore Development Corp., eliminated residential areas but also cut out some business zones that have seen a change in fortune over the last decade, including Harbor East and Harbor Point.

Money is tight, even for the city's economic development agency. The Baltimore Development Corp. hopes to draw a substantial portion of its budget from the sales of city-owned properties, a mayoral spokesman said Tuesday. The city's spending board is slated to vote to transfer $2.4 million from proceeds from property sales to the BDC Wednesday morning, according to the board's agenda. Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said that the unusual arrangement is meant to be a stop-gap measure to fund the BDC amid last year's budget shortages.    The city faced a $65 million shortfall in the current budget year and is looking to a $52 million shortfall in the coming year.

City economic development officials will hear from the public Tuesday night on a proposal to reduce the size of a city zone in which businesses or developers get property tax breaks for making investments. The Baltimore Development Corp. has scheduled a hearing on proposed changes to the Enterprise Zone, a state tax incentive program, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Emerging Technology Center at Johns Hopkins Eastern, at 1101 33 r d St. The proposed map trims roughly one-third of the current zone, reducing the size from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres.

Baltimore's economic-development arm said Tuesday that it is requesting proposals from firms for a mixed-use redevelopment of five properties in the Pigtown neighborhood. The properties — at 925, 927, 929, 931 and 937 Washington Blvd. — are a mix of commercial and residential space. The Baltimore Development Corp. said it wants developers to propose plans that will anchor the Pigtown/Washington Village Business District. The quasi-public agency wants to see proposals to rehabilitate the buildings "to the largest extent possible.

The directors of the Baltimore Development Corp. need an attitude adjustment. If they didn't understand the recent Maryland Court of Appeals ruling, let us remind them: The city's premier economic development arm is a public agency. And as such, it better start acting like one. In comments published in The Sun yesterday, BDC President M. J. "Jay" Brodie indicated that many of the agency's operations would be protected from public scrutiny because they would fall under exemptions in the state's open-meetings and public information laws.

A development team headed by Seawall Development Company and Cormony Development has been selected to redevelop Baltimore's historic Parkway Theatre as a live entertainment venue. The Baltimore Development Corp. announced Tuesday that it will enter into an "exclusive negotiating privilege" with the developers to give them time to refine their plans for the project, which includes the theater at 3-5 W. North Ave. and two adjacent properties. The team proposed a $12.2 million mixed-use project containing a performing arts venue, bar and museum.

The Inn at Government House would be sold by the city of Baltimore to a private group and renovated for continued use as a small hotel, under a $6 million plan approved Thursday by the Baltimore Development Corp. Directors of the quasi-public agency voted to recommend that the city sell the property at 1125 N. Calvert St. to Government House LLC, a group that offered buy the inn last year after the city sought proposals from developers. . City officials say they want to sell the inn because it isn't making money and needs repairs and they believe a private group could run it more efficiently and profitably.

Baltimore's historic Senator Theatre would be leased to new managers and continue to operate as a setting to see first-run movies, under a recommendation to Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake from the Baltimore Development Corp. The development agency's board of directors voted in closed session Thursday to recommend that a group headed by Charles Theatre owner James "Buzz" Cusack and his daughter, Kathleen, be allowed to lease the York Road landmark for up to 40 years and renovate it for continued use as a movie theater, according to BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie.

City officials hope to transform a closed firehouse in Seton Hill in downtown's west side into a cafe or shop with offices or apartments above, the Baltimore Development Corp. said Monday. The BDC, the city's economic development arm, is seeking proposals to redevelop the two-story brick building at 700 N. Eutaw St. in a neighborhood of historic rowhouses and churches centered around St. Mary's Park. "It's an attractive, stable residential neighborhood, and there are a few little pockets here and there where property could be redeveloped," said John Thompson, economic development officer for the BDC. The community has seen an uptick in development in recent years, including the conversion of the former City College, in a block adjacent to the firehouse, into the Chesapeake Commons apartments as well as the renovation of a commercial strip in the 500 block of N. Eutaw St. Construction is expected to start this year on The M on Madison, a residential rental project at Madison and Howard streets.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, who has headed Baltimore's economic development agency under four mayors and helped shepherd projects such as the Harbor East redevelopment, said Thursday he plans to retire. The Baltimore native and former city housing commissioner is credited with overseeing initiatives to create thousands of jobs and to attract and keep hundreds of businesses in the city during his 16 years as president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's quasi-public economic development arm. Brodie, viewed as highly influential in city development, also has drawn criticism from residents and business owners who have complained about being pushed out by urban renewal and about the secrecy under which they say his agency has operated.

Money is tight, even for the city's economic development agency. The Baltimore Development Corp. hopes to draw a substantial portion of its budget from the sales of city-owned properties, a mayoral spokesman said Tuesday. The city's spending board is slated to vote to transfer $2.4 million from proceeds from property sales to the BDC Wednesday morning, according to the board's agenda. Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said that the unusual arrangement is meant to be a stop-gap measure to fund the BDC amid last year's budget shortages.    The city faced a $65 million shortfall in the current budget year and is looking to a $52 million shortfall in the coming year.

The Baltimore Development Corp. said Thursday it was reissuing a request for proposal to develop three properties, including the former Parkway Theatre, one of the most prominent landmarks in the city's Station North Arts and Entertainment District. The BDC in 2009 confirmed a proposal for the Parkway Theatre project by Cormony Development and Seawall Development Co. But due to "changing conditions" over "considerable periods of time," the city chose to renew the RFP process, according to M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the BDC. Samuel Polakoff, head of Cormony Development, said the BDC never told him and Seawall why it was no longer supporting them as developers.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is seeking proposals for two development projects on the west side of the city. The city's quasi-public development arm announced Thursday that it had reissued a request for proposal for redevelopment of the Liberty Park area, consisting of five city-owned properties along West Fayette and North Liberty streets in the Market Center Urban Renewal Area. A request last year to develop those properties drew no response, according to the BDC. The latest proposal is due Dec. 12. The second request for proposal is for Liberty Clay, two sites within the Market Center Urban Renewal Area.

A historic former school in East Baltimore that has been vacant for years could be transformed into college classrooms or offices under proposals heard by city officials Wednesday. Two groups have submitted plans to the Baltimore Development Corp. to buy and renovate the four-story Gompers Building at 1701 E. North Ave. The 1905 structure housed Eastern High School until 1950. Afterward it served as a vocational school and then as affordable apartments through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program.

A city-owned inn in Midtown-Belvedere has been sold to a private developer with plans to convert the property into a boutique hotel, according to the city's economic development entity. The corporate buyer agreed to pay $725,000 for the Inn at Government House, a three-building complex that was converted under then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer, said Darrell Doan, the Baltimore Development Corp.'s director of economic development for the eastern half of the city. Mount Vernon Mansion LLC, the purchasing company, is led by Eddie Brown of the Baltimore investment firm Brown Capital Management and Martin Azola of real estate developer Azola & Associates.

The city's Board of Estimates approved two deals Wednesday aimed at redeveloping portions of Pennsylvania Avenue in Druid Heights and Washington Boulevard in Pigtown, the Baltimore Development Corp. said. The BDC, the city's quasi-governmental economic development arm, said the development plans would bring mixed-use projects to what are now vacant and decaying stretches of two Main Street commercial corridors. The city is selling five properties, at 2101 through 2111 Pennsylvania Ave., for $13,000 to Sphinx Club Complex LLC, the BDC said.

The Cordish Cos. is seeking $3 million worth of rent breaks on two city-owned properties near the Pier 4 Power Plant complex in exchange for making $6 million to $9 million worth of improvements to help keep existing tenants and attract new ones — possibly including a branch of Maryland-based Phillips Seafood restaurants. Company principals David Cordish and Zed Smith met Thursday with directors of the Baltimore Development Corp. behind closed doors to outline their plans for improving the Power Plant, explain why they are seeking financial assistance from the city and describe how they would apply proceeds from any rent abatement.