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 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it is awarding $400,000 to the Baltimore Development Corp. to evaluate potentially contaminated property in the city for cleanup and redevelopment. The BDC, the city's economic development agency, is to receive two grants of $200,000 each after Oct. 1 to assess sites for contamination with hazardous substances or specifically with petroleum products. Shawn M. Garvin, the EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, said the grant funding is intended to serve as a catalyst for urban revitalization.

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.'s board on Thursday morning approved the sale of a warehouse site in the neighborhood just north of Little Italy and east of downtown so that a $45 million apartment complex can be built. The property, at 1107 E. Fayette St. in Jonestown, will be sold for $180,000. That is the appraised value of the property minus $275,000, the amount that it is estimated the demolition of the structure on the site will cost, according to Darrell Doan, the BDC's managing director of real estate development.

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 Baltimore Development Corp. is requesting proposals for the former "balloon site" at 701 E. Baltimore Street after receiving a new, unsolicited plan for the site from The Cordish Cos. -- the Baltimore development firm that until recently held the development rights for the property. Cordish gained the right to build on the site in 2005. But Cordish's exclusive negotiating privilege for the property has expired, said Kim Clark, the BDC's acting president. Because Cordish recently submitted a new plan for the site, the BDC issued on Friday another request for proposals, she said.

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.

The Baltimore Development Corp. board this morning agreed to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the owner of the former Examiner building, 400 E. Pratt St., so that an addition to the building can be built on city-owned land. The Peter D. Leibowits Co. wants to build a 22,600 square foot, glass-fronted retail space on land along East Pratt and Commerce streets, according to BDC records. The plan, which the developer hopes will be leased to a national retail chain or restaurant, is expected to make the Pratt Street sidewalk more pedestrian friendly, BDC Economic Development Officer Kerry DeVilbiss told the board.

The Baltimore Development Corp.'s board on Thursday morning approved the sale of a warehouse site in the neighborhood just north of Little Italy and east of downtown so that a $45 million apartment complex can be built. The property, at 1107 E. Fayette St. in Jonestown, will be sold for $180,000. That is the appraised value of the property minus $275,000, the amount that it is estimated the demolition of the structure on the site will cost, according to Darrell Doan, the BDC's managing director of real estate development.

I am personally bowled over by the not-so-proactive Gov. Martin O'Malley and his shrewdly-schemed spin on the catastrophic events at the Baltimore Detention Center ("Spinning corruption," May 1). The news of the goings-on at the BDC was such a pertinent item it was picked up by news agencies the world over. The prisoners were running the show under the big tent. How was Mr. O'Malley going to spin this one? First, he absolved himself of any involvement by placing himself outside the realm of accountability.

The Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development agency, is looking for an outside consultant to provide an analysis of the city's "economic development landscape," according to a request for applications issued Tuesday. The consultant is being asked to assess the city's "existing economic conditions, obstacles, opportunities for expansion, and strengths," as well as identify "priorities and options to move the City's economy forward" and figure out a way "to track the success of new initiatives in terms of job growth, investment, and economic impact," according to the request for proposals.

The board of the Baltimore Development Corp. is recommending the city approve a developer's request for $107 million in tax increment financing to pay for roads, utilities and parks for the $1 billion mixed-use Harbor Point development on the waterfront between Harbor East and Fells Point. The board of the BDC, the city's development agency, voted Thursday to send a recommendation to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for consideration. The financing, a way to fund construction of public infrastructure for new development, also requires City Council approval.

Until last month, M.J. "Jay" Brodie was the only person to hold the title of president of the Baltimore Development Corp. since it was organized in the mid-1990s into its current form, with a largely private-sector board of directors. What the city's nonprofit, economic development agency became during his time at the helm allowed for some of Baltimore's most admired economic progress in recent years, including the construction of Harbor East and the public offering of stock by Millennial Media Inc., the mobile advertising company that got its legs with help from a technology incubator founded during Brodie's tenure.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore Development Corp. have selected the Maryland Film Festival's proposal for the renovation of the historic Parkway Theatre at 3 W. North Ave., according to an official who spoke Thursday morning at the BDC's monthly board meeting. The city hopes to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Film Festival shortly, said Darrell Doan, a BDC staffer who manages the corporation's real estate transactions. The Film Festival is partnering with the Maryland Institute College of Art and Johns Hopkins University on their proposal for the Parkway.

City officials have decided to move forward with a private developer's plan to turn six downtown buildings into apartments, the Baltimore Development Corp. announced Wednesday. The buildings -- 117 Water St. and 26, 30, 32, 34 and 36 S. Calvert St. -- will be converted by PMC Property Group, of Philadelphia, into 140 market-rate rental units and roughly 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail, the BDC said in a statement. An earlier agreement between the city and another developer to rehabilitate the vacant, city-owned commercial buildings was terminated by the city after the developer failed to more forward with their proposal for the cluster of structures.

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.

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.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is requesting proposals for the former "balloon site" at 701 E. Baltimore Street after receiving a new, unsolicited plan for the site from The Cordish Cos. -- the Baltimore development firm that until recently held the development rights for the property. Cordish gained the right to build on the site in 2005. But Cordish's exclusive negotiating privilege for the property has expired, said Kim Clark, the BDC's acting president. Because Cordish recently submitted a new plan for the site, the BDC issued on Friday another request for proposals, she said.

The Baltimore Development Corp. board this morning agreed to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the owner of the former Examiner building, 400 E. Pratt St., so that an addition to the building can be built on city-owned land. The Peter D. Leibowits Co. wants to build a 22,600 square foot, glass-fronted retail space on land along East Pratt and Commerce streets, according to BDC records. The plan, which the developer hopes will be leased to a national retail chain or restaurant, is expected to make the Pratt Street sidewalk more pedestrian friendly, BDC Economic Development Officer Kerry DeVilbiss told the board.