Bdc

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.

Now that M.J. "Jay" Brodiehas officially ended his service as head of the Baltimore Development Corporation, it's time to focus on his yet to be named successor and the economic development challenges he or she will face. This century has led off with a major recession and cutbacks in most government programs. We need to focus on the needs of our most distressed neighborhoods as we move forward, using approaches that make the best use of limited resources. According to the list of requirements the city has laid out for the new BDC head, the new director will be expected not only know about real estate development and the many tools the agency now has in place but must also be able to "plan, direct, coordinate and administer a comprehensive economic development plan with city agencies and partners.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

After 16 years at the helm of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's influential, quasi-public economic development arm, M.J. "Jay" Brodie will work his last day at the agency on Friday. "What I've told everybody is … that I'm taking a period of refreshment," Brodie said Thursday morning after a meeting of the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. He said he planned to take at least a month off before committing to new endeavors. Brodie, 75, started at the BDC in 1996 under then-Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.

A former Baltimore Development Corp. official charged with extortion took payments from the head of a growing advertising agency and an East Baltimore property developer, court records show. Terry P. Dean, 46, once a senior development officer with the BDC, was indicted last week on charges of extortion and accepting illegal gratuities for allegedly soliciting and taking $5,000 from two Baltimore businessmen. Records in U.S. District Court in Baltimore identify the men as Bruce Iannatuono, owner of Chesapeake Advertising, which is building a new printing facility in the 900 block of East Fayette St., and Thomas Brooks of 6100 Seaforth LLC, a property developer at the Holabird Business Park in East Baltimore.