Bottling Plant

Peabody Heights Brewery, formerly called Charm City Brewing Company, has signed a lease this month for a bottling plant near Waverly , in the Abell neighborhood. The lease puts it one step closer to becoming the first large-scale brewery to open within city limits in over 30 years. Spearheaded by Stephen Demczuk, owner of Baltimore-Washington Beer Works, and entrepreneur J. Hollis Albert, the brewery expects to be open for business as early as May, though Demczuk says a June launch is more likely.  Peabody will have a 30-barrel brewhouse that its owners hope will eventually produce 40,000 barrels a year of several kinds of beers already made by some of Baltimore's microbrewers.

When a friend told Brad Siegler and Kim Murray that a brewery in Baltimore was throwing a party for the public Saturday afternoon, distance was not a factor for the Columbia couple. "It sounded fun," Murray said at the Peabody Heights Brewery in Abell, where beers like Red Cent Amber and Knuckle-Buster IPA flowed freely, as a rock band played and a mobile food truck sold chicken and waffles. The party was also a coming-out party for the six-month-old brewery and its partners, Stephen Demczuk, J. Hollis Albert and Patrick Beille.

Leaders of three Southwest Baltimore community groups are waging a battle to stop the city from spending $5.5 million in federal funds to relocate a dilapidated bottling plant from its current site in the 900 block of W. Baltimore St.The city wants to pay the plant's relocation costs so the site can be redeveloped with new housing or businesses.But leaders of neighborhood groups in Poppleton, Union Square and Hollins Market are skeptical that the city will follow through with a redevelopment plan if the plant is moved.

Glass bottles moved briskly along new manufacturing lines - some filling with rum, others with tequila - as the plant manager explained just how groundbreaking this was for a site used to a more sedate pace. The Baltimore County plant now can fill up to 300 bottles a minute, compared with 120 to 180 before the switch, said Matt Brownlee. Diageo PLC, a multinational alcoholic-beverage company based in London, pumped just over $50 million into the facility, replacing 40-year-old equipment to speed things up. The new level of automation at the plant in Relay, off U.S. 1, requires fewer people to do the same amount of work.

Federal auditors have criticized the city government for earmarking $5.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money to modernize and relocate a small, rundown West Baltimore bottling plant.The city has already paid $1.4 million to purchase Custom Laboratories Inc. and to move the firm from its current location in the 900 block of W. Baltimore St. To rejuvenate the area, the city would like to see shops or new houses built on the site.The costs -- which include relocating the firm and replacing its antiquated equipment -- are expected to total $5.5 million.

Federal auditors have criticized the city government for earmarking $5.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money to modernize and relocate a small, rundown West Baltimore bottling plant.The city has already paid $1.4 million to purchase Custom Laboratories Inc. and to move the firm from its current location in the 900 block of West Baltimore Street. To rejuvenate the area, the city would like to see shops or new houses built on the site.The costs -- which include relocating the firm and replacing its antiquated equipment -- are expected to total $5.5 million.

The Coca-Cola "cat" almost slipped out of its Howard County bag last week.The secret, in case you still haven't heard it, is that Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. has signed a letter of intent to buy the 120-acre Parkway Corporate Center for $16.8 million and build a %o 650,000-square-foot regional headquarters and bottling plant there.The $100 million facility would be located east of U.S. 1 near proposed Route 100 and the Anne Arundel County line. It would serve the East Coast, have 300 to 500 employees, and consolidate a number of smaller bottling plants in the mid-Atlantic region.

Keeping public informedFrom: William B. WaffSavageAn open letter to County Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass, District 1:The Savage Community Association would like to express its appreciation for your efforts concerning the proposal by Coca-Cola to locate a bottling plant at the former Freestate Raceway Property.We applaud your intentions to keep the citizens informed from the beginning. Your visit to the Cincinnati bottling plant and the subsequent meeting with our communities provided us with the vital information despite the efforts of some to keep the proposal from the public.

County Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass, D-1st, announced Friday that Coca-Cola Enterprises will not be building a bottling plant and regional headquarters on the Freestate Raceway property in her district.Gov. William Donald Schaefer and County Executive Charles I. Ecker had sought to convince Coca-Cola that Maryland and Howard County were an ideal location.But Pendergrass was concerned about the amount of water the bottling plant might use and the amount of truck traffic that would be coming in and out of the plant each night.

The success of its new kosher vodka made in Little Italy has spurred Montebello Brands Inc. to buck a national trend of liquor-company layoffs and buy a bigger local bottling plant to expand.Montebello, a Baltimore-based bottler known for its inexpensive and unusual alcoholic beverages, will buy the Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc. plant in Dundalk and will hire more workers, company President Alfred Bernstein said yesterday.The 57-year-old company needed additional space to bottle its new kosher gin and vodka, as well as its increasingly popular alcoholic iced tea, Mr. Bernstein said.

ON THE SITE... City Hall considers selling 15 historic landmarks : Baltimore's Board of Estimates is slated to approve a contract with a consultant reviewing the sale or lease of the Shot Tower,  Upton Mansion, Clifton Park Valve House and Old Town Friends' Meeting House. The consultant will determine the market value of the landmarks. The Anne Arundel County Council subpoenas police chief to testify on Leopold :  The council wants Police Chief Col. James E. Teare, Sr. to answer questions next week about the political corruption case of County Executive John R. Leopold.

Peabody Heights Brewery, formerly called Charm City Brewing Company, has signed a lease this month for a bottling plant near Waverly , in the Abell neighborhood. The lease puts it one step closer to becoming the first large-scale brewery to open within city limits in over 30 years. Spearheaded by Stephen Demczuk, owner of Baltimore-Washington Beer Works, and entrepreneur J. Hollis Albert, the brewery expects to be open for business as early as May, though Demczuk says a June launch is more likely.  Peabody will have a 30-barrel brewhouse that its owners hope will eventually produce 40,000 barrels a year of several kinds of beers already made by some of Baltimore's microbrewers.

A developer is planning Howard County's third urban-style mixed-use development along the MARC rail commuter line near Elkridge, a site long expected to be used for a Coca-Cola bottling plant. The 122-acre project, called Oxford Square, would include up to 1,400 apartments and condominiums, 1 million square feet of commercial space, retail stores, a hotel and possibly six acres for a school, mimicking similar proposals at the Savage and Laurel Park train stations farther south. The transit station projects have all been promoted as examples of Smart Growth - absorbing new residences and commercial development in areas already served by mass transit, roads, utilities and schools.

A developer is planning Howard County's third urban-style mixed-use development along the MARC rail commuter line near Elkridge, a site long expected to be used for a Coca-Cola bottling plant. The 122-acre project, called Oxford Square, would include up to 1,400 apartments and condominiums, 1 million square feet of commercial space, retail stores, a hotel and possibly six acres for a school, mimicking similar proposals at the Savage and Laurel Park train stations farther south. The transit station projects have all been promoted as examples of Smart Growth - absorbing new residences and commercial development in areas already served by mass transit, roads, utilities and schools.

Seagram Co., the Montreal-based conglomerate that operates a liquor bottling plant in Relay, announced yesterday that it will close some warehouses, bottling plants and distilleries throughout its worldwide operations in an effort to boost profits.The company reported a third-quarter loss of $55 million that included a $290 million pretax charge to cover the cost of plant closings and the elimination of jobs.Chris Tofalli, a spokesman for Seagram in New York, said most of the plant closings will be in Europe, but there will be some in the United States.

Howard County has proposed reopening its Deep Run wastewater treatment plant to handle waste from Coca-Cola Enterprise's new syrup production and bottling plant in Dorsey.The treatment facility off Race Road in Elkridge has been closed since the mid-1980s. It has the capacity to treat 1 million gallons of effluent daily.Maryland Environmental Services, a quasi-state agency that oversees wastewater treatment plants, would have to approve opening the plant.County officials have made the proposal to Coca-Cola Enterprises, which plans to build a $150 million bottling and syrup plant in the Parkway Corporate Center.

Elected officials who visit far-off businesses at taxpayers' expense will usually tell you they're making the trip to entice a company to set up shop in their district.Not Councilwoman Shane Pendergrass, D-1st. She flew to Cincinnati at taxpayers' expense Thursday to check out her perception that a Coca-Cola bottling plant and regional headquarters may not be right for her district.Meanwhile, other officials, including Gov. William Donald Schaefer and County Executive Charles I. Ecker, are seeking to convince Coke that Maryland and Howard County are the real thing.

ON THE SITE... City Hall considers selling 15 historic landmarks : Baltimore's Board of Estimates is slated to approve a contract with a consultant reviewing the sale or lease of the Shot Tower,  Upton Mansion, Clifton Park Valve House and Old Town Friends' Meeting House. The consultant will determine the market value of the landmarks. The Anne Arundel County Council subpoenas police chief to testify on Leopold :  The council wants Police Chief Col. James E. Teare, Sr. to answer questions next week about the political corruption case of County Executive John R. Leopold.

Knudsen & Sons, a subsidiary of the J. M. Smucker Co., whic produces carbonated and noncarbonated fruit drinks, is bottling cases a week at its plant in Havre de Grace.The 68,000-square-foot plant, which was owned by the Chesapeake Beverage Corp. until it was sold at bankruptcy to Smucker in January, has been operating since April."It took a little longer than expected for us to get on line because we had to replace a considerable amount of machinery," said Dennis Armstrong, logistics manager for Knudsen.

Every once in a while, I'll be at a party and some glassy-eyed stranger will come up and say: "You the guy who writes for the newspaper?""That's me," I say brightly.Then I wait for him to stick out his hand and say: "You know, I never used to read the paper. Too much gloom and doom. But one day I was cleaning out the parakeet cage and there was your column, partially shredded and soiled but still legible. The one about dental hygienists, I think. And it . . . I don't know, it was the funniest thing I ever read."