Brokerage

Pub Date: 4/23/97

The last time Yasmin and Adil Degani bought a home, they took the traditional route. They went with a commission-based real estate brokerage to show them homes and guide them through the homebuying process. This time around, in an effort to save money and time, they decided to try an emerging path. The Odenton couple went with Redfin, a "technology-powered brokerage" that employs salaried agents and encourages buyers to use online profiles of homes to determine what properties to tour.

The brokerage industry is on a roll.Despite the lingering recession, it was one of the best-performing stock groups in 1991. Many brokerage stocks doubled or tripled in value as investors rediscovered the market and balance sheets went from red to black.In this cyclical business, 1990 was the worst year since 1974. Yet 1991 turned out to be the best year since 1983, boasting profits of $5 billion.Consider industry giant Merrill Lynch, whose return on equity was a mere 5.8 percent in 1990 but an estimated 19 percent for 1991, thanks to record profits of $696 million.

Frank Simms Dudley Jr., an Eastern Shore real estate broker and property appraiser, died of complications after surgery March 3 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The former Baltimore resident was 93. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Frank S. Dudley, a banker, and Edith Shriner, a homemaker. He lived on Roland Avenue and attended Roland Park Country School before graduating from Gilman School in 1939. His studies at the University of Virginia were interrupted by his service in the Navy during World War II. A lieutenant, he commanded a sub chaser and initially patrolled anti-submarine nets off the New York Harbor and later off San Diego and San Francisco.

Ethel S. Braun, president of the Baltimore real estate brokerage E.G. Rock Inc. for 55 years, died Jan. 6 of heart failure at her Glen Arm home. She was 98. Ethel Segerman was born in Baltimore and raised on Mount Royal Terrace. After graduating from the old Mount St. Agnes High School in 1930, she moved to California, where she lived for two years in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. She returned in 1932 to Baltimore, and six years later married Wilson J.C. Braun Sr., who worked for the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River.

The Baltimore Development Corp. has been given authority to handle leasing for The Brokerage, the office and retail center at 34 Market Place that Baltimore City owns and wants to turn into a $30-million National Children's Center and Children's Museum.Baltimore's Board of Estimates yesterday approved a request from BDC to let an affiliate called BDC Brokerage Management Corp. negotiate leases with "child-focused" agencies and other organizations that want to occupy space in the 240,000-square-foot facility.

Seldom has the city Board of Estimates moved as swiftly an with such high spirits to spend $5 million as it did last Wednesday in purchasing the Brokerage, a 280,000-square-foot troubled retail and office complex near the Inner Harbor. Technically, the city agreed to acquire the complex's 276-car parking garage. The Bank of America then donated the rest to remove the troubled property from its books. For the city, the Brokerage was a deal too good to resist. The garage and retail operations cover debt service on the acquisition, which was once considered so lucrative that a previous partnership sank $53 million into it before the property was foreclosed.

SIXTY-SIX-year-old Harold N. Peremel has joined the revolution, and he's loving it.Peremel, president of Peremel & Co., is helping transform the Baltimore-based brokerage he started in 1974 to take advantage of the technology revolution sweeping Wall Street.Two years after the company began offering online trading in 1997, it has introduced a palm-size beeper that lets customers buy and sell stocks, trade options and keep tabs on the market. It also stores messages and fax notes, and holds hundreds of addresses and phone numbers.

NEW YORK -- The American Express Co. said yesterday that it would pump more than $1 billion into its Lehman Bros. brokerage firm, then spin it off to its shareholders, finally closing the door on its unsuccessful effort to become a supermarket of financial services.American Express also said that, partly as a result of the planned spinoff, its earnings rose nearly fourfold in the fourth quarter.The spinoff is expected to be completed in May or June, American Express said, at which time Lehman will become an independent company, with its employees owning about 10 percent of Lehman's stock after investing $160 million.

The city's economic development agency deferred a decision yesterday on the future of the Brokerage complex downtown. Instead, the Baltimore Development Corp. asked developers seeking to revitalize the 34 Market Place project to provide additional economic details of their plans. The BDC hopes to make a decision on the Brokerage proposals next month, said Roger Lipitz, the agency's chairman. Lipitz declined to reveal what information BDC was seeking. In March, BDC received two proposals to redevelop the 250,000-square-foot Brokerage.

As president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Greater Baltimore operations, Dean Cottrill has gotten to know the real estate markets of a great number of communities — from the heart of Baltimore to Ocean City . "I'm all over the place and I love it," said Cottrill, who started his real estate career more than two decades ago, after a stint as an accountant. He worked as a sales agent for just over seven years before moving into management. In 2007, Cottrill joined Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage as a regional vice president.

Albert C. Haeger, a veteran customhouse broker and freight forwarder who owned and operated the old William H. Masson Inc. brokerage, died Aug. 3 of pancreatic cancer at his Bel Air home. He was 85. The son of a merchant marine engineer and a homemaker, Albert Charles Haeger was born and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., where he graduated in 1945 from St. Peter's High School. When he was 18 and fresh out of high school, Mr. Haeger began answering newspaper ads for jobs at custom brokerage firms and received only one reply.

With the ongoing development east of the Inner Harbor, the expanding suburbs in Baltimore and Howard counties and the tried-and-true appeal of downtown, the Baltimore metro region has corporate real estate for every tenant's taste and need. All of those options can be overwhelming, says Daniel J. Shapiro, who aims to become a vital member of Baltimore's business community by helping companies figure out what they want and require from commercial space. "Real estate should not be an afterthought.

William John Salladin II, a former insurance executive who headed All Risks Ltd. for more than three decades, died Friday of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 67. Mr. Salladin, the son of an insurance executive and a homemaker, was born in Proctor, Vt. The family moved to Rumson, N.J., and then to Towson in 1957. After graduating from Towson High School in 1961, Mr. Salladin attended the University of Maryland, College Park. An animal lover, Mr. Salladin was 14 when he began working for a Towson veterinarian and had planned on studying to become a veterinarian.

Ethel S. Braun, president of the Baltimore real estate brokerage E.G. Rock Inc. for 55 years, died Jan. 6 of heart failure at her Glen Arm home. She was 98. Ethel Segerman was born in Baltimore and raised on Mount Royal Terrace. After graduating from the old Mount St. Agnes High School in 1930, she moved to California, where she lived for two years in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. She returned in 1932 to Baltimore, and six years later married Wilson J.C. Braun Sr., who worked for the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River.

William J. Mayer, a former restaurateur turned real estate broker, died Oct. 22 of pancreatic cancer at his Dundalk home. He was 69. Mr. Mayer, who was the son of restaurateurs, was born and raised in New York City, where he was a graduate of city public schools. After briefly attending college, Mr. Mayer went to work for Holiday Inns an East Coast sales representative and later director. From 1981 until 1987, when he moved to Dundalk, Mr. Mayer managed his parents' establishment, Mayer's Parkway Restaurant, in the Bronx.

An auction of the bankrupt Brokerage that was scheduled for this morning has been postponed until after the first of the year.Jim Hodges, building manager for the entertainment complex at 34 Market Place, said the auction has been moved to Jan. 8 for "administrative reasons."Greg Pinkard, vice president of property management for W.C. Pinkard & Co., a commercial real estate firm, said meetings were scheduled today between the principal parties involved in the Brokerage to work out details of the postponement.