Caldor

Caldor Inc., the parent corporation of the Caldor department store chain, is reopening a location in Severna Park that it abandoned nearly two years ago.Caldor moved out as an anchor tenant in the Severna Park Mall in September 1989 after failing to reach a lease agreement with the mall's management.But that was when Caldor was owned by May Department Stores Inc. Subsequently May sold the chain to a group that operates as Caldor Inc. Its officials say they are eager to return to a location they considered profitable the first time around.

The Social Security Administration, in the midst of a $100 million overhaul of its complex of buildings in Woodlawn, has found an unlikely place to house its displaced workers: a former Sam's Club. Workers began moving last week into the unused "big box" store, which is near the agency's campus abutting the Baltimore Beltway west of the city. The federal government leased the building for 10 years and will rotate up to 700 workers into the new offices at any time. "We'll use it as swing space as we do work on different buildings in Woodlawn," said Robert J. Shaw, a public information officer for the General Services Administration, which handles leasing.

Police arrested a Baltimore woman Wednesday and charged her with shoplifting $113 worth of merchandise from the Caldor store in Ferndale.A woman walked into the store, in the 7300 block of Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., shortly before 7:30 p.m., picked up several pairs of boxer shorts and walked out of the store without paying for them, police said.A store security guard caught the woman and held her until police arrived.Shykeia McMilliam, 28, of the 700 block of Mulberry St. in Baltimore was arrested and charged with theft.

After years of health complaints from workers in the Investment Building, Baltimore County began moving offices out of the high-rise last night and into a former Caldor department store near the city line. The Drumcastle Center, as the renovated building has been named, will eventually house about 900 county and state employees in 161,200 square feet on three floors. Parts of the Health Department and the Office of Community Conservation will be moved in this weekend, with other departments to follow this month.

Caldor, the discount department store that left Reisterstown Road Plaza five years ago because of poor sales, will return to the mall for another try next year, a spokeswoman for the mall's owner said yesterday.Mary Pat Baxter, general counsel for Continental Realty Corp., said Caldor Inc. will replace Ames Department Stores, which informed the mall management this week it plans to close its store at the shopping center as part of the company's reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.Ms.

NORWALK, Conn. -- At least three factors stopped approving shipments to Caldor Corp., said a person familiar with the situation, meaning the retailer might not be able to keep its shelves fully stocked.The news comes as Caldor, which has struggled amid fierce competition, said it is experiencing "sluggish sales." The company has 12 stores in Maryland.Analysts said they expect same-store sales to decline by about 8 percent in August on slow back-to-school sales. That would be the sixth straight month of declining sales at Caldor stores open at least a year.

NEW YORK -- Kohl's Corp., a fast-growing U.S. department-store company, is interested in buying about 30 stores from Caldor Corp. to speed its expansion in the Northeast, analysts and investors said yesterday.Caldor, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since 1995, stopped paying suppliers last week. The regional discount chain has been negotiating with creditors who want Caldor to liquidate and sell its 145 stores to increase the amount they recover.The stores Kohl's is looking at are in southern Connecticut and nearby areas, analysts said.

At the Dollar Outlet in Catonsville Plaza, Joyce Branch has taped helium balloons to a corner of her plate-glass window for a reason. That way, the shop owner can gaze at the festive display -- and block the view of a vast, empty parking lot that separates her small store from a vacant Caldor.Branch once had a more pleasant view. Six months ago she and her husband, George, opened the shop in the plaza on U.S. 40, sharing a small strip with a dry cleaner, a drug store, a rental center and a wig shop.

NEW YORK -- Bankrupt Caldor Corp. is being sued for $26 million by a liquidators' group that claims it paid too much for inventory at the discount chain's 145 stores.The liquidators -- Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC, Schottenstein Bernstein Capital Group LLC and the Ozer Group LLC -- agreed to pay $223.7 million for Caldor's remaining inventory in February, 85 percent of it up front. Norwalk, Conn.-based Caldor said in January that it was going out of business, shutting its discount stores and putting about 20,000 people out of work.

A state appeals court affirmed yesterday a judge's decision to reduce a $9 million jury award to a Baltimore police officer who sued for being wrongly accused of stealing from the Caldor Inc. store where he worked as a teen-ager in 1988.The Court of Special Appeals ruled that Baltimore Circuit Judge John N. Prevas acted properly in 1994 when he reduced to $350,000 the punitive damages awarded to Officer Samuel D. Bowden.Bowden sued Caldor a year after he was accused by store security of stealing merchandise and cash.

Stewart's department store was an architectural pioneer when it opened on York Road in 1955. It was part of an early wave of downtown-based retailers venturing into the counties. It anchored a shopping center that contained such one-time Baltimore mainstays as Hamburger's, Peck and Peck and Silber's Bake Shop. Its exterior and site plan were the work of the noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Now the Stewart's property has a chance to be a pioneer all over again, this time as an example of environmentally sensitive development and "Smart Growth" principles.

Using Caldor building will save money, revive neighborhood The Baltimore County Council deserves credit for approving the acquisition of the former Caldor building at 6401 York Road in Anneslie for use as a government office building ("County OKs deal to lease building for office space," March 20). This is an extraordinarily beneficial transaction for citizens and employees for three important reasons largely overlooked in media coverage of this issue: The county will lease the building (at below-market rates)

As Baltimore County officials rush to complete a $19 million deal to move state and county workers from a troubled Towson office tower into a renovated discount store, two politically connected figures have emerged as partners in the project. After questioning by The Sun and a county councilman, county officials revealed this week that Steven J. Sibel will hold a 10 percent stake in 6401 York Road Associates LLC, a newly formed company that will sell the former Caldor building at that address to the county.

Owners of TownMall of Westminster have hired a team of leasing specialists they hope will reinvigorate the mall. Strategic Resources Corp. (SRC), a New York investment adviser and fund manager for the mall, hired Daniel Group LLC, a Baltimore company specializing in shopping center leasing, to develop a plan. Eileen Stoner, who helped lease space at the recently opened Arundel Mills mall, was hired to work as an on-site leasing manager. G. Richard Hanor, a Boca Raton, Fla., businessman, was hired to help negotiate with anchor department stores.

A vacant department store that might become the next workplace for 1,000 government employees could pose health risks similar to those in the aging Towson office tower being evacuated, an indoor air-quality expert says. Baltimore County and state officials announced this week that employees at the troubled Investment Building in Towson would move within the next six months. Many workers have complained of breathing difficulties and health problems they believe are related to mold, fungi and other problems inside the 13-story office tower.

Kmart Corp. will convert a former Caldor in Catonsville into a Big Kmart store by November, filling one of five remaining vacant Caldors in the Baltimore area. Caldor in Catonsville Plaza has stood empty since May 1999, four months after Caldor Corp. announced plans to close its 145 discount stores throughout the Northeast - including eight in the Baltimore area. The 30-year-old shopping center on U.S. 40 also is anchored by a Metro Food Market. Construction should start next week, with the store scheduled to open Nov. 19, Susan Dennis, a Kmart spokeswoman, said yesterday.

You win some, you lose some.Even before Severna Park Mall shoppers could rejoice over news that Caldor plans to renew operations, Horn & Horn Smorgasbords -- one of the mall's last original tenants -- suddenly closed up shop yesterday, saying they didn't want to continueinvesting in a "dead" mall.Caldor's decision to float back to its 89,000-square-foot anchorage by Oct. 31 clearly outweighs Horn & Horn's move, but other merchants were disturbed nonetheless."It was a shock to everybody," saidMonique Longmore, manager of the News Center of Severna Park.

Caldor Corp., a major regional discount department stor chain, is considering opening a new store as part of a dramatic reconstruction of the Mount Clare Junction Shopping Center at Pratt and Carey streets.If the plan is realized, the move would be in marked contrast to the decades-long trend of large department stores leaving Baltimore for suburban shopping complexes. The developmentrequires approval by various city agencies as well as by the Baltimore City Council.The proposal, slated to cost between $7 million and $8 million,would include the demolition of the center's entire "marketplace" area fronting Pratt Street, and buildings that house an F.W. Woolworth store and a Signet Bank branch.

A Long Island, N.Y.,-based chain of discount stores plans a major push into the Baltimore-Washington region, with the first store opening this spring in a former Caldor in Baltimore. National Wholesale Liquidators, a privately owned, family-run business, plans to open in April at Reisterstown Road Plaza. It will occupy the more than 94,000 square feet that formerly housed a Caldor. Caldor Corp. closed the store, an anchor at the enclosed mall, after that chain went out of business early last year.