Caldor

What has four wheels, a motor, a refrigerator and a sink?Throw in a green umbrella and you have Jamie L. Jones' espresso and cappuccino stand at the corner of Calvert and Fayette streets.Ms. Jones, an aspiring actress who has put her waitressing experience to entrepreneurial use, set up the black-and-red stand outside the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse about two weeks ago. Her partner in the venture is Peter Winer, a financial planner.The idea for the cart came about six months ago when Mr. Winer went to Seattle and saw espresso stands everywhere he went.

You might think that when you spend $6 million to renovate a shopping center and then fill it with tenants, you're out of the woods. But as Richard Dube knows, it's not something to count on.Mr. Dube is now in the middle of his second rehab job at the Catonsville Shopping Center, the 283,000-square-foot strip center at U.S. 40 and St. Agnes Lane he bought in 1987. The first time around, anchor tenant Ames filed for bankruptcy and, in 1992, walked out on its lease, sending the president of Westchester, Ill.-based Tri-Land Properties Inc. back to the drawing board.

A Baltimore man accused of serving as the getaway driver during an armed robbery at an Ellicott City department store pleaded guilty to an accessory charge in Howard Circuit Court yesterday.Earl Henry Gray Jr., 51, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and two years' probation after pleading guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact before Judge Dennis Sweeney.Police said Gray drove his son, Warren Thomas Gray, and another unidentified man to the Caldor department store in the 9200 block of Baltimore National Pike on Dec. 22, 1992.

A suburban Philadelphia real estate investment trust said yesterday that it has agreed to buy the Anneslie Shopping Center, just north of the city-county line on York Road, and plans $1 million worth of renovations.Kranzco Realty Trust said it has a contract to pay $6.5 million for the 175,000-square-foot center, whose anchor tenants are Caldor, Rite-Aid and McCrory's.The center is the first Maryland acquisition for the trust, which went public last fall and now owns 26 properties, mostly strip shopping centers like Anneslie.

As Baltimore City's middle-class population continues to decline, so do retail services.Recent years have seen the departure of not only all the major department stores from within the city limits but also the demise of such bargain-basement emporiums as Epstein's and Goldenberg's. Add to that list the recent closing of Inner Harbor Lumber. Increasingly, city residents have to do their serious shopping in surrounding counties.This is a lamentable situation in a city of more than 700,000 people.

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 father and son from Baltimore were charged in an armed robbery at the Caldor department store in Ellicott City on Wednesday afternoon, county police said.The robbers took about $200 from the department store, said Sgt. Gary Gardner, a police spokesman.No one was injured during the robbery."It's pretty brazen to hold up a busy department store in the middle of the day," Sergeant Gardner said.Police arrested Earl H. Gray Jr., 50, and his 21-year-old son, Warren Thomas Gray. Each was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery.

After an hourlong Caldor expedition, Dee Dee Brown peered into her shopping cart and seemed perplexed, as if she didn't quite remember how all this merchandise got there: velour pants, cartoon stickers, sweat shirt, troll, telephones, a pair of little reindeer antlers for Rex, a Labrador retriever.As the register rang $103.55 worth of stuff, Ms. Brown wondered aloud why she had purchased so much.The answer is written on the calendar and stamped into the psyche, piped through ceiling speakers at the mall and jingled from the car radio.

Don't Re-Zone For Wal-MartAfter reading the editorial titled "War of Words in Wheatfields" (Nov. 29), I feel obligated to reply. The editorial dealt with the proposed rezoning of property near Routes 29 and 103 in Howard County which, if approved, would allow the building of a Wal-Mart type regional shopping center in the midst of the Wheatfields residential area. . . . I believe The Sun is wrong to support this proposal.The editorial stated that "the demand for such a retailer in Howard is undeniable.

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.