Candler Building

Maryland National Mortgage Corp. agreed Monday to lease more than 83,000 square feet of office space at the Candler Building at 111 Market Place.It was the Baltimore area's biggest private-sector office lease of the year and the biggest downtown since 1989.The 10-year deal, announced yesterday, brings the occupancy of the renovated former Coca-Cola warehouse to more than 70 percent and puts the project more solidly in the black."On an operating basis, we do better than break even," said Thomas Ragno, director of leasing for Beacon Management Co., which manages Candler for GE Investments, an in-house adviser to General Electric Co.'s pension fund.

Dr. Otto Christian Beyer, a retired urologist and surgeon who practiced for three decades, died of a respiratory ailment Thursday at his Ellicott City home. He was 84. In a memoir, he wrote that his father, also named Otto Beyer, was born in a farming area in Allstedt, Germany, and was the son of a country doctor. His father studied business in Berlin and came to Baltimore in 1909. His mother was a nurse. He was born in Baltimore and spent his youth in Towson, Hamilton and Irvington.

An affiliate of the General Electric Co. has received 16 offers to purchase the Candler Building, the 12-story office tower downtown that the Connecticut-based conglomerate began marketing in January.The majority of the bids were submitted by entrepreneurs seeking to take advantage of GE Investment Corp.'s willingness to sell the 111 Market Place property at a steep discount.The bids all fell within 10 percent of the $22.8 million asking price."We hope to have someone in the winner's circle by mid-April," said Philip C. Iglehart, the Colliers Pinkard principal representing GE Investments.

Angela Tiburzi, who made men's suits for four decades, died of cancer April 25 at the Stella Maris Hospice. She was 86 and lived in Rosedale. Born Angela DiMarco in Baltimore and raised on Highlandtown's Eaton Street, she attended Our Lady of Pompei School. She met her future husband, Salvatore A. Tiburzi, later a Baltimore Police Department sergeant, as a child in the neighborhood where they both lived. They married shortly after World War II. The couple lived on Clinton Street in Highlandtown and later moved to Caradoc Drive in Rosedale.

In what would be one of the largest office leases downtown in a decade, Sierra Military Health Services Inc. intends to establish a regional headquarters with roughly 330 employees in the 12-story Candler Building by January.Under terms of a letter of intent between the Candler Building's owner and Sierra, the health care provider will lease 83,000 square feet -- or 16 percent of the building -- through 2008.Sierra's lease, expected to be signed next week, is valued at roughly $12.5 million.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s electric power marketing subsidiary intends to establish its headquarters downtown in the 12-story Candler Building, part of a push by the utility company to diversify into new businesses and compete nationally.Constellation Power Source's plan to move to the 111 Market Place building by March represents the second major office lease at Candler in the past month, after Sierra Military Health Services Inc. committed to create a regional headquarters with 330 employees there.

Spurred by renewed investor interest in downtown office properties and the lure of abundant capital searching for real estate, the Washington, D.C., owners of the Candler Building have begun marketing the 12-story tower for sale for around $65 million.But if it seems like just yesterday that the Meridian Group Inc. bought the 111 Market Place office building, it practically was.Of course, when Meridian acquired the former Coca-Cola Co. warehouse from an affiliate of the General Electric Co. for $21.8 million some 18 months ago, the building was one-third empty and businesses were leaving downtown for dead.

One of Baltimore's largest office buildings, the Candler Building at 111 Market Place, has been sold for about $65 million, adding another to the list of local properties scooped up by investors eager for stable returns. The deal's broker said yesterday that the building was bought by HRPT Properties Trust, a Boston real estate investment trust. It's the second property in the city bought by the trust, which also owns one of the towers at 100 S. Charles St. Though the price was more than the $50.2 million commanded by the 25-story First Union Tower at Light and Baltimore streets that was sold this week, it was less per square foot - $116 vs. $132.

A Washington investment firm yesterday purchased the 12-story Candler Building, a $21.8 million gamble that the Market Place area downtown will revive because of a series of new public and tourist-oriented projects.The odds are potentially long. The Meridian Group Inc.'s acquisition comes as a pension affiliate of the powerful General Electric Co. decided to abandon Candler after 10 years and investing more than $60 million into one of downtown's largest structures."We believe Candler represents a unique investment opportunity and that we obtained an outstanding value, and it's the type of value-added opportunity that we seek," said Meridian President G. David Cheek, whose firm bought the building with Brookwood Financial Corp.

A Boston real estate investment trust snapped up the Candler Building yesterday for roughly $61 million, its second major downtown office purchase in the past year.Boston Properties Inc.'s acquisition of the 12-story office tower at 111 Market Place marks the latest in a series of signs of renewed interest in the city's commercial real estate market.The purchase of the Candler Building, a former Coca-Cola Co. warehouse, fits with Boston Properties' strategy of dominating local markets through multiple holdings, analysts said.

Rose Givens Simpson, a retired Social Security Administration clerk, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 20 at her daughter's home in Diamond Bar, Calif. The former West Baltimore resident was 97. Born Rose Givens in Baltimore and raised on Caroline Street, she was a 1932 Dunbar High School graduate. During World War II, she worked at the Curtis Bay Ammunition Depot. She later worked at the Social Security Administration's downtown location in the Candler Building. She retired from its Woodlawn headquarters.

Lois F. Honick, a retired Social Security Administration management analyst, died Sunday of cancer at Keswick Multi-Care Center. She was 85. Lois Fessenden, the daughter of a Navy Department worker and a homemaker, was born in Washington and moved with her parents to Hyattsville in 1932. She was a 1942 graduate of McKinley Technical High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 in psychology from American University. After graduating from college, she worked as an attendant at the old Chestnut Lodge Psychiatric Hospital in Rockville, and then for a Community Chest organization that provided medical care funds for the indigent.

Margaret W. Todd, an artist and dressmaker, died Sept. 25 of a heart attack at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 82. Margaret Weldon, whose father was the owner and manager of the Candler Building and whose mother was a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Govans. She was a 1946 graduate of Eastern High School and studied art in Baltimore. The next year, she married Claude W. Todd Jr., who worked for the old Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. The couple settled into a home on Yarmouth Road in Wiltondale, where they raised their family and she worked as a designer and a dressmaker.

A decade ago, the Social Security Administration lent its sister agency four very valuable items for its 30th anniversary: a pen that President Lyndon B. Johnson used to sign the Medicare Act into law, the gavel used in the House of Representatives to mark the act's passage, and the first two Medicare beneficiary cards - owned and signed by President Harry and first lady Bess Truman. Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wanted to keep them. Larry DeWitt made sure they got only the pen. A civil servant for 29 years, DeWitt is the Social Security Administration's historian and is quite protective of his agency's collection of memorabilia, kept in a small, first-floor museum just around the corner from the main building's metal detector.

John M. Weldon, former manager of the historic Candler Building in downtown Baltimore and active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association, died of multiple myeloma Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The White Marsh resident was 66. Mr. Weldon was born in Baltimore and raised on East Lake Avenue in North Baltimore. He was a 1957 graduate of City College and served in the Army as a military policeman from 1957 to 1960. In the early 1960s, Mr. Weldon joined his father, Stewart G. Weldon, who established S.G. Weldon Co., a real estate management firm, in 1961.

An affiliate of the General Electric Co. intends to sell downtown's largest office building after 10 years of ownership, a move that will recoup only a fraction of its $60 million investment.GE Investments Corp.'s decision to sell the 12-story Candler Building is perhaps the largest in a series of signs spotlighting the slow, continuous deterioration of Baltimore's office market.Among major cities, Baltimore ranks as one of the worst performers in regards to its white-collar job growth and the occupancy rate for office space, according to recent studies by Lehman Bros.

John M. Weldon, former manager of the historic Candler Building in downtown Baltimore and active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association, died of multiple myeloma Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The White Marsh resident was 66. Mr. Weldon was born in Baltimore and raised on East Lake Avenue in North Baltimore. He was a 1957 graduate of City College and served in the Army as a military policeman from 1957 to 1960. In the early 1960s, Mr. Weldon joined his father, Stewart G. Weldon, who established S.G. Weldon Co., a real estate management firm, in 1961.