Columbus Center

The former head of the Columbus Center is criticizing the sale of the financially insolvent marine biotechnology facility in Baltimore's Inner Harbor to the University System of Maryland, calling the $650,000 purchase price a "relatively minuscule contribution."In a formal legal objection to the sale, J. Stanley Heuisler, the founding board chairman and former chief executive officer of the nonprofit corporation created to set up and run the center, complained that the price would allow the university system to assume ownership of the facility for less than 1 percent of its value.

EVEN AFTER Tuesday's public auction of $140,000 in assets of the bankrupt Columbus Center, Baltimore and the state stand to lose $6 million in the proposed state takeover. Nevertheless, the deal benefits taxpayers.This way, the Inner Harbor research complex, which opened with high hopes and great fanfare in 1995, at least will retain some of its promise as a showcase for breakthroughs in marine biology. Once the deal clears the legal hurdles, the University System of Maryland, which will control the landmark building, must fulfill two goals:1)

The Columbus Center's Hall of Exploration was packed yesterday -- not with people wanting to see its exhibits, which have been closed for nearly a year, but with bargain-hunters looking to buy them at a discount.The occasion was the public auction of assets of the insolvent Columbus Center Development Corp., the former nonprofit manager of the marine biotechnology facility in Baltimore's Inner Harbor that said in June it could not pay off its debts.About $140,000 was raised yesterday to pay off creditors of the Columbus Center, which a court-appointed receiver last week agreed to sell to the University System of Maryland.

The Columbus Center's name will change and vacant offices there will be leased to nonprofit groups, but most aspects of the marine biotechnology institute at Baltimore's Inner Harbor will remain the same.That was the assessment yesterday of the top official of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute after this week's agreement by the university system to purchase the financially troubled facility."It won't be called the Columbus Center," said Peter P. McCann, interim president of the institute, which would operate the building.

The University of Maryland is buying the financially troubled Columbus Center, ending months of uncertainty about the future of the much-ballyhooed marine biotechnology institute in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.The university will pay $750,000 in cash and give up its claim on $1 million owed it by the center. As a key component of the deal, the state and city are forgiving another $4.8 million owed them for completing construction of the building.Combining research facilities and a public exhibit hall, the Columbus Center was seen as a crucial boost to the redevelopment of the eastern edge of the Inner Harbor.

The University of Maryland is negotiating to take over operation of the financially troubled Columbus Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor amid preparations by a court-appointed receiver to auction the marine biotechnology facility's assets.University marine biotechnology researchers lease about two-thirds of the center, which declared itself insolvent June 30, saying it was unable to pay $7.5 million in debts.Since December -- when the center abruptly closed its high-technology exhibition hall seven months after it opened -- the university has paid the maintenance costs of the $160 million building, not just the portion for which it is responsible under its 25-year lease.

A KEY PARCEL on Baltimore's waterfront was about to become downtown's newest parking garage, until the $160 million Columbus Center marine research complex next door was placed in court-appointed receivership several weeks ago.Baltimore Development Corp. President M. J. "Jay" Brodie said recently that the plan to build a garage on the north end of Pier 6 had to be put on hold after Columbus Center landed in the courts and under a lawyer's control.Brodie explained that the court's action makes it difficult to develop land associated with the marine center because its creditors must be satisfied before new development may begin.

Members of the Maryland General Assembly demanded answers from officials of two state departments yesterday about the debt owed by the partly closed Columbus Center in Baltimore.The center's $7.5 million debt includes $2.5 million to NationsBank, $2.3 million to the city, $1 million to the University of Maryland and $1.2 million to vendors."The Columbus Center is named appropriately," said state Sen. Robert R. Neall, an Anne Arundel Republican. "Christopher Columbus didn't know where he was going when he left, or where he was when he got there, and he did it all on Queen Isabella's money."

A report commissioned by two General Assembly committees on the debt-laden and partly empty Columbus Center suggests uses ranging from a museum school for schoolchildren to an outreach center dealing with ports and other urban waterways.In a hearing scheduled for today, the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Budget and Taxation will discuss the report, which was drafted by the state Department of Business and Economic Development, the University System of Maryland, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.