Cordish

Close to two dozen retailers have agreed to move to a $60 million factory outlet center the Cordish Co. is building between Atlantic City's casinos and its convention center, the Baltimore developer announced yesterday. Called The Walk, the center aims to fill a void in non-gambling options at the New Jersey resort. Retail tenants that have signed or agreed to move shops to the site include Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Levi's, Timberland, Fossil and Bath and Body Works, Cordish said. Cordish agreed to build the shopping and entertainment district in 1998 and is about to begin construction of what could be a three-phase $250 million project.

The Power Plant, an entertainment and office complex in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, has become a signature project for its developer, the Cordish Co. Now, the company wants to copy the name and success onto other retail-entertainment centers. The Baltimore-based company is to break ground today on another Power Plant in Hampton, Va. The company planned to announce tenants including a Lowe's home improvement store, Brothers BrewPub and a Jocks & Jams, a sports paraphernalia retailer. Other Power Plants are planned in Richmond, Va., and Jersey City, N.J. The Cordish Co. has had success in developing other urban entertainment centers, including Bayou Place in Houston and Charleston Place in Charleston, S.C. But the new Power Plant project marks the first time Cordish has sought to establish a brand name from one of its developments.

A Baltimore developer planning a "big box" retail store in eastern Baltimore County has apologized to a community leader for wrongly accusing him of being intoxicated and assaulting one of the developer's representatives. David S. Cordish wrote in a letter this week that his remarks, printed March 20 in The Sun and directed at Thomas Lehner, a board member of the Bowleys Quarters Improvement Association, "are not true and I regret any embarrassment or harm that my statement may have caused him."

The Cordish Co. was recognized by the Urban Land Institute yesterday for its conversion of a former convention center in Houston into a downtown retail and entertainment center.The ULI presentation to the Baltimore-based development firm for its Bayou Place project marks the first time in the 20-year history of the awards that a real estate company has won four of the prestigious awards."The unqualified success of Bayou Place is a model for the rehabilitation of a `white elephant,' " wrote ULI, a 63-year-old nonprofit education and research institute that studies land use and real estate development policy.

The Cordish Co. said yesterday that it will develop a $50 million retail and entertainment complex modeled after its Inner Harbor Power Plant project on a 107-acre tract in Hampton, Va.The Baltimore-based company said it was drawn to the site because of its central location on Interstate 64, which links Virginia Beach and Williamsburg in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia."

Cordish Co.'s new 600-space Inner Harbor parking garage may be the best-advertised spot in downtown Baltimore. Four large banners adorn it and the Cordish-run Power Plant complex a block away. Three street-level sandwich-board signs urge drivers to use the garage at 711 E. Pratt St. But according to city zoning and public works officials, those temporary signs are as illegal as they are visible - a claim disputed by the Cordish Co. The disagreement has placed customary allies - the city and one of Baltimore's most successful developers - on opposite sides.

NASCAR-themed restaurants run by Baltimore-based Cordish Co. will make their debut next year in Orlando, Fla., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., under an agreement giving the developer exclusive international rights to use the NASCAR brand in new restaurant and entertainment ventures. Cordish plans to open about two NASCAR Sports Grilles a year in high-profile locations such as New York's Times Square. In addition, the developer, which will own and operate the restaurants, expects to open up to three similar, but smaller, themed restaurants a year in more suburban locations.

Blake Cordish describes his younger brother, Reed, as"unimposing, physically.""He's only like 5-9, 145 pounds," Blake said. "But on the tennis court, he plays like he's 6-2 and 220 pounds."Reed Cordish, a 1992 Gilman graduate, was among the youngest players entered in last week's Greater Baltimore Men's Singles Tennis Championships at Suburban Country Club in Pikesville.Yet on Saturday -- a day after turning 19 -- Cordish placed himself among the six-day tournament's three youngest champs ever, taking the title match, 6-3, 6-0, over Calvert Hall graduate Mike Castrilli.

It played host to fancy steak and seafood dinners and a John Waters' movie premier. In its final days, hundreds came for beach-style happy hours. But yesterday, the warehouse that juts into the Inner Harbor on Pier 4 played host to a different crowd as demolition crews began whacking the structure apart in preparation for Cordish Co.'s $30 million office and retail complex. The development will extend the developer's control of city property along the harbor and concentrate more workers, shoppers and diners on the waterfront.

Baltimore-based developer The Cordish Co. is planning a $250 million mixed-use development across from the Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, in a joint venture with a subsidiary of racing promoter International Speedway Corp., which owns the 71-acre site on Florida's northern Atlantic coast. The project, Daytona Live!, would shift from a lunch and retail destination during the day to a dining and entertainment district at night, with preliminary plans for 200,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 2,500-seat movie theater, housing, a 160-room hotel and headquarters offices for International Speedway Corp.