Development

The Baltimore Board of Estimates took a decisive step yesterday to begin redevelopment of the stalled superblock project on the city's west side, agreeing to sell 37 properties to Lexington Square Partners LLC, a New York developer. The move brings the city closer to a legal fight with the charitable organization that owns more than half the buildings. The five-member Board of Estimates, the city's spending panel, unanimously approved a $21.6 million sale of buildings that occupy 3.6 acres on West Fayette, Howard, Lexington and Liberty streets and Park Avenue.

Developers overseeing the renovation of the American Brewery site in East Baltimore received approval for a $700,000 grant from the city's housing department yesterday. Two companies, Gotham Development and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, are investing more than $35 million to convert the five-story former brewery into office space for Humanim Inc., a nonprofit social services agency in Columbia. The city's Board of Estimates unanimously approved a forgivable, no-interest loan for the project, which officials said they hope will spark revitalization in blighted blocks nearby.

Hoping to enliven midtown Baltimore with new residences and shops while providing much needed parking for the University of Baltimore, the university and a private developer are proposing a $75 million luxury apartment project at West Mount Royal Avenue and West Oliver Street. The Fitzgerald would have approximately 280 market-rate units and 14,000 square feet of street-level retail and wrap around an 1,100-space garage that could be used by students, faculty and the public, said Toby Bozzuto, executive vice president of Bozzuto Development Co. The project in the Midtown-Belvedere neighborhood would be the first step in a larger vision to enhance the area around the university through redevelopment, Peter Toran, vice president of planning and university relations, said yesterday.

The House of Delegates approved new fees on development yesterday to pay for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, a proposal advocates say would also help reduce urban sprawl. The measure would charge developers based on the creation of "impervious surfaces" such as rooftops, driveways and parking lots that cannot be penetrated by stormwater, thus contributing to runoff into the bay. Development outside designated growth areas would be assessed at a higher rate, and builders could mitigate the fees by using environmentally friendly construction techniques.

Baltimore's traditional retail district could begin taking on a new shape by next year with an expanded superblock development that would inject hundreds of new residents, workers and shoppers in the long-moribund area of downtown. After putting to rest a feud and looming legal fight that had stalled renewal plans, city officials, one of the city's biggest charities and area property owners said they can finally start rebuilding a deteriorating six-block area viewed as a critical link in the city's west-side revitalization.

Nearly a year after crews starting tearing down the General Motors van plant in East Baltimore, most of the demolition has been completed, with the bulk of the old plant expected to be recycled and cleared away in time for two new buildings to get under way by midsummer. Duke Realty Corp., which bought the shuttered plant in January last year and plans to build a huge industrial park, has been recycling about 96 percent of the 3 million-square-foot former plant, or about 98,000 tons of concrete, asphalt and metal.

Baltimore has collected its first profit-sharing check from one of the major development projects that got tax breaks from the city over the past decade to help spur economic growth. The Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday that the city received $819,826 for fiscal 2006 from the Marriott Waterfront Hotel. The hotel was one of the first big projects that helped transform Harbor East from an industrial stretch of waterfront to an upscale urban neighborhood. The Sun reported in August that the city had yet to receive any payments from profit-sharing agreements linked to tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for projects over the past decade.

When Ed Rutkowski and his wife moved to the Patterson Park area on the city's east side in 1986, it was the sort of place, he said, where everything was in good shape and neighbors pitched in to keep it that way. But over the next decade, the region slid headfirst into decline. Drug dealers set up shop in its 140-acre park. Prostitutes worked the corners, and Rutkowski's neighbors - the same ones he saw at community Christmas parties - abandoned Baltimore in droves. Rutkowski, however, got to work.

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot has a message for the developers of a controversial waterfront development in Queen Anne's County: Let the county commissioners speak. Troubled by a gag order imposed on the commissioners, Franchot requested yesterdaythat the developers of a Four Seasons community on Kent Island suspend part of their settlement agreement with the county and allow the officials to testify at the next Board of Public Works meeting. The Four Seasons project, a long-fought development slated for the eastern shoreline of Kent Island, has hit a snag at the board where Franchot and other members have expressed reservations about the environmental impact of building 1,300 homes in land designated as a Chesapeake Bay "critical area."

Two projects to transform large swaths on both sides of Baltimore's Middle Branch waterfront are moving forward, including a sports-themed office and recreation park south of M&T Bank Stadium and a mix of new homes, shops, offices and a hotel along Westport's formerly industrial shore. Gateway South, a sport-themed project planned for Russell Street to the Middle Branch, won city design approval yesterday for its master plan. Cormony plans The lead developer, Cormony Development, would build two large office buildings, one possibly as an iconic, football-shaped tower; a 90,000-square-foot sports complex with playing fields and recreational activities such as indoor golf, a fitness center and swim club; and shops.

It's never been easy building new homes affordable to people with moderate incomes, but selling them - that's usually a snap. Which is why no one at a Baltimore nonprofit that finished eight townhouses in December expected they'd still be sitting empty today. Demand isn't the problem. It's the credit crunch. With home prices and apartment rents both falling nationwide, it might seem like a good time to get more people into residences that don't overwhelm their monthly budgets. But affordable-housing activists say the reality is just the opposite.

A soft-spoken Canadian builder without deep Baltimore ties or much gambling experience sees opportunity in a deal that the biggest local developers chose not to pursue. He came to town last week to unveil his vision for a slots palace that he believes will pull in a half-billion dollars a year - an estimate that found a skeptical reception. Michael Moldenhauer's venture springs from an unusual land agreement that would let him build on a highly visible parcel near the Ravens football stadium that the city had promised to another developer for a different project.

The plans for Baltimore's slots parlor began taking shape publicly Wednesday as the Board of Estimates modified the original deal and permitted the facility to rise on valuable city-owned property that previously was considered off-limits because it had been promised to another developer. The Baltimore City Entertainment Group, the sole entity to bid for a gambling license in the city, now envisions a larger slots palace with access to 11 acres of additional property. It promises to transform a gritty section of the city into a destination, but has raised the eyebrows of developers who opted not to bid for a city slots license and were surprised that the terms of the deal could shift so significantly.

Two groups have submitted proposals to redevelop Baltimore's historic Parkway Theatre at 3-5 W. North Ave. and two adjoining properties at 1 W. North Ave. and 1820 N. Charles St. in the Station North arts and entertainment district. The teams are headed by Teddy Kim, a Washington-based businessman, with Brown Craig Turner as the architect, and Maryland developer Samuel Polakoff, with Ziger/Snead and Cho Benn Holback + Associates as architects. Kim is related to Tony Cheng, a Washington-based restaurateur who controls numerous properties near the intersection of Charles Street and North Avenue.

With the recession continuing to freeze even one of the most reliable housing sectors, Erickson Retirement Communities has dropped plans to buy and develop up to 188 acres of historic Doughoregan Manor in Howard County as a senior living complex. Erickson's decision to abandon a nearly two-year-old plan to build 2,000 senior housing units on the parcel creates uncertainty for the manor, the only home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence that remains in family hands. The family of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the declaration, had hoped to use money from the sale of the parcel to restore and preserve the nearly 300-year-old family mansion and other historic structures once occupied by their famed ancestor.

Maryland's treasurer warned Friday that a planned $1.4 billion development anchored by the state office complex in Midtown Baltimore may count toward the state's debt limit, raising questions about the state's ability to afford the huge undertaking. State officials also announced separately Friday a new lead developer to replace Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, which has struggled with mounting debt, and reiterated a goal to break ground on the State Center in 2010. The development has become a politically charged topic in Annapolis, where lawmakers are seeking more information about the state's financial obligations, while Baltimore politicians and community members say the project would revitalize the area.

The financial woes of one of Baltimore's best-known development companies are rippling through government, with Baltimore lawmakers allowing the developers to walk away from $700,000 in loans on Wednesday and state officials growing concerned that the company will be unable to fulfill its commitments for a planned $1.6 billion office complex in midtown Baltimore. Struever Eccles and Rouse is known for its historic rehabilitation of city industrial buildings, including Tindeco Wharf and Clipper Mill.

A planned waterfront development in Westport is among the five locations eligible for millions in state funds intended to encourage military families relocating to Maryland to settle in high-density communities with easy access to mass transit, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown announced yesterday. The other so-called BRAC zones are around the Odenton and Laurel MARC train stations near Fort Meade, in East Frederick near Fort Detrick, and at a commercial stretch of Prince George's County near Andrews Air Force Base.

Baltimore officials are seeking proposals for a mixed-use project on 1.6 acres in the city's southeastern neighborhoods of Jonestown and Washington Hill that would include a mix of housing, offices, shops and parking. The project on eight parcels along East Lombard Street and South Central Avenue would be built just east of Albemarle Square, a development of 343 market-rate and affordable town houses and apartments. The city and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City own the mostly vacant property, the Baltimore Development Corp.

The plans are as ambitious as the $100 million price tag would suggest: a sprawling retirement village for military veterans on the site of a former Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in eastern Baltimore County. With 1,300 residential units, Bayside at Fort Howard would be one of the largest continuing-care facilities for veterans in the country. But months before the original move-in date for the first residents, the project is in danger of falling apart. Crews recently stopped renovating the old brick hospital and long-shuttered military quarters on the North Point peninsula campus.