Development Agency

A group formed by a Maryland businessman argued in a report released Monday that the state's Department of Business and Economic Development is a political marketing organization rather than the job-creation agency it should be. The department needs to reorganize to attract more jobs to the state, and must better measure its performance and increase transparency, the Change Maryland report says. The group was founded by Larry Hogan, who heads an Annapolis real estate brokerage, worked as appointments secretary for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and contemplated a run against Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2010.

The board of the Baltimore Development Corp. is recommending the city approve a developer's request for $107 million in tax increment financing to pay for roads, utilities and parks for the $1 billion mixed-use Harbor Point development on the waterfront between Harbor East and Fells Point. The board of the BDC, the city's development agency, voted Thursday to send a recommendation to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for consideration. The financing, a way to fund construction of public infrastructure for new development, also requires City Council approval.

Reporter John E. Woodruff's Sunday Sun article about the Baltimore Development Corp. presents convincing evidence that this essential agency is in bad disarray. We urge Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to see to it that this "amateur hour" -- as one critic put it -- will be overhauled.Baltimore City has lost 60,000 jobs in the past five years. This is compounded by an even greater long-term loss of manufacturing jobs. Confronted with this kind of hemorrhage, the city needs a top-notch economic development agency.

A group formed by a Maryland businessman argued in a report released Monday that the state's Department of Business and Economic Development is a political marketing organization rather than the job-creation agency it should be. The department needs to reorganize to attract more jobs to the state, and must better measure its performance and increase transparency, the Change Maryland report says. The group was founded by Larry Hogan, who heads an Annapolis real estate brokerage, worked as appointments secretary for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and contemplated a run against Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2010.

A vice president of the Rouse Co. will head a nine-member group of well-known developers and business executives to undertake a thorough evaluation of Baltimore's beleaguered economic development agency.The panel will recommend changes within 60 days.Anthony Hawkins, who is in charge of Rouse's malls and office buildings in the Baltimore area, will be joined on the committee by another Rouse executive, Robert Minutoli; Carl W. Struever, president of Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, a developer with close ties to the administration of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke; and Douglas Becker, chief executive officer of the Sylvan Learning Systems and head of the new children's museum planned near the Inner Harbor.

Baltimore Development Corp., the city's primary economic development agency, will lay off eight of its approximately 45 staff members in response to state budget cuts, the agency's president said yesterday."

Plans to privatize Baltimore County's Department of Economic Development have been postponed at least until fall because of a shortage of time and money, and because the department is running well, county officials say.When County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III took office last year, he said he wanted to set up a private economic development agency that would be more effective in recruiting businesses. Several Maryland counties, including Howard and Anne Arundel, have private agencies.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger has dropped plans to privatize local economic development programs.Ruppersberger concluded that privatization would cost too much and that it might conflict with local chambers of commerce and regional economic development programs. Anyway, he said, he was satisfied with the way the Department of Economic Development was working within the county government."Things are not broken. Why do you need to fix it?" said Ruppersberger's spokesman, Michael H. Davis.

WHEN MAYOR Kurt L. Schmoke reorganized the Baltimore Development Corp. 15 months ago, he seemed to understand that cronyism was not the best way to run this quasi-governmental economic development agency. A professional replaced a political appointee as president and an independent board substituted for a law firm headed by Schmoke cronies.BDC under M.J. Brodie operates more efficiently. But two recent decisions show the agency, even with an independent board, still does the mayor's bidding.

In a decision that could have broad implications for the public's right to inspect the workings of government, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday that the agency overseeing Baltimore's economic development must open its meetings and its paperwork for public review. Writing that the Baltimore Development Corp. has previously been able "to cloak the business of the citizens of the city of Baltimore behind the veil of a supposedly private corporation," the Court of Appeals dismissed city arguments that the agency's closed-door meetings are legal and crucial to the agency's work.

Now that M.J. "Jay" Brodiehas officially ended his service as head of the Baltimore Development Corporation, it's time to focus on his yet to be named successor and the economic development challenges he or she will face. This century has led off with a major recession and cutbacks in most government programs. We need to focus on the needs of our most distressed neighborhoods as we move forward, using approaches that make the best use of limited resources. According to the list of requirements the city has laid out for the new BDC head, the new director will be expected not only know about real estate development and the many tools the agency now has in place but must also be able to "plan, direct, coordinate and administer a comprehensive economic development plan with city agencies and partners.

After 16 years at the helm of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's influential, quasi-public economic development arm, M.J. "Jay" Brodie will work his last day at the agency on Friday. "What I've told everybody is … that I'm taking a period of refreshment," Brodie said Thursday morning after a meeting of the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. He said he planned to take at least a month off before committing to new endeavors. Brodie, 75, started at the BDC in 1996 under then-Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.

The Maryland Film Festival would transform the historic and long-shuttered Parkway Theatre into a venue for small independent films and concerts under one of three proposals to enliven a key intersection in Baltimore's Charles North neighborhood. Two other developers also hope to restore the former movie palace, where vaudeville acts also once played, and bring in live music, theater and other performances, the Baltimore Development Corp. said Tuesday. The BDC, the city's economic development agency, said it had received three proposals to redevelop the theater at 3 W. North Ave. and adjacent buildings at 1 W. North Ave. and 1820 N. Charles St. in response to a request by the agency in December.

When asked 16 years ago to head Baltimore's economic development agency, M.J. "Jay" Brodie really didn't want the job. The 75-year-old Brodie, who will retire from the Baltimore Development Corp. after serving as president under four mayors, is credited with helping to usher in major waterfront redevelopment, strengthen neighborhood commercial districts and attract and retain employers. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Brodie will leave a legacy as a major contributor to the city's continuing renaissance.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, who has headed Baltimore's economic development agency under four mayors and helped shepherd projects such as the Harbor East redevelopment, said Thursday he plans to retire. The Baltimore native and former city housing commissioner is credited with overseeing initiatives to create thousands of jobs and to attract and keep hundreds of businesses in the city during his 16 years as president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's quasi-public economic development arm. Brodie, viewed as highly influential in city development, also has drawn criticism from residents and business owners who have complained about being pushed out by urban renewal and about the secrecy under which they say his agency has operated.

Now that it's official and public knowledge that Maryland is last in job creation and only 6th from last (44th) in having a business-friendly environment according to the Tax Foundation, some response is required. Let's get rid of the Baltimore Development Corporation, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and any public or quasi-public group in this state that has business development in its charter. Think of all the millions of dollars we could save to put to better use, like lowering the personal and corporate tax rates here.

Plans to renovate Baltimore's west side gained a critical financial boost yesterday when some of the city's wealthiest business leaders -- including Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos -- unveiled a new nonprofit agency to guide the $350 million downtown project. Members of West Side Renaissance Inc. also hired Maryland Office of Planning Director Ronald M. Kreitner to lead the new organization, intended to breath new life into the sagging shopping district over the next seven years.

Baltimore Development Corp.'s president, M.J. "Jay" Brodie, said Thursday that he is on the mend after an ice skating injury that has kept him sidelined for much of the past two months. Brodie, 73, told directors of the economic development agency that he has been under doctor's orders to rest his right leg after it became inflamed in early April. Brodie, an avid skater, said he noticed pain and swelling in his leg after skating twice in late March. He said that he did not fall or break his leg, and that tests uncovered no fractures or torn muscles.

Gov. Martin O'Malley today announced plans to move the Department of Housing and Community Development, a state agency with about 330 employees, from Crownsville to Prince George's County. The announcement came as O'Malley designated 14 rail stations as the state's initial sites for mixed-use development connected with transit projects, making them eligible for state spending and tax incentives. He outlined the list of transit-oriented development projects, including seven in metropolitan Baltimore, receiving that legal authorization at a news conference today in Prince George's County.