Distribution Center

That's all, folks. A White Marsh distribution center used by Warner Bros. Studio Stores to supply the nation with cartoon and film-themed merchandise will shut its doors and put 85 employees out of work by the end of the year, the company said. Warner Bros., home of Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny, announced in January that it would close its approximately 150 retail stores around the country, but the warehouse has remained open to handle supplies to the shops. The company hired a broker in May to find a buyer for the distribution center, one of two in the nation.

Hardware distributor Orgill Inc. is closing its mid-Atlantic distribution center in Frederick and is moving 132 jobs to a new facility in Martinsburg, W.Va. The company's new 500,000-square-foot Martinsburg facility is expected to open next month, a company spokesman said yesterday. Memphis, Tenn.-based Orgill, the largest independent hardware distributor in the country with 1999 sales of $552 million, obtained the center in 1998 when it bought the former Frederick Trading Co. in hopes of gaining access to its 1,200 accounts in the Northeast, where Orgill was hoping to expand.

Mack Trucks to mark centennial with open house The 100th anniversary of Mack Trucks will be celebrated Saturday with an open house at the Baltimore Parts Distribution Center in Severn. Located at 8000 Telegraph Road, the 127-employee facility, which moved to Anne Arundel County from New Jersey nearly two decades ago, is the world's largest distribution center for Mack Truck parts. It has 5 acres under roof, manages about 42,000 parts and ships an average of 150,000 pounds of parts daily to destinations worldwide.

The Danaher Corp. announced yesterday that it will relocate one of its divisional headquarters from Lancaster, Pa., to Hunt Valley by the summer. The Professional Tool Division, a subsidiary of the $3.2 billion Danaher Corp. based in Washington, is expected to make the move by June and have a work force of 80 employees at its new site. "This is yet another prestigious company making another significant investment and putting a strategic business unit here," said Ioanna T. Morfessis, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Alliance.

Hampstead officials are asking the county to phase in sewer lines for major construction by Sweetheart Cup Co. outside town limits until more information is available on the impact of the project. Hampstead strongly objected to one revision in the county's water and sewer master plan that would move 141 acres of industrial land into a planned sewer service area, which would benefit the company. The site would be served by the same county sewer treatment plant that the town uses. A public hearing on that revision and eight others became a sparring match yesterday between the commissioners and the town.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates approved spending $250,000 yesterday to help redevelop the long-dormant Esskay Quality Meats Co. processing plant at 3800 E. Baltimore St. The $150,000 loan and $100,000 grant to Maryland Economic Development Corp. (MEDCO) will cover demolition and planning costs at the site, targeted for a possible warehouse and distribution center. The 13-acre property has been vacant for 10 years, attracting vagrants and vandals. In January last year, fire destroyed a warehouse at the former plant, which was the city's dominant meatpacking plant and slaughterhouse from the 1920s through the 1960s.

The front porch of Lynn Supp's 92-year-old Victorian-style house in the country used to overlook a corn and wheat field. When she noticed this summer that it had been left to weeds, she figured the rumors were true about a different kind of plant coming in.Sweetheart Cup Co. held its ceremonial groundbreaking yesterday to celebrate the new 1.034-million-square-foot distribution center to be built just outside Hampstead, off Houcksville Road, across from...

Sweetheart Cup Co. officials say crews will begin working this week at the site on Houcksville Road that will become their distribution center. And they gave more specific information Friday about the two issues that residents nearby are most concerned about: traffic and the way the plant will look.The company has planned additional landscaping to respond to neighborhood concerns about the aesthetics of the 1.034 million-square-foot building, said Tom Pasqualini, vice president for logistics at the Owings Mills-based manufacturer of paper and plastic goods for the food industry.

Sweetheart Cup Co. officials say crews will begin working this week at the site on Houcksville Road that will become their distribution center. And they gave more specific information Friday about the two issues that residents nearby are most concerned about: traffic and the way the plant will look.The company has planned additional landscaping to respond to neighborhood concerns about the aesthetics of the 1.034 million-square-foot building, said Tom Pasqualini, vice president for logistics at the Owings Mills-based manufacturer of paper and plastic goods for the food industry.

Two boxes will arrive at Hampstead's door next year: One is called Wal-Mart; the other, Sweetheart Cup Co.When the boxes are opened, cars and trucks will stream out and come back in, sometimes as many as 623 more per hour than usual along congested Route 30.Residents fear not so much that things in Hampstead will change, but that they will get worse.The owners of Bob's Variety Store worry that the increased traffic will go beyond the rush-hour crawl that already keeps patrons from their doors.