Downtown Development

In Baltimore, where a downtown hotel stay easily costs $200 a night, a developer has ambitious plans that would bring three alternatives to the budget-conscious traveler. Sanket Patel, an Annapolis-based developer, plans to build side-by-side hotels, a $35 million project, on Front Street near the base of the Jones Falls Expressway. One would be a 63-room Sleep Inn to be built in the old Furncraft building. He would demolish the former Hillen Tire shop next door to build an 11-story Cambria Suites.

Focus on the tower, affordable housing A month has nearly gone by since the election, but it is good to see that the excitement still lingers. Ken Ulman has reached out with a public meeting [on Wednesday], and it will be good to hear what he has to say now that he is our county executive. As a charter member of the Coalition for Columbia Downtown (CCD), I was thrilled to hear that Ken has signed on giving support to the CCD positions on downtown development. His vision for Columbia's downtown closely matches the CCD's vision.

Tom O'Connor of Dorsey's Search village wants to keep the Columbia Association board of directors on top of development plans for downtown Columbia. In addition, the newly reappointed board chairman wants to make final plans for the association's electricity cooperative, among other priorities. Phil Marcus of Kings Contrivance village, reappointed as vice chairman, wants to get discussions moving on the contract extension for association President Maggie J. Brown and to strengthen the relationships between the homeowners association and the individual villages.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley refers to his time in office as "the turn-around years." By his account, the bedrock of the city's "comeback" is improved public safety. But the measure of a better Baltimore shouldn't be pegged to one factor. Many things make a city great - or contribute to its decline. A safer city may well influence home sales, community reinvestment and downtown development. But is a reduction in violent crime what led to fewer lead-poisoned children in Baltimore, more downtown jobs and a drop in teen mothers?

In small towns and cities north of the Mason Dixon Line, downtowns often are oriented around a town square or green where pedestrians can sit on benches or on the grass and eat, people-watch and participate in outdoor events such as lunchtime concerts. Like many communities south of that line, Westminster doesn't have a town square. But city officials are hoping that by renovating a downtown pedestrian mall, they can create one. Yesterday, local business owners, residents and city and county officials got a peek at the city's plans to make the Locust Lane pedestrian mall safer, more aesthetically pleasing and more accessible to the disabled.

THE LATEST effort to create a development plan for downtown Towson has one immediately apparent advantage: It was drafted by business leaders and not politicians. Elements of the Development Opportunity Plan for the county seat are not revolutionary; some have been proposed before. More parking, a university village center, planned residential areas and improved traffic and pedestrian flow are major items. But the plan, conceived by two of the town's major property owners for the nonprofit Towson Development Corp.

Hard-pressed to find any single issue driving city elections, candidates for Westminster mayor and Common Council have focused on more minor concerns such as parking, police benefits and downtown foot traffic. City police want better benefits, and there aren't enough downtown parking spaces, candidates for mayor and two council seats say. Hoping to succeed Mayor Kenneth A. Yowan, who announced in February that he would not seek re-election, are council members Suzanne P. Albert and Kevin E. Dayhoff.

Bank One Corp. executives said yesterday that plans are on track to hire 500 people at a new check-remittance center in downtown Baltimore, and staffing could begin by September. The nation's fourth-largest bank-holding company, which is based in Chicago, plans to open the center in October and it expects up to 500 people to be employed there within five years. "We are going to go at it big time," said Ray L. Valour, senior vice president and manager of Bank One Corp.'s national retail lock box service, which is based in Phoenix, Ariz.

FOR MORE than a generation, Baltimore's civic leaders have pinned their hopes of a revitalized city on downtown redevelopment.Downtown, like a giant Pac Man, has consumed millions of dollars in public subsidies. The idea is that at some point downtown's prosperity will trickle down into the city's neighborhoods.It didn't work. As the glittering Inner Harbor filled with fancy shops and restaurants, the city's neighborhoods went into a decline that many experts predict won't be reversed in our lifetimes, if ever.

Supporters of a Baltimore City Council bill to renovate the west side of downtown have offered amendments that they hope will appease historic preservationists and help merchants who face losing their properties.Under the new language, the city would spare the 400 block of W. Baltimore St., designate several structures for preservation and create a list of merchants who want to stay downtown."We are trying to listen and address concerns where we can deal with them," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp.