Downtown Hotels

The historic downtown hotel once known as the Lord Baltimore but more recently as a Hilton is now officially a Radisson. Radisson-Olympus Capital Partners said yesterday that it has completed its acquisition of the 439-room, full-service hotel in Baltimore's central business district for an undisclosed sum. The partnership, made up of Olympus Real Estate Partners and Carlson Hotels Worldwide, has renamed the hotel the Radisson Plaza Hotel Baltimore Inner...

Let's be honest and place Baltimore City's budgeting and spending problems into proper context. The lavish spending of public funds to fix up the offices of Jerome Oberlton, chief information officer for Baltimore City schools, is really nothing new. Neither is the recently announced closing of four Baltimore recreation centers. Frankly, the underprivileged children and families of Baltimore City are only too used to such things. Schools CEO Andrés Alonso called the spending by Mr. Oberlton a "bad judgment call," but the fact is, we have a governmental culture in this city that has a recurring history of similarly bad calls.

ROCHESTER, Minn. - It's the town full of tourists who don't want to be here. Because who wants to get sick? Who wants to watch a loved one slip away? But that's why they come to this small city in southeastern Minnesota's rolling bluff country, where Midwestern friendliness is as abundant as fresh air. It's all about the Mayo Clinic. And that makes the Midwestern friendliness as key to local tourism as hotel rooms and restaurants. When local residents ride past on bicycles on the sidewalk, they apologize.

As year's end approaches, what was shaping up to be a downtown Baltimore landscape dotted with hotel construction sites will be quieter than expected.Progress on each of the city's three proposed large downtown hotels -- the Grand Hyatt, the Wyndham and the Westin -- once slated for completion by 2002, has slowed.A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in June for the controversial 31-story Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel, but little has happened since."Due to unfortunate circumstances beyond the control of Patriot American, completing the financing for the project has taken longer than expected and construction is now expected to begin by year end," according to a statement released yesterday by Patriot American Hospitality Inc., which will own the property once it is completed.

Baltimore lawyer and Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos has sealed an agreement with Hyatt officials that combines the ownership and management of the Hyatt Regency hotel with the proposed Grand Hyatt, creating a single large entity."

THE ORIOLES have been struggling - actually, I think Davey Johnson has a voodoo doll in his golf bag - but, when you look at the big picture, Baltimore is hot. It's happening. Somebody obviously believes this city is a winner. Add it up:Two, maybe three, big new hotels within a mile of the Convention Center. Plans to redevelop the Hippodrome Theater. Plans to wipe out a section of the Howard Street-Park Avenue area for apartments, offices and, it is hoped, a big retailer or two to bolster the area's shopping district.

First it was to be apartments, then condominiums and now it looks like a $25 million hotel is in the works for a prime downtown corner. Developers behind One East Redwood, an elaborate melding of three radically different buildings at South Charles and Redwood streets, say they're adapting their plans to accommodate changing market forces. "With the condo market softening, the opportunity opened for a hotel," said Crispin Etherington, one of the partners behind Charles Redwood Group LLC. "The hotels we're talking to both want to be in our location."

A Washington life insurance company founded by a labor organization agreed yesterday to finance the 850-room downtown hotel of attorney Peter G. Angelos and Hyatt Hotels Corp.Union Labor Life Insurance Co.'s decision to back the $175 million Grand Hyatt across from the Baltimore Convention Center all but assures the city of a second new downtown hotel.A $134 million Wyndham International hotel is under construction east of the Inner Harbor. Six other downtown hotels -- including the Grand Hyatt -- are in the planning stages.

A 51-year-old federal office worker was jumped and beaten by up to five juveniles Thursday morning in downtown Baltimore's Hopkins Plaza - an apparent random attack and the latest in a series of assaults in the heart of the city. Police are also investigating a fight that occurred at Charles and Lombard streets Wednesday morning and involved youths who may have been wearing school uniforms. Eight days ago, a group of youths stole candy and attacked the owner of a convenience store on Light Street.

A group of youths attacked a federal office worker and a BGE employee Thursday morning in downtown Baltimore in random assaults that police said were related. The workers suffered injuries described as minor in the latest in a series of violent incidents in the heart of the city. Police are also investigating a fight that occurred at Charles and Lombard streets about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday involving youths who may have been wearing school uniforms. Police said they believe that incident is unrelated to Thursday's attacks, and they are looking at video surveillance to identify those involved.