Downtown Partnership

The city threw an unabashedly promotional party yesterday, turning on music and the arts at multiple sites downtown, attracting numerous visitors who might not otherwise have come.The Downtown Partnership, a consortium of downtown businesses, planned the weekend's activities as a civic open house to market Baltimore -- not to tourists, but to Baltimoreans.Laurie Schwartz, Downtown Partnership president, said the events were designed "to bring Baltimoreans back downtown. We want to remind Baltimoreans of all the wonderful things that are happening."

Two years after it acquired the historic Furness House near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the Cordish Co. has found a tenant. Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. signed a 10-year lease for virtually the entire building Friday and plans to move its asset management office there by Sept. 1.Designed by Edward H. Glidden, the two-story,20,000-square-foot building at 19-21 South St. was completed in 1917 for Furness-Withy, a steamship owner and operator based in London.A replica of the Furness headquarters in London, the building still has much of its original detail and other distinctive features, including 15- to 16-foot ceilings.

About a year ago, a Downtown Partnership of Baltimore report examined the issue of public safety in the center of town. The report cited panhandlers, or "people causing anxiety," as a source of uneasiness for downtown workers and visitors.Anyone who regularly goes into the city knows it's hard to walk a few blocks without encountering a panhandler. Most people handle this contretemps by sidestepping the beggar or by forking over cash, uncertain if it will be used to buy food or booze.The experience can be just as awkward for panhandlers.

The Abell Foundation, in an effort to attract new city residents, has provided a $25,000 grant to a group of business and city leaders to study the potential of converting older city office buildings to housing.The nonprofit group's funding to the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. comes on the heels of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's announcement last month that the issue should receive attention as part of an overall downtown revitalization effort."Our inclination is to find ways to convert some of these older buildings to residences, but we're open to various possibilities, including demolition," said Laurie Schwartz, president of the Downtown Partnership.

An article in yesterday's editions reported incorrectly that the Downtown Partnership has launched a $1.7 advertising campaign to promote its "clean and safe" program. In fact, the ad campaign is being conducted at no cost to the organization because local media are donating time or space for the ads.The Sun regrets the errors.A $1.7 million advertising campaign was launched this month to sell downtown Baltimore as a safe place for tourists and residents.The public service spots on radio and television and in print that will run through the summer aim to change perceptions that Baltimore is a crime-ridden city.

WHEN PRUDENTIAL Preferred Financial Services was thinking of relocating a 30-employee office from Timonium to downtown Baltimore, the whole deal was in danger of collapsing over 20 parking spaces.L This is a problem many business have to deal with every day."Crime is no longer the top issue downtown, parking is," says Laurie Schwartz, president of Downtown Partnership, which has issued 24 recommendations to deal with the problem. Among them is the creation of a parking authority and incentive fund as well as construction of 1,500 new spaces in the central business district within the next five years.

Developers converting older office buildings into apartments or building new complexes could get a significant tax break under a measure the Baltimore City Council approved Monday. The legislation is aimed at addressing a glut of vacancies in office buildings downtown, encouraging new or converted apartments in six other neighborhoods, and drawing new residents to the city. The list of requirements to qualify for the tax break is short: The development must be in one of the seven areas, must be a project involving at least 50 apartment units, and must have an environmentally friendly certification.

It doesn't figure to become a segment on Fox Television's reality-based "COPS," but it was fairly typical of the first official day on the job for the Downtown Partnership's ballyhooed Public Safety Guides:Amid yesterday's afternoon rush hour, Scott Markusch's car conked out in the middle of Charles Street, near the intersection with Baltimore Street.Two guides sprang into action, pushing the car into the right-hand lane before calling for help."They're trying, I know they're trying," said Mr. Markusch.

The City Council gave preliminary approval yesterday to establishment of a special benefits district in downtown Baltimore, where commercial property owners would pay a surtax for cleaner streets and more security.The measure, expected to win final approval Monday, was passed after council members turned aside several attempts to tighten city oversight of the district.They also brushed off arguments that the district would smother small business owners under yet another layer of taxation.

Downtown Baltimore lost 1.4 percent of its job base, or about 1,300 positions, in the 12 months that ended June 30, according to the annual report of a business organization that has been seeking to stem the flow of workers out of the city. The Downtown Partnership said there was not much city leaders could have done in an economic downturn to have saved the jobs. The report, which is to be sent to the group's members next week, says that, in percentage terms, downtown's loss was less than that of the city as a whole, but larger than both the greater Baltimore region's and Maryland's.