Entertainment Complex

International Tourist Attractions, a themed entertainment company with sites in Jerusalem, Rome and Cyprus, has opened its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, where its first American-based venture is to make its debut in June. ITA will launch here with a 10,000-square-foot, $8.5 million entertainment complex to celebrate American history and the Chesapeake Bay at Pier 4 in mid-June, spokeswoman Melanie Sole said yesterday. The complex is to be the anchor tenant of the Cordish Co.'s office and retail complex adjacent to the Power Plant.

The developer vying for the state's most lucrative slots license is wooing officials with visions of a billion-dollar entertainment complex at Arundel Mills that would include hotels, live entertainment venues and Maryland's largest casino - and says he has the money to pay for it. David Cordish, president of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., sketched out his ambitions in an interview yesterday with The Baltimore Sun, in which he portrayed his plan as...

Burning highway. For Harley-Davidson owners, it's the fever and the cure. And that, Mike Schwartz predicts, will be the big draw to his $8 million Harley-themed entertainment complex in northern Delaware.Last month Schwartz unlocked the doors to Mike's Famous Roadside Rest, dedicated to the twin themes of America's pre-1970 highway culture and a pearl of Americana -- Harleys.The nostalgia-dripping facility in New Castle showcases a "Museum of the Road," the Warehouse Grill and Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson dealership, which Schwartz has owned for five years.

Baltimore based Cordish Cos., which has built signature projects in the Inner Harbor and casinos in Florida, might compete for a slots license in Maryland if voters approve a November referendum legalizing the gambling machines, officials said. In an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun, company chief David Cordish said his gambling division would "look hard" at possible licenses in the city, Anne Arundel County and Cecil County. "Gaming is one of our three major divisions, and these three locations are in our backyard and are well suited to our capabilities," Cordish wrote.

In one of his first official acts as Baltimore's mayor, Martin O'Malley will push today for approval of a more than $5 million redevelopment project that would transform a vacant mall near the Inner Harbor into an entertainment complex.O'Malley said he will urge the city Board of Estimates to approve a 75-year low-rent lease to allow the Cordish Co. to put restaurants and nightclubs in the city-owned Brokerage at 34 Market Place.Advocates say the project would spread the Inner Harbor's success north, bringing thousands of visitors to outdoor cafes in what is now a little-used plaza in front of the Port Discovery children's museum.

An outdoor plaza big enough for thousands of people to have a cocktail and mingle opens today in the Power Plant Live entertainment complex, fueling hopes that night life can thrive downtown where it hasn't before. The gated, brick plaza at Market Place, about two blocks north of the Power Plant, will become the focal point for 15 bars, restaurants and nightclubs, six of which already have opened. Patrons will be allowed to roam freely from a plaza bar to any of the independently run businesses.

US Airways Arena -- best known for pro hockey, hoops and rock concerts -- is being reincarnated as the centerpiece of a $150 million entertainment and retail complex with everything from themed restaurants and upscale shops and megastores to virtual rock climbing and amateur sports.Baltimore-based Cordish Co., developer of the Power Plant entertainment complex at the Inner Harbor, and Abe Pollin, owner of the Landover arena, will announce plans today for the project, to be known by its old name, Capital Centre.

An auction of the bankrupt Brokerage that was scheduled for this morning has been postponed until after the first of the year.Jim Hodges, building manager for the entertainment complex at 34 Market Place, said the auction has been moved to Jan. 8 for "administrative reasons."Greg Pinkard, vice president of property management for W.C. Pinkard & Co., a commercial real estate firm, said meetings were scheduled today between the principal parties involved in the Brokerage to work out details of the postponement.

The bankrupt Brokerage is heading for the holiday-season auction block -- and some tenants of the food and entertainment complex say that can only mean good tidings.W.C. Pinkard & Co., operating manager of the downtown complex, said yesterday that the Brokerage will be auctioned Dec. 18. The sale was scheduled after bankruptcy reorganization efforts failed and San Francisco-based Bank of America foreclosed in November."Everyone's paying so much rent but not making any money hardly because there is no traffic,"said Hammed Hossainkhail, owner of the Baltimore Grog & Tankard.

Steeltown, the Dundalk entertainment complex that opened with a great deal of fanfare last May, has closed its doors.The club at 2401 North Point Blvd., which filed for bankruptcy in August and a month later scaled back its ambitious plans for regular bookings of nationally known acts, closed for business Saturday night."The income just wasn't there," general manager Larry Milburn said yesterday. "At this juncture, [the club is] better off being closed."Mr. Milburn, who said he was owed money by the club, said there was a possibility a new investor might come forward to reopen the facility but said he could not provide any details.

Owners of Pimlico Race Course are asking the city for the flexibility to develop a 700-room hotel, large theaters and concert halls in addition to its planned slots emporium, triggering an uproar among some neighbors. "We're talking about a huge entertainment complex, and that is not what has been fully discussed with the community, nor with [legislators]," said Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Pimlico. "People feel very justifiably blindsided," he said. Walter Lynch, project manager in charge of redeveloping Pimlico, said there are no plans to build a hotel or theater complex in the near future but Pimlico wants flexibility to eventually develop those or other facilities - regardless of whether slot machine gambling is legalized.

International Tourist Attractions, a themed entertainment company with sites in Jerusalem, Rome and Cyprus, has opened its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, where its first American-based venture is to make its debut in June. ITA will launch here with a 10,000-square-foot, $8.5 million entertainment complex to celebrate American history and the Chesapeake Bay at Pier 4 in mid-June, spokeswoman Melanie Sole said yesterday. The complex is to be the anchor tenant of the Cordish Co.'s office and retail complex adjacent to the Power Plant.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- More than 100 acres of the New Jersey Meadowlands would be developed as a family entertainment complex with an indoor ski slope, indoor surfing, a Formula One racetrack, a minor league baseball stadium and office towers, under a $1.3 billion redevelopment plan chosen recently by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The project, called Meadowlands Xanadu, is the proposal of the Mills Corp., the Virginia-based mall developer, and the Mack Cali Realty Corp.

The city zoning board voted yesterday to allow the Redwood Trust, a new nightclub downtown, to operate with after-hours entertainment. The ruling allows Redwood Trust - located in the historic Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. building at Calvert and Redwood streets - to operate as a tavern, restaurant and after-hours entertainment complex with live music and dancing. Owner-operator Nicholas Piscatelli, a local developer, testified before the zoning panel yesterday that the city needs such a venue to fuel tourism in the downtown area and to continue revitalization northward, from the city's waterfront.

An outdoor plaza big enough for thousands of people to have a cocktail and mingle opens today in the Power Plant Live entertainment complex, fueling hopes that night life can thrive downtown where it hasn't before. The gated, brick plaza at Market Place, about two blocks north of the Power Plant, will become the focal point for 15 bars, restaurants and nightclubs, six of which already have opened. Patrons will be allowed to roam freely from a plaza bar to any of the independently run businesses.

How's this for subtle advertising? A 7-foot-tall neon statue of a muscle-bound utility worker wearing a hard hat rises above Market Place plaza near the Inner Harbor. He hurls thunderbolts into a huge anvil, triggering an amplified rumble and a spasm of flashes from thunderbolt-shaped lights atop dozens of poles. The Cordish Co. plans to show off its trademark flashy style May 5, when it opens its $30 million Power Plant Live entertainment complex in a failed mall at 34 Market Place, across from Port Discovery children's museum.

State officials unveiled yesterday their long-awaited plan to bolster parking at Camden Yards with an "urban entertainment complex" between the stadiums that could include shops, restaurants and high-tech, virtual-reality entertainment.The Maryland Stadium Authority is formally requesting ideas for development of the 7 1/2 -acre site south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard but north of the Ravens' stadium as a way to add parking and create a new destination for downtown visitors.The Orioles immediately threatened to file a lawsuit to block the project, which they labeled state-sponsored competition for the baseball team's lucrative sale of food, tickets and novelties.

GARY, Ind. -- It was supposed to have been the impetus to transform this gritty blue-collar city into the entertainment mecca of the Midwest. But political bickering and allegations of racism and conflict of interest have halted plans for the $2 billion entertainment complex.The most famous family from Gary is fed up, its lawyer said, and has withdrawn support for the complex because of the politics and fears of lawsuits.Youngsters on the city's west side can direct visitors to the location of Michael Jackson's boyhood home, most likely including the address.

In one of his first official acts as Baltimore's mayor, Martin O'Malley will push today for approval of a more than $5 million redevelopment project that would transform a vacant mall near the Inner Harbor into an entertainment complex.O'Malley said he will urge the city Board of Estimates to approve a 75-year low-rent lease to allow the Cordish Co. to put restaurants and nightclubs in the city-owned Brokerage at 34 Market Place.Advocates say the project would spread the Inner Harbor's success north, bringing thousands of visitors to outdoor cafes in what is now a little-used plaza in front of the Port Discovery children's museum.

Burning highway. For Harley-Davidson owners, it's the fever and the cure. And that, Mike Schwartz predicts, will be the big draw to his $8 million Harley-themed entertainment complex in northern Delaware.Last month Schwartz unlocked the doors to Mike's Famous Roadside Rest, dedicated to the twin themes of America's pre-1970 highway culture and a pearl of Americana -- Harleys.The nostalgia-dripping facility in New Castle showcases a "Museum of the Road," the Warehouse Grill and Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson dealership, which Schwartz has owned for five years.