Farm Credit Bank

Mercantile Bankshares Corp., buoyed by a seemingly growing investor appetite and a spate of recent sales, has begun marketing its Towson office building for $8.2 million.The $6.4 billion banking company's decision to sell its 10-story building comes as institutional investors, cash-rich individuals and pension fund consultants have begun eyeing suburban office projects primarily because of declining vacancies. As a result, various suburban developers have begun marketing office projects. Riparius Development Corp.

New positionsGenstar Stone Products Co. in Hunt Valley named Kim W.Snyder vice president of aggregate operations.The Baltimore Sun recently reorganized the Marketing and Communications Department and named Regina P. Swearingen marketing, communications and research manager; James P. Rowley Jr., marketing and promotion manager; and David R. Belz, corporate communications manager.William M. Mercer Inc., an employee benefit, compensation and human resource consulting company, named Bruce C. Mitchell associate in the Baltimore office.

J. Owen Cole, retired president of the old First National Bank and a fixture in the Baltimore business community for more than 45 years, died of cancer Nov. 2 at his vacation home in Lincolnville, Maine. The Annapolis resident was 76. Mr. Cole sat on numerous boards of local industries. He traveled extensively as a trade development consultant for then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer, a longtime friend who named him to the Maryland Transportation Commission, BWI Airport Commission and Maryland Port Commission.

Sales of new vehicles up in stateMaryland motorists continue to buy new vehicles at a robust pace, and they are paying more for them, according to figures released by the state Motor Vehicle Administration.Based on title registrations, which reflect sales, the MVA reported that dealers sold 34,380 new cars and trucks last month, which was 13.6 percent more than in the same month last year. The average price was $17,743, up 6.4 percent from the average cost in July 1993.Used-vehicle sales rose only 1.2 percent last month, but the average price jumped 11.2 percent, to $5,233.

Elizabeth Schaeffer may have moved down the hall and moved from public service to private industry, but she'll still be working with her favorite constituency: farmers."

The quiet, well-appointed office in the new glass-and-brick building next to the Towson Sheraton Hotel is upscale, even glitzy.It's a sharp contrast to the usual, dreary unemployment office motif that Patrice Johnson, 41, an unemployed, college-educated secretary from Woodlawn, appreciates."

Earnings are down on the farm -- and the impact is being felt by many other businesses statewide.The Maryland Department of Agriculture estimates that net farm income -- the money farmers have left after selling their crops and paying for things such as seed and fertilizer -- will fall about 35 percent this year and reach its lowest level since 1985.Based on the latest agricultural data available, M. Bruce West, head of the state's Agricultural Statistics Service, estimates that net farm income will be off more than $138 million this year.

In an attempt to promote the understanding of agriculture in the community, the Howard County Farm Bureau has begun sponsoring bimonthly breakfast meetings.Patterning the meetings after Carroll County's highly successful morning meetings, the bureau will offer breakfast and a speaker at 8 a.m. on the third Thursday of every other month at the 4-H Building on the Howard County Fairgrounds.Thursday's meeting -- the first Howard County Agri-Business Breakfast -- attracted 55 people to a buffet and a talk by Gene Swackhammer, president and chief executive officer of the Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore.

Fila USA, lashed by falling sales and fickle consumers, has sold its Sparks headquarters and 120 acres of surrounding land to a Baltimore real estate developer who intends to construct a $100 million office and industrial park there.The roughly $14 million sale to P. Fred'k Obrecht & Son represents the latest move by the athletic sportswear company to revive itself in the face of declining sales.As part of the sale, Fila will remain in its three-story headquarters through 2004, with options to stay until 2014.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel on securities opened hearings yesterday on the Salomon Brothers treasury bond scandal, hoping to hear about the inner workings of the primary market for the government's $2.3 trillion debt.But out of the 39 participants in the market, only Warren Buffett, the newly installed chief executive of Salomon, showed up.The rest, it emerged in response to irate inquiries by senators, had been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission or had forsworn attendance on the advice of legal counsel.