Fishmarket

As Mother Nature produced an impressive sneak preview of what the weather may be like this spring, smiles and good humor were in ample supply yesterday. Bright sunshine and lunchtime crowds at the Inner Harbor prompted even David Cordish, the Baltimore-based nationwide developer who's typically cautious about making predictions about his future deals, to wax optimistic over his chances to reopen the long-dormant Fishmarket entertainment complex near the waterfront.He revealed that the initial developer, McCourt Co. of Boston, had paid off some $30 million it had borrowed to renovate that old Victorian temple of fishmongering.

The city's economic development agency, in an effort to breathe life into another failed downtown tourist attraction, yesterday chose the Cordish Co. -- the successful redeveloper of the Power Plant -- to revitalize the Brokerage complex at 34 Market Place.The city's announcement comes roughly a month before it will debut the nation's second-largest children's museum in the former Fishmarket adjacent to the Brokerage.In selecting Cordish, the city underlined the importance of the $32 million Port Discovery museum -- considered a linchpin for redevelopment of the downtown's east side -- and the need for complimentary uses to support it."

Among the Baltimore white elephants that commemorate excesses of the 1980s real estate boom and bust, the Fishmarket occupies a singular place. Private developers borrowed more than $25 million to reconvert that temple of fishmongering into a veritable mall of bars and eateries, each with a different theme. After less than a year in operation, the emporium closed abruptly in July 1989. It has been boarded up and padlocked ever since.After a number of premature rumors, the Fishmarket now appears to be on the comeback trail.

By tapping Walt Disney Imagineering to design interactive exhibits for Port Discovery, the $25 million children's museum in Baltimore has bought its ambitious venture instant credibility. In the world of make-believe, nothing has matched Disney's record of consistent success."This is world-class, this is not just another attraction," a beaming Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke declared at a press conference where the Disney contract was announced. He said he hopes that when the new museum opens in 1997 it means "an extra day that people will want to stay in town."

Baltimore has agreed to a $2.4 million purchase of the Fishmarket -- clearing the way for its conversion to a children's museum and removing a major obstacle to redeveloping the Market Place area.The city is scheduled to take title next week to the property, which has been vacant since a nightclub complex there abruptly shut its doors nearly six years ago, officials said. That will end years of frustrating efforts by the property's former owner and the city to reopen or find a new buyer for the mammoth building, which lies two blocks from the eastern part of the Inner Harbor.

For nearly four years, the Fishmarket nightclub complex has stood empty and shuttered, a monument to Baltimore's inability to revitalize the downtown blocks beyond the gleaming Inner Harbor.Now a prominent Baltimore developer appears poised to revive the failed entertainment center. The 1906 landmark, once the city's leading commercial fish market, could reopen as early as June, said Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.The project would be the latest high-profile attempt to strengthen the Market Place area.

The Texas-based management team that announced plans last month to reopen Baltimore's Fishmarket has apparently shut down its Baltimore office and left town, raising doubts about whether it will move ahead with its project.The office of Baltimore Management Co., the group formed by Texans Billy Bob Barnett and Spencer Taylor to oversee the reopening of the Fishmarket for developer Frank McCourt, has been locked for more than a week, and its telephone has been disconnected.A telephone inside the Fishmarket at Market Place and Water Street also has been disconnected, according to a recorded message.

A Baltimore corporation obtained ownership of the Fishmarket yesterday, casting doubts on a new plan to reopen the failed nightclub complex as early as this summer.Just hours after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke reiterated that a prominent Baltimore developer was poised to revive the Fishmarket, a corporation holding a lien on the property gained ownership.The turn of events surprised Mr. Schmoke. "Obviously it would complicate this matter, and the timetable [for reopening] would probably be changed," he said last night.

In its brief heyday in the late 1980s, Baltimore's Fishmarket drew nightly crowds of yuppie twenty-somethings who wanted to dance to the beat of local bands.Now the city hopes to capitalize on a new era. If the mayor and a private, nonprofit development corporation have their way, the settled couples of the 1990s will return to the Fishmarket, this time with their children in tow.The city hopes to revive the failed nightclub complex as a children's museum, the anchor of a $30 million National Children's Center planned for Market Place near the Inner Harbor.

In the photograph accompanying yesterday's article on the Fishmarket, the man pictured with Billy Bob Barnett was misidentified. He is Merrill Diamond, a local representative for the McCourt Co.The Sun regrets the errors.The new managers of Baltimore's Fishmarket pledged yesterday to provide "quality value" to visitors to the Inner Harbor entertainment complex by keeping admission and parking costs low and adding new attractions and revamping old ones.Describing the $25 million project that closed in July 1989 after just nine months of operation as a "wonderful facility that was under-utilized," managers Billy Bob Barnett and Spencer Taylor promised to keepbasic admission prices to $5 and sharply cut parking costs.

Transforming the Fishmarket nightclub complex into achildren's museum will cost $21 million, but city planners said most of the renovations would be financed with private funds.The overhaul is among the projects included in the six-year, $1.2 billion capital improvements budget adopted Thursday by the Planning Commission. The budget proposes spending $223 million in the fiscal year that begins in July, about $5 million less than is being spent on construction and renovation projects in the current budget year.

Baltimore has agreed to a $2.4 million purchase of the Fishmarket -- clearing the way for its conversion to a children's museum and removing a major obstacle to redeveloping the Market Place area.The city is scheduled to take title next week to the property, which has been vacant since a nightclub complex there abruptly shut its doors nearly six years ago, officials said. That will end years of frustrating efforts by the property's former owner and the city to reopen or find a new buyer for the mammoth building, which lies two blocks from the eastern part of the Inner Harbor.

The new owners of the Fishmarket, one of the Inner Harbor's most spectacular failures, yesterday won a ruling from Maryland's highest court that clears the way for an anticipated sale to the city and the proposed Children's Museum.The Maryland Court of Appeals rejected a challenge by the building's former owners, who had contested a tax sale that left the project in the hands of two local businessmen, Jack Stollof and Harvey Nusbaum, principals in a partnership called G.A.A. Inc. In so ruling, the court upheld the city's tax sale system.

In its brief heyday in the late 1980s, Baltimore's Fishmarket drew nightly crowds of yuppie twenty-somethings who wanted to dance to the beat of local bands.Now the city hopes to capitalize on a new era. If the mayor and a private, nonprofit development corporation have their way, the settled couples of the 1990s will return to the Fishmarket, this time with their children in tow.The city hopes to revive the failed nightclub complex as a children's museum, the anchor of a $30 million National Children's Center planned for Market Place near the Inner Harbor.

With the opening of the city's Columbus Center just five months away, it is appropriate that redevelopment efforts now center on two vacant buildings nearby, the Pier 4 Power Plant and the Fishmarket. Both bombed in their initial incarnations as entertainment centers and have been begging for new users ever since.Two years ago, the cavernous Power Plant was offered to a group of investors who wanted to re-open it as a $32.5 million virtual reality entertainment complex called Sports Center USA. They have been having trouble securing financing, however.

Baltimore's long-range strategy for the Inner Harbor changed course abruptly this week as prospective developers of several key parcels disclosed decisions that leave the Market Place area in flux.Alex. Brown & Sons executives politely rejected the city's offer of an exclusive 60-day period to study the Pier 4 Power Plant as a headquarters site, but said they would still like a chance to negotiate for the property without preventing others from doing the same.The investment company's refusal to accept exclusive negotiating rights was an indication that its chief executive officer, who expressed interest in the waterfront landmark several months ago, may be cooling to the idea of converting it to offices.

Both the state and the city are stepping in to help reopen the Fishmarket entertainment complex in downtown Baltimore, which has been closed since July 1989.The state has agreed to guarantee repayment of half of a $2 million loan that the Fishmarket's developer is seeking from its lender, according to Jane Howard, director of public relations for the state Department of Economic and Employment Development.Frank McCourt Jr., the developer, is trying to borrow the money from the First National Bank of Boston.

The new owners of the Fishmarket, one of the Inner Harbor's most spectacular failures, yesterday won a ruling from Maryland's highest court that clears the way for an anticipated sale to the city and the proposed Children's Museum.The Maryland Court of Appeals rejected a challenge by the building's former owners, who had contested a tax sale that left the project in the hands of two local businessmen, Jack Stollof and Harvey Nusbaum, principals in a partnership called G.A.A. Inc. In so ruling, the court upheld the city's tax sale system.

A Baltimore corporation obtained ownership of the Fishmarket yesterday, casting doubts on a new plan to reopen the failed nightclub complex as early as this summer.Just hours after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke reiterated that a prominent Baltimore developer was poised to revive the Fishmarket, a corporation holding a lien on the property gained ownership.The turn of events surprised Mr. Schmoke. "Obviously it would complicate this matter, and the timetable [for reopening] would probably be changed," he said last night.

As Mother Nature produced an impressive sneak preview of what the weather may be like this spring, smiles and good humor were in ample supply yesterday. Bright sunshine and lunchtime crowds at the Inner Harbor prompted even David Cordish, the Baltimore-based nationwide developer who's typically cautious about making predictions about his future deals, to wax optimistic over his chances to reopen the long-dormant Fishmarket entertainment complex near the waterfront.He revealed that the initial developer, McCourt Co. of Boston, had paid off some $30 million it had borrowed to renovate that old Victorian temple of fishmongering.