Harbor Development

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke took a step yesterday toward merging the city's two major downtown development groups into a single agency.The mayor has asked David M. Gillece, president of Baltimore Economic Development Corp., to look at the feasibility of merging BEDCO and Center City-Inner Harbor Development Corp.Center City-Inner Harbor Development was created last year by combining the operations of Charles Center Inner Harbor Management Corp., which was responsible for development around the Inner Harbor, and Market Center Development Corp.

The developer of the Harbor East neighborhood on Baltimore's waterfront has split into two companies, one that will focus on building at the adjacent Harbor Point and a second company that will manage Harbor East properties. Michael S. Beatty, who founded H&S Properties Development in 1995 with John Paterakis, the owner of H&S Bakery Inc., to develop Harbor East, will lead the newly formed Harbor Point Development Group LLC, announced Harbor East Cos./H&S Properties Development Corp.

The Baltimore Inner Harbor development is being repeated around the world wherever ports have moved downriver from their origins and left abandoned waterfront that, like a properly irrigated desert, might bloom. Bloom with promenades and shops and cafes and the parade of humanity. And so Inner Harbors are being attempted from London to Sydney.The agreement of the Enterprise Development Co., creation of James Rouse of Harborplace, Cross Keys and Columbia fame, to take on a 14-acre development site in Belfast should spread hope across Northern Ireland, where endless sectarian strife and terrorism have so often killed hope.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is to hold a hearing Wednesday evening to discuss whether Harbor Point, the future home of Exelon Corp.'s Baltimore headquarters, should again be included in a state-wide tax credit program. John Paterakis' Harbor East Development Group LLC has put together an application requesting that Harbor Point and two nearby blocks between Fleet and Lancaster streets be included in Baltimore's Enterprise Zone. The submission would need approval from the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development for the roughly 32-acre site to be included.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke today announced the appointment of David Gillece, president of Baltimore Economic Development Corp., as acting president of Center City-Inner Harbor Development Inc. and asked him to explore merging the two quasi-public development agencies.The move comes after the resignation of long-time Center City head Albert M. Copp, who left the agency in September after receiving harsh criticism from City Council members and others for the agency's allegedly secretive operating style and poor handling of several downtown development projects.

Baltimore Economic Development Corp. President David M. Gillece has resigned a week after completing a merger of BEDCO with the city's office for downtown development.Gillece was appointed by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke four years ago and has been responsible for developing a plan to merge BEDCO with Center City Inner Harbor Development.BEDCO's primary responsibility had been overseeing city economic development outside downtown.A statement last night from City Hall announcing the resignation said Gillece was leaving the post, effective Oct. 4,"to pursue other opportunities in the private sector."

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has asked David Gillece, president of Baltimore Economic Development Corp., to explore merging BEDCO with Center City-Inner Harbor Development Inc. Both are quasi-public development agencies.The mayor yesterday appointed Gillece as acting president of Center City.The move comes after the resignation of long-time Center City head Albert M. Copp, who left the agency in September after receiving harsh criticism from City Council members and others for the agency's allegedly secretive operating style and poor handling of several downtown development projects.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced yesterday that he has decided to merge Baltimore's two quasi-public economic-development agencies, the Baltimore Economic Development Corp. and Center City-Inner Harbor Development Inc., by July 1.The idea has been under study since November. It was seen in part as a cost-saving measure, but the mayor said yesterday that he is convinced it also will provide a more effective way to promote the continued investment by businesses in Baltimore.David W. Gillece, BEDCO president and acting head of Center City-Inner Harbor, will head the as-yet-unnamed agency.

THE DEVELOPMENT of the Inner Harbor has accelerated and is moving at a feverish pitch. Which makes this a good time to take a breath and consider that not all of the Inner Harbor's enterprises have been successful.Remember the Nobska? It was heralded as the Inner Harbor's first floating restaurant. The former three-deck, New England excursion boat, which was moored near the Maryland Science Center, opened in April 1976 on a high note. Some 300 luminaries attended, toasting the beginning of a new era. Waiters in tuxedos circled with champagne and fancy foods.

Baltimore's Market Place may be rebuilt at a cost of up to $12.5 million to resemble a canal, complete with a fleet of old-time barges and fishing schooners doubling as vendors' kiosks and outdoor cafes.Nautical flags atop the boats and a wide array of food and crafts would bring a burst of color to the corridor, and cranes with large banners would be positioned at each end of the "canal" to call attention to nearby attractions.Alongside the real vessels would be a series of beached "ghost boats" -- cast replicas of oyster tonguing vessels, banana barges and other work boats that once plied the waters of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Developers of Baltimore's Harbor Point have asked the city for permission to build up to 1,000 residences on the site between Harbor East and Fells Point, making the project more of a mixed-use community than is currently allowed by the city's zoning. If the plans for the 27.3-acre waterfront parcel are approved, the developers said, total investment in new construction would be about $1.5 billion, up from a previous estimate of $1 billion. The project's space would grow 60 percent to 2.9 million square feet of space, from the 1.8 million square feet currently allowed.

Chip Olsen and his wife, Linda, grew up on Long Island. Their memories, reflected in framed photographs on the walls of their home, are of long afternoons sitting on sandy beaches or idly dangling their feet from one of the many piers along the shore. Little wonder, then, that they would end up living in a home on a pier jutting 500 feet into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Chip Olsen's job as senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis required travel and relocation, taking the couple from Charlotte to Atlanta.

A Baltimore City Council committee approved a plan to create a development district encompassing Harbor Point, clearing the way for $155 million in tax breaks for a project spearheaded by bakery and development magnate John Paterakis Sr. Councilman Carl Stokes, who was recently appointed head of the taxation and finance committee, voted against the measure, but three other council members voted for it. The full council is slated to vote on...

A Harbor East development that will become Legg Mason's new corporate headquarters appears on the verge of getting millions of dollars in city tax breaks. The City Council's Taxation and Finance Committee approved a bill yesterday that would forgive $33 million in taxes for H&S Properties Development Corp., owned by bakery magnate John Paterakis Sr., to construct a waterfront tower and an underground parking garage. Though the $581 million project also includes another tower for a Four Seasons Hotel and condominiums, the tax break, among the largest granted by the city, applies only to the office portion and the garage.

The developer of an upscale waterfront townhouse complex will not be fined for defying a stop-work order or violating height restrictions, a city housing spokesman said yesterday. But HarborView developer Richard Swirnow was forced to pay the city more than $10,000 in permitting fees so that new plans -- replacing those previously approved by city officials -- could be authorized and construction could continue, housing department spokesman David Tillman said. "The city shares some responsibility," Tillman said.

After its second major rewrite of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s gambling proposal in less than a week, a Senate committee approved last night a plan to permit 15,500 slot machines at three racetracks and three tourist destinations in Maryland. The plan, which now goes to the full Senate for a vote, could shut out slot machines from both of Maryland's harness tracks -- Ocean Downs near Ocean City and Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George's County -- but it adds Dorchester County as an Eastern Shore site eligible for expanded gambling.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer said yesterday that Baltimore's mayor and business leaders should join the state in writing a new master plan for development of the Inner Harbor near the vacant Power Plant and bankrupt Brokerage complex."

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has arrived -- business executives and development professionals are loathe to openly criticize him for fear of retribution. This milestone of accumulated power shows signs of further enhancement in the form of incipient cronyism. Not bad for just one term.Last week's resignation of David M. Gillece, the city's chief economic development official, puts a lot of pressure on Mr. Schmoke's unblemished facade. No one is suggesting that the mayor has done or condoned any inappropriate behavior.

If you still call it Inner Harbor East, get with the program. It's Harbor East now. The "inner" is out of fashion for the booming waterfront district between Fells Point and the Inner Harbor. Prominent developers John Paterakis Sr. and C. William Struever are vigorously "branding" what the city still calls Inner Harbor East with a shorter, sleeker name meant to evoke a new identity. They have a Harbor East Web site, a logo and a newsletter called The Compass. Still to come: Harbor East signs on lampposts.

The developer of the waterfront Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium complex, stalled multiple times by the economy and other hurdles, said yesterday that the nearly 4-year-old proposal is back on track. Edward V. Giannasca II, who took over as the sole developer of the $190 million Ritz project about a year ago, said he still has no groundbreaking date. But he does have a signed agreement from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. to operate the hotel and condos for 20 years and a new investor who can bring substantial cash to the project.