Harbor East

The number of movie screens within Baltimore is set to practically double, with the planned Nov. 2 opening of a seven-screen theater in Harbor East, the burgeoning neighborhood between the Inner Harbor and Fells Point. The 1,300-seat facility, to be operated by Los Angeles-based Landmark Theatres, will be part of a 35,000-square-foot commercial and residential complex at Aliceanna and President streets. Its opening will increase the number of theater screens within the city's borders to 15, including five at the Charles, two at the Rotunda Cinematheque and the single-screen Senator.

THE PROBLEM -- Two explanatory panels at the National Katyn Memorial have been damaged for months. THE BACKSTORY -- Vicky Schetelich and her husband, who have lived in Harbor East for nearly three years, take daily strolls along Aliceanna and President streets. They walk past the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II. Schetelich called the memorial "a little oasis in the middle" of construction that's taken place over the past several years.

Harbor East's new RA Sushi is trendsetting in more ways than just its spin on food. Friday evenings, it becomes quite a hotspot for Baltimore trendsetters, such as Katherine Eckhart. When this 26-year-old child therapist goes to work, it may mean she has to play with some of her clients. But, when it comes to her own time, the term play clothes take on a whole new meaning. Age: 26 Residence: Lutherville Job: Child therapist at Key Point Health Services Self-described style: "Comfy eclectic."

Mimi Horensky loves her jeans, and all her friends know it. "My signature is a great pair of jeans, some heels and a fun top." The 38-year-old, stay-at-home Guilford mom says she must have about 50 pairs of jeans in her closet. She has always loved fashion and likes to create a personal style that combines being "fashion-forward and elegant and comfortable all at the same time." She had certainly accomplished that objective when we "glimpsed" her at the CityPeek Happy Hour at Lebanese Taverna, in Harbor East, a benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Downtown residents soon might have two new high-end grocery options. Construction on a Fresh Fields Whole Foods Market is set to begin this month at Inner Harbor East, according to Michael S. Beatty of H&S Properties Development Corp. And at Charles Plaza, a New York-based gourmet chain, Leo's Markets, plans to open a small grocery at the corner of Charles and Saratoga streets, said developer David H. Hillman. There are several Fresh Fields outlets in the Baltimore area, but Leo's will be a newcomer.

Developers of the $350 million Inner Harbor East community say they would be able to provide office space to the State Highway Administration as an alternative to the state's plan to spend $18.5 million to add a large office building in Camden Yards, where the new baseball stadium is being constructed.Michael Culbert, vice president of real estate for Gilbane Properties Inc., the lead developer of the Inner Harbor East project, said his company would be able to provide 250,000 square feet of office space in its 20-acre development by early 1992.

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.

Developers of the historic Bagby Furniture Building in Little Italy, on the edge of Harbor East, have boosted the building's occupancy to 80 percent since launching a $5 million renovation of what had been mostly vacant office space. Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC has brought in 15 new office and retail tenants since buying the building in 2007, when it was 20 percent filled, converting the first-floor offices into street-level shops, adding a lobby and courtyard for outdoor dining and renovating the four levels of offices.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere ** (2 stars) There are two kinds of people who shouldn't even consider eating at the new RA Sushi in Harbor East: Those who take their sushi seriously, and those who don't like really loud, throbbing rock 'n' roll music while they eat. In fact, if you fall into either of those two categories, don't even read any farther. That's how enraged this Arizona-based chain will make you. Poor:]

One sunny day two summers ago, as Yvonne Hardy-Phillips and her husband, Oliver, shopped for groceries at Whole Foods Market in Harbor East, something happened that took the couple and other store patrons by surprise. From out of the gourmet cheese aisle strolled "two leggy, svelte 20-something women, clad only in bikinis and barely there cover-ups," recalls Hardy-Phillips, an arts educator who lives in Mount Vernon. Catching snatches of their conversation, the pair had just stepped off one of the pleasure boats moored in nearby waters, a block or so away, she says.