Headquarters

One only hopes that the Baltimore City School Board president is clearer with other facts than those involving the city school headquarters building, which he imagines is 184 years old ("As schools crumble, suites get renovated," April 27). In fact, the east and west wings of the headquarters opened in 1913. They were of modern construction and had huge, open cement floors which were then partitioned off for classrooms, shops labs, offices, etc. This is exactly the style used today.

One only hopes that the Baltimore City School Board president is clearer with other facts than those involving the city school headquarters building, which he imagines is 184 years old ("As schools crumble, suites get renovated," April 27). In fact, the east and west wings of the headquarters opened in 1913. They were of modern construction and had huge, open cement floors which were then partitioned off for classrooms, shops labs, offices, etc. This is exactly the style used today.

The Baltimore County Fire Department dedicated a conference room at its Towson headquarters Wednesday to its first female firefighter. The England-Dansicker Room on the fourth floor of the East Joppa Road building pays homage to the late Division Chief Danelle England-Dansicker. England-Dansicker, whose portrait adorns the conference room, joined the career service in 1978 and at her retirement in 2005 was the highest-ranking woman in the department. She also served as a lifelong volunteer at Pikesville Volunteer Fire Co. In a career that spanned nearly 30 years, she drove equipment and worked as a cardiac rescue technician.

Outraged education, community and political leaders have called for increased oversight of spending in the Baltimore City school system, amid revelations that about $500,000 was spent to upgrade offices at the district headquarters while city and state leaders fought for funding to fix dilapidated school buildings. Since January 2011, the school system has undertaken 11 renovation projects in eight departments, The Baltimore Sun reported this week. Half of the money went to renovation of a single department: The information technology office, which has spent $250,000 largely to transform an executive suite with new amenities such as interactive white boards.

LANSING, Mich. - General Motors Co. is promising to keep its headquarters in Detroit in return for expanded state tax credits approved Tuesday. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority gave the go-ahead to extend tax credits the company won in June for agreeing to build a new small car at its Orion Township plant near Pontiac. The tax credits now cover some workers at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters in downtown Detroit. The new agreement says GM must keep 22,500 employees in the state rather than just 20,000 to get the tax credits.

An auction of the former Catholic Relief Services headquarters at 209 W. Fayette St. in Baltimore was canceled at the request of the mortgage holder, according to auctioneer Paul Cooper of Alex Cooper Auctioneers. The auction, which had been scheduled for today, would have been a foreclosure sale on behalf of People's Bank of York, Pa. The building owner, an investment group called 209 West Fayette LLC, had negotiated a contract to lease about 56,000 square feet of space in the seven-story building for five years to the VA Maryland Health Care System, an affiliate of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

SunEdison LLC, one of the nation's largest providers of solar energy services, said at a news conference with California's governor Monday that it had moved its headquarters from Beltsville to California's Silicon Valley. The news was announced by California Gov. Jerry Brown, who said in a statement that the company would bring 200 employees from Maryland to Belmont, Calif. SunEdison also pledged to create 300 new jobs over the next five years. Brown attributed the company's decision to relocate to a tax relief law geared toward solar energy firms that was passed this summer.

Celsion Corp., a biotech firm that develops cancer drugs, said Monday that it will move its headquarters from Columbia to New Jersey by the end of September. The company said it has outgrown its current offices, where all but one of its 18 employees work, and intends to relocate to Lawrenceville, N.J., near Trenton. Officials want to move closer to New York financial markets and join the sizable community of companies and academics working on drug development and commercialization in New Jersey.

That schools CEO Andrés Alonso deplores the lavish renovation at headquarters only after the work has been done says a lot about why he should go. Mr. Alonso has abused having a driver, and he brings in outside auditors when standardized tests are given because he doesn't trust the people who work for him, He and the mayor were pictured with President Obama when he signed a wavier to do away with certain requirements of the No Child Left...

Under Armour is hoping to double the size of its Baltimore headquarters to accommodate additional employees, a retail store and a company museum. The sports apparel company wants to build an additional 400,000 square feet at Tide Point, an office complex in the Locust Point neighborhood that the firm, which had rented there for years, bought earlier this year. The company envisions a 20,000-square-foot store opening in 2013, with offices and the museum to follow. Underground and surface parking are also planned.

That schools CEO Andrés Alonso deplores the lavish renovation at headquarters only after the work has been done says a lot about why he should go. Mr. Alonso has abused having a driver, and he brings in outside auditors when standardized tests are given because he doesn't trust the people who work for him, He and the mayor were pictured with President Obama when he signed a wavier to do away with certain requirements of the No Child Left...

The Baltimore skyline is iconic: The National Aquarium's blue waves and the World Trade Center's five-sided building have been depicted in places as varied as Robert McClintock paintings and local body art. The Domino Sugar sign is - well, it's the Domino Sugar sign. It's priceless. Exelon Corp.'s Baltimore office, proposed to be built on the old Allied Chemical site in Harbor Point, would alter that skyline forever. In that context, it too needs to be iconic. The proposed office building has been treated by the mayor's office as simply a necessity of the Exelon merger with Constellation Energy.

WTMD-FM, Towson University's radio station, is moving to downtown Towson. The change, talked about last fall, was formalized Tuesday when university officials signed a lease for an 8,000-square-foot space at Towson City Center, general manager Stephen Yasko said. The station's new home is a result of WTMD's growth since it changed formats a decade ago, and the university's own drive to carve out a niche in the downtown corridor. Along with the station, four centers belonging to the College of Health Professions signed leases at the mixed-use complex in January.

The Baltimore City Council's Land Use and Transportation Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would enable sports apparel maker Under Armour to double the size of its Locust Point headquarters, hire hundreds more workers and help retain the city's last major corporate headquarters. Under Armour, which has grown in more than a decade into a $1 billion global sports apparel brand, plans to build a large new office tower and the city's first Under Armour store. It also plans to expand other buildings on the Tide Point waterfront campus in Locust Point, a converted Procter & Gamble factory.

The name "Constellation Energy" will still be around. The energy trading firm will still be doing much the same thing it ever has in a large, new building on Baltimore's waterfront. It will have somewhat fewer employees, but it will, at least for the next several years, maintain its status as one of the region's largest corporate philanthropists. And it's not as if Constellation was universally beloved around town anyway; despite its many contributions to the local economy and charitable scene, the company was often derided, as was its CEO, Mayo A. Shattuck III. So why should we mourn the sale of Baltimore's last Fortune 500 company to Chicago-based Exelon?

Maryland's second Gino's Burgers & Chicken is scheduled to open March 5 in the White Marsh-Perry Hall area. The new Gino's will open in the Honeygo Shopping Center, directly across from White Marsh Mall, near the intersection of White Marsh and Perry Hall boulevards. Former Gino's executive Tom Romano engineered the current Gino's revival. A company-owned store opened in King of Prussia, Pa. in October 2010, and the first franchise operation opened in August 2011 in Towson.

The Howard County Council's first public meeting since 2008 in its traditional quarters went off without a hitch Monday night, though some first-night jitters were evident. "It is weird," said Councilwoman Jen Terrasa, a North Laurel/Savage Democrat who was still trying to get used to the gleaming new finishes and fixtures after the 75-minute, lightly attended public hearing. Terrasa's office was crammed with blue plastic bins of materials that still need to be unpacked. The county government will be spending the next few weeks moving back to the George Howard building in Ellicott City from temporary offices in Columbia.

The decision by Northrop Grumman to relocate its headquarters to Virginia rather than Maryland or the District of Columbia boiled down to real estate, proximity to the federal government and economic development incentives, according to the company. "We looked at all of those factors in total and the decision pointed to Virginia," Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said in an interview Tuesday. Belote said the defense contractor, now headquartered in Los Angeles, was looking for a facility that could accommodate its cybersecurity operations and other high-tech divisions.

Exelon Corp.'s new headquarters in Baltimore is designed to be a glassy, 22-story skyscraper, similar in style to the Legg Mason tower, which would be a neighbor on the Harbor East waterfront, according to preliminary designs revealed Wednesday. The building would be part of the $250 million first phase of the 27-acre Harbor Point development, which would also include a central plaza, a headquarters for U.S. Lacrosse, a six-acre waterfront park and an apartment tower, said Michael Beatty, president of Harbor East Development Corp.

Harbor Point, a development project led by bakery magnate and developer John Paterakis Sr., will be the site of the headquarters for the combined Constellation-Exelon company if the proposed merger is completed, the energy giants announced Wednesday. The prospect of adding a new office tower to Baltimore's skyline excited city officials and the development community. But some were disappointed that the companies chose a site between Harbor East and Fells Point, rather than in the central business district.