Manekin

For Bernie and Harold Manekin, the sale of a half-interest in the real estate company they founded more than five decades ago is a mixed blessing.Sure, the brothers' share of the $140 million-plus sale, including debt assumption, to San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp. won't hurt. Neither will the time away from the hustle and hassle associated with working full time.Retirement won't just be a day on the golf course, though."It's a bittersweet moment for us," 85-year-old Bernie Manekin told a group assembled for an announcement of the sale.

Silver is good, but, like any competitor, Manekin is hoping for gold. Technically, the real estate company has neither, but it is expected that its new corporate headquarters will be certified as a "green" building, one designed to conserve energy and reduce the effects to the environment. The final touches are being made to the $9.4 million, two-story, 52,000-square-foot structure in Columbia Gateway, although Manekin's employees have moved into their spaces. Manekin's headquarters is only the second green development by the company, although it is working on a third and expects to develop others, said R. Colfax Schnorf Jr., senior vice president and director of development for Manekin.

A team of influential Maryland developers received preliminary approval last night to redevelop the Bainbridge Naval Training Center, a 1,200-acre facility on a hill overlooking Port Deposit that has been closed for nearly 30 years. The approval came in a split vote by the board of the Bainbridge Development Corp., and was followed by the resignation of two of its nine members in protest of the agency's handling of the redevelopment bid. The board's chairwoman, Cynthia Rossetti, also stepped down from her post, indicating that she may resign later from BDC - a quasi-public agency created by the General Assembly in 1999 to oversee development of the former Navy boot camp in Cecil County.

Andrew J. A. Chriss of Manekin Corp. has taken Office as 1993 president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.Other officers installed Oct. 19 include:* Nancy Hubble of W. H. C. Wilson & Co., president-elect.* Gayle Wilson of Otis Warren Real Estate Services, vice president.* David W. Baird IV of Belt's Realty Services, treasurer.Elected to serve two-year terms as board members were Susan Carey of Casey and Associates; Zelma Ensor of Zelma B. Ensor Real Estate; Patrick Kerr of the Patrick Kerr Appraisal Group; Gilbert Marsiglia of Gilbert D. Marsiglia & Co.; Wanda Nesbitt and Bradford Reidle of O'Conor, Piper & Flynn Realtors; C. Douglas Rittenhouse of Century 21/C.

Developer Donald Manekin was vacationing in Maine when Baltimore's new schools chief called him with a proposition: take a longer break from his job and apply his business acumen to helping straighten out city schools. Most businessmen might have refused the offer. But Manekin, 49, a partner and senior vice president for Baltimore-based Manekin LLC, had long been interested in public education. So on Monday, Manekin will begin as the school system's chief operating officer, a new temporary post.

Donald and Brigitte Manekin first met Charlie Barber as he lay curled up on an outdoor bench at Greenspring Station. Toothless and gaunt, Charlie shivered in the winter night as he talked to them. Brigitte worried for his health. Later that evening, she returned with a pillow and blanket -- and slipped him her phone number in case of an emergency. The anonymous call came days later: "Charlie wants to come live with you." Within hours, the homeless man was at the door of the wealthy but unassuming heirs to a Baltimore real estate empire.

Bernard Manekin, whose commercial real estate firm that he owned and operated with his brother for more than 50 years succeeded in transforming Baltimore's skyline and self-image, died Saturday in his sleep at his home in the St. James condominiums on North Charles Street. The longtime Northwest Baltimore resident was 95. "He was one of the original visionaries who made our Charles Center and ultimately the Inner Harbor a success. If he hadn't been able to lease One Charles Center in a poor economic climate, the whole project might have died right there," said Martin L. Millspaugh Jr., who was the first chief executive of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management Inc., which oversaw the development in the 1960s of the harbor and what became Charles Center.

In what may be a prelude to the disposition of more than $400 million worth of commercial real estate, a joint venture between the Manekin Corp. and Copley Real Estate Advisors has sold a Germantown office building.Although the $8.5 million sale of the two-story project isn't expected to touch off an immediate wholesale liquidation of the Manekin/Copley portfolio, it foreshadows the coming wave involving the Boston-based pension fund adviser.As various Copley investment funds mature -- such as Treasury bills or bonds -- the company probably will sell various assets in those funds to generate returns for investors.

The Johns Hopkins University and a local development firm have teamed up to produce what is being described as one of the first comprehensive forecasts for both the Baltimore and Washington commercial real estate markets.Trend Watch, an outlook sponsored by developer Manekin Corp. and produced by Johns Hopkins' Allan L. Berman Real Estate Institute, is based on interviews with 120 real estate industry, business and government leaders.Hopkins and Manekin hope that the survey will not only radiate widely held opinions on the dynamics of the local markets, but also assist developers and businesses in making real estate decisions.

One of the first things entrepreneurs are taught is that if their businesses are not growing, they are falling behind. The second thing is that growth must be carefully managed. These are more than adages. They are closer to biblical commandments, because the corporate graveyard is filled with skeletons of firms that failed to heed the advice. Few companies have executed both strategies with greater focus or efficiency than Manekin LLC, the Columbia-based real estate conglomerate. It is neither the company it was nor is it the company it will be. Still, its top custodians are almost fanatical about not permitting Manekin to become something it is not. "They understand their niche in the overall real estate development community, and they work their market very well," says Richard W. Story, chief executive officer of the Howard County Department of Economic Development.