Maryland Hotel

With the opening of more than a half-dozen restaurants in the Inner Harbor, bringing hundreds of jobs, at least some managers say they are scrambling to find employees to meet the demand."

Robert L. Steele III, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Baltimore, has been named 1996 corporate hotelier of the year by the Maryland Hotel & Motel Association, while Leonard P. Berger of the Sheraton Fontainebleau in Ocean City was named independent hotelier of the year.Steele has played a key role in the tourism industry, serving on the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association Board, as well as several other tourism and community organizations, and heading the Greater Baltimore Committee's tourism group.

In a sign of healthy growth for Maryland's tourism industry, the number of U.S. tourists visiting the state rose about 13 percent last year, to more than 21 million, a state report says.These visitors, who traveled at least 50 miles or paid for overnight accommodations, accounted for about $5.8 billion in direct spending in 1995, according to the state tourism office's annual report.Domestic travelers visiting Maryland -- the report excludes visitors from other countries -- generated $722 million in state and local tax revenues and about 80,000 jobs, the report said.

The Baltimore-based Cordish Co. has cleared a key hurdle in its bid to build a 27-story luxury hotel, retail complex and enclosed parking garage across from the Inner Harbor, winning exclusive rights to negotiate with the state to develop the prime downtown land.The state Department of General Services confirmed last night that Cordish's $114 million "Market Square at the Inner Harbor" had been chosen as the best proposal to develop the 2.8-acre, state-owned site.The project would be anchored by an 800-room hotel that would become Baltimore's biggest and the first major new hotel since 1988.

Gary A. Oster, general manager of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel and one of the most vocal and active advocates of the city's $1 billion-a-year tourism industry, is leaving Baltimore to become a vice president of the Renaissance chain.From lobbying for money to lure tourists and conventioneers to lobbying for a football stadium to lure the NFL, Oster has been an influential presence at City Hall, in Annapolis and on several key tourism-related governing boards.The 41-year-old Ferndale native, a graduate of Cardinal Gibbons High and the University of Baltimore, will end his six-year tenure as general manager Sept.

...4TC Gary A. Oster, the general manager of the Stouffer Renaissance Harborplace Hotel and a tireless advocate for Baltimore's tourism industry, has been named "Hotelier of the Year" by the Maryland Hotel & Motel Association.Along with managing the 622-room luxury hotel on Pratt Street, Mr. Oster plays a key role in Baltimore tourism organizations. He heads the Greater Baltimore Committee's tourism committee, serves as co-chairman of the Downtown Public Safety Coalition and is a member of the governing boards of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Opponents of Maryland's sweeping new ban on workplace smoking vowed yesterday to take their fight to the state legislature, where some lawmakers already are moving to exempt bars, hotels and restaurants.As the governor announced the ban will take effect March 27, businesses that cater to tourists and conventioneers complained that it will hurt their business."We think it's up to the marketplace to decide what we should be doing, not the state Department of Licensing and Regulation," said Mary Jo McCulloch, executive director of both the Maryland Tourism Council and the Maryland Hotel and Motel Association.

The Harbor Court Hotel has been rated Maryland's top hotel -- and the 11th-best in America -- in a poll of Conde Nast Traveler magazine readers.The poll listing the top 25 U.S. hotels appears in the magazine's November issue. It is based on the opinions of more than 30,000 readers.The 203-room Inner Harbor hotel joined such prestigious hotels receiving the honor as Four Seasons in Washington, Chicago and Boston and the Ritz-Carltons in Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.Criteria used to judge destinations around the world include service, rooms, restaurant, location and atmosphere.

Fila's shares increaseShares of Fila Holding SpA jumped more than $3 yesterday, to $31.875, after the Italian sportswear and athletic shoe company announced record earnings for the second quarter.The company, whose U.S. headquarters are in Hunt Valley, said earnings rose 77 percent to $11.4 million, or 46 cents per American depositary share, during the three months that ended June 30. Sales reached $202.8 million, up 55 percent from the second quarter of 1994.Merry-Go-Round sales dip 21%Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc., the Joppa-based fashion retailer, said yesterday that for the four weeks that ended July 29, sales dropped $10.3 million, or 21 percent, to $39.1 million, compared with the same period last year.

On any day in 1878, Hector H. Goodman, an Annapolis merchant, could likely stand outside his small drugstore at 11 Main St. near the City Dock and watch the goings-on in the old seaport village.To his left was the town's coal office, right next to Market House. Up near Church Circle, William H. Gorman & Co. ran the Maryland Hotel.The coal house is gone now, though Market House is still in place. The Maryland Hotel has become the Maryland Inn. Restaurants and tourist shops line Main Street.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's proposal to raise the hotel tax to generate revenue for the financially strapped school system has drawn sharp opposition from state and local tourism officials, who say it would have a devastating trickle-down effect on the county's economy. The measure - which combined with Maryland's 6 percent sales tax would give the county the state's highest checkout fee and one of the steepest in the country - will drive visitors to competing destinations, officials predicted, saying they've seen it happen elsewhere in Maryland.

Acquisitions JPB Enterprises Inc., a privately held Columbia-based holding company, acquired DisplayWorks LLC and Marketcraft LLC. The two firms were North American subsidiaries of British-based MICE Group PLC. Financial terms were not disclosed. Organizations National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, Maryland Chapter unveiled a new membership program, Developing Leaders, aimed at attracting young professionals in, or interested in entering, the commercial real estate industry.

Developers plan to break ground this fall on a 300-room Crowne Plaza hotel near BWI Marshall Airport, one of more than 20 hotels proposed or already under construction in Anne Arundel County. The Crowne, which focuses on the corporate-meeting niche, will be part of a complex called the Grand Isle Resort that by itself is slated to have four hotels - plus an indoor water park, a conference center, a day spa and 10 restaurants. The complex in Linthicum, just north of the airport, is expected to break ground shortly before the Crowne and open in mid-to-late 2009.

Hyatt Regency Baltimore Convention Services Manager Robert J. Clark of Abingdon has been nominated for the Distinguished Convention Service Management Award for the second consecutive year. The award is an international recognition given annually by the Professional Convention Management Association, a worldwide association of meeting industry professionals. The award recognizes exceptional performance, professional expertise, and seamless fulfillment of all logistical requirements of a meeting.

With the end of price caps on electricity for commercial customers just months away, a group of Maryland trade associations is counting on its collective buying power to save money for hundreds of the state's retailers, hotels, restaurants, printers, gas station dealers and other businesses. Mid-Atlantic Aggregation Group Independent Consortium, or MAAGIC, said yesterday that it has signed an agreement with Pittsburgh-based Strategic Energy LLC to supply electricity at competitive rates and will kick off a campaign today to sign up members of its trade groups . MAAGIC, which is licensed by the state to negotiate power contracts on its members' behalf, is made up of nine business associations, including the Maryland Retailers Association, the Restaurant Association of Maryland and the Maryland Hotel & Lodging Association.

Cigarette smoking would be banned in nearly every business in Maryland - including bars and restaurants - under legislation that would give the state one of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the country. Proponents call the bill heard by a Senate committee yesterday the Clean Indoor Act of 2003 and say it would go a long way toward protecting people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Opponents call it a Draconian measure that would do serious harm to Maryland's businesses. "What we're trying to do here is give a reprieve to our citizens from the death penalty they would have from indoor smoking," said Sen. Ida G. Ruben, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill heard before the Senate Finance Committee.

Russell D. Niller Jr., chairman of the Maryland Hotel Supply Co. and a pitcher with the International League Orioles in the early 1940s, died of a heart attack Friday at his Ocean City home. He was 80. Mr. Niller was born in Baltimore and raised near Lake Montebello. He was a 1939 graduate of McDonogh School and captain of its baseball team. He attended the University of Virginia for a year before joining the Orioles as a pitcher in 1940. At a 1942 War Bond exhibition game at old Oriole Park, Mr. Niller faced Bob Feller, a future Hall of Famer, who was pitching for the Norfolk Naval Training Center.

The guy carrying a black duffel bag and walking out a door reserved for employees looked a little suspicious to Julevette Price as she made security rounds at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel garage. "Sir, can I help you? Do you have a car in the garage," she asked. The man turned and Price immediately recognized the "peanut"-shaped head and dark-circled eyes from a crime photo she'd seen earlier in the week. The man fled into a thick July 4 crowd and Price radioed to other security officers who caught him at the other end of the hotel.

With the opening of more than a half-dozen restaurants in the Inner Harbor, bringing hundreds of jobs, at least some managers say they are scrambling to find employees to meet the demand."

Robert L. Steele III, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Baltimore, has been named 1996 corporate hotelier of the year by the Maryland Hotel & Motel Association, while Leonard P. Berger of the Sheraton Fontainebleau in Ocean City was named independent hotelier of the year.Steele has played a key role in the tourism industry, serving on the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association Board, as well as several other tourism and community organizations, and heading the Greater Baltimore Committee's tourism group.