Million Project

The Cordish Cos. of Baltimore announced plans Monday to build an outlet center and entertainment district in La Vista, Neb., a suburb of Omaha. The retail center, called The Outlets at Southport West, will be similar to Cordish's The Walk development in Atlantic City, N.J., and will include numerous brand-name retailers. The entertainment district, called Live! at Southport West, will include a mix of national and regional restaurants and entertainment venues surrounding a plaza for programmed events, including concerts and art festivals.

The State Highway Administration has begun a $1 million resurfacing project along a mile stretch of York Road between Towsontown Boulevard and Stevenson Lane in Towson, which officials said is designed to improve safety and traffic flow. Crews are upgrading sections of curb, gutter, sidewalk and ramps to meet current Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The project also includes cleaning and repairing inlets and drainage pipes; and installing underground and overhead traffic detectors at intersections where needed.

Carroll Community College officials will break ground at 2:30 p.m. today on a $13 million project - a fine and performing arts/business training center and a life fitness building. The two buildings will be located on the college's Westminster campus at 1601 Washington Road. Unlike previous expansions, the buildings will not be connected to the Great Hall. The arts portion of the center will include a 425-seat theater, an art gallery, 10 music studios and practice rooms. It will provide the college with an area for theatrical and musical productions and a place to display visual art. The business portion will include public meeting rooms, a conference room and faculty and staff offices.

The master developer of Columbia's Town Center aims to begin construction by early next year on a $100 million apartment and retail complex, the area's first new housing in a decade. The Metropolitan Downtown Columbia will be a six-story, 380-unit development that the Howard Hughes Corp. plans to build in a joint venture with Kettler of McLean, Va., and Orchard Development of Ellicott City, on land next to The Mall in Columbia. Rents are expected to range from $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to $2,800 for a three-bedroom unit — making them among the highest in the region.

Residents of the Lake Falls South neighborhood in North Baltimore voted yesterday against a $6 million project to build homes on a parcel just south of the Baltimore County line.The lack of support for the 18 single-family homes and 12 semidetached residences on 9 acres near Falls Road and Lake Avenue means the project is temporarily, and perhaps permanently, on hold.Because the property is zoned for single-family homes, the project would have required legislation to create a planned unit development.

The state Board of Public Works approved yesterday a $4.3 million construction contract to expand the Carroll County Detention Center.The long-awaited $6.1 million project will add 100 beds and alleviate serious overcrowding that has prompted Sheriff John Brown to consider housing inmates outdoors in tents.The expansion is due to be completed in about 12 months.The board gave its approval to a $2.7 million state grant, representing 63 percent of the construction cost. The county's portion, 37 percent, is $1.6 million.

Annapolis' aging City Dock will get its first major face-lift in 30 years starting in the fall with help from a $500,000 state grant. As part of the $1.5 million project - a federal grant and city money will account for the rest - the city will replace the dock's failing bulkheads and deteriorating boardwalk. The city also plans to add utility lines to serve visiting boats and to fortify the foundation of the dock's park area, built on fill composed largely of oyster shells. The utility lines would be hidden from view to comply with city code.

A $71 million project to clean and paint portions of the 4.3-mile eastbound span of the Bay Bridge got under way yesterday as workers began blasting away lead paint from the structure.It will be the first scraping down to bare metal on the original, two-lane span of the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge, built in 1952 at a cost of $45 million.But Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) officials promised yesterday that the project will not significantly interrupt beach traffic or rush hours.

For once, members of the Ciociola family can hear summer's sweet symphony of crickets. Or the ring of the phone. And maybe a little television every now and then.After nearly 20 years of waiting, the Ciociolas and others on their Lutherville street are finally getting relief from the din of Interstate 695 just beyond their back yards, thanks to the new 26-foot sound barriers in their neighborhood."It's made a difference -- for the better," says Shawn Ciociola, 42, who lives at the Meadowvale Road home with her parents.

Developers hope to start building a $230 million project next spring near the campus of Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore that would include luxury apartments, shops and, later, offices or a hotel to cater to the expanding health system's growing number of employees, patients and visitors.

The developer of a planned affordable-housing community in Glen Burnie will start construction on the project next month, after the Anne Arundel County Council voted to grant the company a key tax break on the project. The council's 4-3 vote on the tax break for New York-based Conifer Realty allows the 36-unit project to move forward, despite complaints from residents who said the development has the potential to bring more crime to the area and decrease property values. Those assertions were voiced by County Councilman John J. Grasso, who represents the Glen Burnie area and has said it already has an abundant stock of low-income housing.

Motorists along Route 24 in Harford County will experience new traffic patterns Wednesday as the state opens a nearly $40 million overpass in Abingdon, the major part of a three-year project that included improvements to Routes 24 and 924. The changes mean less congestion and a safer ride for the more than 65,000 motorists daily who pass through one of the county's busiest intersections. The Maryland Transportation Authority began construction on a 1.5-mile stretch of Route 24 from the Interstate 95 ramp to Route 924 in 2008.

Baltimore developer Edward St. John has donated $10 million to the University of Maryland, College Park to help his alma mater build a new high-tech classroom building in the heart of campus. The proposed Edward St. John Teaching and Learning Center would offer 2,000 classroom seats and be used daily by one-third of the campus' undergraduates. It would address a serious shortage of modern classroom space on the state's flagship campus, said President Wallace D. Loh. "Instruction as we've known it for the last 20 or 30 years will be different with this building," Loh said.

The Board of County Commissioners last week gave themselves a Sept. 29 deadline on making a decision on whether to proceed with a $74 million expansion of Carroll County Regional Airport. The expansion plan has been studied for years, and would include extending the runway from its present length of 5,100 feet to 6,400 feet to accommodate larger aircraft. At a Sept. 1 meeting in the County Office Building in Westminster, staff briefed the commissioners on an issue that many consider was a key issue in last year's commissioner elections - which saw an entirely new board elected.

Harford Community College is moving ahead with construction of its new wastewater treatment plant, regardless of whether it gets funding from the county for the project. Members of the college's board of trustees voted at their meeting Tuesday evening to award a contract for $3,653,172 to JLW Associates, of Leonardtown, as contractors for the construction of the school's wastewater treatment plant and associated infrastructure development. The approval carries a risk, however, as HCC is still waiting on $1.275 million in county funding.

Defense contractor TAPE, LLC has opened an office in Belcamp to service a major Army contract. The new office is at 101 Bata Blvd., Suite 102, in the Water's Edge corporate campus. According to a company news release, in 2010, TAPE, an acronym for Technical and Project Engineering, was awarded as a prime contractor, a $400 million U.S. Army research and development contract atAberdeen Proving Ground. The contract, awarded by the Army Research Laboratory, or ARL, develops and supports new concepts for application of advanced technology for special operations forces, combatant commanders and the intelligence community.

The city's Board of Estimates approved yesterday the free transfer of an 18-acre site on Frankford Avenue in East Baltimore to developers to allow them to build 170 homes. Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse and Doracon Contracting Inc. plan to build the $25 million project - featuring 67 single-family, market-rate houses with garages, as well as 103 townhouses and semidetached houses - on the site of the former Strathdale Manor apartments. "We want market-rate housing to try to bring people back into the city of Baltimore," said Mayor Martin O'Malley.

Richard A. Swirnow stares out from the dogeared 1990 news clipping. He wears a hard hat, a dark suit and a look of almost pained determination. A "pit bull," the headline calls him in a nod to his tenacity and toughness. Now 69, the man behind the growing HarborView residential complex off Key Highway in Baltimore has changed. He sports a graying ponytail and a wispy beard. His favored outfit of black shirt and black pants matches his casual manner. "He's becoming like counter-culture," said Irene Van Sant of Baltimore Development Corp.

For the second time in six months, developers of the $150 million Lexington Square project planned for downtown Baltimore's west side have asked for more time to solidify their plans for the endeavor. The group's exclusive negotiating period to buy city-owned land bounded roughly by Lexington, Howard and Fayette streets and Park Avenue will expire on June 30 if it is not extended. M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said the developers have requested a six-month extension of a 2005 land sale agreement, to Dec. 31, 2011.

The Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore has set Nov. 1 as its opening date and has begun building a staff to get ready for it. The hotel announced this week that the November date will be a "soft" opening for the $197 million, 256-room luxury hotel in Harbor East. The hotel has begun to hire top managers, starting with general manager Julien Corralero. According to Liliana Baldassari, director of public relations, the hotel has started to book group business, including meetings and weddings, and will announce room rates and begin accepting individual reservations this summer.