Office Market

The local manager of the proposed 45-story One Light Street office project has accepted a new job in Houston, but his move is not expected to affect the $180 million development, which was already on hold because of the weak commercial real estate market.Dirk Mosis has decided to return to Trammell Crow Co., the Dallas developer he left last year, according to Amer Hammour, executive vice president of Capital Guidance Corp., which represents investors in the One Light Street project.Mr. Mosis worked in Trammell Crow's Baltimore office until November, when Crow withdrew from One Light Street's development team.

Office developer Merritt Properties has purchased land in Aberdeen, where it will start building a business park to meet growing demand from government contractors seeking space near Aberdeen Proving Ground. Merritt said Wednesday it plans to build three office buildings totaling more than 250,000 square feet, some small shops and an on-site fitness center on nearly 36 acres on McHenry Road in Harford County. The site, on the south side of Route 22, sits less than two miles from the army base, which is adding jobs and missions because of federal base realignment.

The local manager of the proposed 45-story One Light Street office project has accepted a new job in Houston, but his move is not expected to affect the $180 million development, which was already on hold because of the weak commercial real estate market.Dirk Mosis has decided to return to Trammell Crow Co., a Dallas-based developer he left last year, according to Amer Hammour, executive vice president of Capital Guidance Corp., which represents investors in the One Light Street project.Mr.

SILVER SPRING -- At the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road, an art deco shopping center once represented the dream of families who longed for an idyllic life outside the concrete cities.Built in 1938, the Silver Spring Shopping Center was a novelty. It featured a cluster of stores surrounding a parking lot -- Maryland's first car-oriented strip shopping.Today, that intersection could become a major crossroads for Montgomery County and, perhaps, for Maryland. While the stores sit empty, the shopping center rests on the corner of what could soon become a new "American Dream" -- the label a Canadian developer has given a proposed megamall here.

A partnership of Manekin Corp. and members of H&S Bakery Inc. President John Paterakis' family expects today to purchase a nine-building office and retail complex in Columbia for $6.1 million.The sale of the 20-acre Columbia Business Center, which in July 1992 was acquired by lender Aetna Life Insurance Co. in a foreclosure auction, is the latest evidence that the troubled Howard County office market has begun to rebound."One of the big positives here is that the Columbia market is firming up," said Richard M. Alter, Manekin's chief executive.

County Council members yesterday voted to approve a scaled-down version of a proposed condominium development in Southern Ellicott City next to the planned Route 100.K&M Development Corp.'s rezoning petition asked the council members, sitting as the Zoning Board, to change 50 acres of office/research-zoned land to apartment zoning to accommodate 730 units between the planned highway and the Oakland Ridge Industrial Center.Three council members agreed to change only 30 acres to apartment zoning and allow only 450 condominium units in 19 buildings.

Columbia's latest theme restaurant will hark back to Depression-era Oklahoma.The Hard Times Cafe, which specializes in chili, is scheduled to open by November on the first floor of a two-story office building under construction near the Lone Star Steakhouse off Stanford Boulevard in east Columbia.The building is the first office space built in Columbia in seven years by a developer who didn't have tenants lined up at ground-breaking -- a sign that builders are regaining confidence in Columbia's office market.

Carroll County's Economic Development Commission recommended yesterday that the county create "employment fTC campus zoning" suitable for offices and research facilities.However, the members expressed concern that the proposed zoning might be too restrictive for some developers and said that the campuses should be suggested uses for restricted industrial zoning.Employment campus zoning was initially suggested as a land use in the proposed Southwest Carroll master plan. Currently, light manufacturing and warehouse operations are placed within restricted industrial zones.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has become the latest federal agency to capitalize on the depressed commercial real estate market, signing a 10-year lease for 14,542 square feet of office space at the Marsh & McLennan building at 300 W. Pratt St.The agency's local office will be moving out of the Garmatz Federal Courthouse, along with other agencies, to make room for an expansion of the space devoted to courts.John Thompson, a spokesman in Philadelphia for the General Services Administration, which handles real estate leasing for other federal agencies, said the personnel agency will move to its new quarters in July.

The RREEF Funds has completed a $30 million acquisition of the Dulaney Center office complex in Towson, an investment geared to take advantage of the local suburban office market's recovery.The two-building complex and adjacent garage marks the San Francisco-based pension fund adviser's largest investment in the Baltimore metropolitan area since 1986, when the company purchased the Annapolis Mall."It's got a real sense of place," said Stephen L. Grant, a RREEF vice president. "It's very difficult to find those types of investments, even nationally."