Office Space

It will be moving day soon for the Maryland Racing Commission. The state sent notice yesterday to the Maryland Jockey Club, the commission's landlord, that the state was terminating its cut-rate lease for office space at Pimlico Race Course. While the lease might have been a good one for the state financially -- $1 a year with utilities included -- Gov. Martin O'Malley said it represented an apparent conflict of interest. The Maryland Jockey Club -- part of Magna Entertainment Corp., the Canadian-based owners of Pimlico, Laurel Park and the Preakness Stakes -- is regulated by the commission.

Two projects to transform large swaths on both sides of Baltimore's Middle Branch waterfront are moving forward, including a sports-themed office and recreation park south of M&T Bank Stadium and a mix of new homes, shops, offices and a hotel along Westport's formerly industrial shore. Gateway South, a sport-themed project planned for Russell Street to the Middle Branch, won city design approval yesterday for its master plan. Cormony plans The lead developer, Cormony Development, would build two large office buildings, one possibly as an iconic, football-shaped tower; a 90,000-square-foot sports complex with playing fields and recreational activities such as indoor golf, a fitness center and swim club; and shops.

Anne Arundel Medical Center officials have picked four largely residential projects as finalists for development of their 5-acre downtown Annapolis site, which residents and city leaders have anxiously watched since the hospital announced two years ago that it would move to Parole in 2001.The four proposals feature a mix of townhouses and single-family homes or condominiums and market-rent apartments. Three include plans for retail stores and one factors in office space.In three proposals, the hospital's 291,000-square-foot building is demolished, while the fourth involves major renovations of its interior and exterior to fit in residential units.

Three firms had a half-hour each yesterday to convince the Westminster Common Council of their proposals to develop the former Farmers Supply site downtown at Liberty and Green streets.The council adjourned last night without discussing the proposals, although members asked questions during the presentations.While the three projects varied in size, funding and design, they had one thing in common: a combination of retail, office and residential space."Obviously, that's what the market feels [will sell]

If publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. decides to move its corporate headquarters from New York to Baltimore, it would have several very different projects downtown from which to choose for its new offices.The publishing house is evaluating a skyscraper planned at 1 Light St., a 20-acre tract east of the Inner Harbor, a vacant soap-making plant in South Baltimore and a proposed 17-story office tower at 414 Water St., according to sources with knowledge of the company's search.If John Wiley were to relocate its headquarters and about 900 employees downtown, it would mark one of the largest corporate relocations in the city's history, dwarfing a 1996 move by Sylvan Learnings Systems Inc. that brought with it 250 jobs.

Like the transformation of the proverbial ugly duckling, a Pennsylvania company is changing a huge, gray, 600,000-square-foot industrial building in Columbia's Gateway corporate park into a sparkling concrete-and-glass office and warehouse complex.The last of the former General Electric appliance manufacturing plants built in Columbia in the 1970s, the building will draw hundreds more office workers to the fast-growing corporate park along Route 175 between Snowden River Parkway and Interstate 95.More than 12,000 office workers work at Gateway, and many are being added as buildings are completed.

The chairman of the Baltimore County Council says the county could save $1.2 million in rent each year for county office space -- and ease a parking crunch -- by putting up another government building and garage in Towson.Councilman Kevin B. Kamenetz said the county administration should consider constructing an office building and garage on the county's acre-sized parcel at Chesapeake and Bosley avenues, now used as a county employee parking lot."We have the land, and we have the need. All I'm saying is we ought to have a plan in place for the future," said Kamenetz, a Democrat who represents the Liberty Road-Pikesville area.

Imagine a live-action version of "Dilbert," or "In the Company of Men" reconceived as a lighthearted romp, and you get the idea of "Office Space," the auspicious live-action debut of Mike Judge.Judge is best known for such animated creations as Beavis, Butt-head and Hank Hill ("King of the Hill"), but he proves just as observant and funny in his first foray into the world of three-dimensional characters in this modest comedy of corporate manners.The quiet humor of "Office Space" becomes clear in its first scene, in which Peter (Ron Livington)

Now or never.Joe Clarke isn't quite so absolute in his thinking, but he knows that the area's healthy economy and business expansions give him the best chance in a decade to get a long-planned skyscraper at 1 Light St. downtown out of the ground.The political winds are blowing in his favor, too. Thanks to tax breaks granted in June worth $6.1 million and a $16.1 million city loan to construct parking spaces, Clarke's 35-story One Light Street could be the first significant new office tower added to Baltimore's skyline since 1991.

Baltimore should consider subsidizing new downtown office buildings in much the same way it is assisting development of hotels such as the $134 million Wyndham International Inner Harbor East, according to a consultant's study conducted for the city.The study, by Bolan Smart Associates of Washington, contends that, because the downtown has "generally limited growth in net demand," subsidies or property tax breaks should be provided to spur construction of new Class A office space.Specifically, the city's economic development agency should consider "payment-in-lieu-of-taxes" programs to stimulate new development, or risk losing key businesses.

City and state officials on Monday praised a development team who renovated a former tin factory into affordable housing aimed at teachers and inexpensive office space for nonprofits. "It is an extraordinary building that will house extraordinary individuals," said Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a former teacher, during a dedication ceremony for Miller's Court. The 77,000-square-foot brick building was constructed in 1874 but had become a hangout for drug dealers and squatters. The project qualified for funds dedicated to developing former industrial sites, known as brownfields.

A hotel and office skyscraper planned for one of the last prime undeveloped parcels at the Inner Harbor is on indefinite hold, a victim of the recession, the project's developer said. But UrbanAmerica, the developer and owner of the parking lot near Harborplace at 300 E. Pratt St., still intends to build the tower once the economy shows signs of recovery. That's according to Richmond S. McCoy, president and chief executive of the New York-based real estate private equity firm that had hoped to have construction of one of the city's largest skyscrapers under way by now. It initially called for condos priced at $720,000 and up. "At the very least, we need to see a stop in job loss for a couple of quarters, perhaps that would bring some stability back to the economy, and the major financial institutions need to get underpinnings," McCoy said.

The county Planning Board is weighing conflicting visions of the fears and hopes generated by plans for a major urbanization of Columbia's town center as board members prepare to make their own recommendations. The divide was clearly outlined in remarks at a Thursday night public hearing by Long Reach resident Russel Swatek and the Business Alliance, which represents 46 local business owners. "Some don't want a city," Swatek, a five-year resident, said about the plans to urbanize Town Center.

McCormick to take noncash charge on brand Spice maker McCormick & Co. said yesterday that it will take a noncash charge of $28 million to $32 million for the decreased value of its Silvo brand in the fourth quarter. The Sparks-based company said the Silvo business, which sells spices and herbs in the Netherlands, has been hurt by "a reduction in retail distribution driven by changing market conditions." Because of the write-down, the company expects earnings per share of $1.86 to $1.92 in 2008, compared with $1.73 per share last year.

Two large Baltimore employers are planning to either move some jobs from the city or sell their buildings, creating new office vacancies in a difficult real estate market. Bank of America will move a portion of its city operations and an estimated 200 workers to an existing campus in Hunt Valley, according to city officials. And insurance company Zurich has put its two Hampden buildings on the market and is seeking smaller quarters for its 800 employees. The moves will add to vacant office space at a time when the economic crisis is expected to slow the momentum of attracting new business downtown.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates approved a land deal yesterday for the Hollander 95 project in East Baltimore, giving developers portions of four roads for a dollar. M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., said the city had intended to include the roads in the 51-acre parcel sold to developers in April 2005 for $4 million. "It was our staff; it was just a mistake," Brodie said. "The person handling the project forgot to include the street beds." The board, which is effectively controlled by Mayor Sheila Dixon, also granted developers permission to build a hotel on a portion of the land, a proposal that had concerned some nearby residents who worry that it would attract truckers and large vehicles.

Developers of the historic Bagby Furniture Building in Little Italy said yesterday that they have commitments from retailers to fill well over half the building's newly renovated store space, with the first store, Verizon Wireless, to open tomorrow. Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC is nearing completion on a $2 million to $3 million transformation of mostly vacant office space into a mix of offices and 25,000 square feet of street-level shops. The development group bought the century-old building at Fleet and Exeter streets just north of Harbor East more than a year ago from Struever Bros.

222 Severn Ave. has been the site of shipbuilding for the greater part of the 20th century. Military sea craft in both world wars came from the boatyard before it became the premier purveyor of luxury yachts. An exhibit, which opens Tuesday, traces the history of the boatyard complex in Eastport as well as the property owner's efforts to preserve much of the yard's historic layout. The exhibit caps a recently completed two-year renovation of the property's main building, known as the "big shed."

A renovated 1905 farmhouse on a busy truck route in Jessup might seem an unlikely place for political involvement in environmental innovation. But the expanding EnviroCenter on Route 175 is drawing interest from elected officials eager to change the way buildings use energy. The three-year-old center was created as a combination business incubator and showcase of techniques that can be used by commercial and residential developers. The building is filled with devices that reuse or redirect natural energy, and resources that sharply limit the use of fossil fuels for light, electricity, heating and cooling.

Questions persist on Town Center plan The General Growth Properties (GGP) presentation on the Town Center master plan earlier this month was most impressive. It is clear that the plan has been well thought out and that GGP is committed to thinking creatively in terms of redefining Town Center as the heart of a new Columbia that will endure as a leading edge community of its size for future generations. However, there are three looming questions in my mind that still need to be addressed.