Office Space

Three Annapolis mayoral candidates apparently have violated city election laws by understating or failing to list on campaign finance reports office space donated to them.Democratic candidate Dennis Callahan claimed that a Main Street storefront donated to him is worth $300 a month. But the owner of the premium office space says it would go for at least $1,500 a month on the open market.And Republicans Dean L. Johnson and M. Theresa DeGraff failed to list their donated offices. Johnson, an alderman from Ward 2, has an office on West Street, and DeGraff, an alderman from Ward 7, is on Third Street in Eastport.

A new study says lenders now control nearly 10 percent of metropolitan Baltimore's office space, reflecting the severe recession in the development industry and a market that is "overbuilt."The study released yesterday by W. C. Pinkard & Co. said that lenders have taken control of 49 buildings since January 1990, including the city's biggest office tower and 27 percent of the office space in Howard County."This is a recent phenomenon, probably over the last 18 months," said Jeffrey B. Samet, the Pinkard vice president who wrote the study.

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.

Maryland is expected to announce within weeks a decision to buy up to 300,000 square feet of office space in downtown Baltimore, a move that is looking like manna from heaven to tenant-starved owners of big, largely empty office buildings."

Consultants dragged out glossy renditions of the Navy's David Taylor Research Center decked out as the next Fells Point, the next Club Med on the Severn, the next built-from-scratch high-tech industrial park.But the 45-acre waterfront property probably will look much as it does now for years to come.After two years of study and presentations from consultants, an eight-member county advisory board decided yesterday that the county can't afford big dreams. It voted unanimously to recommend that the county buy the site from the Department of Defense and rent out most of the buildings as research and development office space.

Attention Westminster residents: Do you have an opinion on whether officials should spend $3.4 million to expand and renovate City Hall?If so, tomorrow night is your long-awaited opportunity to tell your elected representatives to vote either "yea" or "nay" to the proposal.The controversial plan to alleviate a long-time space crunch in the City Hall has been bounced around like a ping-pong ball for several years.The previous council voted in favor of the proposal. ThenCouncilmen Samuel Greenholtz and Mark Snyder were booted out of office in the spring election.

County officials have agreed to pay $15,000 as part of a settlement with two Annapolis property managers who accused the county of luring their tenants to its Heritage Office Complex by offering space at below-market rates.The county, which insisted in the consent decree that it did nothing wrong, also has agreed not to lease space at the office complex in Riva to new commercial tenants. It can, however, lease to other government agencies.The settlement has led county officials to change their minds about selling two of the four buildings it owns in the Heritage Complex.

Baltimore has sold the fire-ravaged former home of the Eubie Blake Cultural Center to a local contractor who plans to renovate the building at 409 N. Charles St. for retail and office space.The sale of the building to C & S Contractors Inc. for $100,000 ZTC was approved yesterday by a 3-0 vote of the Board of Estimates, with Council President Lawrence A. Bell III and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt abstaining.C & S will put $10,000 down and will be given a 20-year, interest-free mortgage for the remaining $90,000, officials said.

While some company executives are sitting tight and waiting for the economy to pull out of the recession, others are using the current market conditions to their advantage.Elinor Bacon used the soft rental market as an opportunity to move her development and real estate consulting company, Bacon & Co., from Charles Village to Charles Street in the Mount Vernon area."At another time I would not have been able to move," Ms. Bacon said. She increased her office space by about two-thirds -- and now has an affordable downtown location that allows her to walk to meetings.

Office vacancies, which have jumped in the county because of the mid- to late-1980s building boom coupled with this year's recession, won't fill up any time soon and might even increase by year's end, commercial real estate agents predict.Agents and developers expect the county's commercial building slowdown to continue for at least a year, especially in new, speculative office buildings, while the market absorbs available space.Some builders have continued developing office parks at scattered sites, while others plan to start filling a growing need for warehouses.