Research And Development

Fifteen Baltimore-area development projects received Awards of Excellence this month from the Maryland chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.The awards, given to recognize excellence in development, including design and marketing, are presented to the developers of each project. This year's winners included:* Industrial/research and development park category: Washington Commerce Center on Hubbard Road in Landover. Siena Corp. was the developer. Robert T. Hofmann & Associates was the architect.

BOSTON -- Three Cabinet members urged more than 500 business executives from New England companies yesterday to hunt for new product ideas in federal laboratories.The government has been trying to market its research capabilities to the private sector now that the primary Cold War mission of the labs has all but disappeared.Energy Secretary James D. Watkins told executives at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that his department hoped that federal efforts would spawn a new generation of environmental technology.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. reported yesterday a net loss of $2.2 million, or 10 cents per share, on revenue of $14.8 million for its second quarter, which ended June 30.By comparison, the Rockville-based gene sequencer and developer of genomics-derived medicines had net earnings of $1.2 million, or 5 cents a share, on revenue of $13.9 million in the corresponding period a year earlier.In the first half of the year, the company said, its net loss increased to $14.5 million, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $16.2 million.

Despite the protests of two nearby residents, the Howard County Planning Board unanimously approved construction of a 90,000-square- foot home design store in a new Rouse Co. retail center behind the Columbia Crossing center yesterday. The 16-acre parcel is part of a larger 44-acre site being graded for commercial development. It lies just across Dobbin Road from a big box center that houses a large Target store, near Snowden River Parkway. "For the community around it, it's an absolute disaster," said Robert Adams, a resident of the Aborside at Kendall Ridge townhouse community north of the site.

Advancis Pharmaceuticals Corp., reeling from the loss last month of a lucrative licensing deal, cut 18 percent of its work force yesterday and announced other steps to reduce spending and conserve cash. "While it is a difficult decision to reduce our staff, we believe these actions are needed to strengthen Advancis' financial position and enhance our potential for long-term success," said Edward M. Rudnic, chairman, chief executive and president of the Germantown company. Advancis' shares fell 4 cents yesterday to close at $2.62, nearly 74 percent below their October 2003 initial public offering price of $10 per share.

Gorman's Promise won't be kept. The Rouse Co. said yesterdaythat it has decided not to name its newest neighborhood after a former U.S. senator who tried to keep blacks from voting in the early 1900s. "Unfortunately, we probably did not do a very good job of researching the name of the North Laurel parcel," said David L. Tripp, vice president and director of corporate communications. "I can tell you it will not be named Gorman anything." The company's development arm had selected the name Gorman's Promise for the 517-acre project north of Laurel in memory of Sen. Arthur Pue Gorman, a Howard County native who was an early baseball player and the state's Democratic Party boss for 30 years.

CCL Biomedical, a start-up technology company, has opened shop in Havre de Grace, where it will seek commercial applications of a discovery made by its two founders while working at the University of Delaware. Nina Lamba and Stuart L. Cooper, who worked together as researchers at the university, founded the company. Lamba is a resident of Joppatowne and was doing postdoctorate work at the school. Cooper was a faculty member. Like many technology companies just starting out, CCL Biomedical's operations will be small.

A little-known offshoot of the Pentagon's latest base-closing plan is a massive, and at this point premature, reordering of the national research and development infrastructure. Dozens of labs, among them Annapolis' David Taylor Research Center and its sister installation in Carderock, Md., are headed for closure or realignment to minimize costs and maximize efficiency. One can hardly find fault in downsizing, given the profound changes in United States military strategy. But the research labs, testing and engineering centers now being swept up in the tide of recommended closures are not bases, but seeding grounds for some of the nation's premier scientific activity.

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. broke ground yesterday for its $20 million research-and-development building, bolstering Baltimore's attempt to market itself as a biotechnology hub.The building will be in the Holabird Industrial Park, adjacent to Guilford's headquarters at 6611 Tributary St. In addition to top Guilford executives, the groundbreaking was attended by local officials including Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore Development Corp. President M. J. "Jay" Brodie and James D. Fielder, acting secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Emerson might look a lot like its forebear to the north, but another Howard Research and Development neighborhood nearby will not be Columbia-style. Stone Lake, on a 137-acre parcel used until the late 1960s as a quarry, will be a gated residential community, said David Forester, the company's senior vice president and senior development director. Seventy single-family houses and 154 townhouses are planned. North of Gorman Road and east of Interstate 95, the development runs for nearly a mile along the Middle Patuxent River.