Sapperstein

A New Hampshire couple who had hoped to build a telecommunications empire are suing a current and a former board member of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., alleging they stole the couple's business idea after giving them a loan.Their lawsuit, filed yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, asks for $15 million.It charges that board President Jay Winer, former board member Charles F. Delavan and their business partner, Mark Sapperstein, fraudulently made a fortune off a business idea that George and Mary Chamberlain brought to the economic development corporation in June 1996.

Last year, Jane and George Chamberlain approached the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. with a multimillion-dollar idea: Build a network of microwave towers that would bring dependable cellular telephone service, computer links and digital paging to the Eastern Shore.The Annapolis couple -- an engineer and a laid-off marketing expert -- sought a $150,000 start-up loan from the semiprivate agency that helps entrepreneurs develop new businesses. They received a $25,000 loan that required their two-story home as collateral and a referral to a businessman with expertise in the field.

The state prosecutor is investigating allegations that the chairman of the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp. helped steal a business idea for a company in which he holds a financial interest.Jay I. Winer, a Crofton developer, is chairman of the board of the county-funded agency that provides loans to new business ventures. He is also a director of West Shore Communications, a local company that owns radio towers.Two Annapolis entrepreneurs say they went to the development agency last year for help in building a network of microwave towers that would improve cellular telephone links to the Eastern Shore.

The ball sailed into the air at 7: 36 p.m., spinning end over end toward the closed end of the stadium.Gary Anderson kicked it. Earnest Hunter caught it. The largest crowd to watch a pro football game at Memorial Stadium loosed a hungry roar into the windy, humid evening of Aug. 3.We had said all along that this was the moment when we would know.The moment when we could relax in the joy of NFL football's return.The opening kickoff of the first game was in the air.L Paul Tagliabue couldn't deny us with another expansion sham.

The ball sailed into the air at 7: 36 p.m., spinning end over end toward the closed end of the stadium.Gary Anderson kicked it. Earnest Hunter caught it. The largest crowd to watch a pro football game at Memorial Stadium loosed a hungry roar into the windy, humid evening.We had said all along that this was the moment when we would know.The moment when we could relax in the joy of NFL football's return.The opening kickoff of the first game was in the air.Paul Tagliabue couldn't deny us with another expansion sham.

Two years, countless appeals and several court appearances after it announced plans to build a 190-foot telecommunications tower near Sykesville, West Shore Communications erected thestructure in just four days.Last week, the contractor for Cellular One went ahead with the project despite a lawsuit pending before Maryland's second-highest court."I am confident we will prevail in the courts," said Mark Sapperstein, vice president of West Shore. "I have no idea what it would cost to take it down," Mr. Sapperstein said.

The positive response to the Save Our Stallions season-ticket campaign has owner Jim Speros encouraged about the possibility of the team's remaining in Baltimore.More than 2,000 new accounts have opened since the drive began, Speros said, and letters were sent this week to about 17,600 existing season-ticket holders.Speros has said he needs a commitment of 20,000 season-ticket orders by Jan. 5 for the CFL Grey Cup champions to stay. He is asking for a $100 deposit per ticket, refundable if the team relocates.

The owner of Zebra's Bar was incorrectly identified in an article in yesterday's editions. The owner and holder of the liquor license for the bar in the 2100 block of Sparrows Point Road is Jerome Sapperstein.The Sun regrets the error.

South Carroll may have two telecommunications towers where it needs only one.The county announced plans yesterday to build a 225-foot steel tower in Sykesville, about a half-mile east of Route 32 on the grounds of Springfield Hospital Center.Less than a mile away, a contractor for Cellular One is about to resume construction of a 200-foot tower for itself and Bell Atlantic Mobile.The county had hoped that the cellular communications companies, based in Montgomery County, would use its site and abandon plans for the Hollenberry Road site, which residents and the town of Sykesville have opposed for two years.

Baltimore's exile from the National Football League ends its first decade today. And for Mark Sapperstein and thousands of fans like him, it's been a seemingly endless season on the sidelines, watching the city fight to get back into the game."

State and local officials are looking to buy a 190-acre waterfront farm in eastern Baltimore County from a developer, even though the partly wooded spread on Back River scored poorly on a rating system the state uses to rank potential purchases for parkland. No deal has been reached, and no one would reveal what price has been discussed with developer Mark C. Sapperstein, who says he has spent at least $6 million to buy and improve the land. But county officials, who paid Sapperstein more than the appraised value of another property two years ago, say they would be "very interested" in acquiring Bauer's Farm to preserve it from development and to expand public access to the river and Chesapeake Bay. "Anytime Baltimore County could preserve a couple hundred acres of prime waterfront property and add it to the county's park inventory, that would always get our interest," said Don Mohler, spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr. The farm, with nearly a mile of shoreline, adjoins 1,360-acre North Point State Park, which has a wading beach, fishing pier and hiking trails.

Audiences have gotten used to open-ended plots that don't tie everything up, but the refreshingly anarchic comedy Hamlet 2 features something new: a completely open-ended character. Steve Coogan plays Dana Marschz (don't worry, no one in the film knows how to pronounce it either) as a man whose diverse enthusiasm keeps stretching him out like Silly Putty. His exuberance knows no limits; too bad the same doesn't go for his talent. Coogan, a comedy star in England, is a resourceful actor who goes for broke in Hamlet 2 playing a maladroit performer.

Baltimore officials voted yesterday to pay more than $1 million for three parcels of land owned by Gilbert Sapperstein, a liquor license broker and ex-convict who pleaded guilty to defrauding the city school system in 2005. The land deal was approved at a Board of Estimates meeting, which Sapperstein attended. The properties were listed for sale by Gwynn Associates LLP, a company that state records show shares the same address as Sapperstein's Baltimore County home. An official with Baltimore Development Corp.

A stalled project to redevelop a critical downtown corner appears back on track after market changes forced a shift from an apartment tower to a mix of hotels and residences. Two new hotels with 300 rooms are now planned for the $100 million Citycenter project at Calvert and Lombard streets, first proposed three years ago as a luxury apartment tower, developer Mark Sapperstein says. The 30-story building, which Sapperstein said he hopes to start building this year, will include two Hyatt-branded hotels, a Hyatt Place, geared to business travelers, and an extended-stay Hyatt Summerfield Suites, with apartments on top, Sapperstein said.

Mum might be the word - but pictures presented to a city panel are a different story. Artwork presented yesterday to the Baltimore Planning Commission depicted a large sign bearing the Harris Teeter name prominently atop an old water tower at the McHenry Row mixed-use project under way in Locust Point. The imminent arrival of the upscale grocer has been rumored as anchor tenant for the complex of apartments, office buildings and shops at the former Chesapeake Paperboard site on Fort Avenue.

A Pikesville developer is moving forward with plans to build 144 high-end townhouses on a waterfront parcel in eastern Baltimore County. Mark C. Sapperstein won County Council approval last night to submit the project as a "planned unit development." The designation, while subjecting the plans to public hearings, allows Sapperstein to break some zoning rules if the project is determined to benefit the community. Early plans call for clusters of six "villa-style" townhomes built on 37 acres on what once was Bauer's Farm in Edgemere.

Baltimore County officials say parkland is so scarce in some areas that they're willing to pay premium dollars when it becomes available. But a plan to buy a patch of green on the east side has raised questions from a County Council member about the price the county would pay for it. The county administration has agreed to pay $900,000 to a developer for about 20 acres of a field next to Sparrows Point High School in Edgemere. The deal requires approval of the County Council, which has scheduled a vote for tonight.

The developer Baltimore tagged to build luxury apartments on an uninspiring downtown corner blames a softened real estate market and soaring construction costs for stalling the project for more than a year and a half. City development officials announced in January 2005 that a team led by Mark Sapperstein would build a high-rise called Cityscape near Calvert and Lombard streets. Twenty months later, Sapperstein is still deciding what to build. This week, officials with Baltimore Development Corp.

The conversion of a Locust Point mill into an apartment and retail complex is beginning to take shape. Though plans are still on the drawing board, sketches presented yesterday to the city's design review board show 250 apartments, a three-story office building, a 52,000-square-foot grocery store, an additional 50,000 square feet of retail space and about 900 parking spaces. The nine-acre site, the former home of the Chesapeake Paperboard plant, is between Fort Avenue and Key Highway.

He has been convicted of conspiracy, bribery and theft, but Gilbert Sapperstein, a former boiler company owner and longtime liquor license broker who participated in a scheme to steal nearly $3.3 million from the Baltimore school system, is still doing business with the city. The Board of Estimates yesterday approved a payment of $260,700 to Sapperstein for properties he owns in the 900 block of Washington Blvd. in the Pigtown neighborhood. The board's action sealed a real estate deal that city officials say was in the works long before Sapperstein was convicted for his role in bilking the school system.