Shopping Center

The developers of Owings Mills New Town announced yesterday that BTR Realty Inc. will build a 125,000-square-foot shopping center there and that Giant Food Inc. will be the anchor tenant.Planned for a 12.5-acre parcel at Lakeside Boulevard and Groffs Mill Drive, the shopping center is the first commercial venture announced for the 5,000-unit development.Founded in 1947, Linthicum-based BTR has developed and managed office and industrial space as well as shopping centers. Its largest retail project is the 500,000-square-foot Harford Mall in Bel Air. BTR officials indicated to shareholders last month that the company may cut back on development and focus on acquiring and managing existing properties, but they did not rule out some new construction.

An elderly woman was killed and another critically injured yesterday afternoon in an accident in Baltimore County in which a pickup truck crashed into a car, knocking it into another car.County police spokesman Bill Toohey said Stella Josephine Boyd, 73, of the 11200 block of Sheradale Drive in Kingsville was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in front of the Satyr Hill Shopping Center on East Joppa Road in Carney.Mary Ruth Collier, 80, of the 8400 block of Old Harford Road was in fair condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Toohey said.

A suburban Philadelphia real estate investment trust said yesterday that it has agreed to buy the Anneslie Shopping Center, just north of the city-county line on York Road, and plans $1 million worth of renovations.Kranzco Realty Trust said it has a contract to pay $6.5 million for the 175,000-square-foot center, whose anchor tenants are Caldor, Rite-Aid and McCrory's.The center is the first Maryland acquisition for the trust, which went public last fall and now owns 26 properties, mostly strip shopping centers like Anneslie.

After three years of up-and-down negotiations with community groups and city officials, a development group headed by Louis V. Manzo finally has obtained the legal right to build a 70,000-square-foot shopping center on the former site of the Greenspring Dairy.Baltimore's Planning Commission voted yesterday to give final approval to the design for the retail center, an action that the development team needed to satisfy the terms of a City Council ordinance passed last summer to rezone the property.

HAMPSTEAD -- After the foul language and stormy tempers that erupted at the last Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, the chairman is taking no chances.One of the town's three police officers will be at the meetingtomorrow night, lest anyone get out of hand, said Arthur H. Moler, councilman and chairman of the commission.But the officer won't be in uniform, Mr. Moler said."We don't want it to come off as being intimidating or threatening," Mr. Moler said."All we're doing is reminding the public that there should be order kept at the meeting," he said.

A plan to build an almost 50,000-square-foot shopping center on Route 108 in Elkridge is nearing approval -- despite worries among local residents about the increase in traffic the center would generate.Tim Callahan, a planning specialist with the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, said the plan for the 5.64-acre site could be approved this week.A local civic group is concerned that the center will encourage more traffic through an already congested area."We're not against development -- in fact, it would be nice to have a grocery store close by," said Dan Goulette, a member of the Mayfield Avenue Community Association and its former president.

A powerful bomb ripped apart a van near an Essex shopping center yesterday evening, killing five people and shaking homes "like an earthquake."Three children, a man and a woman were killed in the explosion behind the Middlesex Shopping Center, their body parts scattered with bits of the vehicle as far as 300 yards away.The victims' identities were not immediately divulged. Late last night, federal and county investigators were looking into the possibility that the blast was linked to a domestic dispute.

The Mount Airy Planning and Zoning Commission will continue its review of the site plan for expanding a 20-year-old shopping center on Route 27 today.After a nearly four-hour meeting last month that included a lengthy presentation on traffic issues, two items, both concerning the Mount Airy Shopping Center, remain unsettled.The developer has presented plans for expanding the center by about 38,000 square feet, including enlarging the Safeway Supermarket, the anchor store. The plan also includes adding an 85,000-square-foot discount store, such as Wal-Mart, on 14 acres behind the grocery.

Vehicles belonging to Ravens fans were towed yesterday to South Baltimore from a shopping center parking that was mistaken for the MTA park-and-ride lot at Route 40 West and Rolling Road, Baltimore County police said.The cost to retrieve a vehicle is $170, said a spokeswoman for All American Towing in the 2900 block of Waterview Ave.County police Officer Glen Holden of the Wilkens Precinct said the problem was caused by poor communication.He said a defunct business on Geipe Road off the 700 block of N. Rolling Road behind the 40 West Shopping Center has allowed its property to be used as an park-and-ride lot.An ad in The Sun yesterday said parking for the game was available at the park-and-ride lot on Geipe Road.

A deal that would allow Catholic Charities to buy and transform a blighted shopping center in the poor southern TC Baltimore neighborhood of Cherry Hill is close to complete, according to several sources.Catholic Charities and community leaders believe that revival of the 41,000-square-foot Cherry Hill Shopping Center is vital to revitalizing one of Baltimore's poorest neighborhoods. The median household income in Cherry Hill is $15,470, and the neighborhood is home to the city's largest public housing project.