Square Feet

To add to mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, plunging home sales and rising foreclosures, here's a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for all houses with more than 3,000 square feet. One of Capitol Hill's most experienced and powerful legislators is drafting a "carbon tax" bill that would do precisely that. Rep. John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who heads the Energy and Commerce Committee, expects to introduce comprehensive climate change reform legislation once the House returns next month.

Developers expect to complete the second major warehouse at the new Baltimore Crossroads @95 business park in Baltimore County by July, First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. said yesterday. First Industrial, a developer of industrial buildings, started work on a 300,000-square-foot warehouse despite the lack of a tenant. The Chicago-based company also is completing a 130,000- square-foot building for moving company Alexander's Mobility Services to occupy in the next 30 days. Eventually, the 1,000-acre, mixed use business park near White Marsh is expected to employ more than 10,000 workers at more than 5 million square feet of flex/office, office, warehouse and industrial space, 400,000 square feet of shops and two hotels.

Real estate investment manager RREEF has purchased a three-building industrial portfolio in Columbia for $125 million and is marketing the warehouse and distribution space to national and local companies, the buyer said yesterday. RREEF, a division of DB Real Estate, the real estate investment management group of Deutsche Asset Management, bought the buildings in Gateway Commerce Center at Route 175 and Interstate 95 from INVESCO PLC, the company said. RREEF manages $40.5 billion in pension fund real estate investments for more than 480 corporate, public and international clients.

Certifications Tania Orenak, Tess Scutt and Sarah White of Maryland SportsCare & Rehab have been certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association. Contracts CompuDyne Corp. of Annapolis received a $500,000 contract from Volusia County, Fla., to integrate the records management system of the sheriff's department and the county's criminal justice information system. Expansions Clifton Gunderson LLP, a regional accounting firm, expanded its Timonium office space by 6,800 square feet.

U.S. Lacrosse wants to leave its cramped North Baltimore home for a new $25 million headquarters and sports complex at the Inner Harbor - a prominent site that the organization hopes would give the growing sport more stature. The organization's leaders want to build the National Lacrosse Center on the waterfront near Fells Point rather than move it out of Maryland. But officials said yesterday that it cannot happen without nearly $8 million in aid from the state and subsidies from the city.

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.

Chateau Builders has opened a model at its Rider Mill community in Owings Mills.The community, which features public water and sewer, gas heat, has five floor plans available.The model, the Tilghman, is a four-bedroom, two-story transitional that starts at $205,990 for 2,430 square feet.The first floor features a foyer, 14-by-12-foot living room, 11-by-12-foot dining room, 11-by-13-foot kitchen, 11-by-11-foot breakfast nook, 20-by-15-foot family room and a two-car garage.The second floor consists of 12-by-13-foot bedroom, bathroom, 12-by-13-foot bedroom, 12-by-11-foot bedroom, 15-by-16-foot master bedroom with master bath and walk-in closet.

LA PLATA -- Aiming to ease Charles County's growing pains by building more upscale housing, local officials are considering an unprecedented size requirement for new homes -- a move that is drawing fire from developers and community activists.The commissioners of the rapidly growing Southern Maryland county have proposed requiring that detached, single-family homes have at least 1,650 square feet of floor space if they are to be built in the northern fifth of the county, which is designated for development.

Notices of new models, new construction or proposed developments can be sent in the following ways: Mailing address: Real Estate Section, Fifth Floor, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278-0001. Fax: 410-783-2517. E-mail: real.estate@baltsun.comWillow Pond EstatesGrayson Homes has opened a model at Willow Pond Estates in Westminster in Carroll County.The community, which features public water and sewer and natural gas heat, is adjacent to Willow Pond and 17 acres of woods owned by the city of Westminster.

In Baltimore, 4,000 square feet equals five rowhouse lots. In Havre de Grace, it equals five months of political brouhaha.Controversy has clung like morning mist to a vacant lot a stone's throw from the Susquehanna River in this historic Harford County town since May, when a newly elected councilwoman questioned the lot's size.Advertisements to sell the 10,000-square-foot, city-owned lot described it as 4,000 square feet smaller than it was. The error was acknowledged by the City Council, but that failed to defuse a dispute that mushroomed into angry public meetings, widespread gossip, and City Council members sparring through letters and ads in the local paper.

Christian Audigier to open store in Towson mall Christian Audigier, which makes the popular Ed Hardy graphic T-shirts, will open a 1,842-square-foot boutique at Towson Town Center Oct. 19. The store will be located in the luxury wing of the mall, a 110,000-square-foot section on the second floor that opened last year and includes high-end stores such as Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Martin and Osa, Burberry and BCBG Max Azria. Christian Audigier international brands also include SMET, Crystal Rock, C-Bar-A, Savoir Faire, Evel Knievel, Rock Fabulous and Paco Chicano.

The first home Mette Ramanathan and her husband considered buying was a 2,200-square-foot, five-bedroom place. It was too big for the couple, who were interested in space efficiency and lower utility costs. So they settled on a considerably smaller three-bedroom Cape Cod in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood. The larger house was "not only expensive but you're using and wasting an awful lot of space," said Ramanathan, who moved in May. "Even if we start a family, we don't need five bedrooms to start a family."

Baltimore-based Bravo Health Inc. will expand its Brewers Hill headquarters with room to grow by more than 200 jobs, company officials said Friday. The company now employs 570 people in the office and retail complex on O'Donnell Street in Southeast Baltimore, a redevelopment of two former breweries. Bravo signed a 10-year lease with owner Obrecht Commercial Real Estate for more than 117,000 square feet, said Wells Obrecht, president of Obrecht Commercial. That space includes the current headquarters and operations center in three buildings and 30,000 square feet in the Gunther Bottle Building, which now has stores such as Five Guys fronting Boston Street.

For more than 20 summers, Lenore Campbell and Leo Tims vacationed in a log cabin at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. They were in love with a home for which the structure itself is a defining element of the decor. The emotional tug of a log house led them to build their own five years ago on a pastoral lot in Monkton. The enveloping warmth of the wood gives the IBM retirees the sense that their home is snuggling them. "When you walk in, it puts its arms around you," Tims said. Cabin-style houses, especially log houses, represent not only shelter but a lifestyle.

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.

Urban chic? Contemporary sleek? Cottage neat? You name it, we've seen it. Throughout 2008, Desirable Spaces took a peek inside homes for sale in the Baltimore region. We looked at waterfront estates, city rowhouses, rural farmhouses and urban condos, to name a few. Each of the houses we featured weekly was special in its own way. Some so special that we wanted to move in ourselves. Alas, that was not to be. Still, many of them remain for sale, so we can dream. Here are 10 of our favorites.

A mini-trend is in the making. Fueled by demand, affordability and demographics, smaller homes - especially energy-efficient and well-designed ones - are emerging as welcome alternatives to McMansions. A substantial group of buyers is seeking less: less house, a lower mortgage payment and price, a smaller utility bill. It also wants more: more flexible use of space, greater energy efficiencies, more functionality. "It is the core trend of the future. People have more economic viability with their homes going forward," said Richard Thometz, principal of Hailey Development and a home energy services company in Burtonsville.

CSG Partners nearing completion of complex CSG Partners LLC is nearing completion of its Patapsco Valley Office Campus, a four-building complex in Hanover that is to offer about 135,000 square feet of commercial office space. The complex, on a 12-acre site near Routes 295 and 100, includes three two-story buildings and one single-story building. It was designed to meet the needs of government, defense contractors and traditional office tenants. Two 41,000-square-foot buildings and a 49,000-square-foot building are on High Tech Drive; the fourth building, with more than 12,000 square feet of single-story space, is on Coca Cola Drive.

The floors at the Shops at Kenilworth are stripped, the ceilings ripped out, and the fountain is drained. Scaffolding stands throughout the mall. It's not a pretty sight now, but the Towson mall's owners promise major upgrades by next month as the 30-year-old center undergoes a $3 million makeover - its largest in nearly 20 years. The owners, Kenilworth Limited Partners of Cincinnati, want to modernize the mall, which the owners acknowledge has a dated, 1970s look. The changes come as Towson is undergoing a billion-dollar renaissance with new condominiums, apartments and shopping.

The divide over a developer's desire to alter plans for a retail district in upscale Turf Valley came into sharp focus during an often vehement debate over the proposal. More than 120 people packed a County Council meeting room Monday for a hearing on a proposed zoning change that would allow a larger grocery store in the planned community just west of Ellicott City. The proposal would raise the permissible size of food stores in "planned golf course communities" such as Turf Valley from 18,000 to 55,000 square feet.