Square Feet

Developers' plans never die. They don't even fade away. They just come back later, in another form. That's the thinking of Marc Norman, a resident of Turf Valley, at least since he learned earlier this fall that Mangione Family Enterprises - which owns the 809-acre planned golf-and-residential community just west of Ellicott City - is backing an effort to significantly expand the permitted size of grocery stores there. The measure would increase the allowed size of food stores in Turf Valley from 18,000 square feet, its current limit, to 55,000 square feet.

A scaled-back revitalization plan for the "superblock," a crucial piece of Baltimore's west-side renewal effort, would include small- and medium-size stores, market-rate apartments in a 32-story tower and a 150-room boutique hotel. Revised plans by developer Lexington Square Partners, shown yesterday to the board of the Baltimore Development Corp., would reduce the overall retail space and the number of apartments. It also adds the hotel. Lexington Square, selected in competitive bidding by the city in early 2005, is now proposing 152,000 square feet of retail - half the original amount - 360 apartments and the hotel on land bounded by Fayette, Howard and Lexington streets and Park Avenue.

Anne Arundel County lawmakers got their first look in more than a year this week at plans for a $475 million project with four upscale hotels, an indoor aquatic park and a conference center on 31 acres near BWI Marshall Airport. Mitch Weber, president of project manager Heffner & Weber, laid out details in a County Council work session Tuesday, telling officials that developers will seek $48.5 million in 30-year county bonds as part of a financing package for the Crosswinds Resort Hotel.

After more than three years of deliberation - and sometimes acrimonious debate - Columbia's developer is preparing to submit rezoning plans for the town's center early next month, officially launching the far-reaching transformation envisioned for the planned community over the next three decades. Gregory F. Hamm, vice president of General Growth Properties, told about 300 people at a public meeting Wednesday night that the firm would submit its plans to the county "early in August." The plan, which will require approval by the county government, calls for five neighborhoods around the Mall in Columbia and Merriweather Post Pavilion comprising: * 1 million square feet of new retail space; * 4.9 million square feet of office space; * 5,500 new townhouses and apartments; * 640 more hotel rooms; * 265,000 square feet of "cultural space" The affordable housing component of the plan is not finalized, Hamm said.

Creating artists' studios inside Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer Tower, part of the factory where Capt. Isaac Emerson made his famous headache and heartburn remedy, brought its own set of headaches for the public officials, architects and contractors who worked on the $1.5 million project. Their solution, which will be unveiled at a grand opening Thursday, is one of the most inspired and resourceful preservation projects Baltimore has seen in some time, a feat of ingenuity that retains the tower's 1911 appearance while promising to keep it bustling with activity.

The owner of downtown Baltimore's tallest office building, at 100 Light St., has agreed to an early termination of a lease with USF&G Financial Services Corp. - which has been subleasing to money manager Legg Mason Inc. - in a deal valued at $27 million. As part of the agreement with tower owner Lexington Realty Trust, USF&G, now a subsidiary of St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., also will transfer ownership of land under the tower valued at $16 million to Lexington, the real estate investment trust said in a news release issued late Monday.

Brooke Steuart, a petite mother of four young children, enjoys living large. Her 9,200-square-foot home in the Calvert County town of Owings is a testament to that. The house, clad in vinyl siding with generous use of Pennsylvania fieldstone, sits on seven acres, its exterior punctuated by 20-foot-tall white columns. In 1991 when the couple purchased the property for $450,000, the home, almost 30 years old at the time, was about a third its current size. It wasn't until 2001 that Steuart, an interior designer, felt the need to expand.

A lawsuit spearheaded by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos challenging a key part of Baltimore's west-side redevelopment has been dismissed, eliminating the last legal obstacle at the trial court level to the city's long-stalled "superblock" project. The lawsuit was filed in February by companies controlled by Angelos and developer David Hillman, who are west-side property owners. It argued that the agreement between the city and the developer it selected to redevelop the six-block blighted area improperly included a key parcel not listed in the original bid package.

The Chesapeake Commerce Center, planned as a vast industrial park, is taking shape on the site of General Motors' now demolished auto plant on Baltimore's eastern fringe. The first two warehouse buildings are nearing completion this week, with the first - and so far only - tenant preparing to move in and bring 200 jobs. Though industrial leasing has slowed in the region, owner Duke Realty Corp. says it still plans to build 2.8 million square feet of warehouse, distribution and office space in 16 buildings on 185 acres at Holabird Avenue and Broening Highway, a site that's served by a rail line and is within sight of cranes at the Seagirt and Dundalk marine terminals at the port of Baltimore.

The first shops and restaurants will be opening by April at Baltimore Crossroads @95 in Baltimore County, a 1,000-acre, mixed-use business park that is expected to eventually employ more than 10,000 workers. St. John Properties, an office developer at the business park near White Marsh, has begun work on the first phase of a planned 140,000-square-foot retail development, said Gerard J. Wit, a St. John vice president. St. John Properties has completed seven buildings at the park, including three office buildings and four flex-office buildings.