Struever

THE WEDDING invitation asked guests to "celebrate" the marriage of prominent Baltimore builder Bill Struever, president of Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse, and Anne Riggle, vice president and general manager of SAFT America. The invitation was designed by Struever's 7-year-old daughter, Lucy Struever, who was thrilled that her dad and new stepmother had chosen her painting, "Rainbow Mountain," for the wedding invitation.Last Saturday, family and close friends gathered in Struever's gorgeous Tindeco penthouse that overlooks the harbor and Fort McHenry, for a 4 p.m. ceremony.

A large chunk of waterfront property in Port Covington is set to go on the auction block in June after its previous owner, Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, defaulted on a multimillion-dollar mortgage. The now-defunct developer owed BB&T Bank more than $10.7 million for the roughly 10-acre parcel in South Baltimore off East Cromwell Street. A trustee-ordered sale is scheduled June 14. The foreclosure sale brings new hope to an area filled with weedy lots — an area where developers have struggled for decades to get a foothold.

Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, known for decades of urban revitalization projects throughout the city and elsewhere, faces more than $5.5 million in loan defaults, court records show. National City Bank is seeking $5.3 million for a commercial loan made to Struever Bros. in 2007, including $5 million in unpaid principal, plus interest, according to a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court. The developer also has defaulted on a $5.5 million revolving loan that Fannie Mae approved in 2004 through its American Communities Fund and owes more than $557,000, according to a lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court.

A team that includes businessman C. William Struever and a nonprofit developer from East Baltimore has been selected to receive a $3 million state grant to help renovate a former printing plant, possibly for use as a "healthy foods" commissary for the city school system. Gov. Martin O'Malley has scheduled a Friday news conference to announce that the state is awarding the funds to convert the former A. Hoen Lithograph plant, an 85,000-square-foot facility at Chester and Biddle streets that has been vacant for decades, to a light industrial facility for one or more users.

A second property owner is publicly criticizing the way developer C. William Struever has gone about buying up real estate for the $150 million College Town retail and residential project in North Baltimore's Charles Village area. Ann Hurlock said yesterday that Struever and his staff have put undue pressure on her to sell a four-story apartment building near 33rd and St. Paul streets that is home to Johns Hopkins University fraternity members. She said Struever and one of his employees warned her the city could force a sale if she dug in - a claim Struever dismissed.

Developers led by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse have been chosen to transform the state's aging Baltimore office complex into a hub of offices, shops, housing and a hotel centered around public transit, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is expected to announce today. The $800 million project will encompass 25 acres and be completed in phases beginning next year, state officials said yesterday. Ultimately, it could be the springboard for the revitalization of a 110-acre swath of midtown over two decades, with 3,200 homes, 1.2 million square feet of privately developed offices and 570,000 square feet of retail, they said.

The financial woes of one of Baltimore's best-known development companies are rippling through government, with Baltimore lawmakers allowing the developers to walk away from $700,000 in loans on Wednesday and state officials growing concerned that the company will be unable to fulfill its commitments for a planned $1.6 billion office complex in midtown Baltimore. Struever Eccles and Rouse is known for its historic rehabilitation of city industrial buildings, including Tindeco Wharf and Clipper Mill.

Fells Point residents and business owners are backing plans by Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse to redevelop the historic Recreation Pier, a switch from a neighborhood straw poll last month that favored a competing developer who proposed a boutique hotel. Community members were swayed by a Struever Bros. pledge to tailor a concept favorable to community use and concerns whether Baltimore developer J.J. Clarke Enterprises Inc. would accommodate the tugboats that tie up at the pier.

At a forum designed to give the public a chance to comment on the city school system's proposed spending plan, the real backlash yesterday came from board members themselves - who said they are tired of being solely blamed for an overspent budget, potential cutbacks and long-overdue repairs and upgrades. "We're sick of it, and we're angry about it," said board Vice Chairman C. William Struever, "and I think we all ought to be clear about where some of these problems lie." Struever said the system is grossly underfunded and is being ordered by state and federal government officials to do more with less.

The old Coca-Cola syrup plant in Locust Point may be going the way of so many closed factories in Baltimore: out of dereliction and into the stream of harbor renaissance. Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse and Continental Realty Corp., based in Towson, have signed a contract to buy the 247,043-square-foot factory, which closed in late 1997, ending 75 years of operation in southern Baltimore. This comes on the heels of another of Struever's major undertakings in working-class Locust Point, home to several of southern Baltimore's hulking, vacant factories that are ripe for renovation.

Two years after C. William Struever's real estate empire collapsed and the once-ubiquitous developer dropped off Baltimore's radar, the urban visionary has reappeared as a managing director of a new company, working on the same kinds of projects that helped make his name. Struever is one of the founders of Cross Street Partners, a real estate venture made up of 28 employees who all once worked for Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, the company that changed Baltimore's landscape and that of other East Coast cities before coming apart in the throes of the recession, leaving a trail of lawsuits and unfinished developments.

Several key parcels in Baltimore's Clipper Mill development were bought back at auction by the lender for $2.425 million Thursday in a foreclosure sale following the default on bank loans by the developer, Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse. The auctioned properties included more than two dozen incomplete upscale homes in the 38-unit Overlook at Clipper Mill subdivision and the shell of the Tractor Building, a remnant of the old Clipper Mill Industrial Park. The sale was handled by Alex Cooper Auctioneers on behalf of BB&T Bank, the lender.

Several key parcels in Baltimore's Clipper Mill development were bought back at auction by the lender for $2.425 million Thursday in a foreclosure sale following the default on bank loans by the developer, Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse. The auctioned properties included more than two dozen incomplete upscale homes in the 38-unit Overlook at Clipper Mill subdivision and the shell of the Tractor Building, a remnant of the old Clipper Mill Industrial Park. The sale was handled by Alex Cooper Auctioneers on behalf of BB&T Bank, the lender.

Part of the Clipper Mill development in North Baltimore will go to a foreclosure auction later this month, including more than two dozen partially built upscale homes - the first setback for a project that has transformed long-vacant factories into a mix of shops, offices and homes. BB&T Bank has foreclosed on unfinished homes and lots in Overlook at Clipper Mill, planned as a community of contemporary two- and three-story houses, as well as on the cavernous Tractor Building, meant to become apartments, offices and parking.

The Johns Hopkins University hopes to buy a vacant block in Charles Village once planned for luxury condos and transform it into a mixed development of parking, shops and other university uses once the economy rebounds. A Hopkins spokesman said Wednesday that the university is in talks with a joint venture of Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. and Canyon Johnson Urban Funds to purchase the property in the 3200 block of St. Paul St. Struever and Canyon Johnson had proposed The Olmsted as luxury condos with price tags as high as $700,000, then shifted to smaller, market-rate and affordable apartments amid the housing slowdown.

The financial woes of one of Baltimore's best-known development companies are rippling through government, with Baltimore lawmakers allowing the developers to walk away from $700,000 in loans on Wednesday and state officials growing concerned that the company will be unable to fulfill its commitments for a planned $1.6 billion office complex in midtown Baltimore. Struever Eccles and Rouse is known for its historic rehabilitation of city industrial buildings, including Tindeco Wharf and Clipper Mill.

Struever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse Inc. appeared to have submitted the lowest of nine bids to build the proposed west wing of the Baltimore Museum of Art, a three-level building designed to house 20th century art.During a bid opening yesterday, contractors were told that Struever Brothers submitted a base bid of $6.349 million, more than $100,000 lower than the next lowest bid of $6.5 million from Tiltech Constructors Inc.Other base bids were: Roy Kirby &...

A 19th-century Baltimore mill that once hummed with sailcloth-making machines and factory workers may be getting a new lease on life, as a city developer has pledged to rebuild its charred ruins into a housing and artist community. The Clipper Mill industrial park, tucked away by the Jones Falls near the expressway of the same name, was ravaged by a blaze in 1995 that killed a firefighter, destroyed the sprawling complex and put nearly two dozen artists out of their studios. After lying dormant for much of the past seven years, the 17-acre site is now the focus of an ambitious redevelopment plan by C. William Struever.

Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, known for decades of urban revitalization projects throughout the city and elsewhere, faces more than $5.5 million in loan defaults, court records show. National City Bank is seeking $5.3 million for a commercial loan made to Struever Bros. in 2007, including $5 million in unpaid principal, plus interest, according to a lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court. The developer also has defaulted on a $5.5 million revolving loan that Fannie Mae approved in 2004 through its American Communities Fund and owes more than $557,000, according to a lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court.

The Tide Point Day Care and Early Education Center isn't closing after all. After months of scrambling to find other high-quality day care near downtown, parents learned last week that the seven-year-old center near the waterfront is keeping its doors open, thanks to help from the city and private donors. "We have been able ... to put together a way to meet our mission," said Tom Curcio, chief executive officer of the Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church, which runs the day care center.