Struever Bros

Residents of Baltimore's Canton neighborhood might one day be able to browse through a local branch of the Bibelot book and music superstore chain and sip cappuccino at a Donna's Coffee Bar.This is the sort of upscale retailer that local developers want to bring to a $10 million shopping and office complex that would take shape on the old American Can Co. property in Canton.Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. of Baltimore has an option to buy a triangular property bounded by Boston and Hudson streets and Lakewood Avenue from the American National Can Co. of Chicago.

Working-class Locust Point is beginning a new chapter this summer in its blue-collar-meets-chic urban renewal story. Struever Rouse Homes, a subsidiary of Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, plans to bring three dozen upscale town homes to this southern Baltimore enclave that hasn't seen a new housing development in at least 50 years. Groundbreaking is planned for August, developer Ted Rouse told Locust Point residents this week. The tight-knit neighborhood, home to Fort McHenry and Domino Sugar, has 1,000 homes, 15 bars, several factories and a few defunct manufacturing plants.

In the wake of a preliminary deal to sell the Belvedere Square shopping center, Mayor Martin O'Malley has urged neighbors to be open to dealing with the newly arrived developer on the block: Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse. "Hey, it's time to come to the table, give and take, have big and small retail," the mayor said in his weekly news conference at City Hall last week. Expressing sympathy over the state of the once-vibrant complex, he said the sale might signal a turning point. O'Malley challenged residents to abandon notions that are not economically viable - such as insisting on only small businesses at the plaza.

A federal agency has granted Baltimore Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III a retroactive waiver from conflict-of-interest regulations, a move that permits his sister's role as a subcontractor on a major housing project.In a letter made public yesterday, Bill Tamburrino of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued the waiver allowing Joy Owens Interiors to act as a subcontractor on the federally funded $115 million Lafayette Courts project. The firm is owned by Florence Owens, Henson's sister.

THE MOVE OF Anne Arundel Medical Center from downtown Annapolis to a commercial area on the outskirts will have an immense impact the core of the state capital: The 5-acre parcel is the largest to become available in the Annapolis Historic District in decades.The surrounding community feared that the hospital would be replaced with offices, bringing more traffic to the area and dormancy after dark.Medical center officials ought to be commended for heeding the wishes of neighbors as they whittled the list of candidates vying to develop the site.

Anne Arundel County has all but chosen a Baltimore firm to develop the Glen Burnie Town Center, now a gravel parking lot in the heart of the town's urban renewal district.The county has given Six C/D Associates, an investment partnership working with developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse of Baltimore, 90 days to prepare detailed plans for a combination of residential, offices and specialty shops, along with an outdoor performing arts arena or ice rink.If the county approves, Six C/D will handle commercial development and Struever Bros.

New positions Comcast appoints Gilbert customer service director Comcast Cable Communications appointed Phyllis Gilbert director for customer service for its Baltimore City system. She is responsible for the development and construction of an expanded call center and staff management. Formerly a vice president with Amerix Corp., the Bel Air resident is a graduate of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland PHH names Fuchs VP for business development PHH Arval promoted Leonard L. Fuchs to vice president business development.

Two weeks after Baltimore's primary election and five weeks before the general contest, a different balloting this weekend has caught the attention of those in North Baltimore -- and at City Hall. Residents of Lake Falls South are voting on whether to support a proposal by a prominent developer to build 18 single-family homes and 12 semidetached high-priced residences on 9 acres near Falls Road and Lake Avenue just south of the Baltimore County line. City Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector, whose 5th District includes the neighborhoods around the property, said she would await the results of the poll -- being conducted door-to-door through today-- before deciding whether to introduce legislation that would allow the proposed development.

Developers of the historic Bagby Furniture Building in Little Italy said yesterday that they have commitments from retailers to fill well over half the building's newly renovated store space, with the first store, Verizon Wireless, to open tomorrow. Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC is nearing completion on a $2 million to $3 million transformation of mostly vacant office space into a mix of offices and 25,000 square feet of street-level shops. The development group bought the century-old building at Fleet and Exeter streets just north of Harbor East more than a year ago from Struever Bros.

The old Kirk-Stieff silversmith building in Baltimore will be given new life as a high-tech office building, the developer that recently purchased the building said yesterday. The 80,000-square-foot building overlooking the Jones Falls Valley has been purchased by Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse Inc. for $1.5 million. When renovations are completed in the first quarter of next year, the 72-year-old building will be marketed as multitenant office space. Much of the architectural character of the structure, including its high ceilings and wood floors, will be retained.