Vacant Buildings

A three-alarm fire in Pasadena that destroyed a vacant building and damaged two houses Saturday was set intentionally, Anne Arundel County fire investigators said yesterday. No one has been charged in the blaze, which caused about $130,000 in damage, and no one was injured, according to fire officials. The cause is under investigation. The fire, in a garage with a second-floor apartment in the 1400 block of Mirable Way, began on the first floor about 8: 25 p.m. Firefighters spent about 90 minutes battling the blaze, which caused heat damage to the two houses on either side of the garage, two cars and two boats -- none of which was parked in the garage, a fire spokesman said.

Further juggling its schools to handle the fluctuating number of students, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore announced plans yesterday to shift Our Lady of Pompei High School to the vacant Holy Rosary School building in the fall.The move, which had been planned before the archdiocese closed the Holy Rosary School in 1997, "will bring greater strength to our educational efforts in the city," Cardinal William H. Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, said yesterday at a news conference at the Holy Rosary School in the 400 block of S. Chester St., near Fells Point.

A Columbia-based developer may be one step closer to converting the former Elkridge Elementary School building into an affordable housing apartment complex for senior citizens.Last week, the Howard County Council passed a resolution turning the aging county school building on Old Washington Road over to County Executive James N. Robey for disposition. Robey is expected to direct that the building be placed on the market and sold to the highest bidder.Jim Forster hopes to be that bidder. For several months, he has been eyeing the property with the hopes of constructing a 54-unit apartment complex and a community center that would be available for public use."

ONE OF THE TALLEST buildings in East Baltimore, the 22-story Broadway tower that once was housing for the elderly at Fayette Street and Broadway, might be converted to Baltimore's newest hotel, if a private group can persuade the city's housing authority to support the project.The vacant tower also might be reopened as housing for the elderly or it might be demolished, depending on what proposals the city receives in the next two months.The 7-acre parcel occupies a key site along Broadway between the Fells Point waterfront and the Johns Hopkins medical campus.

The hulking empty apartment building at West Madison Avenue and Wilson Street was just another blemish on a neighborhood troubled by drug dealing and vandalism, but yesterday 200 community members celebrated a new plan for the five-story brick building.With the help of state and local money and private contributions, the building in the city's Madison Park area will become a community center next summer with day care for elderly adults and children, a job development program, adult education courses, and kitchen and banquet facilities.

Aegon USA yesterday told employees that it will remain and expand in downtown Baltimore through 2002, but the company left open the possibility it might consolidate more than 1,000 workers outside Baltimore because of changes taking place in the insurance industry.In committing to the city, the nation's ninth-largest insurer will expand into a vacant, six-story office and warehouse building at 205 W. Centre St. once occupied by retailer Hochschild, Kohn & Co. and the Bank of Baltimore.As part of the move, the North American subsidiary of giant Dutch insurer Aegon N. V. will shift 300 employees in its Special Markets Group to the 225,000-square-foot building by May. "Our new office location provides us with the much-needed space to accommodate our current business as well as our future growth," said Bart Herbert Jr., president of Aegon USA's Special Markets Group, who broke the news to employees at the Belvedere Hotel yesterday morning.

IS DOWNTOWN Baltimore becoming one big parking lot, or does it just seem that way?In practically every corner of the city, property owners are razing vacant buildings to enlarge parking lots or make way for new ones.The latest demolitions involve buildings in the 200 block of E. Baltimore St. and the northwest corner of Park Avenue and Franklin Street.Also slated to come down are the home of Tate Engineering Systems at West and Russell streets near Camden Yards (due to become a 437-space lot for the Maryland Stadium Authority)

Quaker State Corp. has signed a lease for one of the largest vacant industrial buildings in Baltimore through 2013, a move that is expected to generate at least 130 new jobs by the end of the decade.The Irving, Texas-based oil refiner's lease for a former Montgomery Ward & Co. building will somewhat resurrect the largely derelict Carroll Park section of the city, which has been struggling despite its designation as part of the city's Empowerment Zone."It means long-term stability for the project, and it's 130 jobs, and 130 jobs isn't anything to sneeze at," said Hans F. Mayer, executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corp.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., bowing to neighborhood pressure and the threat of a lawsuit, yesterday announced plans to sell the vacant Hamburger's building in Charles Center to attorney Peter G. Angelos for $1.5 million.Angelos, who owns the 22-story One Charles Center skyscraper adjacent to the Hamburger's building, was the most prominent member of a group of downtown property owners that objected to BGE's plans to convert the former retail hub to an alternative heating and air conditioning plant.

The Cordish Co. of Baltimore confirmed yesterday that it and partner Heritage Properties Inc. have acquired the derelict Hutzler's building in downtown Towson and begun a $20 million redevelopment of the four-level store.Heritage and Cordish, fresh from the opening of its $25 million Metropolis at the Power Plant entertainment project featuring the Hard Rock Cafe at the Inner Harbor last weekend, say the Towson building will reopen by next summer.Towson Circle, as the project will be known, will contain multiple retail tenants and a two-level Storage USA Inc. mini-warehouse facility on the two upper floors of the vacant building.