Weinberg Foundation

An office building at Howard and Lexington streets in downtown Baltimore, owned by Los Angeles billionaire David Murdock, is for sale in what could be an early test of how investors regard west-side redevelopment. Murdock is selling One Market Center, the former Hutzler's Palace department store and an adjacent seven-story office building he developed, to take advantage of investors' strong appetite for commercial properties at a time when the west side's revitalization appears to be gaining momentum, said Richard S. Toppe, president of a Castle and Cooke division that manages the property.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates took a decisive step yesterday to begin redevelopment of the stalled superblock project on the city's west side, agreeing to sell 37 properties to Lexington Square Partners LLC, a New York developer. The move brings the city closer to a legal fight with the charitable organization that owns more than half the buildings. The five-member Board of Estimates, the city's spending panel, unanimously approved a $21.6 million sale of buildings that occupy 3.6 acres on West Fayette, Howard, Lexington and Liberty streets and Park Avenue.

Baltimore's spending board approved a land swap yesterday that will allow developers to move ahead with plans to revitalize a blighted swath of the west side with new apartments, shops and offices. The approval paves the way for the long-stalled superblock area in Baltimore's old retail district to be developed by two teams - one led by a New York developer and the other a partnership between the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Cordish Co. But the city still needs to obtain a key parcel now owned by a retailer who has vowed to hang on. The swap approved by the city's Board of Estimates was agreed to in March by the city and the Weinberg Foundation, one of the biggest property owners in the renewal area.

Baltimore's traditional retail district could begin taking on a new shape by next year with an expanded superblock development that would inject hundreds of new residents, workers and shoppers in the long-moribund area of downtown. After putting to rest a feud and looming legal fight that had stalled renewal plans, city officials, one of the city's biggest charities and area property owners said they can finally start rebuilding a deteriorating six-block area viewed as a critical link in the city's west-side revitalization.

The superblock saga has new supersized players. Lawyer Peter G. Angelos and developer David Hillman are challenging in court the legality of the city's development agreement with a New York outfit, a move that further complicates a process already tortured and incredibly overdue. It's time for some mayoral shuttle diplomacy. The city is embroiled now in three lawsuits over the future of the largest undeveloped tract in the renaissance of Baltimore's west side. The issues range from the Angelos-Hillman claim to the exclusion of small businesses to the extent of minority participation in the project.

A POTENTIALLY contentious election year in Baltimore -- with a lame-duck mayor and contests for City Council -- may not be the ideal time to execute a major redevelopment program. Yet a downtown revitalization strategy has to be implemented this year. Any delay may doom the city's best chance in decades to remake the old Howard Street retail corridor."Westside" is something of a misnomer for the Westside Master Plan, financed by the Weinberg Foundation. When it was released in June it involved 18 downtown blocks.

Baltimore's plan to redevelop downtown's west side gained a major boost yesterday when NationsBank announced that it will dedicate $100 million to develop and finance new projects in the renewal area.In addition to investing and providing construction and small-business loans, NationsBank will explore developing parcels in the $350 million project, including the block across from the Hippodrome Theater, bank officials said.John Morton III, president of NationsBank Mid-Atlantic Banking Group, said that aiding the largest city renewal project since the Inner Harbor will help the bank tap into a new customer base.

A POTENTIALLY contentious election year in Baltimore -- with a lame-duck mayor and contests for City Council -- may not be the ideal time to execute a major redevelopment program. Yet a downtown revitalization strategy has to be implemented this year. Any delay may doom the city's best chance in decades to remake the old Howard Street retail corridor."Westside" is something of a misnomer for the Westside Master Plan, financed by the Weinberg Foundation. When it was released in June it involved 18 downtown blocks.

A nonprofit group proposing to build 345 apartments, dozens of stores, a multiscreen theater and parking garages on the west side of Baltimore's downtown wants tax breaks from the city to help pay for the project, according to details released yesterday.The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is also asking the city to reopen a pedestrian-only section of Lexington Street to traffic and remove dozens of lighted arches over Howard Street, according to the proposal.City officials have not decided whether to approve the proposal.

TWO DECADES AFTER the Stewart's retail chain closed its flagship department store at Howard and Lexington streets, the building is at the center of a fierce debate over the best way to revive Baltimore's once-bustling shopping district.The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the building's owner, has formulated plans to redevelop the Stewart's block and the one east of it to create a mixture of offices, residences, shops and parking space -- a $71 million investment.As part of its plan, the foundation would preserve the 1899 Stewart's building and the former American National Bank building at Lexington and Liberty streets.

Despite a sagging economy and a decline in charitable giving nationwide, the Maryland-based Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is distributing a record $100 million in grants to nonprofits, a quarter of which will stay within the state. Trustees for the foundation - one of the country's largest private charitable organizations - made the announcement yesterday at a reception for about 600 community leaders and elected officials, including Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin, at the Hilton Baltimore hotel.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation announced yesterday that it will contribute $15 million over five years to the second phase of a major redevelopment plan near the Johns Hopkins medical complex. The money will support existing programs of the East Baltimore Development Inc., the nonprofit organization overseeing the project, as well as new initiatives for work force development, senior services and education, including construction of an education campus that will include a school for children in prekindergarten through eighth grade.

Construction has begun on the new ice rink at Quiet Waters Park outside Annapolis, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold announced. The contractors, Ice Builders, began demolition work last week on the floor of the old rink. Work will continue throughout the summer and early fall, with a completion date set for Oct. 15. The new $2 million rink is scheduled to open for public skating in November. The rink, which opened in 1990, closed for two seasons a few years later because of problems in the construction of its cooling system, then shut down permanently in 2003 after crews discovered that the mats set up under the cooling apparatus had been leaking chemicals into a nearby pond, killing fish.

The man whose name seems to grace every other building in Baltimore enjoyed his anonymity. A born businessman with movie star good looks, Harry Weinberg built a billion-dollar empire on a sixth-grade education. Some people knew he owned a lot of property in Baltimore, but they didn't know much else. Now, 17 years after his death, the foundation he formed in 1959 has embarked on what the image-driven business world of today would call a major rebranding. Under its current president, Shale D. Stiller, the Weinberg Foundation strives for something akin to transparency.

A major local foundation is launching a grants program that aims to quickly give up to $100,000 apiece to nonprofits across Maryland. The $2.3 billion Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, one of the country's biggest private foundations, will announce the new Maryland Small Grants Program at an event today. Nonprofit advocates are calling it an unusual and welcome twist on grant-making because it simplifies the application process and reduces the wait for a response. Charities that provide direct services to "poor and vulnerable" residents in the state, and that meet other basic guidelines such as least three years in operation, can apply for as much as $50,000 annually for the next two years, the Owings Mills-based Weinberg Foundation said.

It was often portrayed as a David vs. Goliath standoff in which small businesses were denied participation in the development of the west side. But in the end, the right dollar amount persuaded two holdouts to drop their legal claims against the city of Baltimore. The respective settlements are a compromise - aren't they all? - but they're worth it to move this critical project forward. Now it's up to the developers to deliver on their respective proposals in transforming the area known as the "superblock" to complete the revitalization of the city's west side, which was first proposed in 1999.

Arundel Habitat for Humanity has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, a contribution that is funding the construction of 10 houses in the Brooklyn and Curtis Bay sections of Baltimore. The grant, announced last week, is going toward the nonprofit's $10 million capital campaign to build 80 houses in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore. "Weinberg was one of the local foundations that stepped up," said Anne Rouse, deputy director of the Arundel Habitat group.

Baltimore's spending board approved a land swap yesterday that will allow developers to move ahead with plans to revitalize a blighted swath of the west side with new apartments, shops and offices. The approval paves the way for the long-stalled superblock area in Baltimore's old retail district to be developed by two teams - one led by a New York developer and the other a partnership between the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Cordish Co. But the city still needs to obtain a key parcel now owned by a retailer who has vowed to hang on. The swap approved by the city's Board of Estimates was agreed to in March by the city and the Weinberg Foundation, one of the biggest property owners in the renewal area.

When Nam Koo decided to buy and convert an old downtown movie theater into a clothing warehouse, fellow Korean-American businessmen told him for that kind of investment, he should locate elsewhere. "Downtown is not good," he recalls them saying. "But I had some kind of feeling, one day this will be good." He may be right, but he may also not be around to enjoy it. Koo is the odd man out in an agreement signed last week between the city and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation that finally should propel the long-stalled "superblock" redevelopment forward.

A day after a Baltimore Circuit Court judge dismissed his lawsuit against the city, the head of a minority contractors association said yesterday that he plans to push on with his challenge of the city's land sale to a developer for the superblock project on Baltimore's west side. Arnold M. Jolivet, who filed a lawsuit in January after the city approved the sale of 37 properties to Lexington Square Partners LLC for $21.6 million, argued that the demolition and environmental work agreed to as part of the agreement should have been subject to competitive bid. Under the sales agreement, Lexington Square, formed by the Chera/Dawson Group, can deduct up to $10 million from the purchase price for the cost of demolition, environmental cleanup and streetscape work.