Westport

Police are investigating an overnight shooting that left one man wounded, while detectives continue to search for suspects in the separate beating of a man Thursday evening that left him in critical condition. Police responded to Harbor Hospital at 12:50 a.m. after a gunshot victim had walked in for treatment. The man told investigators he had pulled into a lot between the 2400 block of Maisel Court and the 2400 block of Wilgrey Court in the Westport neighborhood to say hello to a friend of his cousin when an unknown suspect shot at him numerous times.

Police are investigating an overnight shooting that left one man wounded, while detectives continue to search for suspects in the separate beating of a man Thursday evening that left him in critical condition. Police responded to Harbor Hospital at 12:50 a.m. after a gunshot victim had walked in for treatment. The man told investigators he had pulled into a lot between the 2400 block of Maisel Court and the 2400 block of Wilgrey Court in the Westport neighborhood to say hello to a friend of his cousin when an unknown suspect shot at him numerous times.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ordered a halt Monday to construction work on the city's planned casino until a hearing Friday on a lawsuit by Westport residents alleging that the city and state improperly approved an inadequate cleanup of industrial contamination at the site. Judge Yolanda Tanner issued a temporary restraining against CBAC Gaming, the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment after lawyers for the Westport residents complained that work had begun on the Horseshoe Casino, despite assurances last week from the casino owner's lawyer that it would not engage in any construction activity before the scheduled hearing.

Lawyers for Baltimore say a group of Westport residents seeking an injunction to stop construction of the Horseshoe Casino along Russell Street have no legal standing and are being used by a shadowy organization more concerned with delaying the facility opening than environmental factors. In a response filed Tuesday, city solicitors Matthew W. Nayden and Daniel J. Sparaco dismissed the group's claim that the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment colluded to allow CBAC Gaming to avoid following protocol for publicly discussing and planning cleanup of the site.

The foreclosure auction of a 43-acre plot of waterfront land in Westport that was scheduled for Thursday has been canceled because an involuntary bankruptcy petition has been filed against the land's corporate owner, according to the auctioneer. Inner Harbor West LLC, a company affiliated with developer Patrick Turner, owes a construction firm and a land consulting company more than $200,000, according to the petition, filed last week by the consultant and builder. The auction had to be canceled because of the petition, said Andrew L. Billig, a member of the auction house A.J. Billig and Co. The land's trustees will have to convince the bankruptcy judge that the sale should proceed, he said.

Two teen-aged girls and a man were shot in the 2200 block of Annapolis Ave. in the Westport neighborhood shortly before 6 p.m. Monday — adding a triple shooting to three other incidents that police have been investigating since Sunday night. The 14-year-old girl was shot in the right leg and the other, whose age was not released, sustained a "graze wound" to her shoulder, police said. Both were treated and released from an area hospital. The 23-year-old man, who was shot in the back, is awaiting surgery at an area hospital, police said.

A developer's vision to transform the formerly industrial shores of the Middle Branch into a $1.4 billion community of homes, offices, shops and a hotel got final master plan approval yesterday from Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. Turner Development Group plans 2,000 condos, apartments and townhouses, 300,000 square feet of shops, 3 million square feet of office and entertainment uses and two hotels on 50 acres of waterfront land the developer has acquired in Westport.

A man with a large tattoo of tombstones on his back who survived a shooting in November was fatally shot last night on a Westport street not far from the previous attack, police said. His name was withheld pending notification of his family. About 8 p.m., police found the man lying in the 2300 block of Cedley St., dead from several gunshot wounds, said Detective Eric Sharp. Anyone with information is urged to call Sharp or Detective Richard Purtell at 410-396-2100.

Mary Helen Reichenberg, a homemaker in Westport who as a young woman endured the Great Depression and defied her parents to marry, died March 13 at Genesis Eldercare in Annapolis after a yearlong bout with complications from a fall. She was 90. She was born Mary Helen Beach in Alexandria, Va. Her family moved to Maryland as her father, a glassblower, followed job opportunities. She graduated from Western High School in Baltimore. After graduation, she began working as a clerk in Baltimore's Water Department billing section.

Trucks rumbled noisily past Velma Wright's rowhouse on Annapolis Road, drowning out conversation as she sat on her porch in the afternoon heat. Her block in Westport is scarred with boarded-up homes. Discarded junk fills overgrown backyards. Across the busy street, the little candy and hardware shops shut their doors long ago. Yet Wright's narrow house, just blocks from an industrial waterfront, is a hot property. With Baltimore home values soaring and developers eyeing Westport's shoreline for glitzy new development, investors have come calling on homeowners in struggling neighborhoods along the Middle Branch.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ordered a halt Monday to construction work on the city's planned casino until a hearing Friday on a lawsuit by Westport residents alleging that the city and state improperly approved an inadequate cleanup of industrial contamination at the site. Judge Yolanda Tanner issued a temporary restraining against CBAC Gaming, the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment after lawyers for the Westport residents complained that work had begun on the Horseshoe Casino, despite assurances last week from the casino owner's lawyer that it would not engage in any construction activity before the scheduled hearing.

The bankruptcy of the development company behind the Westport Waterfront project can move forward as a Chapter 11 reorganization. Inner Harbor West LLC, one of the companies that developer Patrick Turner formed as part of his planned revitalization of roughly 43 acres in southwest Baltimore, sought Chapter 11 status shortly after an involuntary Chapter 7 petition was filed against the company by two creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert A. Gordon's order allowing the conversion from Chapter 7 to Chapter 11 was entered Monday.

The only residents of the Westport waterfront last week were a gaggle of geese that commandeered a large puddle amid the brush and broken asphalt. The only structure was a battered chain-link fence, capturing wind-blown litter along the perimeter. By now the 43-acre tract, assembled and cleared over several years with millions of dollars and personal resolve, was supposed to house hundreds and bustle with office workers. There should be a towering skyscraper and a stadium. Instead, the development company that was going to make that happen is in bankruptcy and the future of the $1.4 billion Westport Waterfront project, thought of as a potential "Harbor West," is uncertain.

The developers of the stalled Westport Waterfront filed a $225 million suit in bankruptcy court Wednesday alleging that out-of-state financiers posed as potential investors in the project and then conspired with others to upend development plans. Investors based in Utah gained access to confidential information about the project by offering to help refinance it, according to the suit filed by developer Patrick Turner, Thomas Fore, and their companies affiliated with the Westport project.

The company affiliated with developer Patrick Turner that was planning to redevelop the waterfront of the Westport neighborhood in southwest Baltimore has filed for bankruptcy. Inner Harbor West LLC, the subject of a Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy petition filed by two creditors earlier this month, has asked a federal judge to convert the case to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to documents filed Tuesday in Maryland's bankruptcy court. If the change is allowed, Inner Harbor West LLC could reorganize with trustee oversight and develop a plan to repay creditors.

Six Baltimore residents financed by an environmental group sued the owner of Baltimore's yet-to-be-built casino, the city and the state, alleging that they colluded to skirt rules governing the study and cleanup of "highly contaminated properties" near their neighborhood. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court, seeks an injunction to delay the issuing of building permits for the Horseshoe Casino until further study of the land and public discussion of a proposal for making it safe are completed.

Baltimore developer Patrick Turner plans to start construction March 1 in an ambitious plan to develop the formerly industrial shores of the Middle Branch, with the first buildings in the $1.4 billion community - including a 65-story, mixed-use skyscraper - to get under way by 2009. Turner, president of Turner Development Group, has spent several days this week introducing his Westport project to retailers at a major shopping center convention in Las Vegas. Tomorrow, the developer will present a site plan to the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel.

Eighteen people escaped injury last night when a two-alarm fire raced through three rowhouses in the city's Westport section.Two firefighters sustained minor injuries battling the fire that reportedly began when furniture stored on a back porch caught fire.The fire has been ruled suspicious and is under investigation.Reported at 1:06 a.m., the fire caused extensive damage to 2319 and 2321 Annapolis Road and moderate damage to 2323.Satrena Hawkins, 27, of 2319, said that shortly after she checked the back of the house around 12:30 a.m., she saw flames coming from the back porch where three pieces of furniture were being stored.

The foreclosure auction of a 43-acre plot of waterfront land in Westport that was scheduled for Thursday has been canceled because an involuntary bankruptcy petition has been filed against the land's corporate owner, according to the auctioneer. Inner Harbor West LLC, a company affiliated with developer Patrick Turner, owes a construction firm and a land consulting company more than $200,000, according to the petition, filed last week by the consultant and builder. The auction had to be canceled because of the petition, said Andrew L. Billig, a member of the auction house A.J. Billig and Co. The land's trustees will have to convince the bankruptcy judge that the sale should proceed, he said.

A Valentine's Day auction has been scheduled for developer Patrick Turner's Westport Waterfront site. The auction house A.J. Billig and Co. is advertising that sale of the roughly 43-acre property will take place Feb. 14 on the steps of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse downtown. The property is eight parcels but will be sold as a single unit, according to the auction materials . A $500,000 deposit will be required at the time of purchase. In November, lender Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp.