Development News

Two technology research divisions of the University of Maryland Baltimore County have renewed their lease at the school's Catonsville campus.

The Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center (GEST) and the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) signed a five-year lease with Merritt Properties for a 5,000-square-foot space at UMBC's research and technology park.

The two centers employ 20 people who work at bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park and 200 overall, says Raymond Hoff, director of both centers.  

The centers run satellite missions in conjunction with NASA that observe everything from hurricanes to the melting of the ice cap in Antarctica to the amount of air pollution in space.

Center officials like the modern building at 5523 Research Park Dr., with its free parking and easy access to Interstate 95, Hoff says. It also contains plenty of meeting space, which is tough to find at the main campus during the school year as students and faculty members jockey for space.

Located at the edge of campus, the research park is still close enough to the school's faculty and students, says Hoff, who is also a UMBC physics professor.

The 71-acre bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology serves as an incubator for startup firms and a research center. Tenants include the Erickson School of Aging Studies, RWD Technologies, and Encore Path.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Raymond Hoff, GEST and JCET

Baltimore City officials hope to rehab more than 1,000 vacant buildings by providing more incentives to homebuyers and developers who build in distressed areas.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano announced the "Vacants to Value" initiative Nov. 3.

The plan relies on six strategies:

• Disposing of vacant city-owned property. The mayor's office has restructured its land resources staff, hired a new team of real estate marketing professionals, and launched a new website to help sell vacant city properties.

• Fining landowners who abandon properties $900 instead of pursuing costly legal battles by taking each case to court. This will hopefully pressure absentee landowners and speculators to reinvest in their properties to avoid more fines, or sell them.

• Deploying code enforcement attorneys to encourage investment in emerging neighborhoods.

• Providing incentives for homebuyers and developers. This includes a $5,000, five-year forgivable loan for 100 police officers, firefighters, and teachers who purchase vacant property. Baltimore Housing has packaged four more home-buyer incentives, totaling roughly $1 million, for individuals who purchase vacant or newly rehabilitated homes. The department will also establish a new $1 million revolving loan fund to provide short-term cash for small developers and contractors who rehabilitate vacant properties.

• Supporting large-scale redevelopment efforts in distressed areas.

• In areas with significant urban blight, Baltimore Housing will focus on maintaining, clearing, and holding�or "land banking"�vacant property for future use. This involves demolishing and cleaning targeted areas and creating new green space.

Baltimore City contains 16,000 vacant buildings, of which 5,000 are located in what the city calls "transitional blocks" � areas that are largely occupied but challenged with a number of scattered vacant structures.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Baltimore City

Home buyers interested in getting a home in the area surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital have 50,000 potential reasons to do so. That's because of a $50,000 grant being offered as part of the Eastside Early Home Buyers Grant Program (EEGP).

The grant may be applied toward the purchase of designated newly constructed or rehabilitated homes in the East Baltimore Development, Inc. (EBDI) footprint, the Townes at Eager, or the Green Rehab Homes.

Baltimore Community Lending is responsible for the program. According to the organization, the purpose of the EEGP grant is to generate a group of pioneering buyers to purchase homes in the new East Baltimore community by providing a financial incentive for prospective buyers of the designated new homes.

"This incentive is an awesome way to incent a Hopkins employee or someone who works closeby in the downtown area with a really affordable home purchase. We hope it serves to jumpstart home buying in the area and build on the positive work being done by EBDI. It is one of the more gracious incentives out there � no income restriction on the buyer and the funds are totally forgiven after 10 years," says Anna Custer, executive director of Live Baltimore, an organization dedicated to promoting Baltimore as a great place to live.

Source: Anna Custer
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Red Parrot Asian Bistro has signed a lease for its second location, a space in the upcoming Shoppes at McHenry Row, a mixed-use development in South Baltimore.

According to Jared Meier, retail strategist with Streetsense, the restaurant is one of two locally owned eateries included in the development. The 4140 sq. ft. space is part of a $117 million project being constructed at the former Chesapeake Paperboard Co. site at the intersection of Key Highway and Fort St. in Locust Point.

"We're excited to have them coming in. The addition of the Sushi, Thai, and Asian cuisines is a nice complement," says Meier. 

The site's 48,000 sq. ft. of main street retail space will include a Dunkin' Donuts, M&T Bank, PNC Bank, The Hair Cuttery, and The Green Turtle. It will also feature 80,000 square feet of office space, 250 rental apartments, and two parking garages.

"It'll be a mix of small shop boutiques, retail, and service users along with the restaurants," says Meier.

McHenry Row will also include a Harris Teeter grocery store. Meier expects the grocery store to help attract shoppers from around the area.

Source: Jared Meier, Streetsense
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Serendipity combined with a good reputation can lead to a very good thing. That's what got the ball rolling for the recently opened David & Dad's Express at 1 N. Charles St. David Cangialosi, owner, of the 17-year old breakfast and lunch spot at 334 N. Charles St. says that's how the new location came to be.

"The cafe at 1 N. Charles St. had closed. The building manager, a regular customer, approached us and asked us if we wanted to open something there. He knew all about us and liked what we did and felt comfortable having us there. I looked at it as a chance to open a new restaurant without a big investment because we didn't need to build something from scratch," says Cangialosi.

With just a $10,000 investment, the new location opened in mid-October. As with the original David & Dad's, the location offers freshly made breakfast and lunch items.

"Everything is still made to order but with seating for only about 14 people, the business is mostly carry-out."

The new location is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 3pm. It employs five people.

Source: David Cangialosi, David & Dad's
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Baltimore City has been awarded $19 million in grants from Living Cities, a collaborative of 22 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions. The city is one of five chosen as winners in the new Integration Initiative, which supports game-changing innovations that address intractable problems affecting low-income people. The award continues Living Cities' nearly 20-year commitment to Baltimore, which has resulted in millions of dollars for community initiatives.

The Baltimore Integration Partnership focuses on creating job opportunities and improving neighborhoods in Central and East Baltimore, while preparing residents for opportunities created by the construction of the Red Line, a 14-mile east-west transit line. Through the Integration Initiative, Baltimore is eligible for up to $19 million in grants, loans, and Program-Related Investments (PRIs) to support its efforts. PRIs are flexible, low-cost loans provided at below-market rates to support charitable activity.

The Integration Initiative is an effort to leverage the financial investment, influence, and leadership of Living Cities members to create a new framework for solving complex problems. It encourages local leaders to work together to challenge obsolete conventional wisdom, "rewire" the systems that are critical to making our cities places of opportunity for low-income people, and drive the private market to work on behalf of low-income people. The Integration Initiative seeks to institutionalize these changes through a focus on changing local, state and federal policy. The support to Baltimore is part of up to $80 million that will be invested in five metropolitan areas.

As part of its application, Baltimore's public, private, philanthropic and non-profit sectors agreed to work as  partners on the initiative. The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers coordinated the application. Partners in the effort are the Office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Office of Governor Martin O'Malley, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Goldseker Foundation, Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative, Associated Black Charities, Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative, Johns Hopkins University and Medical Institutions, Maryland Institute College of Art, Job Opportunities Task Force, Central Baltimore Partnership, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, and the East Baltimore Development Inc. The Reinvestment Fund will serve as the financial intermediary, making targeted investments in projects that advance the initiative's goals.

The Baltimore Integration Partnership will build upon the success of Baltimore's Workforce Funders' Collaborative, an effort that has helped launch programs in biotechnology, healthcare and construction, moving thousands of low-income city residents into careers, and the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative's efforts to promote transit-centered community development.

"This selection represents a continuation of our relationship with Baltimore," says Living Cities CEO Ben Hecht. "Since 1991, we have invested $23 million in affordable housing and other initiatives in Baltimore, which has been leveraged to a total investment of $108 million. We have also previously invested in green retrofitting initiatives there."

Living Cities resources will help Baltimore create a model for how neighborhood, regional, city, and state economic development and transportation investments can benefit low-income people by driving and/or integrating workforce development, affordable housing and neighborhood amenities. Funding will result in at least 1,200 residents being connected to job pipeline services, 840 of whom will be employed in careers with family-supporting wages; 400 units of mixed-income housing built; and 346,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space developed.

Source: Living Cities
Writer: Walaika Haskins

An experimental theater in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District is on the hunt for a new stage.

The three-year old Baltimore Annex Theater is looking at spaces on the west side and downtown as its lease at 419 E. Oliver St. ends Jan. 1, says company member Rick Gerriets. Theater members are looking at the H&H building on the city's west side as a possible location as they seek a space of around 5,000 square feet, the size of the current location.

The theater troupe is looking for programs and grants that can help pay for the move. These include Healthy Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that supports initiatives that help strengthen Baltimore neighborhoods, and Downtown Partnership of Baltimore's initiative to provide grants to artists and businesses to fill vacant storefronts.

Unlike some other theater groups in town, the Baltimore Annex Theater has taken its show on the road. The theater troupe recently completed a six-week tour visiting 35 cities, including Detroit, Santa Fe, Houston and Nashville. Actors were performing "A Fistful of Flowers," a play by Evan Moritz about two modern-day cowboys who are ex lovers that chase each other around the desert trying to kill each other.

The theater got its start when five college classmates from James Madison University and the University of Virginia moved to Baltimore. The Baltimore City Paper named Moritz best director in its annual Best of Baltimore issue this year.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Rick Gerriets, Baltimore Annex Theater

A new restaurant serving comfort food and crab cakes is coming to the Bel-Air Edison neighborhood.

Kodi's will open by the end of the year at 3539 Belair Rd. The menu will include a house seafood soup, stuffed broccoli with cheese, mozzarella sticks, and crab cakes, co-owner Jacqueline Rinehart says.

Rinehart, who will run the business with her husband and daughter, says she hopes to create a neighborhood joint where you're "guaranteed a nice family environment."

"It's needed in the neighborhood," Rinehart says of the restaurant. "There's nowhere in the neighborhood to sit down and relax." Rinehart has applied for a live entertainment license with the Baltimore City liquor board so she can feature live jazz.

The area is full of carryout spots but is lacking in full-service restaurants, says Mary Warlow, director of programs and marketing for Belair-Edison Neighborhoods.

"It would be nice to have some variety," Warlow says. "It will be a good addition to Main Street."

Rinehart and her partners remodeled the whole building and installed five 42-inch flat-screen TVs. Rinehart declined to say how much they
are spending to open the restaurant and renovate the building.

"We're always glad when business owners invest in the buildings," Warlow says. "The nicer it is the more likely they'll survive as a restaurant."

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Jacqueline Rinehart, Kodi's; Mary Warlow, Bel-Air Edison Neighborhoods

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is building a $200 million proton therapy cancer treatment center, the first of its kind in the area to offer a certain type of radiation treatment.

The 100,000-square foot building will be built at the University of Maryland BioPark on the city's west side. The cancer center will break ground in August and faculty members could begin providing treatments as early as 2014. The center will serve 2,000 patients annually.

The medical school's radiation oncology practice plan has signed a letter of intent with Advanced Particle Therapy LLC of Minden, Nev., to create the Maryland Proton Treatment Center LLC. The center will design, own, and operate the center while the University of Maryland faculty will provide clinical management and therapeutic services.

The center will create 435 jobs, including 325 construction jobs and 110 jobs in the life sciences industry. Those jobs include radiation
oncologists, medical physicists, radiation technologists, other medical support personnel, and administrative staff.

Proton therapy uses a proton beam to deliver radiation more precisely to the tumor site than with standard X-ray radiation, resulting in less overall radiation exposure. The treatment is used for many common cancers as well as for some rarer instances of the disease.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: University of Maryland, Baltimore

A nonprofit is working with Baltimore City to preserve Baltimore's parks by allowing qualified land trusts to purchase city-owned land for $1 per lot.

There are 13,000 vacant lots in Baltimore City, about half of which are owned by the city, says Miriam Avins, founder of Baltimore Green Space.

The nonprofit's partnership with the city will allow Baltimore Green Space to take over two sites on behalf of community organizations. One is the horseshoe pit in Pigtown and the other is land at the intersection of North Avenue and Barclay, to be used as a sitting garden.

"We respond to what neighborhoods want to do," Avins says.

The system works by somebody in a neighborhood first submitting an application to preserve a piece of land and identifying a volunteer who can oversee the site. Baltimore Green Space then works with the volunteer to help the neighborhood preserve the land for, say, a garden or a park.

Baltimore Green Space's land transaction committee takes a first look at the property and does a due diligence screening. The land trust then acquires the land and connects the community organizations with the resources needed to preserve it.
 
For instance, an association in Upper Fells Point wanted to add some greenery in an alley behind a garden. If Baltimore Green Space didn't own it, the city would have repaved the alley.

"It helps make sure the decision reflects the desire of the neighborhood," Avins says.

The nonprofit is holding an informational session Oct. 26 at the Parks & People Foundation.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source Miriam Avins, Baltimore Green Space

The owners of Pikesville's popular Mexican restaurant Mari Luna are bringing their food to city residents.

Mari Luna Mexican Bistro will open at 1225 Cathedral St. in Mount Vernon by mid-January. Located across from the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the spot was formerly home to Robert Oliver Seafood and Spike & Charlie's.

The 200-seat restaurant will feature a guacamole bar and sangria bar, says Paul Bartlett, a restaurant consultant working with the Luna family on the opening. It will also focus on entertainment and culture, featuring a Mariachi band.

Featuring the food of central Mexico, Mari Luna will be less formal and less dependent on the symphony crowd that have opened there in the past.

"We're envisioning it as a community gathering place for musicians before and after their gigs," Bartlett says. "It's a beautiful, elegant space. We look forward to being there for quite a while."

Jaime Luna and his family, who own Mari Luna Mexican Grill and Mari Luna Latin Grille, are investing about $100,000 to open the new restaurant, Bartlett says. The restaurant consultant has worked on behalf of Caf� Hon, Donna's, and Phillips Seafood Restaurants.

Bartlett says he and the Luna family like the area because it has gotten some new developments, including the recently opened Fitzgerald apartments.

"I've always loved the restaurant" space, Bartlett says. "It's a social neighborhood and fun gathering place."

The restaurant will employ about 40.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source Paul Bartlett, restaurant consultant

A cyber security firm has moved out of the Emerging Technology Center incubator space to its own new digs in Canton as it grows its client base.

Lookingglass Cyber Solutions LLC moved last month to 1001 S. Kenwood Ave., on the second floor of a townhouse. After three years in Canton's ETC, the company thought it was time to get its own space where it can bring clients, Lookingglass CEO Derek Gabbard says.

The company's contract with the Department of Homeland Security will double this year, to $2 million.

"We've evolved to the point where you want to spread your wings and do your own thing," Gabbard says.

It also won a contract last month with an intelligence organization, which it can't name for security reasons. Two banks will also pilot their products next year.

The company expects to hire two employees by the end of the year and another three to four by next summer in the areas of software development and operational support.

The 2,000-square-foot office puts the seven-person firm two blocks closer to the bustling Canton Square, Gabbard says.

Working in the waterfront Canton neighborhood, chock full of bars and restaurants, is a good job perk for young new employees, Gabbard says.

"It's a great spot to move to if you're in your 20s," Gabbard says. Being in a "hip, young area" is good for a growing software company.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Derek Gabbard

A Bethesda communications firm has opened a Baltimore office as its leaders want to be closer to its nonprofit clients.

The Hatcher Group, whose clients include the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Open Society Institute, opened an office last month at 1501 St. Paul St.

The company employs 16 in Bethesda and three in its new Baltimore office, including two former Baltimore Sun reporters.

The number of clients in the Baltimore area has grown in the last few years to about 10, says Hatcher Group Senior Vice President Tom Waldron. The company has a total of about 50 clients.
 
"It seems the time was here to open the Baltimore office," Waldron says.

Waldron says the company sees its mission as more than PR, but rather helping clients effect social change and influence public policy.

"We're really excited about being in Baltimore full time," Waldron says. "We wanted to show that we care about the work we're doing in Baltimore" to clients.

Other Baltimore clients include the Family League of Baltimore City Inc. and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning.

The company shares the space with Web design firm Drexler.

The Hatcher Group selected the Mount Vernon neighborhood because it was looking for something that is reasonably close to downtown and its clients, says Waldron, a former Sun state house bureau chief. It's also close to Penn Station, making it convenient to reach clients in Washington, D.C., and New York.

"Plus it's a really cool space," with 17-foot ceilings, Waldron says.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Tom Waldron, Hatcher Group

More than one third of all downtown jobs are held by Baltimore City residents, and the number of employees who earned more than $40,000 per year increased 31 percent from 2004 to 2008.

That is according to a new report from Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. that assesses downtown's impact on the Baltimore economy.
Officials from the group hope the report's findings will result in city policies that favor downtown.

Downtown Partnership wants city officials to create a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for downtown, similar to those in Patrick Turner's Westport development, Harbor East, and Clipper Mill. A TIF allows the city to use debt to finance a new development with the expectation that the project will increase tax revenues in the future.

Downtown hotels contribute 89 percent of the city's total hotel tax revenue and downtown residents pay 24 percent of the city's total income taxes, the study shows. Downtown businesses pay $7.6 billion in compensation to employees, while Baltimore City businesses overall pay $19.4 billion per year to their workers, the report says.

The motivation behind the study is to understand how downtown contributes to the city's overall fiscal standing and to remind policy leaders of the importance of investing downtown, says Downtown Partnership President J. Kirby Fowler Jr.

"Baltimore is a very dense area that provides bang for the buck," Fowler says.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Kirby Fowler, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore

After being shuttered for four months, the Senator Theatre will reopen Oct. 15 as the new operators plan a yearlong, $2 million renovation of the historic cinema in North Baltimore.

James and Kathleen Cusack, the owners of the Charles Theatre, will add a new restaurant, bar, and second screen to the Senator. Quyam Karzai, owner of b and Charles Theatre neighbor Tapas Teatro, will run the bar and small-plate restaurant. The 3,000-square-foot restaurant will seat 75.

The Cusacks took over the theater's lease in August after successfully submitting a bid to the city on redevelopment plans for the property. Baltimore City has owned the 71-year-old theater since last year, after paying $810,000 to keep the financially beleaguered business from going into foreclosure. The Senator was formerly owned by Tom Kiefaber and had been a family-run theater since its inception.

The new theater operators want to "return it to its glory days with 21st century amenities," says Clare Miller, a spokeswoman for the Cusacks.

The Cusacks' renovation includes replacing the seats, wall coverings, curtains, and painting the ceilings. They also plan to upgrade the electric systems, sprinklers, and roof. The theater will remain open during construction.

The Senator is located next to the Belvedere Square shopping center, whose tenants include furniture store Nouveau Contemporary Goods, wine bar Grand Cru and Daedalus Books and Music. Miller says the Cusacks want to invest in the "vibrant" Belvedere Square neighborhood because it's a "destination" attraction.

The Senator will show the movie "Red" starring Helen Mirren and Bruce Willis on opening day.
 
Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Clare Miller, Senator