development : Development News

A California frozen yogurt chain is sweetening up Annapolis with its first East Coast location. Menchie's Frozen Yogurt will open early April at Annapolis Towne Centre, next to Target and Arhaus Furniture Co.

The growing Encino-based company currently has about 30 locations and is planning numerous new stores in Ohio, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Chains like Pinkberry and RedMango have expanded nationally in recent years, but the FroYo craze has largely left the Greater Baltimore region in the cold.

Menchie's co-owner Mary Carney says she chose the Annapolis Towne Centre location because she expects to get good foot traffic from the neighboring anchor tenants, Target and Arhaus. She also hopes that restaurants in the outdoor mall like Gordon Biersch Brewery and P.F. Chang's will pull diners craving dessert after their meal.
 
Located at 2505 Riva Rd., Annapolis Towne Centre is a $500 million retail, office and residential complex that includes a Main Street-style town center. Its other stores include Whole Foods Market, Bed Bath & Beyond, Brio Tuscan Grill and Real Seafood Co.

"It's an upbeat place," Carney says of the outdoor mall.

She declined to say how much she is spending to open the store. But the average Menchie franchisee spends between $340,000 and $400,000 on real estate, equipment, and franchise fee.

Menchie's will feature 14 frozen yogurt flavors and 50 toppings customers can add to the mix -- not unlike the concept behind ice cream franchise Cold Stone Creamery except that it is self serve. Patrons pay by the weight and can choose from low-carb, sugar-free and dairy-free options.

Source: Mary Carney, Menchie's
 Writer: Julekha Dash

Break out the banjo: Blue Grass is coming to town. Blue Grass restaurant, that is. The former chef and general manager of Ryleigh's Oyster, Patrick Morrow and Jorbie Clark, will open the Southern-inspired eatery this month at 1500 S. Hanover Street.

Morrow, who has lived in Federal Hill for nine years, had been looking for a restaurant space for a while and jumped at the chance when the spot that once housed the Vine became available. Though the economy has not been kind to some restaurant owners, Morrow sees a business opportunity in the downturn. He's able to find plenty of qualified staff and get better deals on kitchen equipment.

"You have a lot of people hungry for work, " Morrow says.  And a lot more people are willing to give you good deals because they are hungry to make a sale, he says.

Morrow also liked the spot in Federal Hill because it sits at the intersection of two major roads, Fort and Hanover, that should hopefully attract a lot of drive-by traffic. The business partners hope to capture Federal Hill's young professionals in their 20s and 30s, says Jorbie Clark. This is an age group that is not weighed down by a massive drop in their stock portfolio, Clark says.

"They still have disposable income and will still go out," Clark says.

Morrow and Clark both declined to say how much they are spending to open the 75-seat restaurant. Blue Grass will serve up contemporary American food, including Southern game and meat dishes. Pork chop with baked beans, crawfish hush puppies, and braised gunpowder short ribs reflect Morrow's culinary influences growing up in North Carolina and Texas. Entrees will cost between $19 and $25 and appetizers will cost between $6 and $13.


Sources: Patrick Morrow, Jorbie Clark, Blue Grass
Writer: Julekha Dash

How's this for a restaurant concept: the name Tony? As in Tony Bennett, Tony Danza, and Tony Romo.

"Google the name Tony and you're going to come up with a lot of Tonys," says Kamran Assadi, who plans to open Tony's Diner on Baltimore's West Side.

All the famous Tonys will get a pic on the wall, says Assadi, whose nickname is, by the way, Tony. Assadi, also the owner of Luna Del Sea is spending $600,000 to open Tony's Diner at 8-14 Park Avenue. Assadi picked the West Side location with the hopes of getting business from the convention center, hotels in the area, and people attending plays and concerts at the Hippodrome Theatre and First Mariner Arena.

He also chose the west side over Baltimore's east side because he didn't want to compete with his cousin, who runs Mo's Seafood in Little Italy.

"I didn't want to compete with him," says Assadi, who has helped run Mo's in the past. "He has the east side covered."

Tony's will encompass sthree businesses in one: a deli, bar and diner with a total of 142 seats. Each will have its own entrance. The deli will serve sandwiches that cost between $5 and $12. The dining room will serve up pasta, steaks, chicken and maybe steamed crabs. Dinner entrees will cost between $12 to $24.

The Baltimore City Liquor License board granted Assadi a new liquor license that is available to restaurant owners that invest at least $500,000 in a new establishment. Assadi also received a live entertainment license and plans to occasionally feature piano, guitar and violin players.

The 4,000-square-foot restaurant will employ up to 30 workers.

Source: Kamran Assadi, Tony's Diner
Writer: Julekha Dash

A startup technology company that counts Toyota and United Airlines as clients is moving next month to Canton's Emerging Technology Center. Business partners Ryan Doak and Scott Calhoun say they hope the move from their current office in Fells Point to the business incubator will give them the resources they need to grow NV3 Technologies LLC.

The incubator will offer them professional advice on everything from accounting to getting funding to legal counseling, Managing Partner Scott Calhoun says. Being close to other startups should also help the nine-person company form valuable relationships, the partners said.

The company makes kiosks where folks can charge their cell phones. The kiosks also feature LCD screens that display multimedia ads, information and signs. NV3 charges companies anywhere from $1,000 to $8,000 for the custom-built kiosks.

Doak and Calhoun also hope the ETC will give its product more exposure. The incubator's lobby will house a kiosk listing the companies at the ETC at 2400 Boston Street.

There's another reason Doak chose the waterfront neighborhood of Canton: He loves boating and sailing.

The partners hope to make inroads among major hotels, restaurants, convention centers and hotels who could use the kiosks to display meeting schedules, directions to the bathrooms, and menus. NV3 managers also hope to enter the festival arena and are in discussions currently with a media company that would use the kiosks at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

NV3 recently changed its name from Nuvo.


Source: Ryan Doak, Scott Calhoun, NV3 Technologies
Writer: Julekha Dash

A group of leading architects and university officials have formed a nonprofit design collaborative and are looking at 10 N. Charles Street as a possible home. The space would hold classes, lectures, design exhibits and host events.

D:Center 15-member board includes staff at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland College Park.

"What's missing [in Baltimore]  is a center or place to figure out what is going on in the area of design," says Klaus Philipsen, a Baltimore architect and D:Center's president.

The members are talking to 10 N. Charles Street's landlord, Peter Angelos' Artemis Properties Inc., about taking 40,000 square feet of space in the building once the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business leaves in the fall for the Legg Mason Tower in Harbor East. Runing the physical location would cost between $300,000 to $1.5 million to operate, Philipsen says.

D:Center, whose board includes architecture firms Cho Benn Holback + Associates and Brown Craig Turner, already has an ongoing program called "design conversations" in which speakers present design-related ideas. The concept is not unlike Ignite Baltimore, Philipsen says.

Having a physical home could enable the group to house a center on Baltimore design and architecture that would attract tourists, Philipsen says. The participating universities could also host inter-collegiate architecture courses.

The downtown spot is centrally located and could attract students and tourists, Philipsen says.

"It seems like a wonderful place," Philipsen says. "We don't want to be in a neighborhood that is not central."


Source: Klaus Philipsen, D: Center
Writer: Julekha Dash

Ryan Perlberg and his father Stuart have traveled throughout the Mid-Atlantic with a single goal in mind: find the best sausages and hot dogs.

Now they are turning the knowledge they picked up during their travels to open a sausage business.  Stuggy's will open at 809 S. Broadway this month. Replete with a soda fountain selling root beer floats the atmosphere will be reminiscent of the 1940s, Ryan Perlberg says.

Perlberg says opening a sausage and hot dog shop has been a dream of his and his father's for a while. They picked Fells Point because that's where they have lived for the last nine years.

"I fell in love with the place," Perlberg says. He likes the cobblestone streets and historic buildings in the waterfront neighborhood.
"There's always a story to be told. It's a well-kept secret," Perlberg says of Fells Point.

He hopes he can get the late night Fells Point bar crowd by keeping Stuggy's open late on weekends. Perlberg declined to say how much he is spending to open the 1,000-square-foot store.

Perlberg will rely on local purveyors to supply Stuggie's stock. He's getting the meat for his bison sausage and bison chili from Gunpowder Bison and Trading, a farm in Monkton. The Italian and Polish sausages will come from Ostrowski's just down the street in Fells Point. While Stuggy's Chesapeake sausage will add a dash of Old Bay seasoning in the mix. Other familiar Baltimore brands at the shop will include Berger cookies and goodies from Jeppi Nut & Candy Co.

"Everything is old school," Perlberg says.

What's for dessert? Try Fried Oreos, a familiar favorite for anyone who has been to the Maryland State Fair.

Source: Ryan Perlberg, Stuggy's
Writer: Julekha Dash

Would you pay as much as $9 for a cup of coffee? Jay Caragay is hoping you will to get some java grown by El Salvador farmer Aida Battle, known for producing small batches of award-winning coffees.

Caragay will sell Battle's brew and less expensive varieties at his new Hampden caf�, Spro. Located on the neighborhood's main drag, Caragay expects the 600-square-foot shop to at 851 W. 36th Street to open later this month.

With about $100,000 invested in the venture, Spro is Caragay's largest business to date. He also runs an espresso bar at the Towson Public Library of the same name and is best known for his Jay's Shaved Ice business. Though he closed the Timonium store in 2006, he still sells the shaved ice at summer festivals.

"We had a vision," Caragay says of his new cafe. "When you build a place that expresses that vision, people will respond to it."

His vision is to offer custom-brewed coffee. Customers will get to choose between seven different brewing methods -- iFrench press, a vacuum pot, an AeroPress, and something called the Clever Coffee Dripper, a manual coffee maker --for their cup of Joe. 

Caragay says he chose Hampden's Avenue because he thought the cafe would fit in with the eclectic shops in the area. He also expects the shop to get plenty of pedestrian traffic at that location.
 
Spro will employ nine and initially sell light pastries. Caragay plans to add more items depending on the feedback he gets from his customers.

Source: Jay Caragay, Spro
Writer: Julekha Dash

Plenty of folks turn to matchmaking services to find a date. So, why not turn to one to find cash for your company? That's the idea behind Utah firm Funding Universe LLC, which hooks up entrepreneurs with would-be investors.
 
Here's how it Funding Universe works. Companies pay Funding Universe $99 to assess their investment needs. After analyzing the entrepreneur's credit history and business, the company offers a list of potential investors and lets them know where they should go to a bank, venture capital firm, or angel investors for cash.

If the business needs some tweaking, then Funding Universe tells the entrepreneur to revise his pitch. The business owner can do that on his own or tap Funding Universe's expertise, paying anywhere between $500 and $3,500 as a consulting fee.

Broke Blake, CEO of Funding Universe, is scouting the Baltimore area with plans to open an office within the next three to six months. The office will likely wind up in one of the Emerging Technology Centers offices in Canton or Charles Village. Blake is not sure yet which he will pick for the 1,000 to 2,000 square foot office.

"We'd like to make that happen soon," he says.

The company is also on the hunt for a regional director to head the office. Though the office will only employ a handful of people, he hopes it will nonetheless have a big impact in helping companies get funding.

Blake chose Baltimore because he has a lot of contacts in the region and they convinced him that his service could be useful to the community. Those business contacts include executives from the Baltimore Angels Network and the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

"I really want to cultivate the angel community and get active investors," Blake says.  


Funding Universe has 900 investors and 400 banks in its network, serves 10,000 businesses per month and has 70 employees.


Source: Brock Blake, Funding Universe LLC
Writer: Julekha Dash

Columbia life sciences company Martek Corp. is expanding its headquarters and renovating its laboratory space as it continues to grow.

The company is taking an additional 22,000 square feet at 6480 Dobbin Rd., where it employs 220 of its 585 employees worldwide. That will give it a total of 88,000 square feet at the Columbia Business Center. The company did not disclose financial terms of the lease.

Martek makes nutritional oils derived from algae that are used in baby formula, dietary supplements and food products, such as yogurt, olive oil and juice.
 
The company recently acquired Connecticut health and wellness company Amerifit Brands Inc. But Martek spokeswoman Cassandra France-Kelly says the new office space will accommodate recent hires. The company has hired nearly 60 employees in the past 12 months with plans to add five more in the areas of research and technology.

It is also renovating its 23,000-square-foot lab at its headquarters to support new biofuel programs. Last year, Martek struck an agreement with BP PLC to produce biodiesels made from sugar. The renovation will allow it to identify new products for the pharmaceutical and food industry.

France-Kelly says the company stayed in its space because Columbia is a convenient location. Sandwiched in between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Columbia can attract employees from both locations, she says. Known for its public schools, Columbia is a good community to sell to prospective employees, she says. The spot is also accessible to the airport and train station.

"The community has been our home for a long time," France-Kelly says. "We've continued to enjoy being here."

Source: Cassandra France-Kelly, Martek
Writer: Julekha Dash

Jim Lancaster wasn't initially interested in the space at the historic Harbor East property known as the Bagby building.

Lancaster, who also owns lunch spots Rosina Gourmet, thought the location was too close to his downtown and Canton venues. But after some discussions with the landlord Chesapeake Real Estate LLC, Lancaster decided he could tap into a new market �  the after dark, red-and-white swilling crowd � by opening a wine bar.

Construction on Vino Rosina recently began and the restaurant at 507 S. Exeter Street will be open by the end of April, Lancaster says.

The 2,200-square-foot store will seat about 100, and is Lancaster's largest to date. It will feature his staple gourmet sandwiches and salads, but made with more "esoteric" ingredients like microgreens. Also on the menu will be flatbreads, crab dip, cheese, and wines by the glass.  The wines will hail from Bordeaux, Italy, California, and South America and cost between $6 and $13 per glass.

Lancaster hopes the Harbor East location can draw foot traffic from residents residing in the neighborhood's apartments and condominiums, and tourists staying at various hotels in the area.

As more businesses like Legg Mason and Morgan Stanley move to Harbor East, Lancaster hopes the suit-and-tie crowd will come to Vino Rosina as well.

To design the new space, Lancaster hired SMG Architects Inc. � the same company that designed the warm, rustic Woodberry Kitchen in Clipper Mill. Vino Rosina will also sport a natural look, displaying cypress, hickory and other woods, along with along with leather and stainless steel.


Source: Jim Lancaster, Vino Rosina
Writer: Julekha Dash

An Italian restaurant owner will be serving up some penne and pizza in a new Timonium store. Pasta Mista will open its third location within the next month at 2135 York Road, across from the Timonium Fairgrounds. The other two Pasta Mistas are located in Towson and Canton.

The 2,500-square-foot restaurant will be Davide Scotti's biggest restaurant to date. Scotti is investing more than $100,000 to open the 70-seat eatery.

Part of the attraction of the new location at Timonium Square Shopping Center for Scotti was that the shopping center received an extensive makeover by Kimco Realty Corp last summer. The renovation included new signage, storefront canopies and a 55,000-square-foot shopping center.

Pasta Mista is taking space in the former Cheeburger, Cheeburger spot. The owners hadn't been looking for a new location, but when they were presented with a good deal on the rent, they couldn't pass it up, Scotti says.

He also thought Timonium had a good client base for him. Many patrons of the Towson store live or work in Timonium.

Scotti opened the 1,800-square-foot Towson location nine years ago with Gianluca Astori, his business partner who grew up in the same town outside of Naples, Italy.

Two years ago, the pair branched out to Canton. The casual restaurants serve pizza, salads, pasta, subs and chicken parmesan.

Though it is a tough time for some restaurants to stay in business, Scotti says he hopes his can continue to pull in customers by keeping prices low. Entrees cost about $8 while a large cheese pizza costs about $11. 


Source: Davide Scotti, Pasta Mista
Writer: Julekha Dash

High-end shopping in Annapolis is about to get a makeover. Nordstrom Inc. is renovating its Westfield Annapolis Mall store --  one of the mall's anchor tenants -- for the first time since it opened in 1994.

New light fixtures, merchandise displays, restrooms and dressing rooms will greet Annapolis customers of the Seattle department store chain known for its designer brands and unique customer service gestures, such as sending thank-you cards to clients after purchases.

"We're improving the store experience at the Annapolis location," says Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson. "The store is ready to be refreshed."

Johnson declined to say how much the company will spend on the renovation, which will also include new carpeting and paint. The 162,000-square-foot store will remain open during the renovation, to begin next month.

Nordstrom completed a similar makeover of its store at Towson Town Center a few years ago.

"We know we have a lot of great customers in this area," Johnson  says.  "It's important to continue to invest in existing stores as well as open new stores. We're trying to do a better job of creating a great store experience."

To prepare for the Annapolis store renovation, the company has signed a lease for a 36,000-square-foot warehouse space in Rosedale with Merritt Properties LLC. The temporary property at 8993 Yellow Brick Rd. will supply the company with materials and equipment to refurbish the Annapolis store and to build a new store opening next year in Wilmington, Del.
 
Nordstrom operates 184 stores in 28 states. The company pulls in about $8.4 billion in annual sales.


Source: Colin Johnson, Nordstrom
Writer: Julekha Dash

Consumers in Greater Baltimore will soon have more choices for buying flat-screen TVs, refrigerators and iPods. Electronics store hhgregg will open five stores this spring in Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, marking one of the region's biggest retail expansions in years. A sixth store, a distribution center, will open in Brandywine, in Prince George's County.

The Indianapolis, Ind.-company is spending around $2.7 million to open each new store this year, according to public financial documents. That means it will invest about $14 million in the Greater Baltimore region. Each store occupies around 30,000 square feet.

The company is capitalizing on cheaper real estate by expanding at a time when many chains are scaling back, says Jeff Pearson, hhgregg's vice president of marketing.

Hhgregg also sees a void in the consumer electronics market since  Circuit City went out of business shuttering all of its stores nationwide last year. Four of the new hhgregg stores will land in former Circuit City locations. One outlet, at 6711 Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, is the site of a former Best Buy that moved across the street earlier this month to 6722 Ritchie Highway.

The other hhgregg stores will be located at:
• 6026 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville;
• 7667 Arundel Mills Boulevard, Hanover;
• 801 Goucher Boulevard, Towson;
• 14301 Mattawoman Drive, Brandywine; and,
• 150 Jennifer Road, Annapolis.

The electornics retailer put Baltimore on its expansion map because of it's high household income, population density and an interest among residents in buying electronics, Pearson says. Baltimore ranks No. 3 on its list of cities in which it will add new stores this year, after Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

In choosing a location, hhgregg looks for areas that contain a number of retailers � including competing big-box retailers like Best Buy and Home Depot, Pearson says. That way, it can catch the eye of shoppers on the hunt for new gadgets.

Hhgregg currently operates around 130 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It pulls in about $1.4 billion in annual sales.

Sources: Jeff Pearson, hhgregg
Writer: Julekha Dash

A British invasion is eating into Howard County. Union Jack's, a British-style pub and restaurant, will open this month at the Mall in Columbia. Located at a pad site next to the mall, Union Jack's replaces That's Amore, which closed in the fall.

Union Jack's  owners currently operate two other namesake eateries: Union Jack's British Pub of Bethesda and Union Jack's British Pub in Ballston, Va.  

The 9,500-square-foot Columbia venue will focus more on the restaurant side of the business, versus the bar, compared with the other locations, co-owner Gary Ouellette says. Of course, Union Jack's will feature the standard British pub fare like fish and chips and bangers and mash. But it will also sell more "upscale" American fare, including filet mignon and seafood entrees, Oullette says. 

Main dishes will cost between $12 and $20 while appetizers will cost around $8.

Located at 10400 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Union Jack's will employ 100 and cost about $750,000 to build, Ouellette says. He expects the mall location should draw affluent shoppers from around the county. Howard County has a median household income of $101,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"It seemed like a logical pick for us to go to an area that has a strong economic pool," Ouellette says. "It seems to be an area where there is a lot of energy and a lot of momentum."

With each restaurant pulling in between $3 million and $5 million per year, Union Jack's restaurants have managed to keep the crowds coming in spite of a tough economy, Oullette says. The restaurants feature live music, billiards and shuffleboard.

Source: Gary Ouellette, Union Jack's
Writer: Julekha Dash

Ned Atwater could have baked bread in a brand new facility.

But the businessman didn't want to take the easy way out when he opened his latest bakery and retail store last month in a historic building in Catonsville.

Picking charm over convenience came with a price tag, however. Atwater plucked down $200,000 to open Atwater's Naturally Leavened Bread. He says he spent that money renovating the 100-year-old building, including upgrading the utilities and plumbing for the 2,700-square-foot store.

He received some financial assistance from the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development with a $60,000, zero-interest loan that the county offers for businesses that open in areas that have been targeted for revitalization efforts.

But spending the extra dough was worth it Atwater. "I love old buildings," he says. Renting out a single-story warehouse would have cost about one-third less, he estimates. But the Catonsville store is located in the town's main thoroughfare � accessible to folks who want to walk to pick up a loaf of bread.

"I wanted to have a neighborhood bakery in town right," Atwater says.

The location is also close to several businesses, including an antiques store and a couple of restaurants, which means he should get steady foot traffic.

"I think we're in the right place," he says.

The bakery includes a full kitchen, where Atwater bakes his baked goods to supply his four other locations in Annapolis, Towson, Lutherville and in Baltimore's Belvedere Square shopping center.

Why Catonsville? Atwater lives in the Baltimore County town.

"I always wanted to do something in the town where I lived," he says. Abundant with historic buildings, Catonsville has a real "neighborhood feel," making it not that different from his flagship store in Belvedere Square, he says.

Atwater, whose five stores employ 125, says he would like to open other stores in Greater Baltimore, though he doesn't know where yet.

Source: Ned Atwater, Atwater's
Writer: Julekha Dash