Real Estate Weekly: Baltimore Development Corp. seeks firehouse revamp proposals

Leases, news and notes from Maryland's real estate industry

Posted: 11:37 am Fri, March 25, 2011
By Paul Samuel
Daily Record Associate Editor

The Baltimore Development Corp. is seeking proposals from developers to convert a former firehouse at 700 N. Eutaw St., in the Seton Hill area of West Baltimore, into something useful to the community.

The BDC said it wants proposals for the 5,224-square-foot, two-story brick building that emphasize street-level businesses, such as cafés, flower shops and antique stores, and second-floor residential or office uses.

Art-related endeavors are encouraged. Redevelopment should not exceed two years following disposition of the property, and the chosen developer should not expect financing assistance from the city, BDC said.

Jubilee gets U.S. grant
Officials of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday announced a $213,000 grant is being awarded to Jubilee Baltimore Inc., a nonprofit housing group.

Jubilee will use the grant and other funds to plan the redevelopment of Pedestal Gardens, a 203-unit, HUD-assisted housing project, and the neighborhood in West Baltimore where the housing project is located.

The grant is being made under the $65 million Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant program. Baltimore is one of 17 cities receiving urban revitalization grants under the HUD program.

Northwestern Mutual to relocate
General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago, a real estate investment trust that owns Harborplace and The Gallery, among other properties in and around Baltimore, announced Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. has signed a lease to occupy approximately 17,000 square feet of office space at its Harborplace Tower office building at 111 S. Calvert St. in Baltimore.

Northwestern’s Baltimore office will move into the entire 25th floor of the building, taking over space occupied by accounting firm KPMG. The move is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2011. Northwestern is currently located at the Harbor Court office building, 575 S. Calvert St., where it leases about 14,000 square feet of space.

Milwaukee-based Northwestern is the nation’s largest direct provider of individual life insurance, with $157 billion in assets.

Sweet truth: New candy store planned for summer opening
A new store for candy lovers will open this summer on the first floor of Harborplace’s Pratt Street Pavilion.

IT’SUGAR will occupy approximately 3,100 square feet of space at the Inner Harbor destination, where it will sell not only candy, but also apparel, accessories and gifts. IT’SUGAR, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has 29 stores in the United States, the United Kingdome and Dubai.

The Harborplace location will be its first store in Maryland.

To make room for IT’SUGAR, LaTasca, a popular tapas bar that opened in 2004, will relocate to the second floor of the Pratt Street Pavilion and reopen in redesigned space on April 25.

The downtown retail center is seeing several new openings this year. Francesca’s Collections recently opened a store in The Gallery, across Pratt Street from Harborplace; Lenny’s Deli has a planned opening in the spring in the Pratt Street Pavilion; and clothing retailer H&M, which will occupy approximately 20,000 square feet of space on both the first and second levels of the Light Street Pavilion, is also scheduled to open in April or May.

Two new Five Below stores open in Catonsville and Severna Park
Five Below, a discount retailer targeting teens and pre-teens, announced the opening on Friday of a new store in Catonsville and a newly renovated store in Severna Park.

Each store has about 7,500 square feet of space, and carries a wide variety of merchandise, including fashion accessories, iPad accessories and video games, toys and games, sports and fitness equipment, seasonal merchandise and more, all priced between $1 and $5.

The Catonsville store is in the West Plaza Shopping Center at 6459 Baltimore National Pike; the Severna Park store is located at the Park Plaza retail center at 558 Ritchie Highway. Philadelphia, Pa.-based Five Below said it is planning to open another store in Maryland this summer at an undisclosed location, which will be among 50 new locations in 2011.

The company currently operates 141 stores in 13 states.

Ross Cos. bringing three into one
Three Bethesda-based companies, all with the word “Ross” in their names, are being consolidated into an integrated, full-service, multifamily real estate corporate structure called Ross Cos.

The affected companies are Ross Development and Investment, Ross Management Services, and Ross Renovation and Construction.

Ross Cos. is primarily focused on multifamily real estate, specializing in acquisitions, property management, development, renovation, construction management, sales and marketing. Ross manages 34 apartment communities with more than 11,000 apartment units in and around the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Women vets’ home planned
A nonprofit behavioral health organization says it’s partnering with federal and state agencies to create a residence for homeless female veterans in Hagerstown.

Way Station Inc. said it expects to open a 27-bed facility next year about six blocks from the city center. Executive Director Scott Rose said the U.S. departments of Labor and Veterans Affairs will fund the program, with assistance from the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA estimated the number of homeless female veterans in 2009 at 6,500, or about 5 percent of all homeless vets.

LaSalle buying Santa Monica hotel
LaSalle Hotel Properties of Bethesda is buying the Viceroy Santa Monica hotel for $80.1 million.

The 162-room hotel, which is one block from Santa Monica Beach, is subject to a ground lease with the city of Santa Monica, Calif. that expires on Sept. 25, 2065, LaSalle said.

The hotel opened as the Pacific Shores Hotel in 1967 and reopened in 2002 as the Viceroy Santa Monica following a renovation. It will continue to be managed by Viceroy Hotel Group. LaSalle, a real estate investment trust, owns 35 upscale hotels in nine states and the District of Columbia.

This Week in Leases

• Merritt Properties LLC announced three leases this week. All Access Communications LLC, a DirecTV installer, leased 2,550 square feet at 152 Blades Lane in Glen Burnie for office and warehouse use. Jamie Campbell, Liz Tarran-Jones, Vince Bagli and Steve Shaw represented Merritt in the transaction. Newwave Telecom & Technologies Inc., a government telecom subcontractor, leased 8,165 square feet of office space at 6518 Meadowridge Road in Elkridge. Jamie Campbell, Liz Tarran-Jones, Vince Bagli and Steve Shaw represented Merritt in the transaction. Newwave was represented by Jonathan Hamburger of CB Richard Ellis. Finally, Dollar House Inc., a general wholesale merchandiser, leased 6,000 square feet of space at 2662-64 Merchant Drive in South Baltimore for warehouse uses. Samantha Yun of Keller Williams represented the tenant. Merritt Properties was represented by Jamie Campbell, Ridgely Bowman, Vince Bagli and Steve Shaw.

• KLNB Retail Investment Sales announced the sale of 8815 Yellow Brick Road, a 7,654-square-foot, single-story building in Rosedale, for $3.29 million, or $431 per square foot, in a 1031 all-cash exchange. The building is 100 percent leased to Bridgestone Retail Operations LLC, a subsidiary of Bridgestone Corp., the world’s largest manufacturer of tires. Bridgestone operates a retail tire store at the location. Gil Neuman of KLNB Retail Investment Sales represented the buyer, who was not identified. Neuman said the buyer paid the full asking price. The seller, SB Rosedale 408 LLC, was represented by New York-based EXP Realty Advisors.

• KLNB Retail’s sister company, NAI KLNB, announced it brokered a 60,000-square-foot lease at 8840 Kelso Drive in Rossville to Motion Industries Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based supplier of industrial maintenance, repair and operational replacement parts and services. J. Allan Riorda and Peter Dudley of NAI KLNB represented the tenant and Pat Franklin of Merritt Properties Inc. represented the landlord in the transaction. The 77,800-square-foot building “is perfectly situated to satisfy the customized needs of Motion Industries, given its strategic positioning near major interstates, large footplate and good  loading,” Riorda said in a release. Motion Industries has more than 500 locations nationwide and serves the bearings, mechanical, power transmission, electrical and industrial automotive and hydraulic industries, among others.