By: Robbie Whelan

True to the times, development news in Baltimore has been fairly quiet, in the sense that there haven’t been a lot of marquee groundbreakings or huge deals financed. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been tons to write about.

So I thought I’d provide you all with a sort of digest of the past week’s development-related news, a feature that I hope will recur on Fridays to come. Without further ado…

• The city doesn’t seem to have a plan to protect its conduit system, which allows for most downtown businesses to make use of fiber optics. Read my Friday cover feature about it.

• Debate is heating up over the city’s proposed Land Bank Authority.

• The BBJ has a great story about the University of Maryland’s plans to triple the size of its Biopark, to swing some weight around and compete with the Johns Hopkins-related East Side Science + Technology Park.

• The Sun says that the city’s architectural panel approving the “conceptual design” for City Center, Mark Sapperstein’s $80 million downtown hotel project is overcoming a “key hurdle.”

• This week’s Board of Estimates meeting was busy, including the approval of the Charles Village Benefits District’s new budget, a funds transfer to demolish part of the Superblock, and an agreement with developer David Holmes to pay $470,000 into the Inclusionary Housing Fund instead of building inclusionary housing at his Gateway at Washington Hill project in upper Fells Point.

• CSG Partners, a mid-sized commercial real estate investment company, moved its headquarters from White Marsh into the Sun Life building downtown, which it bought in December for $9.2 million.

• It’s the great flight from White Marsh, apparently. Dutch credit insurance firm Atradius shifted from a small flex space near the beltway to Schilling Green, a fancy green building owned by Merritt Properties, in Hunt Valley. This marks the second big signing for Merritt this month — the other is venture capital firm NEA, which left Baltimore for Timonium because they felt Mt. Vernon was too dodgy.

• A wine bar called “13.5%” is set to open in Hampden, as part of this development that we reported on in March.