The Board of Estimates, Baltimore’s spending panel, will hear Wednesday a protest from resident and community activist Kim Trueheart on an agenda item she called “foul” and “awful.”

Trueheart, who said she has been coming to the Board of Estimates’ weekly meetings since August, filed a protest to the $20,800 request by the Department of Recreation and Parks for a driver for agency administrators and staff.

“I think in an austere budget crunch, justifying a wasteful, potentially abusive measure like that, in light of closing recreation centers, is completely inappropriate and lacks fiscal discipline,” she said.

Though Trueheart said she does not expect the board to reject the item, she is looking for the chance to have her concern heard.

For at least the last two years, the BOE has approved a driver for the agency, according to the board’s online minutes.

“It’s a new year,” Trueheart said. “If we’re really pinching pennies, then this kind of decision making is in really poor taste.”

Gwendolyn Chambers, a spokeswoman for the Department of Recreation and Parks, said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.

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The 416-acre private business park at Aberdeen Proving Ground is growing.

A three-story, Class “A” office building has broken ground, and owner St. John Properties Inc. says it expects new tenants to move in this fall.

The 75,000-square foot building will be located at 6190 Guardian Gateway within the Government and Technology Enterprise, or GATE, project, a business community located inside the Harford County Army base.

This fall, when the building is completed, St. John will have built a total of 10 office and research and development buildings within three years at the site, totaling more than 625,000 square feet of space.

“We continue to see demand at the GATE as firms look to join or expand their presence inside the fence line of APG,” said Matt Holbrook, regional partner for St. John Properties.

“Through the recent Base Realignment and Closure Act process, APG has emerged as the nerve center for the Army’s technological development and procurement activities,” he said. “We also see strong interest from government contractors and other agencies that want to join the APG community and co-locate with their federal customers. Only the GATE location provides this connection to the APG community.”

The new building has been designed to achieve LEED Silver Certification for environmental sustainability. Features will include a high-efficiency HVAC  system, high-performance windows, sustainable lavatory fixtures, a white thermoplastic polyolefin roofing system, significant open space and wetland/forest preserves and drought-tolerant landscaping.

Overall, St. John has capacity to build up to two million square feet of Class “A” multistory and single-story office space at the GATE and has a 10-year build-out plan for the site.

Existing tenants there include the Boeing Co., CACI, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Raytheon, Science Applications International Corp. and Telford Aviation.

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New restaurants come to West Baltimore and Arundel Mills and a new (and controversial) fountain coming to Union Square are among the most-read business stories of the week. The list also includes the Baltimore Grand Prix receiving new management. The Top 5 business stories of the week are:

1. Panera Bread opening on W. Baltimore St. — by Daily Record Staff

Panera Bread, a national chain of fast-casual restaurants, plans to open its third location in Baltimore City Wednesday at 400 W. Baltimore St., a retail redevelopment project across from the Hippodrome Theatre.

More than 50 full-time and part-time employees are expected to work in the 4,671- square-foot restaurant.

2. Suns could set on Hagerstown — by Maria Zilberman

The majority owner of the Hagerstown Suns has signed a letter of intent to move his minor league baseball team to Winchester, Va., but citizens in that community are pushing back against the idea.

The potential move comes after Major League Baseball and the Washington Nationals, with whom the Class-A Suns are affiliated, requested improvements to 82-year-old Municipal Stadium, where the team has played since 1981.

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Yerman Witman Gaines and Conklin, a.k.a. the Strata Group, has recently downsized by shuttering several satellite offices in Bel Air, Fort Meade, Locust Point at McHenry Row and Severn Square.

This week, the realty firm announced another change: a merger with the Pennsylvania-based Prudential Homesale Family of Companies.

The name of the new company is Prudential Homesale YWGC Realty, the nearly 200 local Realtors were told via Tweet and text sent from headquarters at Bare Hills in North Baltimore Wednesday afternoon.

The newly merged company will have a sales force of about 1,150 Realtors, sources say.

The Prudential Homesale group is based in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania, focusing on Lancaster, York, Reading and Harrisburg.

YWGC had opened many of its satellite offices in the region to great fanfare this past year, and perhaps grew too big too fast as the recession’s grip still holds tight to the state’s housing market.

In Bel Air, William Yerman, the Strata Group’s CEO, said he had hoped to hire up to 60 Realtors to handle expected sales from relocating BRAC employees to live near Aberdeen Proving Ground. The same theory held for the Fort Meade office, which is in an area being expanded by BRAC at Fort George G. Meade.

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NAI KLNB Retail Investment Sales this week sold two Food Lion-anchored retail shopping centers in North Carolina for $2.8 million to New York investors GA-FCU Management LLC.

The shopping centers are 36,000-square-foot Roseboro Centre, which is 75 percent leased, and 43,550-square-foot Mountain View Shopping in Hickory, which is totally leased.

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That gentleman to the right in the snug, black T-shirt is celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, he of the short temper and fabulous hair. The lady in red is Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting, and she probably wishes Chris De Burgh was somewhere close by.

Four months after Ramsay apparently got Whiting to give up her trademark on the word “Hon,” a national television audience will find out how he did it. Cafe Hon’s turn on Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” will air Friday night on Fox.

The show, for those not familiar, follows Ramsay as he whips a struggling restaurant into shape, often with the tough love only he can provide. Here’s the synopsis from the show’s website of of Ramsay’s trip to Charm City:

Chef Ramsay heads to Baltimore… and immediately has his hands full when he visits Cafe Hon, a Southern Comfort eatery in need not only of a restaurant renovation but also a public image makeover. The owner of Cafe Hon has come under fire from the city of Baltimore for trademarking the word “Hon” – a term of endearment for Baltimore culture. Find out if the restaurant revamp and renewed public image will be enough to win back the city of Baltimore and revive its tradition of southern comfort cooking.

Meanwhile, another Baltimore establishment is getting a similar treatment this week. “Bar Rescue,” which aims to do for watering holes what Ramsay does for restaurants, is filming at J.A. Murphy’s in Fells Point.

J.A. Murphy’s was one of 260 bars to apply for the show’s second season, according to The Baltimore Sun, and will be closed for renovations Friday before a “reveal” party is held Saturday night.

No date has been set yet for J.A. Murphy’s episode of “Bar Rescue,” according to The Sun, but it is expected to air by the end of the summer.

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There was a milestone hit this week at the Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills.

Workers completed the exterior work of the $500 million gaming palace and 8-story parking garage, set to open in June. The topping-off ceremony took place Wednesday at the site, located around back of the mammoth mall off of Route 100 in Hanover.

Developer and owner David Cordish signed his name on a steel beam that was lifted to the building’s crown as part of the completion of the outside work.

By mid-June, officials estimate that 3,000 slot machines and electronic table games will greet patrons at the 300,000-square-foot casino and restaurant space owned and operated by the Cordish Co. of Baltimore. Another 1,750 machines will be added by the fall.

The casino development has been in full swing at the site since Anne Arundel County voters approved the plan in November 2010 on a referendum vote. Plans to build a casino in Baltimore City, roughly 15 miles away at a site near M&T Bank Stadium, are stalled.

Cordish officials say 2,500 workers are helping to build the casino at Arundel Mills and the casino is expected to employ another 1,500 when it opens.

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Saturday in Fulton, homebuilders Miller & Smith will unveil their Fells Point Collection of houses in Howard County’s Maple Lawn during a celebration called “the big reveal.”

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Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has pledged to seek a three-cent increase in the bottle tax this year as a way to help raise $300 million to help fund school construction and renovations.

In her first State of the City address since she was elected to a full term last fall, Rawlings-Blake challenged the City Council to pass legislation raising the bottle tax from two cents to a nickel next year “to be real” about helping to fix many of the city’s decaying schools. Other proposed revenue streams include revenues from slots parlors.  Both would be used to help secure $300 million in bond sales for the construction.

“State budget experts have warned that these financing proposals need more vetting — and so, together we must exercise due diligence,” a draft of Rawlings-Blake’s speech given Monday afternoon at City Hall said.

“The special interests and lobbyists will tell you there’s another way, but they won’t tell you how — they can’t. We need to be real. This is a big problem that requires shared sacrifice. It can’t be fixed with accounting gimmicks. It’s a new tax and its one we need to pass now to invest in our kids and our future.”

The mayor pushed the first bottle tax two years ago amid a bruising fight with the council and city businesses.

In her speech, she also highlighted her plan, unveiled late last year, to increase the city’s population by 10,000 over the next 10 years. She said the city is creating community job hubs in “areas with high unemployment and poverty, fully funding our one-stop career centers and adding year-round job opportunities for young people” and pledged to continue full funding of the Neighborhood Main Streets program as a way to help support small businesses.

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Members of the International Brotherhood of Mythical Creatures  are taking matters into their hands, hooves and paws.

The group released a statement from the North Pole on Monday afternoon officially declaring Kegasus, Lord of the InfieldFest at the Preakness, is missing.

Organizers of the event hinted at similar concerns earlier this month when they announced this year’s musical headliners, but skirted the question of the return of the centaur.

(As far as advertising campaigns go, this one seems to be on target with organizers’ desire to attract a younger, hipper crowd. It also avoids the fear of Jimmy Learned, president of Elevation Ltd., the advertising company that has been running the Preakness’ campaigns for the last two years: “doing vanilla work.”)

The Leprechaun and The Easter Bunny have launched campaigns to claim Kegasus’ title, much to the dismay of the council, which forbids members “from performing the duties of another member,” according to the statement.

“The IBOMC plans to convene an emergency board meeting to review its bylaws concerning the matter,” the brotherhood said.

No date for the meeting was announced.

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Tax increment financing in the district surrounding Harbor Point could change just as Exelon Corp. prepares to build its Baltimore headquarters there. McCormick & Co. Inc. also announced this week they will be opening a retail store at the Light Street Pavilion this summer. Those stories and more in this week’s business top 5.

1. Lawsuit filed to void state lab construction contract at EBDI – by Melody Simmons

A lawsuit seeking to void the $170 million construction contract awarded for a new state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene lab at the East Baltimore Development Inc. site was filed Monday as plaintiffs charge that the contract was awarded to Turner Construction Co. without competitive bidding.

The 82-page suit was filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court against the state Department of General Services, DGS Assistant Secretary Michael Gaines, the Maryland Economic Development Corp., Forest City-New East Baltimore Partnership LLC and Turner Construction by Arnold M. Jolivet, his wife, JoAnn, the Maryland Minority Contractors Association Inc., and JCM Control Systems Inc., a minority-owned business based in Baltimore County. Jolivet is managing director of the contractors association.

2. Exelon’s $250M Harbor Point project to include retail and residences – by Melody Simmons

Exelon Corp.’s new building on the city’s waterfront in Harbor Point will be part of a $250 million development and will attract about 4,500 permanent jobs, company officials said Wednesday.

Details of the project were unveiled Wednesday by Exelon executives and the developer, Harbor East Development Group LLC, less than a week after the energy giant announced it planned to build a tower reaching up to 20 stories on a 27-acre tract that once held the AlliedSignal chemical plant.

3. Changes to Harbor Point TIF district proposed – by Melody Simmons

In the wake of Exelon Corp.’s decision to locate its Baltimore headquarters at Harbor Point, the city’s development agency is seeking to fast-track consideration of broadening the scope of a 27-acre tax increment financing district there approved a year ago.

The move is part of sweeping changes proposed for Harbor Point that include the $120 million building and a new roadway and bridge crossing over Central Avenue and linking the now cobblestone street to the headquarters, Baltimore Development Corp. officials said Friday.

4. McCormick to launch first retail store at Inner Harbor – by Maria Zilberman

Sparks-based McCormick and Co. Inc. is venturing into retail, launching its first store this summer in the Light Street Pavilion at Harborplace.

The “McCormick World of Flavors” 3,800-plus square foot-center will showcase the company’s products as well as hold cooking demonstrations by McCormick’s chefs and celebrity chefs using the firm’s products. There will be a gift shop and interactive family activities, such as finding your personal flavor profile and tracking the origin of spices.

5. TIF use could grow in Maryland with new legislation – by Melody Simmons

Legislation to expand the use of tax increment financing in certain growth areas of the state is expected to be introduced in the General Assembly next week, according to Jon Laria, chair of the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission.

During a hearing before the House Environmental Matters Committee on Tuesday, Laria said the bill would allow for “more tools in the toolkit” to attract development and help promote smart growth with TIFs.

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