By: Melody Simmons

A prime piece of real estate near Baltimore’s waterfront is on the market.

The University of Maryland Medical System’s 180-bed University Specialty Hospital at Lee and Charles streets near the Maryland Science Center has been closed and is up for sale, hospital official said.

Both in-patient and out-patient programs located there were moved beginning this summer, mostly to Kernan Hospital and Maryland General Hospital as part of a reorganization taking place in the ever-changing health care world that is so dependent on reimbursements.

The other hospitals had similar in-patient programs such as the traumatic brain injury program already established, so it was a natural transition, officials said.

“We are looking at buyers for the building,” said Mary Lynn Carver, a UMMS senior vice president and spokeswoman, said of the brick building located in Otterbein that was formerly the tiny community Deaton Hospital.

UMMS purchased the hospital, located at 611 S. Charles St., in 1996 and changed the name to University Specialty Hospital in October 2001.

Carver said Thursday several proposals have been received for the site, but none have been taken at this time. She declined to give a price that UMMS is seeking.

“We are open to receiving additional proposals and ideas for this site, and any buyer for that property will also need community support,” Carver said in an email.

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A year after purchasing the 495-unit Loch Raven Village Apartments near Towson, Tryko Partners LLC is completing a $4 million renovation. The results, Tryko officials say, are positive — the development is 96 percent leased.

Tryko, a private equity real estate firm based in Brick, N.J., focuses on “value-add investments.” It bought Loch Raven Village in 2011 with plans to modernize the distinctive, colonial-style 95 garden apartment buildings that spread over 20 acres off of Loch Raven Blvd.

The village’s previous owner had put $2 million in improvements to the development before plunging into financial woes as the recession hit in 2008.

Tryko officials say the major improvement was to add central air conditioning and a gas furnace to each unit, as well as electrical upgrades and individual metering for billing. New doors, windows and landscaping updates also have gussied up the exterior.

“That was a major undertaking,” said Mark Gold, Tryko’s vice president of operations.

Tryko also owns Park Raven, a 253-unit apartment development on Ramblewood Road and Marble Hall Garden Apartments in Baltimore.

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Everyman Theatre begins its move to the big house next week.

The community theater will move from its Charles Street site into new digs on Fayette Street beginning Monday. The changes have been in the works for more than five years and the curtain will go up on the new stage Jan. 14, 2013, with the production of “August: Osage County.”

Founded in 1990, Everyman artists first started performing gypsy style in several spaces throughout Baltimore before landing in a small space at 1727 N. Charles Street near the Charles Theatre 18 years ago. Today, the theater is a professional Equity company and has more than 4,600 subscribers.

The new theater is located in the redeveloped Empire Theatre building, first opened in 1911 as a vaudeville house. That theater later became a movie house called the Town Theatre that closed in 1990.

The current production of “Heroes” by Tom Stoppard at Everyman on Charles Street will close on Dec. 2. After that, the house will remain dark — until early 2013 when Single Carrot Theatre will move in from its digs at 122 W. North Avenue nearby to keep the drama flowing.

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Some workers at the city’s Hyatt Regency Baltimore hotel this week rejoiced at news that the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the hotel for violating federal labor law.

The complaint is the latest salvo in a simmering feud between the hotel and its employees, who are being led by Unite Here!, a union that has been working to organize at the Hyatt since June. The efforts to organize workers into a union at the Hyatt have led to firings, surveillance and a restructuring of available housekeeping jobs at the Inner Harbor property where workers today are “earning poverty wages with no benefits,” Unite Here! officials say.

The NLRB complaint comes after months of investigation into the firings of some employees involved in organizing efforts. The complaint charges the company with unjust firings, threats and surveillance of union supporters. The complaint will be heard early next year.

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TIDBITS: Charm City Cupcakes will open a fourth location at 9101 Reisterstown Rd. in the Valley Village Shoppes in Owings Mills. The yummy treats come in 60 different flavors. Founder Sandra Long first baked the cupcakes in the kitchen of the Woman’s Industrial Exchange before opening her first shop at the Inner Harbor. … The awesome Ray Rice will help stuff the bus with food pantry donations at the ShopRite grocery store in Timonium Friday from 5-8 p.m. The Baltimore Ravens running back will help ShopRite out during its three-day pre-Thanksgiving event to collect donations for the Maryland Food Bank. Students from Calvert Hall will help out on Sunday. … Before you have a chance to even give thanks over turkey and dressing, you can say hello to the fat guy in the red suit. Santa is scheduled to arrive at his special little house at Harborplace on Saturday. … This week, the Bel Air Downtown Alliance in Harford County kicked off a “Holidays On Main” celebration that highlights small businesses and efforts for shoppers to buy local. The ongoing promotion includes small business Saturday, aka the day between “black Friday” and “cyber Monday” after Thanksgiving, this year held on Nov. 24. Other holiday highlights in Bel Air include the Chesapeake Cancer Alliance’s Festival of Trees on Nov. 24-25 and the suburban town’s 23rd annual Christmas parade & tree lighting on Dec. 2.