By: Melody Simmons

Two new stores have opened in Loch Raven Plaza at the intersection of Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue in Towson.

An anchor tenant, ALDI, opened an 18,861-square-foot grocery store at the end of November. Aaron’s, a 7,566-square-foot furniture and electronics store, also moved into the suburban strip shopping center, whose other tenants include a Dollar Tree store, an IHOP restaurant and a rock ’n’ roll-themed McDonald’s.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Ground was broken recently for three 25-unit apartment buildings at Victoria Falls near Laurel, according to the private equity firm JPB Partners, which is underwriting the project.

The construction will add on to seven existing multi-family condo buildings at the Prince George’s County development, bringing the total of units at Victoria Falls to 609. The 8-year-old development is a 100-acre adult community for residents age 55 and over composed of single-family, detached homes, villa homes and condominiums.

_______________________________________________________________________________

This week, MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center unveiled a $4 million capital campaign to build on to the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital.

The campaign — “Tiny feet. Tiny hands. Big hearts.” — so far has raised about $1.7 million. More than 300 babies out of 2,600 born each year at Franklin Square are admitted to the NICU, and almost 80 percent of those are treated for prematurity. Officials of the 376-bed community teaching hospital plan to expand the NICU from 1,850 to 7,985 square feet. It will be located near the labor and delivery unit and will include 22 private rooms, better monitoring systems and in-room sleeping spaces for parents.

Franklin Square Medical Center, located on the east side of Baltimore County, is the closest Level IIIb Perinatal Referral Center to county residents as well as residents of Harford and Cecil counties.

_______________________________________________________________________________

This week, the design team of KBE Building Corp. and Newman Architects were awarded a LEED Gold certificate for renovations and a 183-bed addition to dormitories at Patapsco Hall at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

The renovations in the $16.5 million project include 82,264 square feet of upgrades and a 52,390-square-foot, four-story addition that includes 68 double rooms, eight triples, 24 singles and three studio apartments for graduate staff. The “old” Patapsco residence hall received a gussying-up that included a new lobby and elevator and a courtyard with a basketball court.

The new Patapsco Hall also has a green roof that will serve two purposes: as shelter and as a research platform for UMBC’s faculty and students to study storm-water retention, university officials said.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A monthly national newsletter by RE/MAX from November showed that home sales recorded the second-highest year-over-year increase this year with a 15.7 percent lift over November 2011.

The report also said that October data as part of the RE/MAX National Housing Report showed an 18.8 percent increase over October home sales figures in 2011.

The data are drawn from a survey of MLS figures from 52 metropolitan areas. They showed that the median price for homes sold last month was $163,750. Experts at RE/MAX say that rising housing prices are related to a “dwindling inventory.” Overall, the average number of homes for sale is 29 percent lower than last year’s numbers.

_______________________________________________________________________________

TIDBITS: Look up a new website by the Howard County Economic Development Authority — www.hceda.org — that will hype the county as “the best location to live, work and do business,” a release said. The site has five tabs in a banner across the top to promote starting a business, growing a business, relocating a business, farms and agriculture and a link to the HCEDA’s Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. … KBE recently hired Robert Baumann as a project executive, to be based in the company’s Columbia office. Previously, Baumann was a vice president of Coakley & Williams Construction. … Ricoh Americas Corp. recently leased 12,676 square feet of office space at 10055 Red Run Blvd. in Owings Mills from Merritt Properties. … The next public hearing by the city’s Planning Commission on the proposed new zoning code for Baltimore will be held at 11 a.m. on Jan. 5 at Baltimore Polytechnic High School. Copies of the proposal can be found at www.transformbaltimore.net. … CRS, an appliance recycling company, has leased 2,700 square feet of office space in Halethorpe at 26 Alco Place. Jamie Campbell, Liz Tarran-Jones, Vince Bagli and Steve Shaw of Merritt Properties brokered the deal.