The Rotunda these days is but a shell of its former self.

The North Baltimore retail and office complex was hit hard when the Giant Food store closed its doors to move about a mile away to the Green Spring Tower Shopping Center in a former Super Fresh site.

Mid-morning one day this week, there were fewer than a dozen shoppers at the Rotunda. The hallways, once bustling with retail, were empty.

“It’s not much traffic,” lamented Fariba Sadgdi, manager at the Hair Cuttery. “To me, there is no reason for people to come here except for the movie theater.”

Sadgdi said there is a “98 percent chance” that her shop will be the next defection from the Rotunda, moving to the Green Spring Tower Shopping Center just like Giant in the near future.

She said the shop’s management has had little to no contact from the mall’s owners, Hekemian & Co., saying, “We’re dangling. We don’t know what’s going on. Business is down 25 percent.”

Chris Bell, vice president for development at Hekemian was unavailable for comment.

Nearby, Sheldon Pearlman, owner of Amazing Spiral, a novelty book and toy store, said the loss of Giant at the Rotunda had slowed traffic.

Striving to remain optimistic, Pearlman said the Rotunda Cinema would soon add a fourth screen that would bring in more patrons over the summer with some popular films getting ready to premier. In response, he said his store has extended its hours to 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The historic Mercantile Trust and Deposit Co. building downtown will soon be converted to hold a 250-seat theater for the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in a deal worth $6 million, including renovation costs.

The Helm Foundation this week purchased the former bank that was built in 1855 and is located at 200 E. Redwood St. When completed, the space will be ready for performances of the Bard’s classics, educational programs and community events. Scott Helm, a trustee of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, directs the foundation.

“Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is in its 10th season serving almost 12,000 people every year,” said Ian Gallanar, the company’s founding artistic director. “We are thrilled about our expansion into the thriving Baltimore theater scene. While we will continue to serve our current patrons with outdoor performances at our home stage in Howard County, this second location will broaden our reach and help foster a new community of classical theater enthusiasts.”

Local architectural firm Cho Benn Holback + Associates Inc. is designing the plans using a model of Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theatre in London.

“The design combines the intimacy of a traditional Elizabethan playhouse with a contemporary sense of design and convenience,” a press release said.

Cho Benn Holback + Associates also designed the performance spaces at the new Everyman Theatre, the James Rouse Center in the American Visionary Art Museum and the Creative Alliance at The Patterson Theater.

Renovations at the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Co. Building will begin in early 2013. The new theater is expected to open in 2014.

“The building’s substantial mezzanine, elaborate and colorful carved ceiling, and Corinthian columns all echo elements of Elizabethan theaters,” says Lesley Malin, managing director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. “We are enthusiastic about working with Cho Benn Holback to incorporate these beautiful architectural features into a modern-day Globe in downtown Baltimore.”

The recent real estate purchase creates a “theater triangle” in downtown Baltimore between the nearby Hippodrome Theatre and the new Everyman Theatre.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will stage an eight-month season downtown and provide after-school and weekend programs for the city drama students. The company has also announced plans to hold an international theater festival at the site, which will attract classical theater companies to Baltimore.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

City officials and mid-town community activists are preparing to open a new dog park at Centre and Howard Streets.

Howard’s Park, a tiny sliver of green near the light rail station on Centre Street, will soon open as an off-leash island for four-footed friends of all sizes. The park will be fenced off this spring and separated into three sections, one for large dogs, one for smaller dogs and a place in between for dog owners to “gather and socialize,” according to a community newsletter from the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere Association.

Planners for the park are hoping to raise an additional $5,000 for the effort to complete construction, the newsletter said. Already, the city, the MVBA and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy have contributed to the new park.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Queen was back, even if it was for a less than regal event.

Sitting on a comfy throne, in this case a swiveling black leather office chair, former Mayor Sheila Dixon was roasted Thursday night at the Comedy Factory at Power Plant Live! in a charity event.

It’s been nearly four years since Maryland state prosecutors raided her Westside house while she was out for her morning workout, the beginning of a raft of legal woes for the city’s first elected African American woman mayor.

She ultimately resigned office in February 2010 as part of a plea deal following her conviction in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2009 for stealing gift cards that totaled about $500 donated to the city to distribute to the poor.

Since then, she has served some of her 500 hours of court-mandated community service and worked as a consultant for the Maryland Minority Contractors Association.

Dressed in a saucy orange blouse, black jeans and fancy heels for the roast, Dixon looked rested and ready as she took the stage and boldly signaled for the evening to start.

“The media is here, so what?” Dixon said as the night ramped up, addressing a gaggle of the Fourth Estate, most of whom covered her corruption trial. “Talk to the hand.”

Peter Schmuck, a sportswriter for The Baltimore Sun and master of ceremonies for the event, told Dixon she was about to face the “worst 90 minutes of community service of your life.”

First up was former 12th District City Council candidate Devon Brown, who at 21 and a month away from graduating with a film degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art prides himself as an upstart on the city’s political landscape.

“I know you are a spiritual person,” Brown told Dixon. “And I want to quote scripture. ‘God blesses those who help themselves,’ and you helped yourself.”

The crowd of 100 whooped and hollered. Dixon herself threw her head back and laughed, then shook her finger at the neophyte.

As more slings, arrows and praise flew her way through the night by local comedians, radio personalities and comedic impersonators, Dixon continued to show grace under pressure, laughing and taking notes on a legal pad.

“You are the only woman in America with a court-ordered e-Bay site,” said Kirk McEwan, a local radio personality. “Six hundred dollars in gift cards? Is that what you took?  If you were a white man, you would still be the mayor.”

The crowd went wild.

Dixon would get the last word of the night in what turned out to be a stinging rebuttal as she said of the night’s critical comedians, “I hope they have other jobs.”

“After it was announced that I was going to do this,” Dixon said, “I had 100 people call me up and say ‘Are you crazy?’ What the hell? Who cares?”

She also had an offer for local comedian Maria Sanchez, who came on stage with a rugged look, wearing a white t-shirt and baggy sweatpants with “CCBC” on the left leg. Sanchez told Dixon, “You are a good lady — with bad habits.”

Dixon blasted back in her rebuttal: “Maria, I am a gift from God. And, honey, I’m going to take you to my hairdresser — with a gift card!”

Powered by Bookmarkify™

NAIOP Maryland honored 16 companies and seven individuals Thursday night before a crowd of more than 300 real estate and development types during its Awards of Excellence program at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore.

Honors were given out in 34 categories for excellence in the design, development, marketing and leasing of commercial office buildings and retail projects in the metropolitan area.

Local developer Mark Sapperstein won “most creative transaction” honors for the new McHenry Row development in Locust Point, which stalled because of the recession and was brought back to life through creative public and private financing.

The retiring CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust, Randall M. Griffin, was given a lifetime achievement award. The late Fred Glassberg, founder of Crystal Hill Investments, was posthumously honored with the Distinguished Merit Award.

For those keeping score, St. John Properties, Inc. took home the most awards of the night with six, followed by Corporate Office Properties Trust, with five.

“The NAIOP Awards of Excellence Program is a biannual celebration and recognition of the innovative achievements of regional commercial real estate developers, as well as the companies and individuals that service our industry in the Maryland region,” said Dianna Wilhelm, president of NAIOP Maryland.

“Each winner represents a compelling example of how a unique challenge was overcome to realize a result that was economically, environmentally and aesthetically feasible. In recent years, a higher percentage of our award categories have honored projects that satisfy Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, to reflect the significant shift in our industry to develop environmentally friendly projects,” she added.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave $5 million to the Open Society Institute-Baltimore on Thursday to help fund a local effort that aims to help keep city teens in school and boost graduation rates.

Bloomberg’s gift will help underwrite OSI’s Accelerated Pathways Initiative, part of the nonprofit’s education and youth development project.

The Accelerated Pathways Initiative is a five-year program that works with pre-K through high school students to support school reforms, create new schools and foster learning in and outside of the classrooms, OSI officials said.

It creates “rigorous, supportive and accelerated high school options in Baltimore that will significantly increase graduation rates and post-secondary success, particularly for the city’s African American male students,” an OSI statement released Friday said.

“Mayor Bloomberg shares our deep commitment to ensure that all children have access to a challenging academic program and the encouragement and support they need to graduate well prepared for successful futures,” said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore, who is also serving as acting executive director of the Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs.

Bloomberg, a 1964 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, with a degree in electrical engineering, was visiting Baltimore for the dedication of the $1.1 billion Johns Hopkins Hospital facility Thursday.

Part of the new hospital building in East Baltimore, the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center, was named in honor of the mayor’s mother. Bloomberg is a major donor to  Hopkins.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Rising four stories over what once was home plate at Memorial Stadium, a new senior housing and skilled nursing care facility is set to open Thursday at 1 p.m.

The $12.6 million Green House Residences at Stadium Place will mark the latest addition to the massive redevelopment of the stadium site on 33rd Street, including the busy Harry and Jeanette Weinberg YMCA.

The Green House Residences has 48 bedrooms, 12 on each floor, that are located off of a central living area called the hearth. Each bedroom has a large, tiled bathroom and a picture window.

Nearby, a modern, open kitchen will welcome seniors as breakfast, lunch and dinner are cooked by trained staffers and served at a large dining table with windows that overlook the new Ripken Youth Sports Park, where the hallowed playing field of Memorial Stadium once stood. Kids regularly gather there for recreation league baseball and lacrosse games.

“It’s a radically different way of providing long-term care,” said Nate Sweeney, the facility’s administrator. “We’re de-institutionalizing the elders environment. Families walk in and their faces change. They see what can and should be offered. It’s a wave of relief. It’s hope.”

The charge for a long-term room at the Green House is about $299 per day, said Bob Keenan, a spokesman for Catholic Charities of Baltimore. The facility accepts Medicare payments for a post-surgical rehab stay that requires skilled nursing and rehab stays, he added.

The project was developed by the Govans Ecumenical Development Corp., or GEDCO, and will be operated by Catholic Charities. The development will produce 55 full-time jobs, and a majority of the workers will come from surrounding neighborhoods.

Already, three residents have moved in.

The Green House model was developed a decade ago by William Thomas, a geriatrician from New York state and a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The facility aims to use technology, smaller living areas than most nursing homes and access to natural light and open spaces to help promote a more compassionate, comfortable atmosphere.

The 33rd Street location is the second urban Green House facility in the U.S., Keenan said, the first one located in a suburb of Boston. Green House residences first opened in 2003 in Tupelo, Miss., and today there are more than 100 such facilities in 27 states.

True to the geography, the ceremonies on 33rd Street Thursday will have a baseball Opening Day theme. There will not be a ribbon cutting, instead, a resident will deliver a first pitch. Hot dogs, peanuts and Cracker Jacks will be on the menu.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The city’s Board of Estimates will hold its annual Taxpayers’ Night on Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m. at the War Memorial Building near City Hall.

The event is a public forum on the proposed 2013 budget of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, which will also be the topic of several public hearings before the City Council this spring.

Facing a $48 million budget deficit, Rawlings-Blake last month proposed the $2.3 billion operating budget that calls for a reduction of the municipal workforce by eliminating 231 positions that are now vacant.

The budget proposes to lower the property tax rate by 2 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The proposed budget also has several cuts; the mayor also has proposed to close three fire houses in the city, some recreational centers and a reduce hours for some public libraries. City workers and retirees would pay more for health benefits and current employees would not receive a cost-of-living raise under the proposal that would take effect on July 1.

Taxpayers’ Night gives citizens a chance to voice concerns about the city’s budget proposal before the Board of Estimates. The board is headed City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, and also includes Rawlings-Blake, City Comptroller Joan Pratt, Director of Public Works Alfred Foxx and City Solicitor George Nilson.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the War Memorial Building, located at 101 N. Gay St.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Owners of a proposed new restaurant for the 88-acre East Baltimore Development Inc. redevelopment were granted a liquor license Thursday at City Hall.

Ernst Valery and Mondel L. Powell will be allowed to sell beer, wine and liquor at what is being tentatively called Teavolve 2, the city’s Board of Liquor License Commissioners voted during a brief hearing. The restaurant will be an informal restaurant and bar scheduled to open at 855 N. Wolfe St. in late summer or early fall, said Powell, who co-owns another restaurant called Teavolve in Harbor East.

The 125-seat business will be the first “upscale” restaurant in the entire 13th District, said City Councilman Warren Branch, who attended the board hearing and testified for the license application.

“It will be wonderful for the district,” he told the three commissioners.
Councilman Carl Stokes, of the 12th District, also attended the hearing. He said the new restaurant that will serve casual, healthy fare and feature live entertainment at the EBDI site will be a “showpiece” in the area.

The restaurant venture will cost $899,000, Powell said. It will be the first eatery in the controversial EBDI development, which began a decade ago with an aim to relocate 732 households in order to make way for a private biotech park linked to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Those plans stalled after the households were relocated, even as more than $564 million, $212.6 million in public funds, had been spent.

So far, only one life sciences building exists — the John G. Rangos Sr. Building at 855 N. Wolfe St. The building has been open since 2008 and is not fully leased.

The new bar and restaurant will be located on the ground floor of that building, at Ashland Avenue and Wolfe Street. Outdoor seating will be offered, Powell said, and the restaurant will open at 8 a.m. and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Another store may be opening at the Rangos building, too.

A sign in another window there touts a 7-Eleven convenience store is expected to open in the coming months. Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Imagine diving into a pile of hot steamed crabs and/or lifting a cold beer on the city’s waterfront at the Power Plant this summer.

That could be a reality if redesigns for two restaurant and entertainment decks are given a thumbs up for permits and design by city officials this spring.

The city’s Urban Design & Architecture Review Panel heard presentations from the Hard Rock Café and Phillips Seafood Thursday about retooling a pair of barges that sit just outside the front doors of the restaurants on the Inner Harbor.

Plans would include a redo of the Hard Rock’s deck as part of a major overhaul of the restaurant, said Joe Emanuele, the company’s vice president of design and development.

“Baltimore is an important city for us and we want to reinvest,” Emanuele said of the plans to rebuild the frame of the 36-foot by 60-foot pier to include a retractable roof and a new grill set up as an outdoor extension of the popular restaurant.

“We need a facelift there,” he added.

Next door, at the new Phillips restaurant, an outdoor crab deck would include a menu with crabs from various Maryland rivers (Wye, Choptank), an outdoor, open kitchen, a crab picking station with educational seminars on how to clean and eat a steamed crab, and a refrigerated crab truck to keep bushels of crustaceans in while awaiting the steam pot.

“You see it. You hear it. You smell it,” said Steve Phillips, owner of the popular restaurant.

Phillips said the Phillips deck would also have retractable awnings above an open-truss design, picnic tables and small twinkle lights to give it a summer pavilion look.

The UDARP is expected to vote on the design plans at a future meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™