Baltimore’s quasi-city agency that oversees development has posted a detailed job description for its soon-to-be-vacant head job following the retirement of M.J. “Jay” Brodie last month.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is seeking a “well-qualified economic development official” as president and CEO, a post that also holds a seat in the cabinet of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the job posting on the BDC’s website says.

Rawlings-Blake will hire a replacement for Brodie, who is stepping down after 16 years, subject to approval of the City Council.

The ideal candidate, the job posting says, will have “strong leadership qualities and possess thorough knowledge and experience in urban economic development, a passion for business and real estate development, and demonstrate a successful track record in the strategic planning, implementation and completion of complex projects, business negotiations and organizational restructuring.”

Among the other duties, the candidate is responsible for:

– Creating a strategic economic development plan with the BDC board of directors, mayor’s office and public and private partners
– Recruiting new businesses and supporting existing businesses that create job opportunities for city residents
– Providing business assistance and opportunities for minority- and women-owned and small businesses
– Facilitating new commercial development projects in Baltimore
– Actively and strategically marketing Baltimore as a premier urban location to do business and real estate development
– Actively advocating for public policies and development projects that support Baltimore’s economic growth

Brodie’s salary in 2009 was $204,175, according to the latest federal documents with BDC compensation on file.

Applications will be accepted through April 6, the posting says.

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The first glimpse of a long-awaited new retail center to be built on the waterfront in Canton will be unveiled Monday before a city design panel.

The Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel is scheduled to preview the master plan for the new development beginning at 11 a.m. at 417 E. Fayette St. in the city’s Department of Planning offices.

Architects for the project are Brown Craig Turner.

To be called Canton Crossing, the development is expected to hold a big box store, a grocery and other smaller stores to be developed by Chesapeake Real Estate Group. The 31-acre site was purchased from Exxon Mobil Corp. in June by BCP Investors LLC, a newly formed partnership that includes principals from Chesapeake Real Estate Group and Birchwood Capital Partners.

The site was once an oil terminal owned by Exxon Mobil. First Mariner Bank owner Edwin F. Hale Sr. had hoped to develop the parcel and include a Target and upscale grocery. But the recession hindered those plans and the banker assigned his interest in the property to BCP Investors.

The site is located next to the bank’s 17-story tower, located just off of Boston Street.

The new development will hold more than 275,000 square feet of retail space. Construction is expected to being in 2012.

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Have you noticed “CODE X-RAY” on Baltimore’s streets?

No, it’s not an alien invasion or early signs of the zombie apocalypse.

It’s a new program by the Baltimore City Fire Department to warn firefighters that certain dwellings are vacant and unstable.

Chief Kevin Cartwright, director of communication for the department, said these structures bear a large red square marked by a reflective silver X. You can’t miss them when driving through some city neighborhoods pockmarked by blight and block after block of vacant rowhouses.

The squares are installed by local firehouses and serve as a warning to firefighters.

“It will help so they don’t run into a building looking for a person – and it also lets them know the integrity of the structure is compromised” by blight, Cartwright said.

If they went into some of these buildings that were engulfed in flames, he added, “we could have a serious incident on our hands” because many don’t have stable flooring or have been stripped bare by vandals.

Cartwright said he did not know how many CODE X-RAY squares have been installed on the city’s vacant dwellings. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the city as having 47,000 vacancies. The city Department of Housing and Community Development say there are only 16,000 – and 4,500 of those are owned by the city.
*****

News this week that Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service have affirmed the Baltimore’s AA- bond rating was celebrated at City Hall.

Officials in the mayor’s office and the Department of Finance said the rating agencies cited the city’s strong financial discipline and what they noted as a “strengthening of fiscal policies.”

“Being fiscally responsible enables our City to reduce crime and violence, improve public education, and help create jobs for the future.” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Standard & Poor’s assigned its AA- long-term rating and stable outlooks to the City of Baltimore’s general obligation bonds. The rating house was optimistic about economic development projects here, saying a “trend of economic expansion” now afoot – at least on the drawing board while the recession continues to play out and hinder recovery and development efforts.

*****

This week at City Hall, the Housing and Community Development subcommittee of the City Council held a hearing on the Vacants-to-Value Program.

The program, a signature of the Rawlings-Blake’s administration, allows for the use of tax credits and down-payment assistance to help individual investors and developers purchase some of the thousands of vacant and blighted homes in the city.

Code enforcement is also used. Deputy Housing Commissioner Michael Braverman, who oversees code enforcement, told the council there have been 500 housing code violations issued since the group voted last year to approve enabling legislation for the V-2-V program. Those code violation notices carry an initial penalty of $900 each.

How much has been collected so far on those violation notices, Braverman was asked by Councilman James Kraft?

That’s where things got mushy.

Braverman said land owners have been slow to pay those fines, and that he didn’t have a figure. He explained that many are expected to let the fines ride until next spring’s city tax sale.

Question is: If the property owners fail to pay the fines then – will they forfeit the property to the city via default? If so, the city will “inherit” hundreds more derelict and vacant properties to add to its list.

Sounds like a Catch-22 in the making.

*****

Bozzuto Homes is expected to be the lead developer of market-rate residential units at the new 100-plus acre Uplands redevelopment on the Westside, city Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said during the hearing at City Hall.

The Greenbelt-based firm, which recently developed The Fitzgerald apartment complex near the University of Baltimore, is expected to break ground on the Uplands dwellings to be listed for sale in the fall, Graziano said.

In addition, just over 100 new rental units at the massive site located near Edmondson Village off of Route 40 west are expected to break ground in early July.

*****

Get ready to wish Mercy Ridge a Happy 10th birthday on July 11.

The Timonium retirement community located on Pot Spring Road stretches over 32 acres and is jointly owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore and Mercy Health Services.

The July 11 celebration will include presentation of a LEED Silver certification – the first such designation for a retirement community in the U.S. to be given by the U.S. Green Building Council.

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KLNB surpassed the $1 billion mark through more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate transactions in 2010, officials announced Friday.

The company, founded in 1968, is comprised of two real estate services branches, NAI KLNB and KLNB Retail. The total reached — $1.03 billion -– was recorded in commercial real estate transactions in Maryland, Washington and northern Virginia through more than 800 deals in five full-service offices.

That breaks down to 1.8 million square feet of office leasing or sales among approximately 230 deals, and nearly 3.8 million square feet of industrial leasing or sales that transpired with nearly 200 deals, company officials said Friday. In addition, there was about  4.6 million square feet of retail space sold or leased in more than 400 transactions.

The company is a joint venture partner of Paragon Commercial Property Management.
In addition, KLNB announced that three new principals, Stephen Combs, Robert Morris and Ryan Wilner, were recently promoted in the retail sector.

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The most-read stories of 2010 by The Daily Record’s business reporting team mirror many of the big ongoing stories that have dominated the news since the economy cratered two years ago — failed banks, slot machine gambling, struggling commercial real estate developments, and City Hall politics.

1. Two Maryland banks closed by regulators – Ben Mook

Federal regulators closed two troubled Maryland banks, including one that was believed to have been the oldest black-owned financial institution in the state. Bay National Bank and Baltimore-based Ideal Federal Savings Bank Friday became the fourth and fifth Maryland banks to be closed over the last two years.

2. Baltimore’s FiOS chances getting slimmer – Staff and Wire reports

Verizon is nearing the end of its program to replace copper phone lines with optical fibers that provide much higher Internet speeds and TV service. Its focus is now on completing the network in the communities where it has already secured “franchises” — and that means major cities such as Baltimore and downtown Boston will be left without FiOS.

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You may have already seen the well-produced ads by the coalition trying to halt developer David Cordish’s casino project at the Arundel Mills mall.

The first ad (watch it below this post) describes the mall as “a family friendly environment — and a slots parlor just doesn’t belong there.”

In his interview with The Daily Record last week, Cordish said he was definitely getting ready to strike back at his opponents — the Maryland Jockey Club, Stop Slots at the Mall and other citizens groups that are against his casino. The jockey club in particular wants to see slots built at its race track, Laurel Park, which is just down the road from the mall.

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In today’s story about urban development and author James Howard Kunstler’s comments on the future of American cities, the outlook seems a little grim. Kunstler, who’s good at being dramatic for effect, says an oil shortage will lead to the downfall of suburbs, airplane travel will become obsolete and petrol-based materials used to maintain massive skyscrapers will become too expensive.

Tuesday afternoon I sat in on a roundtable lunch with Kunstler and about 15 businesspeople who make their livelihood in downtown real estate (whether it’s building it or selling it) and it was fun to watch the debate play out.

Bryce Turner, an architect with Brown Craig Turner, took issue in particular with Kunstler’s argument that modern skyscrapers would become obsolete because the materials to repair and maintain them would become too expensive. f Kunstler’s prediction that more people will move back to cities holds true, Turner said, then that would increase skyscrapers’ property value.

He also doesn’t agree that the materials to maintain these buildings will disappear — and who says we need to use petroleum-based products, anyway?

“There’s nothing that says you can’t use wood and masonry and other materials as well for some of these buildings and I think we’re going to find a way to do that,” Turner said.

And, he added, there’s something to be said for being creative with architecture if a building is becoming obsolete for the current generation.

“I think we’re going to find ways to remake them — in some cases combining floors to make higher ceilings because that’s a big issue with some. Or add balconies,” Turner said. “I think there are a lot of opportunities to get fresh air into these buildings.”

And what about Kunslter’s suggestion that we return to buildings that are more modest and perhaps styled after ones built 100 years ago? Magda Westerhout, an architect with Marks Thomas & Associates, said bricks-and-mortar towers (examples around downtown Baltimore include the B&O Building or the Fidelity Insurance building, both on N. Charles Street) can be tricky.

“I think we don’t do it [now] partially because the foundations would have to be bigger because it’s heavier,” she said. “And if you’re designing against earthquakes you’d have to reinforce the bricks. … So yeah, I think it would be more expensive to build that way.”

Not everything Kunstler said was met with an argument. His point that suburbia is overblown and the population in mid-sized cities in key locations like Baltimore will increase was met with a lot of nods yesterday.

And it only takes a trip down I-66 outside Washington, D.C., — and seeing the foreclosed-upon McMansions or massive housing developments that are still largely unsold — to come to that conclusion for yourself.

“It’s true that in the suburbs there are some very difficult master plans that simply include lots of individual cookie-cutter houses where it’s very difficult to walk anywhere and the connection to commercial districts have made it very awkward,” said Turner.

Cookie-cutter housing developments could potentially solve that problem by building a connection to nearby commerce (or creating its own “Main Street” as many condo communities are doing). But “the McMansion that’s sitting out in the middle of nowhere is really going to struggle,” Turner added.

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Preservation groups are targeting the Baltimore Development Corp. with a letter campaign for not having a historical preservation expert on its board.

In a Mar. 11 letter to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins said the “BDC is charged with working in historic areas and on historic buildings throughout the city, and this lack of preservation experience has resulted in decisions … that are unnecessarily controversial and we believe often imprudent.”

In an e-mail sent Wednesday evening on behalf of Friends of the Senator Theatre, Laura Perkins, who stepped down from the BDC’s Senator Theatre panel over this issue, said the Senator’s future is being determined without considering theater preservation models.

The group, a citizens group created to promote the theater’s preservation, has created a form letter (found here) that people can fill out and send the mayor in support of the cause.

Karen Noonan, president of the Theatre Historical Society of America, also submitted a letter to the mayor noting that while the BDC reached out to the League of Historic American Theaters to supply written input, “it is imperative that such an expert physically sits on the commission and has the opportunity to give on-going guidance …”

Officials have said in the past that the BDC’s budget for this project does not allow for a historic preservation expert or consultant.

So what’s your take on this latest saber rattling by a group that has been very vocal about what they think is best for the future of the Senator?

It’s obvious they have a point of view about the building and care what happens to their neighborhood — but do you think they have the support to make a difference with the decision makers? Or are they shouting upon deaf ears? Do they even have the support of their neighbors in Belvedere Square?

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Last time we checked in with a round-up, we were waiting to hear who would be the next two-floor tenant at 100 Light Street. That deal, we are told, has since fallen through, and we still don’t know who the prospective tenant was to be.

Since then, things have been chugging along at a relatively slow pace, but it only seems that way if you’re mentally comparing 2009 to the boom years. In fact, Maryland’s building industry is seeing a few green shoots of its own, with investors taking chances and projects nearing completion. Read on, dear reader.

* Folks are getting riled up again about Baltimore’s high property tax rate, and Clerk of the Court Frank Conaway held a meeting to (sort of) discuss a plan to encourage investment in the city by slashing the tax 25 percent. Some other developers are a bit worried about the costs associated with a new green building law that insert LEED requirements into the building code. The green building law, according to my buddy Rich Lord over at the Post-Gazette, inspired one that was proposed last week in Pittsburgh.

* M on Madison, a proposed luxury condo project on downtown Baltimore’s West Side, is no longer going to be so luxury. More like work force housing.

* The Corporate Office Properties Trust started building a BRAC-related office property that they hope gets filled by intelligence-security businesses. This is the first speculative groundbreaking round these parts for some time.

* Foreclosures are going down in cities, but up in the country.

* The BBJ gets Baltimore Development Corp. head Jay Brodie to spill the beans about how the $300 million, city-funded Hilton convention center hotel won’t be profitable in 2009.

* There’s going to be some tasty soup and rosy perfumes in the air at Annapolis’s Market House. 

* Federal stimulus money is going to be used to run more water taxis across the harbor, including one from Locust Point to Canton, presumably for those so overcome by nostalgia at the Baltimore Museum of Industry that they need not just a brewski, but an entire O’Donnell Square pub crawl.  Oh, and speaking of brews, here’s a website that doesn’t think the math on the this plan really bears it out as a good idea.

* The real estate bust is killing the city’s bottom line. Building a mansion on city-owned land is killing this guy‘s bottom line.

* This project, which we covered way back in the design stage, is almost ready to start.

* Embattled Baltimore development Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse has been sued (again) by one of its creditors, this time on the $1.5 billion Southwest Waterfront project in Washington.

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Apart from waiting to see who’s going to fill the next big round of office vacancies in Baltimore, most of the news around here has been piecemeal and incremental. In the meantime, here’s what’s happened in development and real estate news in the last week or so.

• Monday night, Baltimore City Council’s Live Entertainment bill, which has riled art school kids and Federal Hill NIMBYs alike, passed second reader, and is inching toward becoming law.

• Baltimore planners bumped three downtown buildings to the front of the line for preservation, and in theory, threw written support behind the idea of the Charles Street Trolley.

• Law firm Thomas & Libowitz re-upped for 15,000 SF in the Legg Mason tower, which must be a relief for its owners.

• The humped, circus-tent roof of the UMBI building in the Inner Harbor could be replaced by a cheaper, more manageable, flat roof, because of budget concerns at the University System of Maryland.

• The Sun reports that Harborplace’s tenants are dropping like flies. Vacancy is up five percentage points in the last year. But on the upside, Iguana Cantina’s going to re-open as a “rum-bar”.

• Prince Georges County is helping folks pay downpayments and closing costs on foreclosed homes.

• Voting on an important Howard County Council bill, which would determine the way Columbia’s Village Centers could be redeveloped, has been tabled until the end of the month, so sayeth The Sun.

• The Baltimore Development Corp. is looking for someone who will knock down a section (.pdf) of the Westside Superblock for between $2 million and $3 million. Any takers?

• Maryland got $44 million from the Feds to build affordable housing, including a 91-unit garden apartment complex in West Baltimore’s Penn-North section, as the BBJ has it.

• And elsewhere, the Sears Tower is getting a $350 million “green” retrofit. Oh, what we could build in this town with a spare $350 million.  National vacancy rates are damn near 16 percent.  Oh, and there’s this interesting deconstruction of the popping of the Harlem housing bubble in the New York Times.

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