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.

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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.

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The 14-acre strip of land that some regard as the entry to Towson is under the microscope for possible redevelopment these days.

Called the “golden triangle,” this small collection of food spots, small businesses and the Towson American Legion Post No. 22 hall is located on the west side of York Road, just north of Burke Avenue. It is prime real estate in the county seat because of the central location.

And that’s where the scrutiny comes in.

DMS Development is pondering a gateway project there, which could include an open-air, California-style mixed-use development of residences, restaurants and retail mainly to attract Towson University students. The firm is seeking a new zoning classification at the site through the county’s comprehensive rezoning process, now underway and slated to wrap up in the early fall.

A few months ago, county’s planners recommended against the rezoning request, which was upheld by the Planning Board. Towson’s representative on the County Council, David Marks, said he will make his decision in June. But he said this week that fears the existing businesses there are endangered are unfounded.

“That’s not going to happen,” he said of the possibility of a total conversion of the site.

While some of the businesses have either sold or discussed selling with DMS, Marks said any further plans do not exist. He said the university once had a vision to build a ballroom at the site, connected to the Marriott next door, “but they have walked” away from that.

“Whatever happens there has to be special,” Marks said. “It’s in the heart of Towson and is a bridge in the university and the retail corridor. Right now, it’s underutilized, it is really key to revitalization.”

Marks said that within three years, the golden triangle site will undergo some change, at very least a gussy up of some of the vacant sites where an eyesore of a flat surface parking lot now sits.

In general, Towson’s development picture these days is a mixed bag.

Just north of the triangle sits a real estate version tale of two cities: The disastrous commercial portion of the Towson Commons still remains vacant while behind the old Hutzler’s building, The Cordish Cos. and Heritage Properties are finalizing plans for the 4.2-acre Towson Circle III project, expected to break ground this summer for a 16-screen Cinemark theater and new retail and restaurants.

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Chase Brexton Health Services will soon expand to a total of 13,394 square feet suburban of office space at the Columbia Medical Campus at 5500 Knoll North Dr. at the intersection of Routes 175 and 29.

The nonprofit now offers health services in an 8,121-square foot building, and the new lease signed will add 5,273 square feet to the Howard County facility.

“The Landlord’s ability to accommodate an expansion allows Chase Brexton to service more people in the Columbia area, many of whom do not have access to health care from other sources. With this expansion, Chase Brexton will now have the opportunity to provide additional services to include a pharmacy,” Dan Neumeister, Chase Brexton CEO, said in a statement.

CBRE’s Kim Penny and Laura Westervelt represented building owner, ACC Columbia Medical Campus L.P., and Terri Harrington, of Mackenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, represented Chase Brexton.

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The Baltimore Design School, currently a new city middle school with a focus on creative arts and fashion, will break ground Monday at 11 a.m. at 1500 Barclay St. in the city’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

The school will be located in the former Lebow Clothing Factory, which is about to undergo a $25 million renovation to convert it into a four-story, 120,000-square-foot space for classrooms, a gallery, computer labs, studios and fabrication suites. The building’s former loading dock will be converted into an outdoor fashion show space, and antique sewing machines found in the building will be part of a permanent display.

State Sen. Catherine Pugh, a local style icon, is the school’s founder and chair of the BDS Board of Directors. Fred Lazarus IV, president of the Maryland Institute College of Art, is the board’s vice chair.

The school, located in temporary quarters in the former Winston Middle School at The Alameda and Beaumont Avenue, is set to open in the new space in the fall of 2013.

Renovations are being funded and overseen by the BDS board, Baltimore City Public Schools and Seawall Development. Ziger/Snead Architects has designed the new space and Southway Builders Inc. is the general contractor.

BDS will add an eighth grade class this August and in the fall 2013, a ninth grade class.

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Craftsmen Developers will soon begin a new 108-unit townhouse community in Dundalk called the Townes at North Point.

The 10-acre project will be built at the site of the old North Point Boulevard Drive-in Theater on North Point Blvd. at the corner of Old Battle Grove Road. It is expected to open in late 2013.

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This week, Baltimore County welcomed a new nonprofit career development center in Woodlawn.

Herbert J. Hoelter, co-founder and CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, officially opened the $3 million Career Development Center at 2621 Lord Baltimore Dr. in Woodlawn.

The 19,000-square-foot center will house a career development program including computer-assisted training, for approximately 250 intellectually disabled adults. The facility will employ case managers, employment specialists, psychological associates, job coaches, quality control and compliance officers and vocational instructors.

“Baltimore County is proud to be home to a program dedicated to providing life-changing career training to intellectually disabled individuals,” said Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

The county helped fund construction with a $2.7 million revenue bond. The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives is eligible for tax exempt federal bonds, and after the county authorizes the bond, it does not incur financial liability, officials said.

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This week, the state’s Department of Business and Economic Development launched an online database of available properties in the state.

Called Maryland Business Properties, the listing has more than 400 available commercial, retail or industrial properties and 1,400 buildings available for lease or purchase. It is updated weekly and allows searches by property type, site size, location and zoning and even transit rail options.

“Maryland Business Properties is the latest in a suite of free interactive tools that DBED introduced this year to give our citizens, businesses and economic development partners improved access to information and research, which helps to spur economic activity and create jobs,” DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson said in a statement. “With this new system, businesses looking to locate to the State or expand to a new site have a simple one-stop search to find their ideal home in Maryland.”

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This week, a $5.9 million plan to replace the aging clubhouse at Hobbit’s Glen Golf Club in Columbia was approved by the board of the Columbia Association.

Local architecture and interior design firm Chambers developed the plan. Chambers specializes in private country, golf and city clubs designs.

Construction is expected to begin in 2013 and will take up to 11 months to complete. The project will also include construction of a “turn house” between the ninth and 10th holes complete with restrooms and a snack bar for golfers.

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TIDBITS: Shula’s Steak House has closed up grill at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel on Baltimore Street. As first reported this week in The Sun, the south Florida-based restaurant, owned by former Baltimore Colts coach Don Shula, has been replaced with a new venture called “The Restaurant” … On May 19, put on your dancing shoes and head to Towson Town Center where the mall and retailer H&M will sponsor Baby Loves Disco, a “family dance party phenomenon” for kids, parents and even grandparents. The free event begins with DJs spinning “G-rated dance tunes” at 1 p.m. in the Grand Court on level one… Transwestern has recently negotiated a 25,576-square-foot lease between Atapco Properties Inc. and GRAMACO Granite & Marble LLC at 8730 Greenwood Place in Savage. Transwestern’s Tom Gentner, Brian Watts and Mark Glagola represented the landlord, while Brian Siegel, also of Transwestern, represented the tenant … In last week’s blog, it was erroneously reported that Broad Street purchased two Fitness First health clubs in Gaithersburg and Frederick. It was Fitness First that purchased the properties and Broad Street was the broker.

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The historic art deco palace in north Baltimore known as the Senator Theatre has closed — for at least six months.

When it reopens around Christmas time, it will have three new theaters, a restored main auditorium complete with comfy chairs, and a tapas café with outdoor seating, all part of a $3 million facelift that is now underway.

The theater closed this week, showing its last film for the spring, “The Hunger Games,” on Thursday, said Kathleen Cusack Lyon, who co-owns the theater with her father, Buzz Cusack.

Lyon said the movie palace, built in the 1939 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be receiving long-awaited restorations and renovations as created by local design architect Alex Castro. When it reopens, after an expected six to nine-months of construction, it will have smaller theaters for classic films, one of which will seat 120 and two others seating 75 and 70 patrons each.

A new café, to be operated by the owners of Tapas Teatro next to The Charles Theatre in the Station North Arts District, also owned by Lyon and her father, will serve small plate foods and beer and wine in a space formerly used as “the popcorn room” and a now-closed dry cleaners, a Senator employee said. Outdoor seating will be available as the weather permits, Lyon said.

“As far as we’re concerned, it will be a one-of-a-kind theater, a deco theater built in the 1930s and still operating as a movie theater,” Lyon said. “What will make this truly original and a huge asset to the city is that it will be an art deco movie palace that is still playing movies, one of the only ones left in the country.”

Ticket prices will rise a dollar to $10, she added.

Lyon and Cusack received a $300,000 state sustainable communities tax credit from the Maryland Historical Trust this year for the renovations.

The Senator was sold to the city at auction in July 2009 for $810,000 after financial straits by its former owner.

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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.

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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.

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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 »

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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.

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The Asian and international market Lotte Plaza will soon help launch a multi-million dollar renovation of a former Toys R Us store in the One Mile West Shopping Center in Catonsville.

The result will be a new 46,000-square-foot Lotte Plaza store in the 125,000-square-foot retail development at 6600 Baltimore National Pike, expected to open this summer. The center is owned by the Owings Mills-based Fedder Co. Alvin Lee, a director at Lotte Plaza, said the new store will provide 50-75 jobs.

Founded in 1989, Lotte Plaza and its affiliates operate 13 markets in seven states. The One Mile West Shopping Center location will be the first in Baltimore County, and the seventh store in the mid-Atlantic region.

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Fortune 500 company DaVita Dialysis Center has leased 10,000 square feet of office space at Randallstown Plaza from Trout Daniel & Associates.

DaVita is relocating its Randallstown center to the new site, at 3637 Offut Rd., to improve accessibility for patients. The new space will be a hybrid between medical and retail space.

Other tenants in Randallstown Plaza include Radio Shack, Bank of America, Subway and Family Dollar. The anchor at the site is the Liberty Center, a Baltimore County Work Force Development Center and a branch of the Community College of Baltimore County.

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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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