Tough decisions are being made in Annapolis about the state budget, and the long-time director of the Walter’s Art Museum announced he would be stepping down. Those stories and more in this week’s business top 5.

1. Analyst: ‘Doomsday Budget’ would cost 500 state jobs – by Alexander Pyles

Hundreds of state jobs would be eliminated and agencies would face across-the-board budget cuts should the Maryland Senate choose to pass a so-called “Doomsday Budget,” according to the state’s director of the Office of Policy Analysis in the Department of Legislative Services.

“I am not going to say the world would come to an end if all of this were to come to pass,” Warren G. Deschenaux told the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Tuesday. “But it would be a different world.”

2. Beatty sealing Harbor East’s deals – by Melody Simmons

Days before Exelon Corp.’s Feb. 1 announcement that it had chosen to build a $120 million tower at Harbor Point, a frantic, last-ditch effort was underway by some in the local development community to steer the company toward the city’s central business core.

The flurry included a failed attempt by Pikesville developer Stephen Gorn to gain a $41 million payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, tax break at the site of the former McCormick & Co. spice plant — a quest that raced through the board of the Baltimore Development Corp. and into the office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at lightning speed.

3. Walters’ Vikan to step down as director – by Maria Zilberman

The best thing about the Walters Art Museum, according to Gary Vikan, is a Saturday afternoon.

“You just stand in that lobby and watch parents and children and young couples, African Americans, Hispanics — this is what a museum should be,” said the Mount Vernon museum’s director.

Vikan, 65, has served in his position for 18 years and has been with the museum for 27. He will step down at the end of June 2013, or once a successor is found, the museum announced Wednesday.

4. Editorial: Progress at Harborplace – by Daily Record staff

There are encouraging signs of renewal amid the noise and sawdust at Harborplace, the Baltimore waterfront’s aging, iconic centerpiece that turns 32 years old this summer.

While the extreme makeover is still a work in progress and some current tenants have closed temporarily because of the renovations, Harborplace officials say they are on schedule to unveil a spiffed up and —most important — 95 percent-occupied Light Street Pavilion in time for Memorial Day weekend.

5. Bethesda-based HMSHost will keep its travel plaza protest alive – by Alexander Pyles

Lawyers for the losing bidder on a project to renovate two Interstate 95 travel plazas will try to convince the Board of Public Works on Wednesday that the Maryland Transportation Authority violated procurement law in the bid process.

The board could vote on the contract award during its regular meeting Wednesday morning in Annapolis.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The former Hechinger’s and Burlington Coat Factory stores at the corner of Hillen Road and Argonne Drive in northeast Baltimore are now history.

The site today is cleared — and ready for development to begin on a $72 million business school at Morgan State University. The 138,000-square-foot school will be named after Earl G. Graves, a Morgan alum.

Left standing is the rest of the Northwood Plaza Shopping Center, originally built in the 1930s.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2012.

*****

If you care to comment on the city’s efforts to rewrite the zoning code and haven’t yet found the time, here’s some good news.

City planners have extended the deadline to render remarks to Jan. 6. After that, final revisions and new maps will be drawn up for presentation to the City Council. Public hearings will be held after that as well.

*****

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This week, the Arbors at Baltimore Crossroads held its grand opening.

The ribbon was cut on the 365-unit luxury market-rate rental apartment home community contained within the 1,000-acre Baltimore Crossroads@95 development near White Marsh.

Present at the celebration were Del. Pat McDonogh, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, Somerset Construction Co., official Mike Caruthers and former Congressman and House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.

*****

The Citizens Planning and Housing Association’s 70th Annual Meeting will be held on Nov. 29 in the Schaefer Room of the Fifth Regiment Armory at Howard and Preston Streets.

Urban affairs expert Paul Brophy will be a presenter. Brophy is co-author of a recent report called Reinventing America’s Legacy Cities: Strategies for Cities Losing Population. His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion.

*****

Rouse Properties Inc., the newly formed company that contains malls once held by the restructured General Growth Properties Inc., announced Friday that Andrew Silberfein will be its the first president and chief executive officer.

The 47-year-old is executive vice president of retail and finance for Forest City Ratner Companies. There, he oversees the company’s more than five million square feet of retail, a portfolio that totals $2.2 billion.

The newly formed Rouse Properties portfolio holds 30 regional malls in 19 states that total more than 21 million square feet. Some of those properties include Lakeland Square in Lakeland, Fla., The Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas and the North Plains Mall in Clovis, N.M.

Silberfein has more than 20 years of retail real estate experience, with extensive experience in leasing, financing, development and asset management.

*****

If you’re looking for a real estate-related gift this season, check out the city skyline ornament at Zelda Zen in Federal Hill.

This miniature version of some of Charm City’s best developments, the National Aquarium, the Power Plant and the Domino Sugar plant, is offset by a jolly crab.

It could become the “it” gift of the season. And it’s just $20.

*****

More scoop on retail: If you’re too bleary-eyed to navigate midnight at the mall on Black Friday, check your email, Twitter or Facebook page.

The Towson Town Center is now wired.

Rebecca Klein

This week, Rebecca Klein became the Towson Town Center’s shopping GURU — a modern-day retail social media guinea pig.

This 39-year-old mother of two lives near the mall and is a freelance writer in her real life. She just signed on for the experimental program being rolled out by General Growth Properties, owners of the  mall.

As GURU, which stands for get ultimate retail updates, Klein will regularly cruise all shops in the mall and blast specials and cute finds via social media on platforms small and large.

For her efforts, the mall has given her an iPad and a flip camera. The gig will last at least two months.

“It’s my job to go out there and give people ideas of what they can find,” she said this week, her first on the job. “I see myself as a problem solver for people.”

Getting started has been a bit slow. This week, she tweeted an area of the mall where she was stationed and advised shoppers to stop by between 1 and 2:30 p.m. for a free appetizer coupon at P.F. Chang’s.

Nobody showed, she reported.

Nevertheless, she remains upbeat that her GURU mission will take hold.

Friday, the mall is hosting a meet and greet where she will talk about her shopping assignment. And she will be on hand when Santa arrives on Nov. 25.

As for Black Friday, Klein admitted it will be the first time ever that she will partake in the annual retail madness, which kicks off this year in many stores at 10 p.m. or midnight.

“I don’t know what time I’ll be there, but I will definitely be there early,” she said.

Check out her blog at www.towsontowncenterguru.com.

*****

TIDBITS: Towson University won five awards this month at the Building Congress and Exchange of Metropolitan Baltimore event. The awards included projects that highlighted woodworking, tile and metals. .. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced this week that the county has once again earned a Triple A bond rating from the three major rating agencies, Fitch, Standard and Poor’s, and Moody’s Investment Service. … The exclusive, staid Elkridge Club on North Charles Street is embarking on an upgrade of its facilities, Citybizlist reported this week. Each of the 1,200 members could be asked to pony up $1,300 to help with the renovations that include new locker rooms, a gussied-up ballroom and new outdoor deck. … The Four Seasons Hotel officially opened this week with a pre-holiday celebration. The $200 million development is the city’s latest luxury digs. Chefs in the restaurant, Wit and Wisdom, report they are perfecting the art of comfort food, among other offerings on the menu. They have focused on a simple but elegant roasted chicken entrée, for which they want to be best known. … Across the Inner Harbor, another kind of comfort food will be offered at the new location of the local Grilled Cheese & Co. restaurant, to open this week near the Cross Street Market on South Charles Street. The menu includes an original “grilled to perfection” cheese sandwich for $4.99, a Kick’n BBQ Chicken sandwich for $6.99 and a Crabby Melt grilled cheese with crab claw meat for $7.49.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Discovery Network’s HD Theater, the first all-HD channel, is about to be shown the door after a nine-year run.

Silver Spring-based Discovery said Monday that HD Theater will be replaced later this year with Velocity, also a high def channel, but one that is positioned as an “upscale male lifestyle network.” Programming initially is going to be heavy on motorcycles, high-stakes gambling and classic cars — the channel’s logo itself would look right at home on the hood of a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. The channel will also feature “insider guides to the good life.”

“In the same way that a car once defined the person who drove it, Velocity will define the viewer who watches it,” said Robert S. Scanlon, senior vice president of Velocity, in the press release announcing the channel. “Whether you are a car aficionado or just someone who prefers fast-paced, high-stakes television, Velocity will become a must-have entertainment destination.”

Discovery is making the change in a bid to woo advertisers looking to woo customers who are looking for the good life their products and services claim to offer — like maybe these guys featured on the channel’s Facebook page.

The front of a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Photo by Associated Press.

“As the first network devoted to the upscale men’s market, Velocity will be a hub for viewers within this key demographic, as well as the wealth of advertisers that target them,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications, in a statement.

The old HD Theater was founded in 2002 and is a staple of cable TV system lineups. The channel got its start simulcasting all of the Discovery stations’ programming from the Discovery Channel to Animal Planet. A look at this week’s schedule shows like “Mantracker,” “American Chopper,” “What’s My Car Worth? and “Chasing Classic Cars” on the lineup.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

As if the job market were not hard enough for recent college graduates, now comes news of another potential pitfall — bankruptcy.

The number of people with bachelor’s degrees filing for bankruptcy jumped more than 20 percent between 2006 and 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by Institute for Financial Literacy.

But there is a silver lining for the Class of 2011. The rate of bankruptcy filings by Americans age 34 and younger dropped 30 percent between 2006 and 2010, while the rate of filings for people over 45 increased 19 percent.

“Perhaps one impact of the recession may be that fewer young people find themselves in bankruptcy,” the report states. “Is this due to better fiscal management or less access to credit?”

A similar pattern played out when looking at bankruptcies based on income. The number of bankruptcy filers making $60,000 or more increased from 5.5 percent in 2006 to more than 9 percent last year. The percentage of bankruptcy filers making $40,000 or less, by contrast, dropped from 80 percent to under 74 percent during that same period.

What bankruptcy figures will look like this year remains to be seen. The Washington Post reported Tuesday the number of people filing for bankruptcy for the year ending in June dropped 2 percent compared to the previous year, and filings in August were down 11 percent compared to August 2010.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

UPDATE: The school’s board of trustees issued a statement around 2:30, to its Facebook page. In it, it assures students that classes going on now and up to Aug. 30 will not be impacted. And, the board is looking at appealing the decision, pursuing legal options in regards to the loss of accreditation or merging the school with another institution.  Read the full statement here.

Students past and present have been using Facebook to not only seek answers but also voice frustration about the possible closing of Baltimore International College, a non-profit school that trains students for careers in the culinary and hospitality industries.

The school, which has about 500 students and about as many faculty,  is in the process of losing a vital accreditation that would make it ineligible for federal student loan aid, which nearly half of the students get. If they can’t figure out a way around the loss of accreditation it could very well be the end of the school.

Since the story first appeared in The Baltimore Sun, students have been alternating between anger and uncertainty about what was going on with their school. Students and alumni as well as faculty have been kept in the dark as Baltimore International College’s officials and board of trustees hunkered down to figure out what to do.

Some have expressed the desire to go to another school and take parting shots at the college:

“I would like to thank Baltimore International College for taking my 35000 last year and now wiping their hands clean of every student that paid each and every teacher and instructor salary. Almost seems like fraud to allow students to attend an institution that doesn’t even know if they can open their doors the following year,” one student wrote.

The school’s official Facebook page has been the only portal of communication open to students and faculty since The Sun reported Wednesday about the possible closure of the school. Since that time the only response from the school, posted to the site, said the school’s board of trustees was meeting Wednesday and an announcement would be made on Thursday.

By 2 p.m. on Thursday though no announcement had been made and students past and present were voicing their frustration on the Facebook page. One student lamented the only information she was getting was from “hitting the refresh button” repeatedly.

“Any word on what time the statement will post? Early morning would be most professional,” read one post.

“I’ve been very understanding that it can take some time to get a public statement together to post online or whereever but I just went onto the Student Portal and my Leadership Grant has been cancelled. A few fellow students I know are seeing the same thing with their Financial Aid….so before people get extremely even more upset than they already are I think we need to hear from the school and get the offical word which should have happened before anything was changed on student accounts and conclusions are drawn.”

One student posted that she had tried calling the registration office only to speak to employees there unsure if they’re even going to have a job after today.

“They are all in the same situation as all of us. They don’t know anything yet and are awaiting information whether they have jobs or not. Rumors are rampant but the official word is what we all are waiting for.”

Some students posted positive remarks to try and calm others concerned about whether they would finish their programs and others concerned about the impact the school’s closing would have on the degrees they already received.

“To all students of BIC dont let here say let this situation make or break you. Those that are negative will be that way because its there outlook on life regardless. It is those who are using this situation to make excuses and shield the fact that they were slacking anyway,” reads one post.

“I am a product of the school as well (I attended twice when it was called BICAI, then BICC), I am sorry to see this happen. I hope the school can come back as the school I remember back when I first went there in 1982,” one alumnus wrote.

Other students cautioned against calling the school, saying the employees — whose jobs are on the line as well — were being inundated by callers trying to find out what was happening.

“If anything. For now, please don’t call the school!!! Ms. Carol and Caroline, Financial Aid, Accountants, Registrar, etc are on the same boat. None of them are board of directors, they don’t know anything more than we do. Let them be until we get details too,” reads one post.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

As my Romanian grandmother would say, his body isn’t cold yet — and now this.

A week after the elegant funeral for legendary Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor and comptroller William Donald Schaefer, local politicians and civic leaders have wasted no time carving up his legacy for their own gain.

It’s caused a spectacle and a “dawg fight,” as my Southern grandmother would say.

The scrapping started Sunday when Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake penned an opinion piece for The Baltimore Sun, grinding out her stance that  current legal challenges hamstringing some of the mega development projects are bad for Baltimore’s future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Don Pablo’s in White Marsh is the best Don Pablo’s in the entire country! At least, according to the chain’s parent company.

Rita Restaurant Corp. recently announced that The Avenue at White Marsh staple was named “Restaurant of the Year” for 2010. The eatery was cited for its low employee turnover, low cost of goods, high guest satisfaction surveys and advancement in same-store sales.

Rita Restaurant Corp. owns and operates 39 Don Pablo’s restaurants in 15 states and four Hops Grill and Brewery restaurants in three states. So congratulations to the White Marsh spot for beating out 38 other contestants. The restaurant, managed by Mark Formwalt, has been sitting in the highly foot-trafficked spot in White Marsh since 1998.

I’ve only been there once, and for a crowded Friday night, the wait for food wasn’t bad at all.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Baltimore Blast are headed to the Major Indoor Soccer League championships this year for the sixth time in nine years.

To celebrate, the Blast are throwing a party downtown on Thursday so visitors and those on their lunch break can mingle with the players and join in. The celebration will be at noon at Hopkins Plaza on Charles and Baltimore streets. There will be music, free food and Blast paraphernalia, as well as the chance to win tickets to the championship game.

As for the game itself, Baltimore will play against the Milwaukee Wave at First Mariner Arena on Friday. The game will be at 7:35 p.m. and tickets range from $16 to $30.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The $1.8 billion East Baltimore development was back in the news, and the latest story by Melody Simmons on the massive project was the most-viewed story this week by The Daily Record’s business staff. Other popular stories included a Bethesda bottled tea company agreeing to be acquired by an industry giant, and an account of a little-known federal fund for spent nuclear fuel and how that impacts Constellation Energy’s bottom line.

1. E. Baltimore partnership barred from doing business in Md. – by Melody Simmons

Baltimore City Circuit Court records show that four of the seven members of the Presidential Partners-New East Baltimore Partnership LLC — Ronald H. Lipscomb, Dean S. Harrison, Owen M. Tonkins III and Brian D. Morris — owe a total of $809,582.68 in state and federal taxes.

2. Coca-Cola swallows Honest Tea – by Paul Samuel

The Coca-Cola Co. of Atlanta has exercised its option to acquire the remaining portion of Bethesda-based Honest Tea Inc., an organic bottled tea company. Coca-Cola bought a 40 percent stake in Honest Tea in 2008 for $43 million. The companies did not disclose how much Coca-Cola paid to acquire the rest of the Bethesda company.

3. Country-themed bar, Baltimore Comedy Factory coming to Power Plant Live! – by Rachel Bernstein

PBR Baltimore will open Friday with an outdoor deck, two 150-foot long bars, as well as fireplaces and a dance floor. It will be the third Professional Bull Riders Inc. location, taking up 10,000 square feet. The first spot opened in Kansas City, Mo., in 2009, and the second in Las Vegas.

4. $24B fund for spent nuclear fuel repository unused since ’82 – by Ben Mook

When the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 was enacted, the U.S. Department of Energy began collecting money to create a central repository to store used fuel rods starting in 1998 — at the latest. The Nuclear Waste Fund now has more than $24 billion, but not a single spent fuel rod has been picked up and a central repository is only a possibility.

5. ShopRite grocery store project in Howard Park moving forward – by Rachel Bernstein

The BDC is proposing a land-disposition agreement with ShopRite of Liberty Heights Real Estate LLC for the development of a 67,659-square-foot store. The store will include produce, meats, a bakery, a pharmacy and 278 parking spaces. The project is expected to cost $13.5 million.

Powered by Bookmarkify™