The Mall in Columbia celebrated its 40th birthday this week, while the Maryland State Lottery Agency reported its sales in fiscal 2011 broke records for the 14th year in a row. Those stories and more in this week’s business top 5.

1. Columbia Mall continues its evolution as it turns 40 – by Alissa Gulin

Some things just get better with age — fine wine, a chunk of bleu cheese. And with the right vision and planning, a shopping mall.

That’s been the case for the Mall in Columbia, said many patrons Tuesday as they bustled from store to store and enjoyed the day-long festivities honoring the mall’s 40th anniversary. The activities — which included a fashion show and an outdoor “birthday party” complete with cupcakes and paper hats — were about commemorating the past four decades of retail success, but for many, the occasion prompted a look to the future.

2. Maryland Lottery Agency says 2011 sales were $1.7 billion – by Rachel Bernstein

The Maryland State Lottery Agency announced Monday that it generated $1.7 billion in sales in fiscal 2011, breaking its record for the 14th year in a row. The lottery agency contributed $519.4 million to the state’s general fund through its sales, an $8.9 million increase from last fiscal year.

That revenue is used to support education, public safety, health and environmental programs. The revenue makes the lottery agency the fourth largest contributor to the state’s funding sources, after sales, income and corporate taxes.

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Come one, come all (creatures, perhaps).  This weekend will be a good one to head over to Westport Waterfront for the new Cirque du Soleil show, “Totem.”

There will be a 4 p.m. show and an 8 p.m. this Saturday, and a 5 p.m. viewing on Sunday, for the show that will focus all sorts of aesthetically bewildering tricks and performances on the evolution of mankind. Tickets range from $49.50 to $225 for the event.

Another viscerally colorful event going on this weekend is the Baltimore Tattoo Arts Convention, going on Friday, April 8 through Sunday April 10 at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel. Tickets are $20-$40, and kids 12 and under are free for admission.

There will be plenty of entertainment going on as well, with music by Lazlo Lee and the Motherless Children and burlesque performances by Rigor Mortis Revue. What’s in a name?

And if you’re looking for something more palatable for everybody, there’s the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Cook-Off! (Grilled cheese is worth the exclamation point.) For $10, you get to hang around the Mt. Washington Tavern to watch top chefs and home cooks duke it out over one of the best comfort foods, and then you get to eat their handiwork.

The cheesy goodness starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

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Almost all of this week’s top 5 stories in business had to do with real estate, and most of them were centered around property by the Inner Harbor. Here are the top 5:

1. Former McCormick site at Inner Harbor auctioned for $11.5M – by Rachel Bernstein

The former McCormick & Co. Inc. factory site, one of the most valuable properties in the Inner Harbor, was sold at auction Tuesday for $11.5 million.

The site sits at a crucial spot for downtown Baltimore, and the sale of the property is an indicator of a positive moving economy, members of the city’s real estate community said.

2. State Center project on hold – by Melody Simmons

The $1.5 billion redevelopment of State Center, scheduled to break ground later this month with construction of a parking garage, is indefinitely on hold, a state economic development official said.

Robert C. Brennan, executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corp., said a $33 million bond sale scheduled for this week to fund most of the construction of a 928-space parking garage at State Center was canceled pending resolution of a lawsuit filed by downtown property owners last month.

3. H&M officially signs on at Harborplace – by Rachel Bernstein

General Growth Properties has signed clothier H&M as a new tenant in Harborplace’s Light Street Pavilion, with its retail store expected to open this spring as part of a number of changes coming to the landmark.

The popular clothing store will take approximately 20,000 square feet near the Urban Outfitters store on both the first and second levels. The store is due to open in April or May, depending on construction.

4. Four undeveloped parcels at HarborView to be sold – by Melody Simmons

Four parcels of prime waterfront property at HarborView near the Inner Harbor that could hold a total of 1,548 residential units were listed for sale Monday.

The land is part of the 42-acre community, a multi-faceted, luxury residential development located off Key Highway marked by a high-rise condominium tower built in the early 1990s.

5. Port of Baltimore does record cruise business in 2010 – by Rachel Bernstein

The Port of Baltimore has again posted record numbers for cruise passengers coming through the city in one year.

Last year, 210,549 people sailed on 91 cruises from the Cruise Maryland Terminal, the Maryland Port Administration said Wednesday.

That number beats 2009’s record of 167,235 passengers — good for a 25 percent increase — on 81 cruises.

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I can’t remember all the times I’ve heard the phrase “do more with less” this year…it has officially been filed under my list of Overused Phrases of 2009. But every once and a while the notion actually works.

This spring, four Baltimore tourism entities announced they were pooling their resources (namely, money) to market the Inner Harbor this summer in a $400,000 campaign called Waterfront Invasion. The Maryland Science Center and the National Aquarium in Baltimore teamed up with Visit Baltimore and the Waterfront Partnership to promote the waterfront, the aquarium’s “Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance” exhibit and the Science Center’s “Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Dynasty” in a media blitz that hit TV, radio, newspapers and billboards in Washington, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

It was the first time such a collaboration had been attempted for downtown Baltimore tourism.

The result? Attendance numbers at the Science Center and aquarium surpassed projections and hotels benefited from the travel packages. Specifically,
• The ticket upgrade sales for Chinasaurs doubled projected numbers.
• Summer attendance at the aquarium was 13 percent above projections.
• More than 874 room nights booked through Waterfront Invasion packages.
• Waterfront Invasion media coverage reached 23,385,771 people and generated $648,911 in advertising equivalency.

The industry has noticed: the campaign won the Maryland Tourism Council’s Industry Partnership Award at their summit last week and last month it won an Award of Distinction from the International Downtown Association.

This year was such a good experience, tourism officials are considering a repeat performance.

“We are excited about last summer’s results and about proving that collaboration among Baltimore’s cultural attractions and marketing organizations can bring success to all of them,” said Denise Aranoff-Brown, senior director of marketing for the Aquarium. “We are in preliminary talks about how we can collaborate again in the future if the conditions are right, and hope we can bring the Waterfront Invasion back to Baltimore.”

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