Real Estate Weekly – 1/27/12: Towne Park, Gaylord Hotel extend deal

Planned community homes sold

McWilliams5/8Ballard said Wednesday it has sold and settled all homes at The Village at King Farm, in Rockville. Part of the King Farm planned community, The Village at King Farm consists of 49 condominiums above retail, restaurants and local businesses. In 2008, the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs and the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County collaborated to buy the community, which includes Workforce Housing, providing home ownership opportunities to people with moderate incomes, including public employees and other workers whose income cannot support the high cost of housing near their workplace.

4 communities get managing firm

Four Maryland communities have contracted to be managed by Legum & Norman, an Associa company: Shipley’s Grant, a developing community in Ellicott City, consisting 147 townhomes and will grow to 396 homes at completion; The Village at King Farm, in Rockville, which consists of 49 residential condominiums in four buildings; Potomac Overlook II, a developing townhome condominium with 40 luxury units in National Harbor; and Lakelands at Easton, which consists of 114 townhome units in Easton.

First Potomac Realty’s 4Q dividend

First Potomac Realty Trust, of Bethesda, announced Tuesday a dividend of 20 cents per common share for the company’s fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31. The dividend is payable Feb. 10 to common shareholders of record on Feb. 3. The Board of Trustees also declared a dividend of 48.4375 cents per share on the company’s Series A Preferred Shares, payable Feb. 15, to preferred shareholders of record on Feb. 3. As of Sept. 30, First Potomac Realty Trust’s portfolio totaled more than 14 million square feet: 40 percent office, 39 percent business parks, and 21 percent industrial properties.

Towne Park, Gaylord Hotel extend deal

Towne Park, of Annapolis, a provider of valet parking, parking management and hospitality staffing, and Gaylord Hotels have agreed that Towne Park will continue as the exclusive parking operator for all Gaylord Hotels properties through 2017. Towne Park serves more than 400 hotels and health care facilities across the United States

Silver Spring hotel to reopen

Milestone Hotel Partners is nearly finished renovating the DoubleTree by Hilton Washington DC-Silver Spring, the 10th DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area. The 248-room hotel, which is in the downtown Silver Spring shopping and entertainment district, has 52 suites and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space, including three ballrooms. Milestone Hotel Partners also owns and manages the Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hampton Inn Silver Spring properties directly across from the new DoubleTree by Hilton, which had been named the Hilton Silver Spring.

FirstEnergy to close 6 plants

(AP) FirstEnergy Corp. said Thursday new environmental regulations led to a decision to shut down six older, coal-fired power plants in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The plants, in Williamsport, Md.; Cleveland; Ashtabula, Ore.; and Eastlake, Ohio; and Adrian, Pa., will close by Sept. 1. James Lash, FirstEnergy’s president, said a review determined it would not be cost-effective to get the company’s older plants into compliance with regulations the Environmental Protection Agency announced in December under court orders. Some of the 529 employees affected by FirstEnergy’s decision can transfer. A retirement benefit will be offered to employees 55 years and older.