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Proposals for a new arena, including one from a company led by NFL Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith, could bring a separate concert venue, a movie theater, up to 100,000 square feet of retail space and a hotel with as many as 400 rooms to downtown Baltimore.

A community planner is working with leaders in West Rehoboth to revitalize the area. Salisbury, Md.-based Nutter Associates will present proposals for improvements to streets, neighborhoods and infrastructure in January.

The National Association of Home Builders says its housing market index remained unchanged at a record low this month as the worsening U.S. economy, rising unemployment and foreclosures continued to dampen builders' confidence.

A small manufacturing company in West Baltimore has gone up against the condemning power of Baltimore City and lost the legal battle, but won the right to stay on its land and continue operations.

The MITRE Corp. has struck a deal on the long-term lease of 73,000 square feet of office space in Annapolis Junction. The fourth building in Phase II of The National Business Park is still under construction with completion scheduled for the second quarter of 2009.

Plans to reinvigorate downtown Baltimore’s west side as a prime retail destination have been scaled back, as the developers of the Superblock have decided to shift away from big box retailers and concentrate more on historic preservation.

The Montgomery County Council has approved legislation that sets limits on the size of some new homes.

In the year’s first sale of a downtown Baltimore commercial office property, White Marsh-based CSG Partners has purchased 20 S. Charles St., a 12-story building in the heart of the central business district, for $9.2 million.

More than half of all homeowners who had their loans modified to make the payments more affordable in the first half of the year are already in default again, banking regulators said Monday.

Kevin McNeil built his petroleum product shipping company, which employs 140 with a payroll of about $6 million, on the site of an old South Baltimore oil terminal over more than 30 years. He had planned until recently to expand his operation.