Matthias J. DeVito, retiring chief executive officer of the Rouse Co., will chair the nonprofit corporation overseeing the $100 million federal effort to revitalize some of Baltimore's most deteriorated neighborhoods.
Mr. DeVito said he hoped that his 15-year tenure as the head of the pioneering development company and position as past chair of the Greater Baltimore Committee would encourage broad business participation in the federal empowerment zone.
"A big part of this effort is going to be economic development and job creation," said Mr. DeVito, 64, who will step down from managing Rouse's daily operations in February but continue as the company's chairman.
In announcing the appointment yesterday, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said Mr. DeVito had the personal and administrative skills needed to make the empowerment zone work. The areas being targeted are in south, west and east Baltimore.
"This position of empowerment zone chair calls for someone with extraordinary leadership ability, and Matt perfectly matches that description," the mayor said in a statement.
Mr. Schmoke's announcement of Mr. DeVito's appointment comes 10 days after Baltimore received word that it was one of six cities nationwide to be selected as an empowerment zone, a designation that also entitles businesses to tax breaks worth an estimated $225 million.
As the unpaid chief of the city's empowerment zone management corporation, dubbed EMPOWER BALTIMORE!, Mr. DeVito will have the responsibility of overseeing not only the expenditure of $100 million in federal social-service grants, but also an additional $800 million in city, state and private funds.
According to documents the city filed with the federal government, the board will be responsible for approving detailed plans for each of the job training, literacy and other social programs in the empowerment zone. It will approve contracts for work, which the city promised "will be tightly drawn with specific measures, milestones, timetables and outputs, and penalties for non- performance." It will monitor programs to see that they work. And it will establish financial controls to make sure the money is spent properly.
The board is expected to have between 15 and 20 members. Mr. DeVito said he was told by Mr. Schmoke this week that the remaining members would be named within two weeks and that they would be "representative of a broad cross-section of the community."
Once named, Mr. DeVito said the board would appoint a chief executive to run the day-to-day operation of the empowerment zone.
L "It will be structured like any other corporation," he said.
The city has told the federal government that it will keep administrative costs to a minimum and that the effort will be managed by an 11-person staff. In addition to the executive director, the staff will include an administrative assistant, two secretaries, two fiscal managers and five program managers.
The program is being run temporarily by Michael V. Seipp, author of the city's empowerment zone application and head of the Historic East Baltimore Action Coalition. Mr. Seipp is working on a preliminary budget based on the first $50 million installment of federal funds, expected next month, and on funds from other sources.
The appointment of Mr. DeVito -- who during his tenure as head of the Rouse Co. solidified the company's position as a creative urban developer as well as a disciplined commercial property manager -- drew widespread praise.
"I think it's a marvelous choice. You know what Matt means to this town," said Douglas Goodell, vice president of Crown, Cork & Seal Co. in South Baltimore and a member of the city's empowerment zone advisory council. Among the local projects Mr. DeVito has been involved with since coming to the Rouse Co. in 1970 are Harborplace, The Gallery at Harborplace/Legg ++ Mason Tower and the completion of much of Columbia.
Lucille Gorham, president of the Middle East Community Organization, one of the dilapidated neighborhoods included in the empowerment zone, said she knows Mr. DeVito from his days developing Harborplace and described him as a "people person."