kirby fowler
- The popular Shake Shack burger chain said Tuesday it will open a Baltimore restaurant early next year.
- Pandora is looking to expand both its U.S. presence and brand. It plans store openings, more frequent product launches and a move to a bigger headquarters where it can add to its workforce of 210 over the next decade. The two sites under consideration are an office near its current Columbia base or a prominent spot at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
- Baltimore's hotel market is at a crossroads as investments pour into properties new and old amid a nationwide pickup in business and leisure travel. As new hotels open, older properties scramble to remain competitive in a market in which demand for rooms remains healthy but has yet to rebound to pre-recession levels.
- Faced with filling big shoes and changing the focus of the Baltimore Development Corp., the agency's new head has yet to make her mark on the city's lead economic development organization.
- Spice giant McCormick & Co. Inc. is considering moving its corporate headquarters from Sparks in northern Baltimore County to combine administrative functions in a single site elsewhere in Maryland or southern Pennsylvania, the company said Wednesday.
- Downtown employment rose to about 122,000 in 2013, up 8 percent from 2012 and 7 percent since 2007, according to figures from the Downtown Partnership's annual State of Downtown study. It's the first time in a decade of Downtown Partnership reports that the area has posted two second consecutive years of job gains.
- Baltimore officials are laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of the city-owned Lexington Market that could cost as much as $25 million. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and market managers believe a redesigned building and better vendor mix — less fast food, more fresh, gourmet and ethnic fare — could lure back the middle-income shoppers who abandoned it long ago. But officials acknowledge that managing what happens outside, including open-air drug sales, is vital to achieving
- Food truck operators packed into Baltimore City Council chambers on Tuesday to testify on an administration bill that would change the way food trucks operate in the city. The food-truck vendors told the committee they are concerned about new parking restrictions and other provisions in the bill, which would turn over turn over the supervision of food trucks to the cityĀæs department of general services.
- Valentine's Day is being celebrated in restaurants starting on Thursday and going through Saturday
- The Brookshire Suites will relaunch Tuesday, marketing itself as a unique, "urban playground" experience.
- Baltimore fans have less interest in Super Bowl XLVIII a year after watching their Ravens win the championship.
- On average, law firms still occupy two to three times the space per worker as companies in banking, finance, insurance and technology, according to a national October study by Cushman & Wakefield. But with increasing pressure on firms to lower costs, that's expected to change.
- T. Rowe Price, an anchor institution in downtown Baltimore for decades, said Thursday it plans to remain in its Pratt Street headquarters through 2027, quelling fears that it would be lured to move to the county or the city's hot properties farther east.
- Six Fresh & Green's grocery stores in Maryland and Washington, DC will close by the end of the month, their parent company announced Monday.
- Well-positioned downtown parking lot sells for $16.4 million.
- Asking for money near Baltimore restaurants, shops or parking meters would be outlawed under legislation some City Council members say is needed to make residents and visitors feel safer. The proposal, which heads to the full council for its consideration on Nov. 4, faces opposition from advocates for the homeless and free speech groups, who say broadly limiting panhandling violates the Constitution.
- The city plans to remove a skywalk between the Baltimore Convention Center and Bank of America at 100 S. Charles St. in the next few weeks, according to the Downtown Partnership Inc.
- Pennsylvania-based F.N.B. Corp. announced Tuesday it plans to open a regional headquarters in downtown Baltimore as it expands in Maryland.
- As tens of thousands of purple-bedecked fans packed near the Inner Harbor Thursday evening to watch country star Keith Urban sing atop a floating stage, lingering frustrations that the Baltimore Ravens were out of town faded away.
- Two concerts and an Oriole game expected to bring tens of thousands downtown at the end of the work day
- A Chicago-based parking garage operator and developer has bought one of the last vacant sites at the Inner Harbor and plans to start building a mixed-use project, possibly an apartment tower, on the East Pratt Street plot in the next four to six years
- A group of downtown property owners and managers announced its opposition to the Harbor Point tax increment financing plan Tuesday, a day before the City Council's taxation committee is set to hold another meeting on the legislation.
- Critics of city subsidies for the $1 billion Harbor Point project clashed Wednesday with supporters of the waterfront development the mayor has called a "once-in-a-generation opportunity."
- Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake won't grant another extension to the developers of the long-stalled "Superblock" project on the city's west side, putting the future of the ambitious plan in jeopardy.
- J. Joseph Clarke sees the stars finally aligning for One Light Street, a 22-story residential development he hopes to build on a surface parking lot at the corner of Light and East Redwood streets, where the Southern Hotel used to stand, and three vacant buildings fronting East Baltimore Street.
- H&S Development Corp.'s plans for an expanded Whole Foods Market and a department store could boost Harbor East real estate and plans for a bustling Central Avenue corridor.
- Developers converting some older office buildings into apartments or building new complexes could get a significant tax break under a measure the Baltimore City Council approved on Monday.
- The Ravens and Orioles, who were both scheduled to have games on the night of Sept. 5 in Baltimore, couldn't agree to a compromise.
- Downtown Baltimore gained 10,000 jobs in 2012 — after losing the same number of jobs in 2011, according to the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.
- Eager to avoid a repeat of the violence last St. Patrick's Day that saw youths fighting in downtown streets and a tourist beaten unconscious, Baltimore police are stepping up patrols in nightlife centers starting this weekend.
- J. Kirby Fowler said he could not serve as both regulator and advocate for downtown Baltimore casino
- A year and a half after holiday violence in the Inner Harbor, police feel secure with safety precautions
- Maryland's casinos will be allowed to open 24 hours a day under new regulations approved Thursday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission that also relaxed limits on lending to gamblers and ATMs in the facilities.
- Maryland Live is granted approval to operate 24-hours a day
- Several developers have announced plans in the last few days to convert downtown commercial buildings into market-rate apartments, giving new life to buildings that were being underutilized.
- Gov. Martin O'Malley has named the members of a powerful new body that will oversee most legal gambling in Maryland, retaining five members of the current Lottery Commission and adding two prominent Baltimore-area business leaders.