Today’s Baltimore Sun has an article about the new and improved visitor center to be built at Fort McHenry in Locust Point.  Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2010.  A new visitor center is long overdue. But I hope they keep the cool model of the fort - or build a better one.

 Future visitors to Baltimore’s Fort McHenry will learn about its role in American history by taking part in an “immersive experience” that will enable them to witness a pivotal battle in the War of 1812 as if through the eyes of Francis Scott Key, the attorney who wrote the poem that became the national anthem.

Efforts to build a new visitor center for the fort in South Baltimore cleared a key hurdle yesterday when architects unveiled a final design for the project, which has been in the planning stages for more than a decade.

The current 5,700-square-foot center was designed to accommodate 125,000 to 150,000 visitors a year and was declared obsolete from the day it opened in 1964. The new center will be more than three times as large - 17,200 square feet - and was designed to handle 758,000 visitors a year, the number expected by 2010.

Full article

I came across this great post about Baltimore’s Port Covington.  It’s on Gerald’s Baltimore InnerSpace blog - thorough, insightful commentary and some nice photos of the Baltimore - worth checking out.

Baltimore Business Journal article about the delay of the 414 Water Street condo project. 

Delayed from last spring, developers of a 31-story residential tower in downtown Baltimore now plan to start turning over the first of their 312 condominium units to new owners this fall, one of the project’s developers said.

Came across this article by The Daily Record talking about how Baltimore is drawing a diverse crowd back into the city.  Young professionals, empty-nesters, etc. Nothing new, but some nice photos of Silo Point and McHenry Point developments in Locust Point. And an interesting quote;

Despite this, what is going to be the hot city neighborhood in the next five to 10 years? When Archibald asks a young Realtor in her office, the response is Locust Point. “The people who live there love it, and it is a safe neighborhood,” she says.

View full PDF.

The Melting Pot fondue restaurant chain may soon open its 5th Maryland location in downtown Baltimore.  The chain is being pursued for the vacant spot at the bottom of the new Zenith Apartments across from Camden Yards, but nothing has been confirmed yet.