Baltimore Grows

It was announced this weekend that Ed Hale’s Canton Crossing? in Southeast Baltimore? (aka Canton City USA) will be home to a new “Main Street” style shopping center similar to The Avenue at White Marsh or the Hunt Valley Town Center.? Hale’s company is also apparently in talks with high-end? grocer Harris Teeter and retailer Target about possibly anchoring the center.? Both Harris Teeter and Target are expanding in the area.? Harris Teeter is in the process of building a store in Columbia and also considering a location at Locust Point’s McHenry Row development.? Target has also announced plans to build a store at Mondawmin mall.? While nothing is certain, the announcement that a Target or Harris Teeter may settle in Canton was welcome news.? Many Cantonites are frustrated at the other local options which include the cramped Whole Foods in Harbor East and the crowded Safeway in Canton.? ? Often times, late evening shoppers at Safeway find bare shelves ravaged by hordes of people earlier in the day.? ? While Whole Foods is looking to expand to a larger location across the street from its existing store, it doesn’t seem likely that Southeast’s Baltimore’s grocery needs will be easily satisfied until more markets open.?

? The possibility of a Target nearby got people excited as well.? Currently, the nearest Target is about a 25 minute drive away.? The only other option is the Wal-Mart in Port Covington, which still takes about 15-20 minutes after fiddling with the tunnel tolls or fighting downtown traffic.? Even so, the Port Covington Wal Mart is considered to be “not that nice”.?

Visit www.harristeeter.com? and www.target.com to learn more about these retailers.? If you have time, send an e-mail of support for their projects.

Click below to see the full Canton Crossing Site Plan:

http://www.cantoncrossing.com/images/New_CC_Retail_Plan_2.pdf

Despite prolific natural snowfalls and some of the best ski conditions in years, travelers for this year’s long Presidents weekend (February 16-18) seem to have a decided preference for warmer destinations.

Today, priceline.com released it annual list of the top 50 destinations for the national holiday. To compile its list, priceline.com looked at a sampling of more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the long weekend. Since the priceline.com study is based on actual booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes the study is one of the more accurate predictors of future travel trends.

Priceline.com says it still has a broad selection of airline tickets, hotel rooms, vacation packages, rental cars and cruises available for Presidents Weekend and for the entire Presidents Week. In addition to warm-weather destinations, priceline.com has ski vacations and international getaways available. To check out the deals, visit www.priceline.com.Of the 50 top destinations, 33 were warm weather destinations in places like Florida, Hawaii and California. New York City’s Times Square Theater District, a perennial favorite at this time of year, was #1 on the list. “It may have reached the point where many Americans said ‘enough’ to the snow, rain and recent cold snaps,” said Tim Gordon, priceline.com’s Senior Vice President, Hotels. Areas like Florida and Mexico also could be benefitting from the fact that they didn’t have a strong hurricane season.

Thanks to Kate for brining this article from the Daily Record to? our attention.? Chinatown in Baltimore – sounds like a great idea.

When most people look at the area surrounding the intersection of North Charles Street and North Avenue, they see vacant row houses, a few large condemned buildings, a fried chicken restaurant and cracked, buckling pavement.

When Tony Cheng looked at it, he saw Chinatown.

The Washington-based restaurateur and businessman, who once owned a restaurant near Mount Vernon Place, has been buying up property in the Station North area of the city with the intention of attracting Chinese and other Asian business owners to a redeveloped arts and entertainment district.

Full article

Cakelove opens its 4th location at the American Can Company Complex in Canton, Baltimore.? Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but I was somewhat surprised to pay $3 for a cupcake.? I can’t complain too much, because it was delicious and definitely worth the cost.? If you decide to get? a whole cake, be prepared to spend $40 to $150.? Definitely suggest you check it out http://www.cakelove.com/

If for some reason you ever feel down about living in Baltimore, just be glad you don’t live in one of America’s 10 most miserable cities according to Forbes Magazine. ? Baltimore, which seemed to be? dogged by “worst of” lists in the late 90′s and early 00′s managed to stay off the list.? This could be a signal that negative opinions of Baltimore? from outsiders are changing. ? The measurement is? based on a city’s unemployment rate, personal tax rate, commute time, weather, crime, and toxic waste proximity. The top ten “most miserable” cities, according to Forbes:

1. Detroit, MI
2. Stockton, CA
3. Flint, MI
4. New York City
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Chicago, IL
7. Los Angeles, CA
8. Modesto, CA
9. Charlotte, NC
10. Providence, RI

If you haven’t checked out these maps on the Baltimore Sun website yet, you might want to.? The show the comparison of home sale prices for 2007 vs. 2006. It’s interesting to see prices up in many low-income neighborhoods.

? Maryland home sale prices 06 – 07

Baltimore home sale prices 06 – 07

Work has begun on the old Fallsway Spring and Equipment building on Central Ave. in Little Italy. The project will turn into a mixed use building that will house offices, retail, and approximately 40 condominiums. The project will complement the recently opened Tack factory (further down the street) which houses Lemongrass, Tsunami, Mustang Alleys, and 38 luxury condos by the same developer (Union Box Co.). Union box also plans on redeveloping the former Saval Foods Building on the corner of Central and Lombard into approximately 30 condos. Perhaps this is proof that the renaissance started by the development of Harbor East is spreading through the area.

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I was reading this article on the Baltimore Magazine website earlier in the week and found it pretty interesting. I wasn’t going to mention it here, since it’s a bit off topic. But then again, so are many of my posts now… so why not. Plus I’m a big fan of The Wire. And it’s controversial, and controversy is good.

Article: Down To The Wire

I managed to get a tour of the recently renovated Bromo Seltzer Tower.? The renovations were quite amazing, especially considering the shoestring budget which the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and contractor Azola and Associates? had to work with.? The Bromo Seltzer Tower once housed the executives for the Bromo Seltzer Company.? The factory which once surrounded the building was torn down long ago and is now occupied by a Baltimore City Fire Station.? The tower was the tallest building in Baltimore for quite some time.? Supposedly, the huge bright blue bottle that used to sit on top of the building could be seen from as far away as the Eastern Shore, although I’m not too sure about that.

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The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) are looking for artists to lease the studios in the building.? Currently the building is about 1/3 leased.? BOPA also is looking for a coffee shop to lease the lower level of the building.? The coffee shop would double as an art gallery for the buildings artists.? Visit www.bromoseltzerartstower.com? for more information.? Hopefully the building’s artists and visitors will add to the vibrancy of the downtown area and west side.

In case you hadn’t noticed, BaltimoreGrows.com has a new blogger – Jeff.? I pleaded, and he answered the call.? As you can tell his posts have helped revive this blog,? as well as? inspired me to get some new posts up.

? Jeff was born and raised in Towson, but? has lived in Canton for the past 2 years.? He had this to say…“I’ve seen a lot of changes in Baltimore since I was a kid, and seeing so much positive change recently has encouraged me to join the blog.? I’m particularly interested in new development, especially retail, restaurants, and residential that add to the character of our city, and that I hope to contribute for a good long while!”

Welcome and thanks to Jeff.

? Glen