Baltimore21201.Com

After January Each Year: The Ho-Hum Press Releases Hit Baltimore

Odd, but true... Take this urgent message from the Live Baltimore Home Center:

Need a makeover? Want to be on national TV? Then head down to the Harborplace Amphitheater on Monday, February 18, where one lucky person will be "glambushed" live on TV during the CBS Early Show. [Say now, that sounds like a good time to be had by all.]

The Early Show's Dave Price will be LIVE in Baltimore on Monday morning. All Baltimoreans are invited to show their support by joining him as part of the show's audience from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m. One lucky audience member will be selected for a makeover by designer to the stars, Bradley Bayou - author of "The Science of Sexy." WJZ-TV's Ron Matz will also be broadcasting live. We want to show support for the CBS Early Show and proudly represent the city of Baltimore, so come out and don't miss your chance to be on national television. 

[They've got to be kidding, right?]

And, this just in from "The Insiders Club" at 1st Mariner Arena:

WWE PRESENTS BACKLASH - Sunday , April 27^th AT 7:45 PM

As a member of the 1st Mariner Arena Insiders Club [I'm on their mailing list, yes. But, I had no idea that I was a member of anything so very special...] you are invited to take part in an exclusive presale for WWE Presents Backlash, at 1st Mariner Arena on Sunday. Attendees must be 14 years of age.

[Oh swell, let's round up all of our young teens and head out to see this smart little package. Oh and yes, the best tickets are $175 each...]

He doesn't look like another Hanna Montana so I think I'll hold-off on this one and not stand in line.

If you've ever read this blog before, you know that I'm a rah-rah, full-on supporter of Baltimore and 21201. It just gets creepy on the PR front around this time of year. Stay tuned for some of the truly worthwhile notices of late winter.

And, if you see huge guys walking around downtown Baltimore in tights... well, consider yourself warned. It's not altogether pretty.

Finally. After months, NEW SPIRITS in downtown Baltimore. And at great prices, too.

After months of anticipation and waiting - on my part - Jim Amato's Urban Cellars is finally open next door to the Peanut Shoppe's new location and just a few steps away from 21201's new SuperFresh grocery store at 222 N Charles Street, Baltimore.

I've written before about the oddness of having to go to RiteAid for a bottle of wine or scotch when friends were coming over.

No longer do we, as residents of downtown Baltimore's City Center, have to buy our Band-Aids and Brandy and Benedryl in the same store. That change is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Here's the very best news: Jacob and I were at Urban Cellars last week shopping for our Friday cocktail party and for our private New Year's Eve celebration. Jacob had been to Urban Cellars before. I hadn't. He asked me to check the shelf prices and I expected them to be high due to the store's location.

THEY WERE NOT!

Every bottle of wine (Urban Cellars has an International Collection), every six-pack of beer (Urban Cellars offers the finest and coldest and some of the most unusual), and every bottle of liquor (their selection blew my socks off) was priced equal to or less than what you'd pay at any Maryland liquor store. And, certainly less than you'd pay at the drug store.

Stay tuned. Amato tells me that Urban Cellars is planning some extradorinary tastings and events.

21201 Snow Later in the Day

Earlier today I mentioned the new lights in the trees at Charles Center. Here are a couple of photos taken just a short while ago.

Our 7.5 million-dollar front yard is special. Who could ask for anything more? And, we don't have to mow the grass, water the trees or clean the snow on the walk ways.

Bee Movie and Martinis - Now, THAT'S BeeMore

The COMING SOON signs are being taken down in Harbor East today. Landmark Theatres' newest project opens tomorrow. 7 screens, leather stadium seating, gourmet concessions, and - YES - a premium bar. What's not to love? Oh, I almost forgot to mention digital sound and digital projection.

Could anyone think of a better theatre company to open in Baltimore's hottest new area? I can't.

Landmark has only been around since 1974 and started out with just one screen: the historic  Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. Landmark is still extremely small by exhibitor standards: 59 theatres in 23 markets.

However, whatever Landmark does it does exceedingly well. They not only open state-of-the-art movie venues, they also restore historic theatres across the country and fill them with the finest technology available. I've seen their work at the wonderful Inwood Theatre in Dallas, the Embarcadero in San Francisco and the Sunshine in New York City.

I'm guessing - just guessing, mind you - that one of the reasons all of their projects come together so perfectly, and so technologically aggressive, is due to one of Landmark's owners: Mark Cuban. If you don't know about him you really should check out the bio of a 49 year-old guy that began working in Dallas as a bartender and is now a Multi-Billionaire. (Yep... that's Billion with a B.)

 

Cuban (above) also owns the Dallas Mavericks. I'm betting that he would have some sage advice for our Orioles management. Let's hope someone asks him.

And, no I'm not comparing apples and oranges. I'm comparing bad management with good.

"Visit My Baltimore" is Gaining Steam - And, in a Good Way with Videos

When Baltimore's GET IN ON IT campanign launched last year I was dubious. And on national television, so was Jay Leno (he laughed at the concept and the $500,000 paid to San Francisco-based Landor & Associates), Regis Philbin (he was so puzzled and confused by the concept he couldn't even say the phase), David Letterman was even less kind. Even Baltimore's very own William Donald Schafer, former Mayor and Maryland Govenour, rang in through his spoksperson saying, "I've seen some dumb ones in the past, but this is the dumbest." Was he thinking of an earlier attempt to brand Baltimore as: THE CITY THAT READS?

So when the GET IN ON IT people announced that they were opening up a section of their site so regular folks could upload videos about what makes Baltimore special to them, I was even more dubious. What would the citizens of Charm City post that the rest of the country could make fun of?

Apparently I shouldn't have been concerned at all. Here's just one example of the clever videos that have been posted.

Take a look at some of these little gems. Many are so delightful that they could take us back to the Charm City days.

And then, wonder along with me if all of Baltimore wouldn't have been better served by calling on locals to produce these kinds of things and offering a purse of $50,000 to each of the ten best rather than sending off half-a-million bucks to a company based out west.

I'm betting that even John Waters would have entered. And, wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing?

Oh yes, if you haven't seen this tribute to William Donald Schafer you should. Yep, it's biased in his favor just as Schafer's support and promotion of Baltimore is biased to the Nth degree in our favor.

Is 21201 Becoming Too Pricey?

Looking at the direct mail we've been receiving from the newest downtown apartment buildings and from some of the recent classic building conversions... I'M JUST WONDERING...

Is this the wave of the future?

Reviewing the prices of of Bozzuto's newest construction, the Zenith, where prices per square-foot seem rather New-Yorkish and where the apartments seem cramped on each floor, I hope this is not where we're headed.

I'm also hoping that Baltimore's westside Super-Block project will finally come about and level the playing field by increasing inventory.

At the moment many of the new City-Center apartments rent for what would be a starting mortgage payment. I'm hoping that all of this cools down until the proposed Baltimore/DC MagLev train makes Charm City a viable suburb of our Nation's Capitol. Then, it will all be fair game.

And, yes I know, I've been doing a whole lot of looking, reviewing and hoping.

I'm Totally Humbled. I Didn't Know this Author: Jabari Asim

Once, every so often... when I'm feeling way too smart for my own good and full-of-myself, I read an email that makes me feel small and not very bright. That was certainly the case last week when I received an email about the 2007 Book Festival in Baltimore's Mount Vernon.

One of the featured authors is Jabari Asim. And I wondered, "Who's that?" Well, it turns out that Mr. Asim has a backgound & a profile that I should have known.

Per the Baltimore Book Festival notification:

"Jabari Asim is the new editor-in-chief of The Crisis, the NAACP's flagship publication founded by W.E.B. DuBois in 1910. For the past 11 years he has been an editor at The Washington Post Book World. He is the author of several books, including Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice and Life, Daddy Goes to Work, and The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and children."

I've never met this man, this author. However, I intend to. Reading his bio and reading through his website make this fellow a must visit. The reviews of his latest book are stellar.

Make plans to attend the 2007 Book Festival. I'll see you there.

Southern Management's 39 West Lex - New Website & Hot Floorplans Now Online

I've been watching the progress at the old BG&E building on the corners of Fayette, Liberty and Lexington Streets for many months with some sense of awe. The grand dame of a structure has been receiving some tender loving care at the hands of some amazingly skilled workers by way of it's conversion from an office building, built in 1916, to new apartment homes known as 39 West Lex.

David Hillman and his Southern Management Co., under the supervision of the National Park Service, are restoring the 22-story, neoclassical building to the standards of the National Register of Historic Places. (Jacob and I belong to the National Trust for Histoic Preservation. Trust me, such a project is not easy and, for a project of this size, is blazingly expensive.)

Today I had my first look at the online floorplans. I'd feared that, to maximize income, there would be many, many small apartments per floor as is the case in quite a few historic conversions. Oh, that's not the case here. The building has a true penthouse level with 2-bedroom + den units, on two floors, topping out at a startling 1799 square feet. The entire project has a maximum of 10 units per floor.

And, no creaky spiral staircases here. At 39 West Lex you get the real deal.

By way of total disclosure, we live in a Southern Management property, the Park Charles, and have no plans of moving anytime soon. What Hillman's company has done to improve the unban landscape of downtown Baltimore requires some serious loyalty. Besides, young Mr. Oliver loves the view.

An Envelope on Our Front Door! What's This?

Was the music too loud last night? Were our computer speakers pumped-up with too much bass? No, that couldn't be it. Those types of messages wouldn't be in an envelope neatly placed under the door-knocker.

Could it be?

Yes, it could. It was an INVITATION.

In the dog days of August all invitations are welcome -- Especially an invite to a downtown Luau hosted by your landlord.

Actually Southern Management, the company behind Park Charles, Charles Towers, and many other apartment communities in Baltimore's City Center are more than generous when it comes to parties for residents.

While this may seem like a lame endorsement of an apartment building or a management company: It isn't.

Invitations to a sponsored event arrive every few months.

And last year, on October 31st, residents here came home to a bag of Trick-or-Treat candy hanging over their doorknobs with clever little cards from the building staff. It's a little thing... and also one that means so much.

Now then, I'll be away this coming Friday evening. Hopefully I won't be the only one in a grass skirt.

Downtown Baltimore to Have a Bit of Monaco - The Hotel

The Baltimore Sun reported this morning that one of City Center's finest old buildings has been sold. The real estate closing was yesterday for the $20-million-dollar sale of the 1906 headquarters of B&O Railroad located on the corner of Charles and Baltimore Streets.

The historic building will reopen in 2009 with the top floors becoming a Monaco Hotel managed and operated by Kimpton. Washington DC has a fine Monaco by Kimpton. So does Chicago and San Francisco. There's a Monaco in Salt Lake City and Seattle.

It seems that it's Baltimore's turn to have a brand new (in a century-old, classic space) boutique hotel.

ARCWheeler, the Philadelphia-based developer, has marked the middle floors as office and the ground floors for retail and restaurant use. I'm liking this concept.

Kimpton's Monaco-branded hotels are smart, sassy, and requested by high profile performing artists visiting cities where Monaco Hotels are located.

ARCWheeler's website speaks highly of their purchase:

"This 225,000 SF, $55-million mixed-use development will reside in the regal Beaux-Arts style B&O Building in Baltimore which was designed by noted architect James Gamble Rogers."

They go on to say:

"The B&O building will represent the first of ARCWheeler's "10" boutique hotel brand, which will include hotel, office and retail space, and be located in buildings of grandeur in prime locations. This historic 13-story building, built in 1906 as the headquarters for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, includes marble floors and staircases, cobalt-blue stained glass windows and high vaulted ceilings."

It's also promised that the developer will return the huge marble lobby, with dual staircases, to it's origional 1906 glory.