This harbor is anticipated to be one of the largest "Green Harbors" in the US.

The development is not just limited to the Westport waterfront. Middlle Branch Harbor is undergoing a change across all of its waterfront. This harbor will be one of the largest "Green Harbors" in the US.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Barton-Cotton’s comeback continues

Direct-mail marketer takes 200,000 s.f. in Westport for growth

Baltimore Business Journal - by Ryan Sharrow Staff

Barton-Cotton is making the most of its second life.

The direct-mail marketing firm, resurrected from Chapter 7 bankruptcy last spring, has signed a 10-year lease for 210,000 square feet of new office and warehouse space along the Middle Branch in South Baltimore. The space, at 3000 Waterview Ave. in Westport, will enable it to move from its existing Halethorpe headquarters.

Barton-Cotton also is looking to make “a couple acquisitions” of Baltimore-area manufacturers, said President Jim Moore.

Meanwhile, the move will save Barton-Cotton nearly $8,000 a month on communication and phone lines that were used between three buildings in Halethorpe, Moore said. Moore toured 10 to 15 buildings in Baltimore and Columbia before choosing the Westport property. Its waterfront location and access to major interstates made it the winner.

Around 40,000 square feet will be used for office space, while the remainder will house the company’s manufacturing and warehouse operations. Moore hopes the move will be completed by April.

Baltimore’s Continental Realty owns the 340,000-square-foot property, not part of developer Patrick Turner’s 42-acre Westport redevelopment project. Barton-Cotton has an option for another 100,000 square feet. Moore declined to disclose the lease terms. The average rate for warehouse and distribution space in Southwest Baltimore was $4.50 per square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s fourth-quarter market report.

Last February, the 80-year-old company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy — or liquidation — before some employees volunteered to build it back to a viable business. Moore’s Tulsa, Okla.-based ResourceOne acquired the company April 17 for $3.8 million, initially hiring back 40 employees.

As the company wins back former clients, mostly from the nonprofit industry, it now employs 100 full-time workers — the majority of which were part of the 200 Barton-Cotton workers let go during the closure.

“We’ve been bringing back former employees consistently,” Moore said. “We have a lot of employees who have stayed in touched, and as our volume increases, we’ve been trying to bring back as many as we can.”

Moore projects 2010 revenue of between $40 million to $50 million at Barton-Cotton. During its peak in 2006, sales eclipsed $100 million.

The company works mainly with nonprofits across the country on direct-mail fundraising campaigns. Major clients are National Geographic, Ducks Unlimited and the American Humane Society.

Barton-Cotton’s retention of its former workers was the primary reason Memphis, Tenn.-based Ducks Unlimited stuck with the company following its near demise.

“There’s a lot of printers out there; they are a dime dozen,” said Philip Milburn, director of marketing and corporate relations for Ducks. “When it’s all said and done, it’s the people there with the institutional knowledge and the people there that understand our customer base.”

Friday, August 21, 2009

Aquarium enlists former Struever Bros. exec for Middle Branch cleanup
Baltimore Business Journal - by Daniel J. Sernovitz Staff

The National Aquarium in Baltimore has tapped a former executive at Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. to help it convert a swath of waterfront along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River into a community park.

Tim Pula, former senior development director for prolific Baltimore developer Struever Bros., has been named senior director of capital planning at the aquarium.

Pula, who worked on Struever Bros. projects including the Olmstead condos in Charles Village — never developed after the real estate market tanked — and a planned waterfront development near the Port Covington shopping center in South Baltimore. He started working for the National Aquarium about two months ago. He replaces Kim McCalla, now assistant vice president for design and construction management at Morgan State University.

Among Pula’s duties will be to help the aquarium clean up a 12.5-acre site overlooking the Middle Branch and turn it into a public park. The site, once part of the Patapsco, was created over time as a landfill and dumping ground for construction debris.

On Friday, the the aquarium announced it is seeking contractors to undertake that work. The project includes installing a layer of soil as deep as 36 inches over most of the property to contain underground contaminants such as arsenic, lead and mercury, Pula said in a telephone interview. The Aquarium hopes to select a contractor in time to start site work in late October. The cleanup could be finished by March 2010.

“Remediation is the first stage of fullfilling our commitment to reclaiming this part of Baltimore City, and we look forward to restoring this waterfront and making this an asset for the community,” National Aquarium spokeswoman Molly Foyle said in an e-mail.

Once that cleanup is completed, the aquarium hopes to start work in summer 2010 to convert the land into a public park including walking paths, trees and other public amenities. The nonprofit has raised the funds it needs to undertake both phases of work, including a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but officials declined to say how much it will cost for fear of influencing the bidding process.

The National Aquarium has been planning the project since 2004. In February 2007, it bought what was then a 20-acre property from the city for its Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation. In addition to cleaning up the land and converting it into a park, the aquarium hoped to build classroom space, additional room for public demonstrations, and to relocate its Animal Rescue Program from its present site on Wolfe Street in Fells Point.

But the aquarium, like many nonprofits, was hampered in its efforts to raise funds for that development. In August 2007, the aquarium sold a 6.5-acre piece of the property to developer Patrick Turner for $1.5 million. In spring 2009, it suspended plans and fundraising efforts to relocate the Animal Rescue Program from Fells Point.

Aquarium spokeswoman Denise Aranoff-Brown said its lease in Fells Point extends until 2013. In a telephone interview, Aranoff-Brown said the nonprofit has not made any decisions yet about whether it will seek to relocate the Animal Rescue Program to the Middle Branch site in the future or whether it will use the land for other purposes.

CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s Baltimore office has cast a nationwide net to sell off parts of Westport, the $1.4 billion waterfront development planned by Baltimore developer Patrick Turner.

The brokerage is listing four residential parcels for sale, combining for nearly 650,000 square feet, as well as an unspecified amount of land for an office tower.

CB Richard Ellis’ effort comes as Pulte Homes Corp. waived development rights to build homes there.

Westport is being marketed to developers in a package of 93 properties across the U.S. representing $10 billion in investment, said John Wilhide, a broker with CB Richard Ellis in Baltimore. Wilhide said bids are due in September, and he has received interest from a number of Greater Baltimore companies familiar with the project.

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Barton-Cotton’s comeback continues

Baltimore Business Journal - by Ryan Sharrow Staff