Top developer lawyers and lobbyists helped vet city’s new development chief
Too much secrecy, too many insider deals – that is the critics’ take on the Baltimore Development Corp. So how was the new BDC chief selected? Behind closed doors, with interviews conducted by people representing some of the biggest projects in town.
Above: Among those who helped select the new BDC chief was real estate attorney Jon Laria (second from left), who attended yesterday’s announcement at City Hall. Also pictured: Tom Noonan, president of Visit Baltimore, Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, Donald Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, and Kirby Fowler, president of Downtown Partnership. (Fern Shen)
Baltimore got a glimpse yesterday not just of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s new development chief, a 45-year-old economic development official from Boston, but also of the cadre of real estate attorneys, downtown businessmen and civic power players who helped select her.
Brenda McKenzie was announced as president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) after closed-door interviews with a panel that included representatives of some of the city’s biggest developers who have won lucrative tax breaks from the BDC.
A top banker and several business lobbyists were also on the interview committee, but no one representing Baltimore’s neighborhoods or non-business civic groups was at the table.
Nevertheless, at a City Hall press conference, Rawlings-Blake couched the appointment of McKenzie as a victory for everyday Baltimore citizens, saying, “To begin growing again, we need to create new, good-paying jobs for residents and strengthen our communities.”
The agency is tasked with economically aiding city neighborhoods through such programs as Baltimore Main Streets, Westside Initiative, Facade Improvement Grant Program and Brownfields Initiative.
The mayor described McKenzie’s four years as economic development director for the Boston Redevelopment Authority in glowing terms, saying she “successfully facilitated $15 billion in private development” there.
In Chicago, where McKenzie was a deputy planning commissioner, she was credited with overseeing $1.8 billion in residential and retail development.
Summoned by Rawlings-Blake, several business leaders came to the microphone to further laud the choice of McKenzie.
Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee and a member of the interview committee, said McKenzie’s 19 years of experience gave her a unique appreciation of the importance of neighborhoods in the overall scheme of economic development.
To Listen and Learn
Over the past year, the BDC has faced criticism from citizens’ groups an faith leaders for what they see as favoritism toward glitzy waterfront projects at the expense of existing neighborhoods and longtime residents.
Winning the approval of the BDC is the first step toward starting a major development project in Baltimore, and the quasi-public agency has the power to recommend different types of tax breaks to the mayor and City Council.
Mayor Rawlings-Blake with her choice to head the BDC, Brenda McKenzie. (Fern Shen)
Picketers, including the Rev. Heber Brown and members of “Another BDC is Possible,” have gathered outside the BDC offices, protesting city development policy and closed-door meetings to discuss development deals.
A panel formed by City Councilman Carl Stokes, chair of the Council’s Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee, made a series of recommendations to open the agency to greater accountability.
McKenzie’s predecessor, M.J. “Jay” Brodie, whose retirement created the vacancy, was the face of the city’s economic development policy, which he vehemently defended as bringing tens of millions of new revenue dollars to the city.
In brief remarks yesterday, McKenzie gave little indication of whether she planned to make any substantive changes to the agency.
Asked about the criticism of BDC, she said she was new to the job and wanted to listen and learn. “My main priority at this point is to be open, transparent and collaborative,” she said.
Superblock and Harbor Point
The members appointed by the mayor to interview about a dozen potential candidates for the BDC job included two of Baltimore’s leading real estate lawyers – Jon M. Laria and Mark P. Keener.
Laria, managing partner of Ballard Spahr’s Baltimore office, represents the 25th Street Station Wal-Mart project in North Baltimore and Under Armour in its planned expansion of its Locust Point headquarters. He is also counsel for State Center LLC.
His partner, Mark Pollak, represents the developers of the Lexington Square “Superblock” project. The BDC board recently recommended to the City Council that the long-stalled retail-and-apartment project be awarded a PILOT tax break conservatively estimated at $22 million.
Keener, a partner at Gallagher Evelius & Jones, helped the University of Baltimore obtain a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) subsidy for the University of Baltimore’s Fitzgerald housing project and parking garage.
More significantly, Keener is the real estate lawyer for H&S Properties and its prominent baker-developer John Paterakis.
On his firm’s website, Keener says he was directly involved in negotiations with the city for the development of the Legg Mason Tower, Marriott Waterfront Hotel and Spinnaker Bay Apartments at Harbor East that received more than $8 million in property tax breaks in fiscal 2010.
Keener reports that he currently represents the Paterakis Group in its negotiations with the BDC over the disposition of Harbor Point, in particular an initiative pushed by the developer to reinstate an “EZ” (Enterprise Zone) tax credits worth tens of millions of dollars.
Other Panel Members
The other members of the panel that interviewed candidates for the BDC post – assisted by the Florida headhunting firm of Gans, Gans & Associates – were insiders in local business and political circles:
• Kaliope Parthemos, deputy chief of economic and neighborhood development, who is the closest advisor to the mayor on all development matters.
• Harry Black, director of finance for the city.
• Atwood “Woody” Collins III, president of M&T Bank’s Mid-Atlantic Division and member of both of the Baltimore Development Corp. and Greater Baltimore Committee.
• Kirby Fowler, president of Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, an advocacy group for downtown and Inner Harbor interests.
• Donald Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the city’s premier business lobby since 1955.
• Karl Gumtow, founder and CEO of Cyberpoint, a cyber security firm, and board member of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
• Bert J. Hash Jr., president of the Municipal Employees Credit Union (MECU) and member of the BDC board.
• William L. Jews, former CEO of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield.
• Tom Sadowski, president of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, an off-shoot of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
• Arnold Williams, an accountant at Abrams, Foster, Nole & Williams and long-time chairman of the BDC.
Ten of the 15 members of the BDC board. From left: chairman Arnold Williams, Maria E. Beckett, Gilberto de Jesus, Deborah Hunt Devan, Bert J. Hash, Armentha Cruise, Paul Graziano, Sharon Pinder, Harry Black and Brian K. Tracey. (Fern Shen)