Baltimore

Baltimore Ritz Condo Owner Wants Gun Range--Is That You Tom Clancy?

The biggest owner of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore is author Tom Clancy so when the Baltimore Sun found out that an architect has been talking to city officials about the possibilities of installing a gun range in one of the penthouse condos Baltimore's Inner Harbor, well, we know who to look toward. According to the article in the Sun the inquiries were supposed to be kept private but you can't keep an unusual request like this under wraps. The process of getting a gun range installed in one's condo is no easy feat. There are zoning rules, laws and permits as well as the condo association bylaws to contend with. It's also quite expensive, although, if Clancy is the owner this is likely not an issue. The thriller business has made him a very wealthy man.

In the architect's paperwork the client is not identified. If the gun-loving Ritz owner is Clancy he certainly has room for a range, he's got a total of 17,000 square feet of living space taking over the entire penthouse floor of one of the condo complex's six buildings. Over the past couple of years he spent a total of $16.6 million doing so, buying up a total of six units which gives him private elevators, a home theater, multiple kitchens and more. Clancy is a Baltimore native and also has ownership in the altimore Orioles. The Sun article says that according to a NY Times article back in 1999, Clancy had a shooting range at a home he owned overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.

Tags: Baltimore, ritz-carlton, tom clancy

Chazz Palminteri To Open A Restaurant in Baltimore

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Celebrity Design

Chazz Palminteri is famous for his New York style. Now the actor is bringing a taste of the Bronx to Baltimore for a new celebrity restaurant, a venture called Chazz: A Bronx Original.

The Baltimore Sun says that Palminteri's Charm City adventure began when he was in Baltimore's Little Italy in 2009 searching for some good Italian food while in town with his one-man show "A Bronx Tale." He discovered Aldo's, a popular local restaurant. He ordered the linguini with marinara sauce and liked it so much he came back the next 10 nights in a row.

Clearly impressed by the food, he made friends with the owners and found collaborators for a new restaurant. Chazz: A Bronx Original which is described as "a garlicky valentine to the Italian-American table" is set to open this spring in the Harbor East neighborhood. The 160-seat restaurant will have a coal-fired pizza oven and Palminteri says that he will be visiting the restaurant frequently to hang out with the locals. He told the Baltimore Sun he's been getting tips on life as a celebrity restaurateur from his longtime friend actor-turned-hotel-and-restaurant-owner Robert De Niro.

Gallery: Celebrity Restaurants

Tags: baltimore, celebrity restaurants, celebrity restaurateur, chazz palminteri, italian, italian food

Opera Rises Again In Baltimore

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events

In 2009, I wrote about the problems befalling opera companies around the country. The recession doomed the expensive art form in many towns as donors scaled back their patronage. One that didn't make it was the old Baltimore Opera Company but the Baltimore Sun delivers the happy news that opera is making its way back to the city.

Lyric Opera Baltimore is a new opera company that will have a stage at the Lyric Opera House, recently renamed the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric. The inaugural 2011-2012 season follows the expansion and modernization of the stage-house and technical systems and will begin in November with Verdi's La Traviata. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro will be performed in March 2012 and Gounod's Faust completes the season in April 2012. Members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Concert Artists of Baltimore ensemble will be in the pit for the first three productions. The first season will be limited to just two performances each of the three productions planned, staged for a very modest budget of around $1.5 million. Subscriptions can be bought online.

Tags: baltimore, baltimore opera, lyric opera house, opera, opera companies, opera house

PETA Offers To Help Save The Poe House

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Recently we mentioned the battle to save the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The city has cut funding for the museum saying that the Poe House must become self-sustaining by the middle of next year or it will close. The Poe House had been funded at around $80,000 a year which included curator Jeff Jerome's salary. City officials have sought bids from companies that have promised they can make the museum self sufficient.

Animal rights group PETA has stepped forward with a different plan. It sent a letter to Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, offering to help pick up a portion of the $80,000 in return for the right to prominently post a Poe-themed, pro-vegan ad at the historical structure. The ad shows a man having a heart attack next to the caption "The Tell-Tale Heart of a Meat-Eater-Don't Be Haunted by Bad Health: Go Vegan."

"Even the master, Poe himself, couldn't match the scary things that meat, eggs, and dairy products can do to a healthy heart," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Besides being murder on animals, eating meat is a surefire way to increase your chances of an early demise."

PETA's letter to Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum is after the jump.

Tags: baltimore, edgar allan poe, peta, poe house

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Tom Clancy Picks Up More Units At The Ritz-Carlton Baltimore

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Real Estate Developments

Prolific author Tom Clancy bought three penthouse condominiums at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore around this time last year. Now the Baltimore Sun is reporting that Clancy has picked up three more units at the waterfront complex. His first deal was for three combined penthouse units which equaled nearly 12,000 square feet of space with four bedrooms, six balconies, a home theater and three semi-private elevators. He bought the additional properties this fall for almost $2.2 million, far less than the $12.6 million he paid last year. The luxury project has struggled to find buyers and lowered prices over the summer. Now Clancy has a total of over 17,000 square feet at his disposal. He owns the entire penthouse level of one of the complex's six buildings. Prices in the complex range from $500,000 to $4 million and other buyers are also buying a couple of units and turning them into one larger space.

Tags: baltimore, celebrity real estate, maryland real estate, tom clancy

The Prime Rib: The Civilized Steakhouse

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

The Prime Rib in Baltimore is nominated for a Luxist Award for Best Steakhouse.

The Prime Rib was founded in 1965 in Baltimore, Md. by famed restaurateur Buzz Beler and his brother, Nick. The restaurant was designed to evoke the elegant supper clubs of 1940's Manhattan.

The restaurant is a throw-back to the good old days with its tuxedoed waitstaff, live music nightly, and convivial and romantic atmosphere. The restaurant, which is beautifully decorated with fine art and fresh flowers, is famous for its thick chops, fresh seafood and the plethora of delicious side dishes from which to choose. Its wine list is equally as extensive.

A nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award for Best Steakhouse, The Prime Rib opened its second location in 1976 in Washington, D.C. The restaurant has become a power meeting spot for the who's who of Washington elite. The restaurant's third location was opened in Philadelphia in the city's historic Warwick Hotel in 1997.

Gallery: The Prime Rib in Baltimore, Md.

Tags: awards-main, Baltimore, best steakhouse, luxist-awards, steakhouse, The Prime Rib

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Baltimore Townhouses Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Want a waterfront townhouse in Baltimore, Maryland at a deep discount? Then June 28 is your day, that's when 11 townhouses at Pier Homes at HarborView go up for auction for as much as 75 percent off list price. The Baltimore Sun's Jamie Smith Hopkins writes that the auction could send shockwaves through the high-end real estate market in the area.

The units up for sale through Accelerated Marketing Partners have minimum bids as low as $329,000 on homes that were once on the market for over $1 million. Residences have hardwood floors, granite countertops, whirlpool tubs and rooftop decks. The community has a cafe, private marina, health club and two swimming pools.

Tags: baltimore, condo auction, maryland real estate

Did Tom Clancy Pick Up A Huge Baltimore Condo?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Baltimore is buzzing over a big sale at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore. A penthouse condo in the pricey project has sold for $12.6 million making it the largest condo deal at the project and in the city. Rumor has it that the buyer may be best selling author and part owner of the Orioles baseball team Tom Clancy. Clancy has created a suspense thriller empire that includes many books including the Jack Ryan series as well as a line of Clancy-branded video games.

The apartment is actually three combined penthouse units which equal nearly 12,000 square feet of space with four bedrooms, six balconies, a home theater and three semi-private elevators.

The announcement of the sale follows the recent news that a man had sued the developer of Baltimore's Ritz-Carlton Residences to get back the return of the nearly $1.1 million deposit he put down on three units there. In the suit he claimed that the representatives of the project's developers told him that he could buy the units at a special price and resell them without ever going through a closing. But on November 12, his lawyers filed a notice with the court that they are dismissing the case without prejudice. Sales have been slow at the project, since it opened in 2008, 22 out of 191 units have been sold.

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Tags: baltimore, celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, ritz carlton, RitzCarlton, tom clancy, TomClancy

Hotel Monaco Baltimore Could Be Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Just last month I wrote about the opening of the new Hotel Monaco in Baltimore and now the Baltimore Sun reports that the hotel is already in trouble. The corporation that owns the 202-room hotel in the B&O Railroad building may lose the property in a public auction if they don't pay $184,000 owed to a lumber supplier for doors, wood trim and other materials. A Baltimore circuit judge has said that the sale can go forward on the premises unless the building owner pays the J.F. Johnson Lumber Company the $184,000 plus interest and attorneys' fees by August 31. The attorney for Baltimore and Charles Associates, the owners of the building, has said his clients intend to appeal the decision which would result in a cancellation of the auction. A painting subcontractor NLP Enterprises of Owings Mills also is reportedly owed around $235,000 but hasn't taken legal action yet. Meanwhile the hotel remains open for business as usual.

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Tags: baltimore, hotel monaco, HotelMonaco

Hotel Monaco Opens Latest Hotel in Baltimore

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

A former railroad headquarters has been turned into a luxury hotel in Baltimore, The Hotel Monaco Baltimore is a $65 million boutique hotel that is part of the Kimpton group. The hotel's Beaux Arts building dates back to 1906 and served as the headquarters for B&O Railroad. The 202 guestrooms and suites are done in warm colors and offer high-speed wired and wireless Internet access in all guestrooms and suites (alas only complimentary for KimptonInTouch guest loyalty members), 24-hour room service, state-of-the-art flat-screen HD 37" TV in guestrooms and 42" TV in suites, a fully stocked mini bar with gourmet and organic options, L'Occitane spa-inspired bath amenities, terrycloth robes and an In-room safe large enough to accommodate a laptop computer. You can bring your pet with you or, if you get lonely, you can have a companion goldfish delivered to your room for the duration of your stay.

The Baltimore Sun says that the hotel is opening at a time when hotel occupancy rates in the city are lower (down to 58.2 percent in the first half of this year versus 62.3 percent in the first half of 2008). This is due both to the recession and because more new hotels are opening in the area. Last year the total amount of hotels rooms within a one-mile radius of Pratt and Light streets was 6,782 but this year it has jumped up to 7,985 rooms.

To attract the city's attention, the hotel has been holding preview dinners in its restaurant, the B&O American Brasserie. The hotel is also offering an aggressive opening rate of $129 per night for rooms that will cost $329 or more after October.

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Tags: baltimore, hotel monaco baltimore, hotel opening, HotelMonacoBaltimore, HotelOpening

Bedazzled Exhibit Reveals A Collector's Haul

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Events

The venerable Walters Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is opening up their vaults for Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. The exhibit highlights the passion of Henry Walters (1848–1931) who collected jewelry from a large variety of cultures and periods. His collection runs the gamut from Mesopotamian stone pendants to masterpieces created by Tiffany and Co. The exhibition brings together more than 200 pieces of jewelry, combining extraordinary highlights from the holdings with objects from the Walters' vaults, The exhibit runs from now until January 4, 2009. A small sample of some of the pieces on display is in the gallery below.

[via Washington Post]

Gallery: Bedazzled

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Tags: baltimore, exhibit, jewelry, museum

Silo Point, A Grain Elevator Turn Luxury Condominiums

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

An old grain silo and grain elevator in Baltimore now has new life as a luxury condominium complex. Silo Point is a $400-million development on Baltimore's waterfront. The site was once used by the Archer Daniels Midland Company to store corn, soy beans and wheat. The complex will include several phases. The first was 120 townhouses. The second will include condominiums and retail inside the grain elevator and the third part will be townhouses and apartments. For those on the higher floors it's a chance to have a view that is unmatched in the area. The condos will also preserve a bit of the feel of the old grain elevator with the concrete floors, high ceilings and exposed ductwork, Other planned amenities include rooftop gardens and a health club. The condo units range in size from 1,800 to 5,000 square feet, and will cost from the low $400,000s to $5 million.

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Tags: baltimore, condo, condominium, development, maryland, silo point, SiloPoint