Top 5: ‘You gotta get on a helicopter’

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The real estate reporting of Melody Simmons — including the latest development in her work covering the massive $1.8 billion project in East Baltimore — dominates this week’s Top 5 business stories by Daily Record staffers.

Also cracking the list is part of our two-day look back at Oriole Park at Camden Yards as it gets set to open its 20th season. Finally, consider the date when reading the entry that rounds out this list.

1. New lives in future for two former city schools – by Melody Simmons

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates is expected to vote on a proposal to create a new homeless shelter in the former Coppin Elementary School on the Westside. The board is also expected to vote on the sale of the former Columbus School, a historic red-brick building at 2000 E. North Ave. and Washington Street that is vacant and has been vandalized.

2. Little Italy restaurants join State Center suit – by Melody Simmons

Owners of Da Mimmo’s, Sabatino’s, Chiapparelli’s, Caesar’s Den and Vaccaro’s Italian Pastry Shop filed a petition Monday to add their businesses to a list of more than a dozen downtown property owners suing the state to stop the project. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 17, 2010, says the state Department of General Services did not seek competitive bids when it lined up master developers for the project in 2005.

3. EBDI pledges more transparency – by Melody Simmons

Officials of East Baltimore Development Inc. promised a City Council committee Wednesday evening that they would operate with a renewed sense of transparency and communication about the finances and progress in economic development and new home construction as part of the $1.8 billion redevelopment project on 88 acres in Middle East.

4. NewHarbor: An idea whose day has come – by Editorial Advisory Board

Perhaps no landmark epitomizes the renaissance of Baltimore more than does Harborplace. For more than 30 years it has anchored the jewel of our city, the Inner Harbor. As with any marketplace, though, it requires rejuvenation and renewal. It is not enough to simply replace one ubiquitous mall retailer with another or to swap chain food purveyors.

5. Oriole Park: From helicopter flight to ballyard – by Rachel Bernstein

It was a few days after acquiring the Orioles that Edward Bennett Williams sent Lawrence Lucchino on a helicopter ride around the Baltimore-Washington area to scout potential sites for a ballpark. Lucchino, who worked in Williams’ Washington, D.C.-based law firm Williams & Connolly, had taken a short vacation after working on the acquisition when Williams called him.