Advocates, AG’s office to meet on mortgages

A group of advocates plans to meet with representatives of the Office of the Maryland Attorney General on Friday to request more data in order to monitor the $1 billion awarded to Maryland under the $25 billion national mortgage settlement in the wake of the housing meltdown.

Marceline White, executive director of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, said she is hoping to get the AG’s office to agree to provide more specific details on where mortgage settlements are being made, as in which Zip codes and counties in the state.

As of June 30, there were 2,825 homeowners who had received a total of $225 million in debt relief, AG spokesman Alan Brody said Thursday. In addition, more than $224 million in mortgage settlements are in process, Brody said.

But White said the reporting data, provided by a national monitor who issued the first of many reports on Aug. 29, is not specific enough.

She wants Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and his staff to detail Zip codes and counties because the coalition suspects that the five large banks involved in the settlement — Ally-GMAC, Bank of America (also Countrywide), Citi Bank, JPMorgan Chase (also WaMu) and Wells Fargo (also Wachovia) are targeting wealthier homeowners who hold jumbo and large mortgages under water in order to reap higher costs and fees “off the top” of the expected three-year settlement process, while those who own lower-priced homes and are in trouble stagnate.

“We would like to make sure that the funds from the settlement are reaching the areas with highest needs,” White said.

White added the advocates would also like to get a commitment from the AG’s office to impose new housing laws aimed at protecting consumers so that the crisis won’t repeat.

“We think there were some systemic problems,” she said.

Brody said the AG’s office is open to the meeting.

“We agree that this relief can’t get to struggling families fast enough,” he said.

Concerns by the advocates that a large number of short sales were recorded in the first three months of the mortgage settlement process will also be addressed in the meeting, White said. Those relief packages totaled $180 million in the first three months, and translate into families being ousted from their homes as a result of the troubled mortgages, creating secondary housing problems, and more housing stock in the market.

The mortgage settlement cash must be distributed in Maryland within three years. Included in the plans to dole it out is some funding for demolition of vacant houses in Baltimore — but very few details have been available about that plan over the summer, officials of the AG’s office and the city Department of Housing and Community Development have said.

White said that issue will also be on the agenda Friday.

The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition has written a report in response to the Aug. 29 monitor’s report, available here.

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Former Baltimore Development Corp. President M.J. “Jay” Brodie was feted Tuesday night at the house he helped to build, the city-owned Hilton Baltimore Hotel.

Brodie’s retirement party drew a crowd of nearly 200, including Gov. Martin O’Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who pushed the 16-year economic development veteran and trained architect out of his post in February.

Brodie’s successor has not been named, although a national search is underway, the mayor said at a recent Board of Estimates meeting.

During the party, guests dined on a buffet dinner and listened to tributes to Brodie’s career. Master of ceremonies was Andy Frank, a former deputy mayor now a special assistant to Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels. The cost per person was $60.

Brodie, 75, began as head of the BDC in 1996 under former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. During his tenure, he oversaw billions of dollars in large and small developments in Baltimore and its neighborhoods and helped shepherd tax breaks for developers in the form of payments in lieu of taxes and tax increment financing.

He also pushed through development of the 757-room convention center hotel, the Hilton, built with $305 million in taxpayer subsidized revenue bonds. Since it opened in 2008, the hotel has reported annual losses. It has lost more than $14 million in 2009.

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Residential and commercial real estate consultants Grady Management Inc. recently broke ground on a luxury apartment building in Hyattsville.

The mid-rise building will hold 283 apartments and will be called 3350 at Alterra. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and Hyattsville Mayor Marc Tartaro were on hand for the ceremony.

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Don’t worry about being downwind. Chesapeake Compost Works Benefit LLC recently leased a 54,000-square-foot building at 4501 Curtis Ave. in Baltimore to open a recycling plant to convert organic waste materials into compost.

The plant will open Oct. 1, after minor renovations, leasing agent Trout Daniel & Associates officials said.

“Unlike most other composting facilities, we compost everything indoors,” said Vinnie Bevivino, owner of Chesapeake Compost Works. “Our aeration system pushes air through the compost piles and into a biofilter on a constant basis, actively filtering and eliminating odors. Potential odors are the greatest neighborhood concern and this system allows us to significantly eliminate that worry.”

Steven L. Cornblatt, principal at Trout Daniel, represented Bevivino in the transaction. Toby Mink of BTR Curtis, LLC, represented the landlord.

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TIDBITS: Towson Town Center will be adding a Steve Madden shoe store in November and a Burger King restaurant in the food court in November. … Long & Foster’s Fells Point office recently hired 28-year sales veteran Donna Howard. … Reps from MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Investment Sales said this week they have logged more than $190 million in investment sale transactions so far this year. The team is headed by Don Schline and the deals include office, flex, retail and industrial buildings in Maryland and Northern Virginia. … Boscov’s department store will reopen in White Marsh Mall early next month. … Towson University President Maravene Loeschke said the institution is in the final stages of negotiations with Harford County officials to build a satellite campus near Harford Community College in Bel Air. The TU campus will focus on science, engineering and technology classes in order to help prepare students for jobs at Aberdeen Proving Ground as well as serve as a continuing education option for BRAC workers at APG. … NAIOP Maryland will hold a service project at Paul’s Place on Sept. 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to assist low-income and homeless city residents. For additional information, or to participate, contact Kate Sanft at 443-986-9429 ext. 102.