Artist's rendering of Constellation/Exelon Bal- timore headquarters planned for construction at bakery magnate's Harbor Point complex.
EAST SIDE OF INNER HARBOR
TO BE HQ FOR MERGED FIRM
Development led by bakery magnate
John Paterakis Sr.; ‘cross-border’
utility merger sets U.S. standard
Chicago-based energy giant Exelon Corp. yesterday unveiled plans for a 22-story Baltimore headquarters on the east side of the city’s Inner Harbor once its historic merger with Constellation Energy becomes complete.
Construction of the half-million- square-foot office building will create 1,000 jobs for area workers, according to a report published Wednesday in the Baltimore Business Journal (click here to read the BBJ report).
Exelon had promised to build the Baltimore headquarters as part of its nearly $8 billion buyout of Constellation Energy Group, which owns local energy supplier BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.).
The acquisition could set a new standard for so-called “cross-border” utility mergers around the United States.
Advocates for the city’s central business district however expressed disappointment that the soon-to-be-merged firm had chosen the eastside waterfront site — which is between Harbor East and Fells Point — instead of downtown for its new location.
The Harbor East and Harbor Point development projects were spearheaded by Baltimore bakery magnate John Paterakis Sr.
Created in October 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Co., of Philadelphia, and Unicom, of Chicago, Exelon is an electricity generating and distributing company headquartered in the Windy City.
— Vob Staff report
FOR DETAILS SEE THE BALTIMORE BUSINESS JOURNAL‘S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE — 3 stories — (click here) and (also here) and (here). THEN READ THE BALTIMORE SUN REPORT (click here).
February 9th, 2012 - 7:42 PM
Alan,
I don’t think your readers are interested in stories such as these. They have neither a beneficial nor a deleterious effect on the lives of the man in the street. Instead, how about doing a story on the efforts (or the lack of effort) being put into collecting the over due taxes owed to the State of Maryland by the scofflaws listed on the Maryland State Comptroller’s office here: http://tinyurl.com/2ug958<http://compnet.comp.state.md.us/Compliance_Division/Collections/General_Collections_Information/Caught_in_the_Web.shtml>
The individuals and companies listed on this page owe $21,899,737.05 to the State. I, for one, am sick and tired of paying my taxes each year while looking at this list on the web. How about making a few phone calls to the COmptroller’s office and find out what they are doing about collecting these delinquent taxes? If the person you speak with is uncooperative, then list their name and phone number in the story so that we, the people, can deluge them with calls about this issue. Call the Governor’s office and ask him what his priority is about collecting these taxes and what, exactly, is being done in each case. You could highlight each case once per week, and give the person listed by the state a chance to respond, in writing, so that we can hear their side of the story. Hit this and hit it hard. Then watch the interest in your site increase.
February 11th, 2012 - 2:00 AM
That’s a great story idea, Harry, we’ll look into it; thanks for the suggestion. (Btw, the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper ran an article in November when the comptroller’s list you linked to was updated.)
In defense of our Harbor Point story however, don’t you think the huge development going on east of the Inner Harbor, including the creation of a thousand jobs for the Constellation-Exelon construction project, is important to Baltimore and hence significant for our readers? Everybody here gets their gas and electric from Constellation Energy’s subsidiary BGE — although we’ll be the first to admit, business stories often make for less than exciting reading.
Nonetheless, the story got 50 percent more hits than our Henson robocall article, despite the fact we were the first to report — more than 22 hours before legacy media had the story — that a key witness’s illness might cause the trial’s postponement. Others were still erroneously reporting the day after our article appeared that jury selection was proceeding as scheduled.
March 10th, 2012 - 4:20 PM
[…] MERGER IN SATURDAY’S BALTIMORE BUSINESS JOURNAL (click here) AND CHECK OUT VoB‘s FEB. 9 COVERAGE OF THE NEW FIRM’S PLANNED CONSTRUCTION AT HARBOR POINT, WITH LINKS… alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org Filed under: Top Stories Comment […]