Brew at the Zoo and Wine Too 2011

Brew at the Zoo and Wine Too 2011 is this Memorial Day weekend!

The Baltimore Zoo’s biggest fundraiser is back, and for the second year, it’s not just beer, it’s wine too!

The Brew at the Zoo offers unlimited wine samples and beer samples, food and other vendors, as well as live music, a kids zone with activities for them, and admission to the zoo from 10-4 each day.

Hours for Brew at the Zoo and Wine too is 1pm – 7pm Saturday, May 28 & Sunday, May 29. For more details and tickets, visit their site.

Bands playing are: Saturday: 1pm The 8-Balls, 3pm Fools & Horses, 5pm Kelly Bell Band. Sunday: 1pm King Street, 3pm Old Man Brown, 5pm The Reagan Years.

Food choices include:

Grilled Cheese & Co. (one of my favorites — have you been to their eatery in Catonsville?)

Sherri’s Crab Cakes (can’t have a Baltimore event without crabcakes!)

Wood Fire Pizza
Nutcracker Treats (Located right in Glen Arm!)
London Court Beverage Company (a traveling Tiki bar!)
Ostrowski’s Famous Polish Sausage
Tim’s Treats (Popcorn or cotton candy, anyone?)

If you’re in Baltimore for Memorial Day Weekend, come on down and support the Baltimore Zoo and have some fun too!

Erickson Communities’ New Ownership Poised for Growth

Erickson Communities’ new ownership is poised for growth as they take over this month.

Redwood Capital Investments bought Erickson at auction in late December, and the closing happened this month.

Erickson filed for bankruptcy late last year, which wiped out most of their debt, making them financially sound for the upcoming planned projects.

The projects include about 12 communities that were begun but unfinished due to the falling Baltimore real estate market and ensuing bankruptcy.

Jim Davis, the new owner of Erickson, and now also its’ Chief Executive, plans to continue to run the Erickson Retirement Communities in the same spirit as the Erickson family envisioned when they began 26 years ago, getting the places up and then selling to not-for-profit companies to run them, and provide a welcoming place for seniors to live.

The Baltimore Sun reported that:

Long-term demographic trends also bode well for the company. Company officials point out that the population of seniors age 65 and older is projected to grow 60 percent, to 63.9 million people, in the next 15 years, when that segment of older Americans will make up nearly 18 percent of the population.

With these trends, it appears that Erickson would have a great future ahead of them.

If you are considering a move to a retirement home and would need to sell your Baltimore County home, please contact me today. I would be happy to help!

Erickson Communities Bought by Hanover Based Redwood Capital Investments LLC

On Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 after an 18 hour auction, Erickson Communities chose Maryland based Redwood Capital Investments LLC to pull itself out of bankruptcy, of which it filed for Chapter 11 protection in October.

Redwood successfully outbid a New York company, Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. to get Erickson’s assets, including the non-profit groups Erickson operates.

Erickson says that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing nor its sale will affect its residents such as those in Erickson’s Oak Crest Community in Parkville and Charlestown Community located in Catonsville, both in Baltimore County. Refundable deposits and living arrangements will remain the same for those currently living in those communities.

It is a great thing that Erickson is able to keep this sale within Maryland, as our state has had a recent number of large companies being bought or headquarters moved out of state, like Towson based Black & Decker ’s buy out by Stanley Works in Connecticut.

Erickson began to have trouble when the real estate market began to drop after 2005′s boom. The large refundable deposits new residents put down (up to around $400,000) were usually paid from proceeds of the new resident’s sale of their prior home. With homes not selling for the amount needed for the downpayment, less people were moving into the retirement communities.

Fore more details on the Erickson Communities sale, read Baltimore Sun reporter Jamie Hopkins Smith’s article.

This is great news for Erickson Communities, their residents in Parkville’s Oak Crest and Catonsville’s Charlestown, Redwood Capital, and especially the State of Maryland!