The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A13

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 THE BALTIMORE SUN 13 SAGAMORE DEVELOPMENT The redevelopment of Port Covington would include residences, office and retail space, and a new headquarters campus for sports apparel company Under Armour. TIF deal advances for city, Sagamore TIF, From page 1 "We're excited to be one step closer to our city transforming Port Covington into a thriving, active and inclusive waterfront neighborhood and economic center for everyone" Sagamore Development President Marc Weller said in a statement. The $5.5 billion proposal for Port Covington also includes manufacturing space, hotels and about 40 acres of parks. The $535 million would come from tax increment financing, in which bonds issued by the city would be repaid using new property tax revenue generated by the construction. The city has declined to share the full estimate of the costs associated with the proposal, including interest payments and issuance costs, which are likely to add millions.

The redevelopment is expected to generate an average of about $34 million in annual tax revenues for the city over the life of the bonds, after taking costs into account, with much of the revenue appearing in later years, said Keenan Rice of Columbia-based MuniCap, which the city hires to review such deals. That estimate assumes a 6 percent interest rate and assumes that state lawmakers approve changes to the school funding formula so that the city's contribution reflects tax receipts, not just assessed property values, he said. If revenues are not sufficient to meet the debt payments, Sagamore would be responsible for making up the difference. Sagamore also is likely to be the initial purchaser of the bonds, which would be sold in rounds, starting with about $49 million, Rice said. The BDC board's approval included conditions that there be no significant adverse impact on schools funding or the city's bonding capacity, said BDC board Chairman Arnold Williams.

The BDC also recommended profit sharing be included in the deal. The terms of the profit sharing which BDC said is a standard requirement of tax increment financing deals will be determined at a later phase, said President William H. Cole IV. Sagamore would be responsible for covering any losses to school aid or "we would have to go back to the drawing board," he said. "It's very important in this environment that we do a proper analysis and transparent hearing," he said.

Development in Port Covington, located south of Interstate 95 about a mile and a half from the Inner Harbor, is already underway. More than 400 Under Armour employees have relocated to a renovated former Sam's Club and a city garage converted into office and manufacturing space is fully leased. Crews are building a whiskey distillery a pet Plank project at 301 E. Cromwell for which the city's Board of Estimates this week agreed to contribute about $219,000 for water, sanitary and streetscape improvements. Sagamore's initial focus is on a commercial and retail area located close to the distillery, said Steve Siegel of Sagamore Development Infrastructure in the first phase also would be in that area and include highway work, he said.

The firm is seeking approval of its master plan from the city. Plans presented to the city's design committee show tree-lined boulevards with wide medians and waterfront parks. City Councilman Bill Henry, a member of the council committee that will review the TIF request, said he doesn't have enough information yet to evaluate the proposal. "I don't have any philosophical objection to building additional infrastructure. My concern gets into the details of how much of it is what? Because it's one thing to be building roads and sewer pipes and water mains, but how much of it is landscaping?" he said.

Cole said he was not sure what specific infrastructure the first round of bonds would fund, but none of the $535 million would go to improvements inside the Under Armour campus. The city is focused on "core" needs, and the project will be subject to additional review, including evidence that developer has the finances to move forward with the proposed buildings, he said. nshermanbaltsun.com The city also is negotiating agreements with Sagamore over requirements for affordable housing, local hiring and minority participation, said Deputy Mayor Colin Tarbert. In a statement, Mayor Stephanie Raw-lings-Blake said those agreements are important as she weighs moving forward with a project she said has the potential to be "game-changing." Pointing to infrastructure needs throughout South Baltimore, Keisha Allen, president of the Westport Neighborhood Association, said she understands why Sagamore has asked for city financing, but she wants to see further scrutiny of the request. "It just seems like it was already a done deal," she said.

"I don't want them to just push it through. I want them to do a little homework and make sure that we're OK with it." The BDC board, which is composed of city officials and professionals from firms such as T. Rowe Price Group and Bank, gave a green light to the TIF request after three committee meetings, much of which was closed to the public, and less than an hour of discussion on Thursday. It's difficult to evaluate the TIF request at this point because so few details are publicly available, said Ron Kreitner, a former state planning director who attended Thursday's meeting. Kreitner said the city should commission its own market analysis and study other ways to finance the development before approving the TIF request.

"The magnitude of this so far exceeds anything even considered, it just begs for going the extra mile in terms of protecting the taxpayers," he said. "This is so far removed from transparent government operations that it's very disturbing." City Councilman Carl Stokes, who leads the council committee that would review Sagamore's proposal, said he intends to seek outside opinion on the request but isn't sure about the timing of hearings, because the spring is typically absorbed by review of the city budget. New system would help boost safety of implants MEDICINE, Frompagel University of Maryland School of Pharmacy to outline a new evaluation system. Much of the data on the $133 billion a year medical device industry already is being collected by industry, insurers, health systems and other private networks, but the information is not linked or widely available. Planning for the new public-private effort to connect it began in 2014, and officials hope to design a system to monitor every medical device that regulators approve for use.

Such a system is vitally important given that millions of people have implanted heart, orthopedic, contraceptive and other devices, and more people are getting them while they are relatively young, said Fadia Tohme-Shaya, a Maryland professor who is helping lead the effort through the Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation. The center is an FDA-funded collaboration between the University of Maryland campuses in Baltimore and College Park. Doctors are replacing joints in people in their 30s or 40s, wrecked from activity rather than age, making the durability of devices more important, especially as people live longer, she said. Despite arduous testing before devices gain approval, it is difficult to determine what device might be best for a patient because available information is limited, Tohme-Shaya said. Problems and questions often are not apparent until hundreds or thousands of devices have been implanted.

"Most everyone knows someone living with a device like a pacemaker, a hip or a stent, and they themselves might be living with one," said Tohme-Shaya, a professor and vice chair for academic affairs and associate director of the Center on Drugs and Public Policy in the Maryland School of Pharmacy. "Unlike with drugs, it's hard to switch to a new device. When something goes wrong, it's rarely an option for the patient to have it removed." The collaborative database could help catch device defects or unintended consequences in patients earlier, allowing for tweaks or advice to doctors and limiting major recalls, she said. The FDA has issued about a dozen top-level recalls this year, meaning those products could cause serious injury or death. Many more less serious recalls occur each year.

The system also could pinpoint who is benefiting the most from devices, allowing manufacturers to market more effectively or customize products. That could tell doctors which artificial joints work best in runners, for example, or which stents are safest for certain heart patients, said Dr. Matthew Brennan, a cardiologist and co-director of the STS Analytical Center at Duke University's Clinical Research Center. He cited a recently approved stent made from a polymer that the body absorbs. While it could "revolutionize the market" by eliminating complications from implanting metal, it now appears to create scar tissue that can cause new blockages.

And polymer stents coated in medication to prevent scarring could lead to more dangerous blood clots. "The polymer ones are supposed to prop open an artery and then go away," Brennan said. "The question now is what is the real-world outcome. I won't have to wait four years, after millions have been placed, to see which patients benefit. There also may be a downside that didn't come to light in trials." The biggest challenge with building a new system is getting everyone to share information, although public, industry and health groups are now at the table, FDA officials and researchers said.

Other issues will be technical, such as a separate but intertwined effort to label each device manufactured. That specific data could help quickly identify what happened to a defective batch of devices, for example, but pose other problems, such as added cost, said Dr. Andrew N. Pollak, chair of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's department of orthopedics. The FDA already has begun to require unique identifiers for devices.

While a national evaluation system has tremendous potential to provide doctors with important information about devices, Pollak said, it will be important to ensure that the data is not skewed. Some failures are caused not by the devices themselves but by a patient's behavior or circumstances, he said. A big issue for manufacturers might be "signals" given off by a device that erroneously indicate a problem, said Theodore Heise, vice president for regulatory scientific affairs at Cook Medical, a Bloomington, device maker. That could put off doctors, scare patients and lead to litigation, while denying patients a needed medical advance, he said. Still, Heise sees many positive possibilities with sharing information, including the ability to quickly add or change features to benefit more patients, and avoiding or minimizing recalls.

The FDA's Shuren said ensuring that quality data goes into the system and providing proper analysis would be critical to handling such signals. Pushing the data out to doctors in a timely way also would be necessary to make sure that patients have information on the products, a concern of consumer advocates. The task now, Shuren said, is to work out the details. meredith.cohnbaltsun.com Nick Mosby aiming for a 'major paradigm shift' Nick J. Mosby Job: Baltimore City councilman Experience: Former senior project manager, BGE; former Verizon engineer Education: Polytechnic Institute; B.S., Tuskegee University Residence: Reservoir Hill Family: Married to Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J.

Mosby; two daughters MOSBY, From page 1 fallen in polling conducted for The Baltimore Sun and University of Baltimore from 10 percent in November to 6 percent this month, fourth in the crowded field. Some detractors see him as a political opportunist, whose marriage to Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby could create an inappropriate concentration of power in one couple. Supporters say they're excited by his energy and ideas. Mosby, an affable 37-year-old city councilman, says he is undaunted by the polls.

He is most popular with voters younger than 35, a group that often doesn't turn out to vote. But Mosby says he'll get them. "We're energizing a brand-new base of voters," Mosby says. "We're going to look for a very strong field campaign to mobilize them." He and his campaign team were doing just that on a recent day at Morgan State University. After his volunteers helped a group of undergraduates fill out voter registration cards in the student center, Mosby introduced himself and tried to convey the importance of voting and explain why they should vote for him.

"People don't expect young folks to vote. They don't expect us to take it seriously," he says. "I know you guys know from doing your history that folks died for this." Twenty-year-old Elijah Miles, apolitical science major who grew up near Johns Hopkins Hospital, said Mosby's background will enable him to serve an overlooked segment of the city. "The old ways have done nothing to affect people like me," Miles said. "We need some new faces, new people with new energy.

I feel he's authentic." Mosby's visit to Morgan State came on a day of round-the-clock campaigning. First, he went running with students at Dunbar High School. Later, while riding the light rail, he spoke with passengers about his transportation plan. He visited nurses on the night shift at Johns Hopkins Hospital and took part in a Twitter town hall meeting at midnight. Mosby's has been one of the more active campaigns in the race.

He was the first to publish a comprehensive platform, with the release of a 15-point plan early in February. He said he developed it over hundreds of hours speaking to policy experts, clergy, law professors, activists, labor leaders and community members. His plan for Baltimore includes more on-the-job training programs, a task force to study expungement laws and a new fiber optic network to connect the city's schools, businesses and government offices. He wants to decrease property taxes for homeowners by 15 percent, create a small-business loan fund, and systematically check all homes for dangerous lead paint and rid the city of it. He cites his life story as proof that he understands the city's issues.

"To the teacher who feels the need to go into their pocket to provide the necessary resources in your classroom: I know you. You were my teacher," he says. "To the parent who sits by their phone at work, wondering if your child has made it home safely from school: I know you. You were my mother. "To the young boy who has been taught over and over again that you can be whatever you want to be in life but knows the cards are stacked against you, knows that the school system is failing you: I was you in the seventh grade." Growing up Six women were packed in his family's three-bedroom house in Northwood he shared a room with his mother and his sister until the eighth grade.

Mosby watched his mother wake up at 4:30 a.m. so she could take two buses to her job with the Social Security Administration. Mosby says his mother, the late Eunice Orange, taught him how to "ride a bike, catch a football, how to be a man." His father, who died when Mosby was 14, was not part of his life. He remembers spending months in a classroom with a substitute teacher during middle school. He watched as paper wads were thrown across the room and fights broke out in the hallway, thinking the school would never prepare him for the engineering career he wanted.

He was accepted into Polytechnic Institute for high school, but Mosby said he nearly failed because he didn't have the academic grounding for the coursework. He said he eventually caught up with his peers and was student government president, captain of various sports teams and part of a debate team. He went to college at Tuskegee University in Alabama, where he began dating his future wife. After college, his mother encouraged him to take one of the jobs he was offered in Houston or Chicago or Louisville, Ky. But he wanted to come back to Baltimore.

Mosby recently left his position as a senior project manager at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to become a full-time City Council member. Mosby said Orange who died a year before he was elected to the City Council in 2011 balked when he took her to the house he and Marilyn wanted to buy for $22,000 in Reservoir Hill. It had sat abandoned for almost 20 years and was surrounded by vacant homes. There was "an open-air drug market in front of me and illegal dumping behind me.

The apartment building next me was called Murder Mall," Mosby said. "We looked at the amazing possibility. We fixed it up, and today it's a microcosm of what we can see throughout our entire city." The Mosbys still live in the home, where they are raising their two young daughters. Powerful couple Mosby brushes away questions about whether his wife's job as Baltimore's top prosecutor presents a conflict. If elected mayor, he would have authority over the state's attorney's $38 million budget and the office's 300 employees.

Likewise, the state's attorney serves as a check on the mayor's Police Department and decides when to drop or press charges. Mosby points to the system's built-in checks and balances. For instance, the council must approve the mayor's budget, and state prosecutors stand ready to investigate any impropriety, he said. He has leaned on his wife whose popularity soared after she announced criminal charges last year for six officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest and death to help with fundraising. She recorded a robo-call for him that went to city residents this month, talking about his commitment to the city.

Charles D. Ellison, a veteran political analyst and host on radio station WEAA, sees Mosby's marriage as an asset to the campaign, given his wife's popularity. "Folks I talk to in political circles and on the street think they're managing their relationship well," Ellison said. Mosby needs to work harder to cultivate older voters, especially black women, who make up Baltimore's most active voting bloc, Ellison said. With a month left before the primary, Mosby said he has time to build more support.

The recent poll found that a quarter of voters were still undecided and another quarter weren't firmly committed to any candidate. "This race just started," Mosby said. "There is runway in front of us for there to be a major paradigm shift." ywengerbaltsun.com twitter.comyvonnewenger.