SUN INVESTIGATES Officials head to retail conference

Local leaders will court businesses, hoping to lure them to Baltimore region

Politicians, economic development officials and developers from Maryland are in Las Vegas for the annual conference of the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Officials attend the conference in hopes of attracting national retailers and restaurants to local projects — and also to network among themselves. The annual event draws more than 37,000 people.

Many officials and government employees travel at taxpayer expense to the conference, which begins today and runs through Wednesday.

State government is paying to send a delegation of five representatives of the Maryland Department of Commerce. Commerce Secretary Mike Gill is attending along with Steve Pennington, managing director of business and industry sector development; Signe Pringle, managing director of international trade and investment; Kavita Verma, director of recruitment and location services; and Brady Walker, a special assistant.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young are attending the conference along with two aides each. The city’s Board of Estimates approved spending of more than $18,000 for the trip.

Pugh’s contingent to Las Vegas is smaller than those taken by past mayors, said her spokesman, Anthony McCarthy.

Pugh said in March she would attend this year’s conference “to lure supermarkets to food deserts, sit-down restaurants, movie theaters and entertainment and attract venues to neighborhoods like Liberty Heights, where we located a ShopRite Supermarket but did not develop the retail corridor around it.”

The city has credited attendance at the conference with helping to bring a Ross clothing store, a PriceRite, a Harris Teeter and a Target to Baltimore, among other retail developments.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz’s agenda at the conference includes working with local developers to pitch the Towson Row mixed-use project on York Road in Towson, the Metro Centre development adjacent to the Owings Mills Metro Station and the proposed retail center at the Tradepoint Atlantic redevelopment of the former Sparrows Point steel mill.

Kamenetz is the only person the county is paying to send to the conference. The county expects the cost to be similar to last year’s cost of $2,678, spokeswoman Fronda Cohen said.

The Anne Arundel County delegation will include County Executive Steve Schuh, Chief Administrative Officer Mark Hartzell, chief of staff Diane Croghan, economic development director Julie Mussog and deputy director Wes MacQuilliam. The Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. is paying the $7,400 cost of airfare and hotels, county spokesman Owen McEvoy said.

Schuh and his team have about a dozen meetings planned to promote county projects, McEvoy said, including some in the northern part of the county targeted for redevelopment.

Carroll County is not sending anyone to the conference. Officials in Harford and Howard counties did not respond to requests for information Friday.

In addition to the official conference agenda, attendees from Maryland traditionally network at a “Maryland Party” thrown by businesses. Baltimore Sun reporter Erin Cox contributed to this article. — Pamela Wood and Luke Broadwater