Planning and development firm Canopy Team on Wednesday announced its expansion to the East Coast with the opening of a new office in Baltimore.

Additionally, the firm named Fran Weld as its CEO. Weld previously served as the San Francisco Giants' senior vice president of strategy and development.

Formerly named Elysian Park Planning, Canopy was one of nine firms last year that joined The Trailblazer Venture Studio, a collaboration created by Billie Jean King Enterprises, Elysian Park Ventures, the Los Angeles Dodgers and R/GA Ventures to facilitate the growth of women in sports.

While Canopy plans to maintain offices in Los Angeles, it said it chose to open a Baltimore location because the city is an emerging tech hub in the Mid-Atlantic and provides access to major metro areas with venue construction and special events.

Canopy’s founder and chairwoman, Janet Marie Smith, who also serves as executive vice president of planning and development for the Los Angeles Dodgers, lives in Baltimore and helped steer the development and planning of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“Choosing Baltimore as a home for Canopy to grow means more than just reconnecting with our roots,” Smith said in a statement. “We are able to take advantage of the dynamic start-up energy in Baltimore and its convenient location for travel that allows us to work on projects that span coasts and continents, each with a unique and exciting set of opportunities and challenges.”

SALES

MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services brokered the sale of a two-story building and an industrial outdoor storage site in the Jessup section of Howard County for $1.2M.

An undisclosed buyer, described as a local investor, purchased the two-parcel property at 7402 Montevideo Road. Property records list the most recent owners as MacDonald Family LLC, which purchased the property for $181.5K in 1995. Trucking and transportation logistics firm 365 Transportation Inc. partially leases the property.

MacKenzie’s Dennis Boyle and Graham Sevy represented the seller. MacKenzie’s Andrew Meeder, Matthew Curran and Daniel Hudak represented the estate of the MacDonald family in the transaction.

***

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said this week the county purchased the 16.5-acre East Columbia Library Park on Cradle Walk Way adjacent to the library for $415K from Howard Hughes Holdings Inc., an affiliate of the development firm overhauling Downtown Columbia. The county intends to build two lighted artificial turf baseball fields, two lighted basketball courts, a playground and a pavilion on the site, which has been occupied by three multipurpose fields.

LEASES

Commercial real estate brokerage firm Hyatt Commercial negotiated a 12K SF lease at 1800 Dual Highway in Hagerstown with retinal care provider Cumberland Valley Retina Consultants. The company plans to move into the Class-A building in March. Hyatt Commercial agents Treva Ghattas and Laurie Zuiderhof represented the landlord in the deal. The lease is Hyatt Commercial's first transaction in Washington County.

***

RegionalAle opened a new location in a 1,650 SF retail space at 1901 Towne Centre Blvd. on Friday, Annapolis Patch reports. It is the third RegionAle location in the Baltimore metro area, with eateries in Canton and Ellicott City.

DEVELOPMENT

Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development has requested applications from developers to redevelop 14 properties along the 3400, 3600 and 4200 blocks of Park Heights Avenue. Developers may bid on them all or on individual buildings in the Park Circle and Central Park Heights neighborhoods. The two-story rowhomes range between 1,500 and 2,500 SF and are eligible for up to $50K in appraisal gap funding via the city’s Developer Incentive Program.