Marenberg Enterprises’ Sandy Marenberg (whom we snapped with Continental Title Group’s William Yerman at Bisnow’s recent evening Schmooze at Lebanese Taverna) tells us his firm is among the owners/operators converting a nursing home at 501 W Franklin St (before that it was the James Brown Motor Inn) to 170 grad student apartments. Of course, they’ll be open to other residents, too, but the location can feed off of U of M, U of B, Mica, and others. (Could get a little uncomfortable during basketball season, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.) MEI also is on teams building townhomes in Baltimore Highlands, rehabbing rowhouses near JH Hospital, and developing 63 townhome lots in Oxon Hill in Prince George’s County. William says his company’s commercial title division has seen a tremendous increase in new deals over the past month, which will mean a busy spring/summer for closings.

We also snapped Direct Mortgage Loans’ Jeffrey Norton and FRP Development Corp’s Richard Fenati, who tells us he's developing an 80k SF spec flex building at Hollander Business Park on 62nd Street where 95, 895, and 40 intersect. And there's room for additional buildings, he says.