Wow – we’re off to a great start!

Keep your fingers crossed. It looks like we’re really going to pull this off. Solid prospects are evolving for raising the funds required to build our GREEN HOUSE® Residences at Stadium Place.

On Monday we received confirmation that Governor O’Malley has included $4.5 million in his proposed FY 2010 Capital Budget for GREEN HOUSE at Stadium Place (Budget Code: ZA00).

Yesterday I met with our good friend Senator Joan Carter Conway to show her the latest architectural plans (which we’ll post tomorrow) and map the strategy for “protecting” this funding from legislative cuts. She is energized! Sen. Conway told me that she has received a call from Mayor Dixon’s office and Baltimore City is prepared to allocate $500,000 toward the project to compliment the State’s allocation.

I then went over to visit Del. Adrienne Jones of Baltimore County who chairs the House Capital Budget Subcommittee. Del. Jones had visited Stadium Place over the summer and watched the Green House video, and she was very impressed by the number of contributors to the “Green for the Green House” campaign, and the fact that our project will be “shovel ready” by the end of the year and will create 51 new permanent jobs (right out of the Obama rule book). I think she is convinced and supportive (her committee is key).

And then, while walking back into the Senate Office Building I ran into Shale Stiller, the President of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation, who told me he was drafting a letter of support for the project, and the Foundation is very interested in seeing a capital funding proposal from us.

Before leaving Annapolis Ann Murray and I went over to the Lifespan legislative reception at Harry Browns. We saw Del. Adelaide Eckardt (from the eastern Shore) (who is also on the House Capital Budget Subcommittee) and had a chance to inform her about the project – and she seemed impressed as well. Del. Nathaniel Oaks from Baltimore City (my district) said he would put in a good word with his colleagues from the City Delegation.

Many important seeds planted yesterday!