Parser Error Message: Telerik.Web.UI.GridColumnCollection must have items of type 'Telerik.Web.UI.GridColumn'. 'ItemTemplate' is of type 'System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl'.
Inspired by this post http://www.telerik.com/forums/itemtemplate-at-gridcolumn, I found a simple spacing typo in my syntax.
That was it!!!