Business

Baltimore-based Capital Funding Group (CFG) Tuesday announced the closing of a $13.84-million mezzanine loan, which supported the refinancing of eleven skilled nursing facilities and one assisted living facility. In addition to the mezzanine debt, CFG helped the client place the senior debt which totaled $78.46 million. The total financing package amounted to $93.31 million. The facilities, which span Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, operate more than 1,554 beds. The financing was closed on Aug. 25.

A Baltimore restaurant made a New York Times list of America’s best restaurants, becoming the first Maryland establishment to ever be recognized. Little Donna’s at 1812 Bank St. in Upper Fells Point was among the 50 eateries on the New York Times Restaurant List of 2023, which was published Monday. The list launched in 2021 and features 50 restaurants across the country each year that the publication is most excited about.

Little Italy’s former Ciao Bella restaurant and a parking lot that once hosted hundreds for outdoor movie nights will hit the auction block in foreclosure next month, a sale that could mean more changes for the popular neighborhood. The Oct. 11 auction will include the three-story brick building at 236 S. High St. and its six market-rate apartments in the heart of Little Italy. The sale will include the adjacent parking lot at 230 S. High St. that was both a lot for the then-nearby Da Mimmo restaurant and the annual Italian-themed film festival that always kicked off with “Moonstruck.”

Nominations are now open for the Baltimore Business Journal’s 2024 awards. Our lineup includes several new awards as well as returning honors from last year in technology, diversity, Best Places to Work and more. This year we are also bringing back our corporate philanthropy awards to honor two Greater Baltimore companies that are giving back to the community.

A Carroll County startup that has created an oven out of “The Jetsons” that remotely cooks dinner while you’re at work hit its $25,000 Kickstarter goal in just one hour and now plans to start shipping its first products to customers. Eldersburg-based Celcy increased its Kickstarter goal to $250,000 after the successful fundraise on Sept. 13.

About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers. The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.

Retail center operator Edens has drawn in a half-dozen new tenants to Cabin John Village, including a new Mediterranean restaurant to replace Augie’s Mussel House, as part of a larger repositioning of the 1950s-era shopping center into a more vibrant mixed-use center. Alexandria’s Common Plate Hospitality, behind restaurants like Mason Social and Urbano Mexican Fare, plans a fall opening for The Grove.