Business

Look out Royal Farms. Step aside Highs and Wawa. There’s a new gas and convenience chain coming to Baltimore County. Sheetz plans to open Thursday in Middle River, its first location in the county as the Altoona, Pennsylvania-based chain continues its expansion throughout the mid-Atlantic. Before now, its closest stores to Baltimore, the longtime home of Royal Farms, were in Joppatowne and Westminster.

Limbach Holdings, Inc., a building systems solutions firm that partners with building owners and facilities managers who have mission critical mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure, Tuesday announced it has acquired Laurel-based Kent Island Mechanical LLC for $15 million. Serving the greater Washington area, KIM is a service provider to facility owners who require solutions for maintaining complex building systems.

A Wawa convenience store planned north of Hagerstown could be open by next summer, according to a senior project manager with ARCTRUST, a Clifton, N.J.-based real estate investment trust involved in the project. This will be Wawa’s first store in Washington County. ARCTRUST has begun site work at 13610 Pennsylvania Ave., near the Maugans Avenue intersection, that will include stormwater drainage work, Senior Project Manager Apusha Paghdal said Thursday.

Novavax Inc.’s updated Covid-19 vaccine received emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration Friday, sending its shares up about 9% in late-day trading. The updated shot is authorized for people 12 and older and will target the JN.1 strain of the virus. The green light from the FDA will allow Gaithersburg-based Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), whose vaccine is protein-based, to compete with Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA shots heading into the fall.

Restaurant bankruptcy filings have surged so far this year, echoing a broader rise in corporate bankruptcies across sectors. At least 10 restaurant chains, not including multi-unit franchisees, have filed for bankruptcy in 2024. August alone brought three Chapter 11 filings from notable eateries. The increase in bankruptcies comes as diners pull back their spending, labor costs keep rising and Covid-era government help disappears.

Federal Reserve officials will get the latest look at their favorite inflation indicator Friday, a data snapshot that could influence the September rate decision even as policymakers appear to have their focus elsewhere these days. The Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. ET will release its personal consumption expenditures price index, a sprawling measure of what consumers are paying for a variety of goods and services as well as their spending preferences.

Weeks after a strike authorization vote, union hotel workers at Baltimore’s downtown Hilton hotel could not reach an agreement with the company before their contract’s end Thursday. According to Unite Here Local 7 President Tracy Lingo, “without a deal that works for everybody, a strike is possible at any time.”