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Montgomery County launches smart energy bus depot microgrid

AlphaStruxure, an Energy as a Service (EaaS) company, and Montgomery County officials celebrated the launch of the Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot microgrid Tuesday, an integrated electric bus charging infrastructure project in Silver Spring. AphaStruxure led this project, a joint venture with Schneider Electric and global investment firm the Carlyle Group, which will power 70 electric buses, providing sustainable transport for Montgomery County residents. The Brookeville depot is the first microgrid to power electric buses in the greater Washington region. The 6.5 MW microgrid includes bus-height solar canopies, renewable natural gas-ready on-site generation, battery energy storage, and over 4.14 MW of charging capacity.

$1.8B East Baltimore redevelopment has had mixed results so far, study finds

Changes sought in Baltimore City’s Middle East community under an ambitious $1.8 billion redevelopment plan over 20 years ago have so far brought mixed results. A report by the nonprofit research firm Urban Institute found the project to reshape 88 acres in the neighborhood by the East Baltimore Development Inc., or EBDI, has succeeded on some fronts, but also fallen short of its original goals to upgrade the community with 1,500 new affordable and market-rate housing units, lower poverty levels in the area and add more new residents with at least a bachelor’s degree. The report found, though, that the EBDI area had recorded higher rents for apartment units since 2011. The 62-page report was released on Wednesday. It recommended further study of the large-scale redevelopment in the coming years to measure its success.

Grocery Outlet moving into Baltimore market, opening in former Giant in Milford Mill Shopping Center

A California-based discount grocer will move into the Baltimore market in the spring, taking over a shuttered Giant, Baltimore County officials said Tuesday. Grocery Outlet Bargain Market will open in the Liberty Road corridor, which has been without a supermarket since Giant closed in 2018. Grocery Outlet opened its first Maryland location in Hagerstown. The vacant supermarket in the Milford Mill Shopping Center at Liberty and Milford Mill roads will be partially demolished and renovated. Baltimore County will provide $2 million for site redevelopment through a revolving loan fund and the American Rescue Plan Act. The support includes $1.4 million from the loan fund and $600,000 in federal funds.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Senior living complex planned for Notre Dame of Maryland campus moves ahead

Plans to convert a portion of the Notre Dame of Maryland University campus into a senior living complex are moving forward with construction expected to begin in early 2024. Baltimore-based Brightview Senior Living officials said on Monday the development will be the company’s first in the city and will hold 171 apartment homes offering independent living, assisted living and memory care services. It is expected to open by 2026. The complex, which was first announced in 2020, will add to 23-year-old Brightview’s portfolio of 45 senior living communities in eight states. The private senior living chain already has five senior living developments in Greater Baltimore in Catonsville, Annapolis, Crofton, Edgewater and Severna Park. The move comes amid other changes in the works at Notre Dame.

When opportunity flips: Why a firm promising profits from vacants faces so many lawsuits

In late 2020, from more than 5,000 miles away, a Chilean investor named Jaime Sepulveda purchased a single-family home in Southwest Baltimore. It was a simple pitch: An American company, ABC Capital, would handle the entire process, acquiring the property, rehabbing it, renting it out and maintaining it. All he had to do was sit back and collect income.

Retro: Lexington Market was a Baltimore favorite even before revitalization

Baltimore shoppers have a long love affair with Lexington Market, and for good reason. This culinary institution is now reinventing itself but always has been a noisy and rambunctious destination, and is about as Baltimore as it gets. Lexington Market was — and is — a genuine gathering spot. It was mobbed with buyers when Baltimore’s population peaked, in the 900,000 range.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin sends a satellite company’s stock soaring

Boca Raton, Florida-based Terran Orbital, which went public earlier this year, soared in early Monday trading after Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin said it would invest $100 million in the company. Terran Orbital makes small satellites and has NASA contracts. It said it will use the investment to expand manufacturing. The Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Lockheed runs through 2035. It’s the second investment Lockheed has made in the company.

Read More: WTOP
Bidders fret that lucrative BWI Airport contract may be rigged

On a steamy summer morning, hundreds of business owners, lawyers, lobbyists and government contractors packed into a hotel ballroom near BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. They were there to hear about the state’s plans to find a new contractor to run the concessions operations — food, drink, retail and other hospitality services — at the busy transportation hub. “The purpose is to improve on a very good airport concession and make it exceptional,” Morris Williams III, manager of the Commercial Business Activities Section in the Office of Commercial Management at the Maryland Aviation Administration, told those assembled at the hotel.

Elon Musk floating idea of Twitter users paying for verification as he fires platform’s board of directors

Billionaire Elon Musk is already floating major changes for Twitter — and faces major hurdles as he begins his first week as owner of the social-media platform. Twitter’s new owner fired the company’s board of directors and made himself the board’s sole member, according to a company filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
They formed the first Apple store union in the country. Now, employees say they’re barred from some benefits.

Employees of the Apple store in Towson say the company is excluding them from certain benefits, claiming the company made a “calculated” move to discourage further unionization efforts. The employees voted 65-33 in June to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, making them the first Apple store employees in the country to unionize. Their concerns included compensation, fairness and COVID-19 safety. On Thursday, the union sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook that said the company has excluded them from receiving “certain educational and medical benefits offered to all other Apple employees.” Apple’s corporate communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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