Business

Cynthia Hopkins thinks it’s about time the Edmondson Village Shopping Center got a makeover. The center needs fewer hair supply stores, she said, and more sit-down restaurants like the ones she and her children used to dine when they first moved into the nearby Rognel Heights community in 1970. “We need the change. … Change is hard, but it’s all in the name of progress,” Hopkins said.

Workers at MOM’s Organic Market in Timonium are expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to follow the lead of MOM’s employees in Hampden and unionize. Local 570 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to represent the grocery store’s 65 full- and part-time employees who would be part of a bargaining unit. The union has proposed scheduling a vote for Nov. 18.

Eighteen Baltimore cultural institutions will receive $2 million from the city over two years to improve their physical buildings, Mayor Brandon Scott announced Tuesday. The city’s Cultural Spaces Capital Support Fund is administered each year by the Department of Planning. With grants ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, the money will be allocated in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 for arts organizations’ projects like building new performance spaces, repairing roofs and upgrading air systems.

Spirit Airlines shareholders voted Wednesday to accept a $3.8 billion buyout from JetBlue Airways, but the deal could still face a challenge from federal antitrust regulators. JetBlue emerged as the winner in a bidding war with Frontier to acquire Spirit, the nation’s biggest budget airline. Spirit announced the outcome after a brief meeting, which was held online. Spirit said only that the JetBlue deal was supported by a majority of shares voted; it promised an exact count within four business days.

Gov. Larry Hogan and other political and business leaders Tuesday toured the Hitachi Rail factory that’s being built in Washington County. “The job creation potential and associated economic benefits are an absolute game-changer for this region and for the entire state,” the Republican governor said in remarks before the tour. “This project is further proof that the Hagerstown region is a major logistical center for transportation with unparalleled connections to the northeastern United States.” Hitachi also unveiled the final design of the $70 million factory, which will employ about 460 people and help sustain a total of 1,300 jobs in the region. The 307,000-square-foot facility is being built at the west end of Halfway Boulevard, which the county plans to extend to Greencastle Pike (Md. 63). The 41-acre site also will include an 800-foot test track.

Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is finally taking its ultra-luxury accommodations to the high seas. The Bethesda hotel giant on Monday announced it has launched The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, which it bills as a combination of its high-end luxury hotel brand and the joys and exploration of a yachting vacation. The Evrima, a luxury vessel flying The Ritz-Carlton flag, left Saturday from Barcelona on a route to Nice on the French Riviera. It’s the first of three vessels planned as part of the collection — a collaboration between veteran cruise industry executive Douglas Prothero, Los Angeles investment firm Oaktree Capital Management and Marriott’s high-end brand portfolio. The yacht collection was first announced in 2017 but shipyard issues and Covid-19-related delays and supply chain troubles pushed its inaugural voyage several times before its first launch.

No, your company’s remote and hybrid workers are probably not slacking off. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MFST) surveyed 20,000 people in 11 countries and analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, along with LinkedIn labor trends and Glint People Science findings, to come to one big conclusion: Managers need to ditch “productivity paranoia” in the hybrid era. That paranoia is exacerbated by worsening economic conditions even as employees are more productive than ever, according to Microsoft’s metrics. In this climate, experts say managers would be wise to resist the urge to micromanage as they seek to navigate an uncertain economy amid a still-competitive labor market.

Sinclair Broadcast Group chairman David Smith has given an additional $140,000 to the effort to create term limits for Baltimore elected officials, bringing his total investment in the ballot question to $525,000, campaign finance reports show. Smith made the contribution Sept. 29, days after supporters — including the Rev. Alvin Hathaway, Marvin “Doc” Cheatham and former independent mayoral candidate Robert Wallace — gathered in front of City Hall to kick off a campaign promoting term limits.