Business

Graduate student workers pursuing PhD degrees at the Johns Hopkins University officially voted to unionize this week with a 97% majority. Of 3,335 PhD students registered with the National Labor Relations Board, 2,053 voted yes and 67 voted no, a turnout of 64%. The union, which calls itself Teachers and Researchers United, better known as TRU, is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. “We are so excited to unite so many graduate workers. This is a clear sign that we face real issues at Hopkins and are able to solve them together,” said Alex Peeples, a graduate worker in the history department, in a news release.

A new Gaithersburg biotech has launched with millions of dollars in new financing to make a key technology for gene therapy companies. The firm, called Vector BioMed Inc., raised $15 million in late 2022 and is now putting that money to work — to speed up its commercial operations and bring customers on board. It plans to manufacture lentiviral vectors, a type of therapy used to deliver genes into human cells in cases such as cancer and rare disease, and to supply those vectors to other biotechs developing and commercializing treatments that use them, Vector BioMed co-founder and CEO Boro Dropulić told the Washington Business Journal, a sister paper to the Baltimore Business Journal.

Tessemae’s, a Baltimore-based organic salad dressing maker, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure debts and stop what it called costly and distracting litigation by a former lender. The seller of dressings and condiments sold at dozens of national and regional retailers filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy reorganization Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore. The filing lists liabilities in a range of $10 million to $50 million. The Chapter 11 process will allow the manufacturer to preserve its assets, obtain new capital to fulfill customer demand and stop litigation, the company said.

Baltimore-based Sunstone Credit Inc., a technology-enabled clean energy financing platform that helps businesses go solar, Tuesday announced an oversubscribed $20 million Series A funding round. The round was led by an affiliated fund of Greenbacker Capital Management LLC, which provides flexible capital and best-in-class guidance for growth-stage clean energy companies. Sunstone is on a mission to help more businesses go solar by providing simple and cost-effective loan financing. Even as a confluence of factors drive business demand for clean energy, including tax incentives, customer preferences for sustainability, and a need for resilient power access, most companies have not had access to loan financing for solar installations in the past.

Three Maryland stores are among 87 more namesake Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. outlets the retailer said Friday that it will close, in addition to the 150 locations already on the chopping block. Bed Bath & Beyond also said it will shutter all of its Harmon Face Values health and beauty stores. The company has 50 Harmon stores, located in New Jersey, New York, California, Nevada, Florida and Connecticut. Also slated for closure are five stores under the company’s BuyBuy Baby brand.

National industrial developer Trammell Crow Co. is growing its footprint again on the Interstate 95 corridor. The developer recently acquired 20 additional acres in rural Elkton to expand its ongoing Elkton Commerce Center industrial project near the Maryland-Delaware line. Trammell Crow’s deal for the 20 extra acres in Elkton will add to the company’s plan to develop the commerce center off Route 40 in Cecil County that kicked off in 2021. The entire logistics and warehouse complex will now total 319 acres. The first warehouse, which stretches 766,000 square feet, is already complete. A second facility of 330,000 square feet is now in the works, said Chris Rodriguez, a Trammell Crow principal, on Monday.

Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., may be headed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Diamond, the TV home for more than half of all MLB, NHL and NBA teams, is likely to skip a $140 million interest payment in February on the company’s $8.6 billion in debt. According to Bloomberg, Diamond Sports is preparing for a possible Chapter 11 restructuring of debt the company used in 2019 to buy regional sports networks.