Business

Defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. unveiled a three-story, 55,000-square-foot addition to its Linthicum facility on Monday, more than doubling the size of the manufacturing and research hub. The center, which focuses on military applications of aerospace technologies, is intended to increase how fast the company can manufacture and test equipment for outer space. To help achieve that goal, Northrop Grumman installed robotic manufacturing, augmented reality technologies and other labor-saving devices as part of the expansion.

Maryland voters are expected to overwhelmingly support a ballot measure this November that would legalize adult-use cannabis, but a political group isn’t leaving anything to chance. MD Can ‘22 is a political committee formed in May to advocate for the passage of the adult-use cannabis ballot question. It is bankrolled almost entirely by a $50,000 donation from Trulieve, a cannabis company with dispensaries in eight states, including three in Maryland — in Halethorpe, Timonium and Rockville.

The State Employees’ Credit Union of Maryland is putting its name on the University of Maryland football stadium in a 10-year, $11 million deal that could net the athletics department an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 each year in additional revenue. SECU, the state’s largest credit union with more than $5 billion in assets, will pay Maryland Athletics a guaranteed $11 million for the naming rights to the Big Ten stadium, home of the Maryland Terrapins. The SECU Stadium name will be unveiled on Oct. 1 when the Terps take on Michigan State in the Terps’ home opener in College Park. SECU already has its name on SECU Arena, the home of the Towson Tigers basketball team. That $4.75 million deal, forged in 2013, ends in one year.

Six community groups in South Baltimore have thrown their support behind a planned high-speed maglev train line as the controversial project remains embroiled in a lawsuit with a developer who has other plans for the proposed railway property. The board of the nonprofit umbrella group South Baltimore 7 Coalition, or SB7, voted to endorse the maglev project and a potential rail station in Cherry Hill and announced it will soon work to negotiate a community benefits agreement with maglev developer Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, or BWRR.

Notre Dame of Maryland University, eyeing declining enrollment trends at private colleges nationwide, plans to admit men to its undergraduate program next year, a move that upsets some alums who favor the school’s more than 125-year all-women’s tradition. Notre Dame President Marylou Yam said welcoming male undergraduates in fall 2023 will protect the school from ongoing trends of downward enrollment.

Hotel Ulysses will open in Mount Vernon this month along with an all-day cafe and late-night bar, the first Baltimore concepts from trendy New York developer Ash. The 116-room hotel is located in the historic Latrobe Building and will open Sept. 21 along with the cafe, called Ash Bar, and the cocktail bar, Bloom’s. Also still to come is the conversion of a neighboring building that will see the former Mount Vernon Stable & Saloon space reopened with a new bar concept.