Business

Catonsville-based Erickson Senior Living is now the second largest independent living provider in the United States, according to a report published by Argentum, the leading national trade association serving companies that own, operate and support professionally managed senior living communities. Argentum’s 2022 Largest Providers List ranks operators in size by self-reported measures such as number of units and employee head count. In terms of it full portfolio of units including independent living, Erickson is the nation’s fifth largest provider, advancing two spots from seventh last year.

Baltimore-based Merritt Properties Tuesday expanded its reach into the Richmond, Virginia area with the purchase of the Crescent Business Center for $41.3 million. The center in in Ashland, Virginia includes five existing Class A industrial buildings situated on close to 20 acres, as well as an additional nearly 19 acres for new development opportunities for warehouse and distribution space. Merritt acquired the park from Crescent Business Center LC, a Thalhimer Realty Partners, Inc. development. Baltimore-based Merritt Properties expands its commercial real estate footprint into the expanding Richmond, VA, market.

The Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation has chosen Arundel Overlook, a 68-acre business community located near BWI Airport, as the site of their first elementary school in Anne Arundel County.  The Chesapeake Science Point Charter School campus network includes six schools with STEM-focused curricula. The group signed two full-building leases with St. John Properties, Inc. for 72,120 square feet of combined space at 1503 and 1513 Signature Drive. Initial kindergarten through fifth grade classes are expected to begin at Arundel Overlook in fall 2023 and, at full capacity, approximately 600 students will be enrolled at the campus.

Two days after citywide unrest following Freddie Gray’s death catapulted Baltimore into the national headlines, Bob Jacobson headed to the neighborhood market in Charles Village, saxophone in hand. Outside the store, he and his musician partner, guitarist Michael Spittel, began to play the jazzy trills and Latin rhythms they were known for: swing, samba, Brazilian bossa nova. The cash tips — typically scarce — poured in.

The newspaper industry, which has been struggling with deep ad revenue declines in the digital age, is backing proposed legislation that would force Big Tech to pay publishers for aggregating their news stories online. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act seeks to level the playing field by allowing local newspapers, broadcasters and other online publishers to negotiate collectively for an annual content fee from Google and Meta/Facebook, which dominate the digital advertising market.

Jeanna Tillery said it feels like she’s going through a spell of heartbreaks. An African American woman in her 70s, Tillery is a retired health professional and Baltimore City native. She and her husband moved to Maryland’s Harford County in 2014, lured by its country feel and a vast forested area next to their three-story single-family home in a neighborhood called Pomeroy Manor.

Founder of Real Time Medical Systems, Provider Partners Health Plans and long-time health care entrepreneur Dr. Scott Rifkin and his wife Frances Rifkin, R.N. Monday pledged $5.7 million to The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Health System to support research and treatment in the institution’s neurology spine oncology program. The gift, to be paid in full by June 30, 2024, is personal to the Rifkins. A close family member has and continues to be treated in this program led by Dr. Nicholas Theodore, director of the Johns Hopkins Neurosurgical Spine Center with whom they now have a close relationship.