Business

In its search for a site to open its first U.S. manufacturing facility, Greenland Technologies Holding Corp. found everything it needed in Maryland — a strong workforce, robust logistical network and a shared commitment to clean energy. CEO Raymond Wang said the company visited a lot of states, but it was Maryland that went “above and beyond” to secure a deal for Greenland Technologies (NASDAQ: GTEC) to open a 54,000-square-foot production center at the Nottingham Ridge Logistics Center in White Marsh next month.

A Georgia-based furniture and bedding manufacturing company is expanding to a warehouse in Havre de Grace, adding 225 new full-time jobs to the suburban market over the next three years. Elite Comfort Solutions will move into an industrial complex at 1900 Clark Road in the small town that sits on the Chesapeake Bay off Interstate 95. The firm is based in Newnan, Georgia, a southwestern suburb of Greater Atlanta, and is a subsidiary of the manufacturer Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG). Leggett & Platt is based in Carthage, Missouri and has 20,000 employees worldwide with reported revenues of $4.28 billion in 2020.

Andrea Oliver has always taken issue with how society perceives stay-at-home moms. “The misconception of stay-at-home moms is, you’re very free. You’re only running errands and taking care of your child,” she said. “Some people are thinking that if you’re stay-at-home, you don’t have a skill to contribute to society or make money.” That’s why Oliver, a resident of Bel Air in Harford County, launched a nonprofit aimed at helping single and stay-at-home moms use their parenting skills, from cooking to crafts, to start a business or side hustle. 

Marriott International says it’s going to suspend all of its operations in Russia amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The Bethesda-based hotel operator, which has operated in Russia for 25 years, said Friday that it has decided that newly announced U.S., U.K. and EU restrictions will make it impossible for the company to continue to run or franchise hotels in the Russian market. Marriott previously announced in March that it was closing its corporate office in Moscow and pausing the opening of upcoming hotels and all future hotel development and investment in Russia.

It was 95 years ago that the name Bernheimer disappeared as a Baltimore retailing legend. The big downtown department store sold out to the May Company that year, leaving behind a collection of solidly constructed buildings where you could once buy everything from a hairpin to a fur coat, and maybe some World War I surplus cavalry horses, too. One of the Bernheimer properties downtown is slated to become 107 apartments, adding to the developing residential neighborhood made of older commercial buildings where Baltimoreans worked and shopped for decades.

Maryland’s legal community is preparing for the seismic changes to landlord-tenant cases that will come with the impending arrival of access to counsel in evictions. The statewide program is set to launch in the coming years after Maryland lawmakers passed legislation in the 2022 General Assembly session to fund legal representation for low-income renters facing eviction. In some parts of the state, variations on an access to counsel program are already underway. Baltimore County, for example, offers day-of assistance to tenants in need of legal guidance.

The U.S. government is doling out millions of dollars to railroad projects throughout the country in hopes of improving supply chains and passenger rail service. The announcement by the Biden administration of $368 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements will go to more than 46 projects designed to improve safety and broaden the nation’s rail infrastructure. About $15.8 million is set to come to Maryland to add four new working tracks and two crane rail beams within the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal.

Chris Bedford is wrapping up his time in Baltimore quietly. He plans leave his job Friday as director of the Baltimore Museum of Art without so much as a whiff of controversy. Low-keyed restraint hasn’t come naturally to Bedford, 45, during the previous six tumultuous years. But, there’s always a first time.