Business

Officials at the Montgomery County Revenue Authority, the quasi-public agency that oversees the county’s public golf courses, said it had no knowledge of any alleged scheme or looting of Geppetto Catering Co., forcing its abrupt shutdown in mid-2020, and thus can’t be held liable, according to its motions to dismiss a lawsuit by the Riverdale catering company.

Enterprise Community Development, the Baltimore-based nonprofit affordable housing owner and developer in the mid-Atlantic market, Thursday announced it closed on the sale of Auburn Pointe Apartments in Newport News, Virginia for $28.7 million. The community, originally purchased by CPDC, an Enterprise Community Development subsidiary, in 2015, was sold to an affiliate of Bethesda-based RailField Partners, who purchased the property on behalf of its RLM Preservation Fund that focuses on preserving affordable housing.

Conditions are showing slight improvement in the Columbia commercial office market, with vacancy rates slightly declining to 12.7 % in first quarter 2022 on the strength of more than 200,000 square feet of leasing activity, according to a market report released Wednesday by Lee & Associates | Maryland. Last year ended with a 13.5% vacancy rate, even though 315,000 square feet of space was leased in the fourth quarter. Negative absorption dropped from 60,000 to 14,000 square feet of space.

Plans for a karaoke bar and Korean barbecue restaurant in Hampden suffered another setback this week as city zoning board officials voted once again to deny the project’s karaoke component. Restaurateur Wayne Laing envisions a dining-and-entertainment concept at 4001 Falls Road, where he wants to convert a collection of mostly vacant garages behind Red Fish Liquors into dining and karaoke rooms. But nearby residents are concerned the project would disrupt their quality of life by inviting parking issues and noise into the late hours of the night.

Downtown’s historic Lord Baltimore Hotel will reopen to guests, weddings and other events on July 1 after spending the past two years as a shelter for Covid-19 patients with low-level symptoms who didn’t have a place to go. The triage and isolation center at the hotel was geared toward immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, front-line workers who did not want to risk infecting others at home and other people who were having trouble self-isolating.

Baltimore Collegetown Network, a nonprofit organization that works to attract, engage and retain college students in Baltimore, hosted its first Leaders in Higher Education Reception at Baltimore Center Stage on April 19 where University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s retiring president, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski was honored. Hrabowski is the longest-serving college president in the Baltimore area. He’s spent 45 years at Baltimore Collegetown Network institutions, including 30 years at UMBC and 10 years at Coppin State University.

The Towson Chamber of Commerce announced it received a $66,000 Community Safety Works-Business District Improvement Grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to reimburse local businesses who install new exterior surveillance cameras for the benefit of public safety. “We all care deeply about keeping Towson vibrant, safe and strong and this grant is another positive step to do just that,” said Nancy Hafford from the Towson Chamber. “We are working very closely with our local businesses and property owners, the Greater Towson Committee, our residential community, Towson University, government officials, the State’s Attorney Office and our police department to keep our community as safe as possible.