Business

Rockville’s Emmes is sticking to its growth strategy for the past year with its fourth acquisition since a pandemic-era leadership change — and its first so far this year. The contract research organization, which conducts research and clinical trials for public and private sector customers, said Thursday it has purchased Plymouth, Massachusetts-based Casimir LLC, a fellow CRO focused on rare diseases, for an undisclosed amount. The 6-year-old Casimir brings to the table 31 U.S. employees and 25 clients, and experience in researching and testing more than 20 rare diseases.

With challenges ranging from the uncertainty of what the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic means for their business to worker shortages, some of Baltimore’s Black-owned restaurants say they also deal with harassing behavior and spurious complaints rooted in racism. That can be manifested in repeated calls to the city’s nonemergency line, 311, about their businesses, actions they say affect them financially and emotionally. In a city that is 57% Black, numerous Black restaurant owners say some people try to shut them down.

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy has joined forces with Microsoft to create technology to help large commercial customers reach clean energy goals. The technology will allow commercial customers and others to match their energy needs with locally produced clean energy. The technology will work 24 hours a day to match a customer’s power needs with local, carbon-free energy sources.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore needed to spend more than $2.9 million to cover losses at a downtown apartment building as vacancies rose and revenue plummeted during the pandemic. The University Suites at Fayette Square apartment project is a 337-bed complex at 518 W. Fayette St. intended for students at UMB, which includes the university’s medical, nursing, pharmacy and law schools. The Maryland Economic Development Corp. financed its construction, issuing $34.4 million of bonds in 2003.

A fund of CBRE Investment Management has just increased its portfolio along Maryland’s Interstate 95 corridor. The Los Angeles-based private investment firm recently acquired its fifth warehouse in the Harford and Cecil County submarkets, a 672,000-square-foot facility at 511 Chelsea Road. The warehouse is fully leased to Bob’s Discount Furniture as a mid-Atlantic distribution center.

A Bethesda office site that recently traded hands now appears to be headed toward a transformation into a residential and retail complex, in line with Montgomery County’s vision for the neighborhood. The property, located on about 1.4 acres at 4405 East West Highway, is currently home to a 65,000-square-foot office building and a surface parking lot in Bethesda’s central business district, just a few blocks from the Red Line’s Bethesda Metro station. Perseus TDC, which recently acquired the property from Klinedinst Management for an undisclosed price, plans to replace the office space with some 320 multifamily units over 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, beginning in 2024.

A Greenmount West building just blocks from Penn Station has been purchased by a local developer and nonprofit who plan to preserve its long-standing status as a hub for the city’s arts community. Area 405 was bought by a partnership consisting of the Central Baltimore Partnership and Baltimore real estate developer Ernst Valery for $3.8 million, the organizations announced Tuesday. The 120-year-old, 71,744-square-foot building was listed for sale last summer and is located at 405-417 E. Oliver St., near Penn Station, which is in the midst of a massive overhaul.