Business

Continued blanket restrictions on raising rents in Montgomery County, imposed during the pandemic, are biting into landlords’ cashflow and may discourage investment, more than a dozen companies connected with rental housing said in a letter to the county’s elected leaders. “We appreciate the good intentions of passing legislation to help residents through the Covid-19 pandemic,” the letter said, referring to Bill 30-21, which the Montgomery County Council passed unanimously in November, doubling down on a rent increase cap emplaced during the early days of Covid.

Rockville’s Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. is on track to go public later this year, after Covid-19 threw a wrench in the vaccine maker’s initial timeline. But a few things must happen first. So while juggling clinical trials, the immunotherapy company is hiring aggressively, expanding its Montgomery County footprint and eyeing more funding ahead of an initial public offering slated for the second half of this year.

A cargo ship’s hull was not damaged when it ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay and there is no fuel leakage, the ship’s operator said in an update Thursday, four days after the Ever Forward got stranded as it left the Port of Baltimore. Evergreen arranged for divers to inspect the ship after Sunday’s accident, and its propeller and rudder are fully functional, the company said in a statement Thursday.

A medical supply company founded in the early stages of the pandemic said Wednesday that it intends to build a $350 million glove-manufacturing facility at Tradepoint Atlantic and ultimately bring more than 2,000 new jobs to the Baltimore County site through a multiphase, three-year development. If all goes to plan, United Safety Technology will move into a 735,000-square-foot former Bethlehem Steel warehouse and make nitrile gloves — the kind worn every day by clinicians, doctors, dentists and first responders — as early as the first quarter of next year.

More than half of the restaurants shuttered by the city’s health department so far this year have been cited, not for the usual offenses, such as rodents or lack of hot water, but for operating without a valid license or permit. That’s significantly higher than in prior years and many restaurant owners blame the city, saying it is behind on issuing the paid-for permits as well as scheduling necessary zoning hearings, leading to delays in opening and affecting their ability to do business as the pandemic eases.

The next stop on the Papi’s Tacos expansion kick could be Northeast Baltimore. The Baltimore-based Mexican eatery is in talks to sign a lease in the SoHa Union building in Hamilton-Lauraville, owner Charlie Gjerde said this week. “We have a space that’s perfect inside and it’s a good fit for Papi’s,” Gjerde said. “We’re just exploring the neighborhood now.”

More than 60 workers across three Amazon delivery stations staged a walkout on Wednesday to demand a $3 raise and a return to 20-minute breaks, according to one of the labor organizers leading the effort. Ellie Pfeffer, an organizer and warehouse associate at an Amazon delivery station called ZYO1 in Queens, New York, said five people walked out of her station Wednesday in a shift that only has nine workers. She said 28 employees walked out of another station in the borough, called DBK1, and 30 more at the DMD9 station in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.