Business

The complimentary waffle station opened early on Tuesday at the Bozzuto Group’s headquarters in Greenbelt. It was the first day back at the office for the nearly 350 workers after the pandemic sent many to home-based workstations in March 2020. A treat was in order, said Toby Bozzuto, CEO. “It’s going to take some getting used to,” Bozzuto said, of the 34-year-old company’s new flexible work plan.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County announced Thursday it received the largest gift in university history, a $21 million donation from the Sherman Family Foundation to expand the reach of UMBC’s K-12 and early childhood education work. The gift will provide funding to launch the Betsy & George Sherman Center as a national model to advance excellence in urban schools. This new center will expand and integrate UMBC’s work in teacher preparation, school partnerships and applied research focused on early childhood education and improving learning outcomes for Baltimore’s students.

Blockbusters will return to the Rotunda this fall. Warehouse Cinemas plans to move into the Hampden development’s vacant CineBistro space, president and CEO Rich Daughtridge said this week. The local movie theater chain already operates cinemas in Frederick and Hagerstown. In Hampden, it will take over the 33,000-square-foot CineBistro building, as well as 2,500 square feet of neighboring space that once housed craft beer bar Growler USA.

Who wants to drink the bay? No, not that one. Baltimore’s signature Old Bay flavor is now bottled in a vodka made from corn and distilled in Frederick through a partnership between the spice giant McCormick & Co. and George’s Beverage Company, a purveyor of cocktail mixes based in Hanover.

The U.S. government’s cybersecurity experts are warning owners of businesses, large and small, to step up precautionary measures as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. With punitive sanctions by Western countries meant to cripple Russia’s economy, businesses and institutions across the globe face increased cyber threats. “We are not aware of any specific threat right now,” John Durkin, Region II director for the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said during a Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce member webinar Wednesday morning. “That being said, you don’t fix your roof in the rain.”

Rick Kohr is still excited about the development at Port Covington — even though he decided against moving his company there. The CEO of Evergreen Advisors had previously considered the $5.5 billion project from Weller Development Co. as the next home base for his investment bank and corporate advisory firm when the development was still in its planning stages.

Gov. Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot have once again joined forces to call for an increase in H-2B visas as the peak of seafood processing season beckons. Hogan underscored the importance of addressing labor shortages and the economic impact of the industry to the region amid rising demand in a Feb. 15 letter to the Maryland Congressional Delegation. “These temporary workers have long represented an important and long-valued part of our workforce,” Hogan wrote. “They are even more critical now given the acute labor shortages and critical role the seafood industry plays in Maryland communities, especially those on the Eastern Shore.”

Under Armour Inc. must turn over documents related to the federal government’s investigation into the company’s accounting practices which led to a $9 million fine last year, a Los Angeles judge has ruled. Judge H. Jay Ford III in the Los Angeles Superior Court said in a Feb. 15 ruling that UCLA’s requests for the documents from Under Armour (NYSE: UAA) through discovery “clearly seek relevant information” pertinent to its case against the Baltimore-based sportswear maker. UCLA sued Under Armour in 2020 after the company prematurely terminated a 15-year, $280 million sponsorship deal earlier that year.