Business

Greater Washington Partnership CEO JB Holston is stepping down, with Thursday as his last day, though he’ll stay on as a senior adviser to the board and leadership through the end of the year, per the leadership’s request, the organization has confirmed to the Washington Business Journal. His sudden departure comes just one day after the regional business alliance held a high-profile event, featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, to announce billions of dollars in commitments — some of it already allotted or spent — from 25 of its member organizations toward inclusive growth across five years.

It’s been Karen Komisar’s dream for three decades to run her own business. For years, the Ellicott City resident worked with Animal Advocates of Howard County, helping the organization raise funds for pet adoptions. Meanwhile, she rescued her own dogs and cats. In September, Komisar left her job of 25 years in health care sales with plans to open Sea Dog Pet Boutique. The business opened its doors Monday at 172 Main St., in Annapolis.

Baltimore software firm Fearless is one of 10 companies selected for a five-year, $500 million federal contract to provide IT and business process services to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded the contract as part of its Data Analytics Supporting Healthcare (DASH) pact, which seeks to acquire support for “initiatives aimed at bolstering quality of care through improved health outcomes and beneficiary experiences of care,” according to release from Fearless on Thursday.

This week, the Greater Washington Partnership announced a $4.7 billion investment over the next five years to support equitable business growth in the region from Richmond to Baltimore. The massive pledge leaves a lot of room for discretion on the part of the 25 entities who pledged to contribute. All told, the investment includes $2.6 billion that those entities will put toward procurement spending with diverse suppliers and Minority Business Enterprises in the region, as well as $1.5 billion for “wealth building opportunities in underrepresented communities,” such as affordable housing.

Lutherville-based MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services has brokered the sale of 5.3 acres of land in the Odenton Town Center of Anne Arundel County for $3.75 million to Conifer Realty, LLC, a Rochester, New York-based company specializing in the development and management of multifamily housing units throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

ReBUILD Metro is approaching 200 vacant home rehabs in the Broadway East/Oliver neighborhood of East Baltimore. “It takes a village to build a house,” said Sharon Grinnell, ReBUILD Metro’s manager of construction development. “We’re coming in understanding there are significant structural issues we have to address before we can make it look pretty.” Grinnell showed WJZ a stretch of the 1700 block of East Biddle Street that ReBUILD Metro is rehabbing. It’s the latest block in the cluster of East Baltimore to turn vacant buildings into new homes.

RNAimmune Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in Gaithersburg specializing in discovery and development of mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines, announced Wednesday it has secured $27 million in a Series A round of financing. The company intends to use the funding to accelerate its research and development of mRNA vaccine and drug discovery focused on infectious disease, cancer, and rare diseases.

McCormick & Co.’s sales rose 3% in the first quarter, but inflation and supply chain challenges squeezed the Hunt Valley-based spice company’s profits. Sales rose to $1.5 billion in the three months that ended Feb. 28, compared with $1.48 billion in 2021′s first quarter, the spice maker reported Tuesday. McCormick earned $154.9 million, or 57 cents per share, compared with $161.8 million, or 60 cents a share, the year before.