Business

T. Rowe Price Group held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning at the site of its future 550,000-square-foot headquarters in Harbor Point, where two seven-story buildings connected by a glass atrium are expected to open in 2024. The Baltimore-based global investment group has been in the city since Thomas Rowe Price Jr. started his business on Light Street in 1937 and has been headquartered at 100 E. Pratt St. since 1975, occupying nearly half of the prominent 28-story building.

Charles P. “Buzz” McCormick Jr., the former chairman and CEO of McCormick & Co. Inc. has died at 93. McCormick, the great-nephew of the spice maker’s founder, Willoughby McCormick, retired three times from the company that bears his family’s name. He served as CEO from 1987 to 1992, while briefly returning as chairman in 1994 after the passing of Bailey Thomas, and as CEO again in 1996 after Gene Blattman retired.

Bowie State University is searching for developers to turn 1.6 acres of woods into a mixed-use development currently called the “Gateway Parcel” to meet a desperate need for student housing, per a recently issued request for proposals. The new development, proposed for the entrance to the Bowie State campus, would provide residences for undergraduates and/or graduate students, but it could also include dining facilities and ground-floor retail in addition to commercial and university office space, according to the RFP issued Feb. 21.

A Fells Point restaurant will close until more federal money is available to assist restaurants struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Friends & Family announced the “hibernation” via Facebook on March 27, saying the restaurant “has suspended service because we, like 177,000 other restaurants and bars across the country, did not receive the assistance promised by the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.” “We will remain in hibernation until the fund is replenished and we are able to attain the assistance to continue operations,” the announcement said.

Baltimore Homecoming, an organization engaging accomplished Baltimore natives and alumni and mobilizing new partnerships, investments and collaborations in the city, Monday announced the five startup founders who will compete for a chance to win $25,000 in the second annual Crab Tank pitch. The event takes place at Amplify 2022, the organization’s three-day event happening May 4-6. Crab Tank was established to spotlight small to medium businesses, startups and entrepreneurs in Baltimore.

The Arc of Carroll County’s request for county funds to purchase a new wheelchair-accessible vehicle was met with suggestions on how the agency could do without the new vehicle. The request was the first of many that the Board of County Commissioners will consider this week as they work to finalize the county’s budget for fiscal 2023, which begins July 1.

Maryland transportation officials have declined a quixotic plan proposed by a startup rail company to dig a tunnel through downtown Baltimore and reroute Amtrak trains through a downtown hub that would replace the city’s Penn Station. The plan hinged on support from the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Administration to halt impending construction to replace a portion of Amtrak’s aging Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel. Instead, Scott Spencer and AmeriStarRail LLC, his four-person startup company, urged the state agency to use an influx of federal infrastructure money to dig a four-track, 10-mile tunnel through Baltimore that links the Northeast Corridor to a new station downtown.