Business

Baltimore Public Media is bringing back and expanding the New/Next Film Festival, an event originally conceived as a stopgap measure until the troubled Maryland Film Festival could figure out its plans. Now, with the Maryland Film Festival returning next month, Baltimore film fans will have another chance to celebrate movies this fall as the New/Next festival sets up Oct. 3-6 at the Charles Theatre.

PickleRage, an indoor pickleball club franchisor, Thursday announced its expansion into Maryland with the upcoming opening of a new corporate-operated club in Glen Burnie. The soon-to-be-constructed 26,550-square-foot club will have 10 CushionX courts designed to be joint friendly and be equipped with advanced video recording and livestreaming capabilities.

President Joe Biden’s top economic advisor said Thursday the White House will “make sure gas prices remain affordable” when asked whether the administration would consider tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. “There are of course things that have been done in the past and we’ll continue to very closely monitor, make sure that gas prices remain affordable for so many American families going into the summer driving season,” National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit.

The title of Realtor once meant trust and expertise. But America’s largest trade association has an image problem today — and local members are dealing with the fallout. Greater Baltimore’s roughly 4,700 Realtors are now facing a more suspicious client base, thanks to a $418 million settlement by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in cases that alleged widespread collaboration to keep agent commissions high.

The CEO of a Baltimore bank made his debut on a high-profile list of Black business executives. John Lewis, the CEO of Harbor Bank, was named to Savoy Magazine’s 2024 list of the most influential executives in corporate America. Lewis, who took charge of the bank last year, is joined on the list by 300 Black business leaders across the country, including two T. Rowe Price Group Inc. executives.

A Downtown Baltimore tower with a large state office lease has sold for $23 million, about two-thirds of what it sold for five years ago. Baltimore Tower Properties LLC, an entity of Indianapolis-based KennMar, recently purchased the 24-story building at 7 St. Paul St., according to state records. The seller was California-based Hertz Investment Group, which bought the building at St. Paul and Fayette streets in 2018 for $35 million.

On the morning of Tuesday, March 26, Jonathan Daniels grabbed the first available suit in his closet, skipped his coffee and started the longest 30-minute drive of his life. For most of the commute from his home in Pikesville to an office tower in downtown Baltimore, his staff was explaining the unexplainable: A container ship had struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, toppling it into the Patapsco River and plunging a construction crew into the frigid water below.