Business

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.

The latest development in the fallout from the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse traces its roots back millennia. It also could contribute to litigation about who’s paying for what that’s expected to take years. The owner of the Dali, the massive cargo ship that lost power and knocked down the Key Bridge on March 26, killing six men, has declared “general average,” according to Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for the ship’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd.

It has been a rough few weeks for port workers in Baltimore after the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Thousands of workers remain without work due to the collapse. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the Maryland Protecting Opportunities and Regional Trade (PORT) Act into law to provide immediate relief, but those impacted said it’s taking too long.

One national retailer is set to open on Pratt Street next month while another has renewed its lease, the latest signs of a potential bounceback in downtown’s retail market. Burlington (NYSE: BURL), a discount clothing chain, is hiring new employees and stocking its 35,000-square-foot store at Lockwood Place in preparation for a May 3 opening, company officials said.

At a time when Maryland hospitals are under pressure to reduce wait times and control costs, more of them are turning to a rapidly expanding firm backed by private equity to operate their emergency departments. An Ohio-based company called U.S. Acute Care Solutions, or USACS, will soon expand from operating one emergency department for the University of Maryland Medical System to 10, increasing its already sizable footprint in the state.