Business

Candice Bruno was excited when she saw the JumboFresh Supermarket sign on the former Price Rite building in Southwest Baltimore. For nearly a year, the building in the Mount Clare Junction shopping center has been empty, and Bruno and others have had to go outside the neighborhood for groceries. “It was an important force in the neighborhood that took care of many people, especially lower-income and [those with] ethnic backgrounds,” said Bruno, the owner of Old Major bar and event space in Pigtown.

A cold, rainy afternoon didn’t dampen the spirit of Talbot County’s Minority Business Resource Fair, with the event highlighted by a heartfelt presentation and invitation for participants to receive help from the Maryland Governor’s Office for Small, Minority and Women Business Affairs Special Secretary Yolanda “Maria” Martinez, who made a special appearance at the event.

The secretary of the Maryland Department of Agriculture, an 87-year-old retired veterinarian and a master craft brewer walk into a taproom. No, it’s not the beginning of a lame joke: It was part of the guest list at Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore County at a recent celebration for the release of a beer brewed with the Monocacy hop, a genetically unique plant that’s believed to be the only hop native to Maryland.

Slutty Vegan, the Atlanta-based burger chain with Baltimore roots, will touch down in the Baltimore Peninsula next year. Founder Aisha “Pinky” Cole plans to open a location of her uber-popular vegan restaurant in the Rye Street Market, one of five new buildings that have recently cropped up on the 235-acre South Baltimore development site, formerly known as Port Covington.

BWI is the fourth-busiest airport in the Southwest system and its largest on the east coast. The carrier offers nonstop service to more than 70 domestic and international destinations from BWI Marshall. There are more than 5,300 Southwest employees at the airport. Southwest has two major construction projects at BWI.

Baltimore’s downtown Harborplace will welcome a handful of new temporary tenants in the coming weeks, even as MCB Real Estate plans to eventually tear down the two pavilions along the waterfront. On Wednesday, the Baltimore-based development company said an art showcase, tech incubation and youth engagement center, a pop-up store and an all-day breakfast spot will open in the Light Street Pavilion.

Rowan Digital Infrastructure, a Texas-based company, is looking to build a 750,000-square-foot data center on a 151-acre site as part of the planned Quantum Loophole campus in Adamstown. On Tuesday, the Rowan Frederick project team held an open house forum at Camp Shoresh to share their plans with area residents, local business leaders and members of the county’s data centers work group.

A national cookie chain known for its ever-changing weekly lineup will open its first Harford County location this week. Crumbl Cookies, a Utah-based company, will debut during a grand opening on Oct. 27 at 551 Baltimore Pike in Bel Air. The store will mark the chain’s 11th location in Maryland, with another planned for Lutherville-Timonium in the next two months. It currently has locations in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, St. Mary’s and Montgomery counties.