Business

For more than two decades, Billy and Soy Mettawiparee refused to take a day off from running their Waverly Thai Restaurant. Then, in December 2023, they were forced to vacate. What followed were two months of anxious cleaning and restless nights, as the couple behind one of the neighborhood’s longest-serving restaurants struggled to chart a path forward. Now, as of Tuesday, they have it figured out.

Maryland’s casinos, as well as international gambling organizations, are pushing for state lawmakers to establish an internet gaming market. The proposal has a powerful sponsor in the House of Delegates that should ensure it advances from its committee to the full chamber, though it’s unclear whether a similar proposal in the Senate will have the support it needs to advance. Voters would have to approve an internet casino gaming referendum on their November ballots before a legalized market takes shape.

Immigration has propelled the U.S. job market further than just about anyone expected, helping cement the country’s economic rebound from the pandemic as the most robust in the world. That momentum picked up aggressively over the past year. About 50 percent of the labor market’s extraordinary recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data.

Federal and state regulators are suing to block a national grocery chain merger that would sell 10 Harris Teeter stores in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., to the company behind the Piggly Wiggly franchise. The Federal Trade Commission, along with nine states including Maryland, on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging Kroger Co.’s $24.6 billion bid to purchase Albertsons Companies Inc., alleging the merger would reduce competition and lead to higher prices for millions of Americans.

Baltimore businesses are waiting with open arms for thousands of fans who will come to the city for the CIAA Basketball Tournament this week. The conference of historically Black colleges and universities is bringing its men’s and women’s tournaments to CFG Bank Arena from Feb. 26 to March 2. It’s the third year Baltimore is hosting the event in person, and the conference committed last year to keeping the contest in town until 2026. After last year’s tournament brought more than 38,000 fans to CFG Bank Arena, hotels and restaurants are expecting a similar boost in business this time around.

As sports stadiums built in the 1990s show their age, many professional sports teams are looking for new facilities — and public money to pay for them. “We are just in the heating up phase of the next stadium construction wave,” said J.C. Bradbury, a Kennesaw State University economics professor who has researched the issue. “That’s part of the reason why you’re seeing a lot more stadiums happen.”

Two Greater Baltimore firms have joined forces to capitalize on a national trend gripping the troubled commercial real estate market. MacKenzie Cos., parent firm for MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate, and InspiRE CRE recently formed a “strategic alliance” to launch the Asset Adversity Group, which will shepherd distressed properties through court-mandated receivership as many continue to post defaults and losses totaling millions.