Business

Live Baltimore is a nonprofit group that encourages people to buy homes in Baltimore’s neighborhoods. And while it offers tours and promotes the city’s residential communities, it also tracks real estate activity in Baltimore, neighborhood by neighborhood. Its annual report took a look at 2023 and came up with some facts about neighborhood pricing, sales volume and popularity based upon days on the market.

Baltimore dropped more than 40 spots on a highly regarded ranking released Tuesday that measures U.S. metro areas on economic performance. Baltimore fell from No. 131 to No. 174 on the list put together by California-based nonprofit think tank Milken Institute. It’s the lowest rank for Baltimore since 2012, according to Maggie Switek, senior director of the nonprofit’s research department and co-author of the report. It’s the second consecutive steep drop for the city, which fell from No. 106 to No. 131 in last year’s report.

Montgomery County public officials are interested in getting a bigger slice of the lucrative sports tourism pie, with focus not just on headline-grabbing professional arenas and stadiums, but also on a broader spectrum of sports and recreation. We’ve spilled a lot of ink about the pending deal to move the Washington Wizards and Capitals to a new arena in Alexandria and the huge stadium-anchored entertainmentplex the Washington Commanders are anticipated to seek — not unjustly, since those franchises and facilities indeed represent big business and big dollars.

A local restaurant franchise group will open a new Jimmy John’s location in Carroll County this week as part of a continued expansion in Greater Baltimore. The new location for the Illinois-based sandwich chain opens today at 1325 Liberty Road in Eldersburg. It is the first new store for Columbia-based Fulton Holdings, which plans to open five more locations in Greater Baltimore this year.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. reportedly came close to securing the naming rights for Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a deal that would’ve been a flashy move for the normally conservative Baltimore firm. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the investment giant (NASDAQ: TROW) had reached a deal with the Orioles to secure the team’s stadium’s naming rights before it was announced that the team would be sold to Baltimore billionaire David Rubenstein.

Investing in Maryland is a safe bet, according to a recently released Maryland Economic Development Association study. The January report, completed with the help of Salisbury University’s Business Economic and Community Outreach Network, found every dollar invested in county economic development operations in Maryland yielded an estimated $9.17 in return.

A company creating a new type of wood with the strength of steel plans to build an 88,971-square-foot manufacturing facility in Frederick. InventWood plans to move into its 5971 Jefferson Station Court headquarters by early March thanks to a $20 million grant from a U.S. Department of Energy program. The company will use the facility to start manufacturing its flagship product MettleWood in early 2025 and hire at least 50 to 60 employees. InventWood is currently located at the University of Maryland, College Park, where founder Liangbing Hu conducted most of the early research into how to turn normal wood into an strong construction material.