Business

Nearly an entire block downtown sold back to its lender for $48.4 million on Tuesday after a public auction on the courthouse steps drew a bidding war. Two bidders drove the price of the three large parcels up from the opening bid of $45.7 million during the 30-minute auction. A representative for the lender, Fannie Mae, successfully bid $48,425,000 to retain title to the properties in a bidding war against a group of investors from Chantilly, Virginia.

Baltimore-based Capital Funding Group (CFG) announced the closing of a $7.2 million HUD loan, which supported the refinancing of an existing bridge loan, executed by CFG, into a HUD loan to support a 75-bed skilled nursing facility in Ohio. The deal was closed Aug. 17 on behalf of a nationally recognized borrower.

Booz Allen Hamilton announced Tuesday it has opened a new Pax River Mission Systems Integration Facility (MSIF) in the St. Mary’s County city of California, expanding upon the firm’s specialized engineering ecosystem of resources to tackle growing client challenges across the Department of Defense (DOD). Booz Allen will celebrate the opening of this new facility with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.

Bird, one of the e-scooter brands found throughout Baltimore over the past year, is no longer permitted to provide rides in the city. The dockless vehicle company was axed in the Baltimore Department of Transportation’s latest round of permits, which allow two other e-scooter brands — Spin and LINK by Superpedestrian — to continue operating through June 2024.

At the height of the pandemic, the co-owners of Diamondback Brewing Co. in Locust Point signed a deal with Legends Limited, giving them a one-stop shop for distribution and a wide reach across the state. Colin Marshall and Tom Foster had experienced working with multiple distributors to sell their beers and wanted out. So, they paid half of $24,000 to exit their contract with Wantz Distributors in Hagerstown.

The Washington County Commissioners sent a proposal to update the definition of a convenience store in the county’s zoning ordinance back to the Planning Commission after a lengthy public hearing Tuesday. The proposed zoning text amendments would change the definition of a convenience store to eliminate the size restriction, which is currently 5,000 square feet — including areas for gas pumps. That restriction “is a big problem,” civil engineer Fred Frederick, president of Frederick, Seibert and Associates, told the commissioners.