Business

The holidays are in the rearview, the new year is getting older by the day and there are still weeks to go before the first hint of spring. That big batch of soup you made at the start of the week is starting to get boring. What’s a foodie to do? It’s easy to succumb to the winter doldrums. Restaurants typically see a drop in business this time of year as more diners stay home, inspired by resolutions to cook more of their own meals or to save some money.

Halfway through the 18-month downtown construction project, city officials remain opposed to grant support for struggling businesses. Construction began in April for the $16 million renovation project, designed to replace below-ground utilities and reinstall Baltimore Street through the pedestrian mall. The construction has created hardship for businesses, particularly in regard to access. Some businesses have taken to publishing pleas for help on social media asking for support with some seeing increased business or canceling of invoices from businesses as a result.

The Annapolis City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Monday night eliminating some restrictions on where food trucks can park and operate in the city. The ordinance, O-29-23, maintains restrictions on parking in the city’s Historic District but allows food trucks to park in any other private, non-residential property if they have written permission from the property owner. The trucks also can be parked on public property if the owners have a permit from the city, county or other public property owner.

A lot has happened in the two years since Tim Regan went home to persuade his wife to let him buy the shuttered Target store at Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore for a million dollars. The redeveloped 127,000-square-foot building now houses TouchPoint Baltimore, the nonprofit that Regan — CEO of the construction company Whiting-Turner — founded with Exelon CEO Calvin Butler following the death of Freddie Gray from injuries suffered while in police custody and subsequent protests.

Womble Bond Dickinson has tapped a former Maryland Technology Development Corp. chairman to lead its Baltimore office as the city is poised to benefit from its status as a federal tech hub. Newt Fowler, who took over the managing partner role earlier this month, has worked for other prominent city law firms and is well connected in the Baltimore tech scene, having served on the TEDCO board for a number of years, including as its chairman.

In recent years, development has become a major issue for voters in Prince George’s County, Maryland. A decade ago, the county approved a planning document called Plan 2035, which called for about half of all new housing to be built inside the Capital Beltway and near transit stations — and another 25% near commuter transit and town center areas.

SECU, Maryland’s largest state-chartered credit union, Monday announced it has launched a new AI-based credit decisioning platform. The platform from credit underwriting platform provider Scienaptic AI is expected to enhance underwriting automation and expand credit access for SECU’s more than 260,000 members.

Baltimore-based Haystack Oncology, a Quest Diagnostics company and developer of personalized MRD technology, has entered a research collaboration with TriSalus Life Sciences to evaluate therapeutic response and provide molecular insights in connection with the clinical development of TriSalus’ SD-101, an investigational class C toll-like receptor-9 (TLR9) agonist.