Business

Medifast Inc. has invested $20 million in a virtual health care provider as the Harbor East company makes a push into the booming weight loss drug market amid a slowdown in revenue. The partnership will blend Medifast’s coaching and diet-based approach with LifeMD doctors who can prescribe weight loss drugs like Ozempic to Medifast customers. Medifast (NYSE: MED) is purchasing $10 million of LifeMD (Nasdaq: LMFD) stock and contributing $10 million to LifeMD to launch the collaboration and improve the telehealth platform. Medifast CEO Dan Chard will join the board of directors at New York-based LifeMD as part of the deal.

The organization overseeing six of Baltimore’s markets could soon receive millions from the city to help its recovery post-pandemic. City officials will consider giving a $3 million grant to Baltimore Public Markets Corp. during a meeting of Baltimore’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday. The money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) would aid the organization in rebuilding its revenue levels following the Covid-19 pandemic, along with supporting its vendors.

Michael Graves Architecture will move its headquarters to Downtown Baltimore early next year, consolidating its two offices in the region into one space. The international firm based in Princeton, New Jersey, recently leased 5,000 square feet at 233 E. Redwood St. and will relocate about 25 workers into the downtown space blocks from the Inner Harbor.

Maryland regulators are investigating whether SoLo Funds Inc., a fast-growing online lending marketplace started by a Baltimore native, charges excessive interest rates and late charges and failed to disclose finance charges. The Office of Financial Regulation, part of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, has ordered the peer-to-peer platform to stop offering products to consumers in Maryland pending the outcome of the case.

Marking its first foray into the Texas renewable energy market, Rockville-based Standard Solar on Tuesday announced its latest acquisition Tuesday of a 9.9-megawatt (MWac) behind-the-meter solar project to sustainably power part of an industrial process load for Messer Americas in Texas. As a leader in the ownership, operation, funding and development of commercial and community solar assets across 23 states, this acquisition of the Bluebonnet project from EDF Renewables North America signifies a significant stride in Standard Solar’s dedication to sustainable energy solutions.

A group of Virginia state lawmakers voted Monday in favor of a deal to bring the Washington Capitals and Wizards to a new arena in Northern Virginia, according to four people with knowledge of the situation. Under the plan, which would still require approval from the full General Assembly and local officials, both teams would move to a new facility anchoring a massive mixed-use development in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood, according to three of those people and four others.

The Johns Hopkins University is renaming a facility to honor Pava LaPere, a Hopkins alumnus and tech CEO who was killed in September. Fast Forward U, a hub in Remington for students interested in creating startup companies, will be named Pava Marie LePere Center for Entrepreneurship. The university unveiled the honor Saturday at a memorial service for LaPere, which was attended by Gov. Wes Moore and Mayor Brandon Scott.