Business

At Charles and Lombard streets in downtown Baltimore, newly installed digital billboards flash images of art, ads and event promotions. The two video displays on office tower facades, unveiled Tuesday by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, are the first in a digital sign network designed to enliven the business district north of the Inner Harbor and promote area artists, businesses and events.

At that time, Hall was in jail awaiting a trial. He was not able to go to the funeral of the woman he had been with for nine years. “With who I was and the things that I was connected to then, I didn’t get out,” he said. “(The judge) was scared to let me out.” When he was released from prison in January of 2015, Hall said he was determined to stay out of prison — and to be there for his son, K’Marion.

Yelp named a Syrian and Levantine restaurant in Baltimore as one of the best new restaurants in the country this year. Ammoora in the Ritz-Carlton Residences in the Federal Hill neighborhood made the inaugural list of 25 “trendy” and recently opened restaurants by the business review website and app. Yelp announced its latest list, which includes restaurants from coast to coast, on Tuesday.

A Baltimore County startup has raised $5.3 million to use wood normally destined for the landfill to create tables, floors and other construction products. Cambium Carbon takes wood from trees that fall down during a storm or are cut down at construction sites and repurposes them for new uses. CEO Ben Christensen plans to use the latest round of funding led by MaC Venture Capital to add new products, launch a nationwide expansion and enhance the software side of the business.

Hundreds of luxury apartments and single-family homes are underway as the second phase of a planned $800 million development in Elkton moves forward. The housing is the latest addition to the large-scale Southfields of Elkton that will convert 650 acres of remote land off of Interstate 95 and the Elk River into a mixed-use community anchored by retail and industrial complexes. Timonium-based Stonewall Capital is the master developer and visionary of the project that was unveiled in 2019.

Rite Aid Corporation announced Tuesday that customers in Maryland and four other states can now receive prescribed hormonal contraceptives by Rite Aid pharmacists at most store locations after completing an in-person private consultation. Pharmacists in Maryland, as well as California, New Hampshire, Nevada and Oregon, have gained the authority to prescribe hormonal contraceptives depending on each state’s laws and regulations.

Rodney Williams fondly recalls his days growing up in Northeast Baltimore, when he ran track, acted in drama classes and played high school football. The tech entrepreneur, now 39, also remembers how his mom and other family members struggled to make ends meet. His experiences led him in 2018 to create an online, peer-to-peer lending marketplace that he describes as “democratizing finance.” Earlier this year, SoLo Funds Inc. hit 1 million registered users, becoming, it says, the largest Black-owned consumer fintech — financial technology — company in the U.S.