Business

MCB Real Estate is expanding its C-suite with the addition of a president who will focus on growth just as a $500 million private overhaul of Harborplace launches. Gina Baker Chambers will start in the newly created position at the Baltimore-based development and investment firm on Dec. 1. She has served as senior managing director and portfolio manager at Washington, D.C.-based Artemis Real Estate Partners for nine years and has worked with MCB co-founders P. David Bramble and Peter Pinkard since 2015 to help fund several projects.

A national indoor golf simulator venue will open a Harford County location this week, with three more Maryland locations to come next year. California-based X-Golf will open its Bel Air location the evening of Nov. 17. The indoor golf company, which already has a location in Pasadena, is poised to add three more locations throughout the state early next year, in Annapolis, Eldersburg and Frederick.

Amazon will buy renewable energy from a solar project on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County that is being built at the former site of a reclaimed coal mine. The 120-year-old mining site formerly operated by Arch Coal was contaminated with more than 45 acres of coal refuse. The project is Amazon’s first to be built on a brownfield — land that has been abandoned due to industrial pollution — the company said in a news release.

OpGen Inc. (NASDAQ: OPGN) is the latest local biotech to overhaul its business — slashing its headcount, executive pay and functions — to conserve cash and try to stay afloat. The company, which develops rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases, announced this week it will lay off the majority of its staff and scale down its U.S. operations in Rockville.

Maryland is home once again to professional lacrosse. For the first time since 2020 when the Major League Lacrosse’s Chesapeake Bayhawks played games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, the sport will set up shop in the state after Tuesday afternoon’s announcement that the Premier Lacrosse League will base its Whipsnakes franchise in Maryland. The Maryland Whipsnakes, as the team will be rebranded, will operate out of the state next summer. A venue will be announced Jan. 1 when the PLL schedule is released.

A Baltimore technology company that has chronicled and provided box scores for Maryland’s high school sports for roughly a decade is looking to take its service nationwide in an effort to fill the void created by a decline in coverage from traditional newspapers. County Sports Zone, a website that launched in 2012 and posts Maryland high school sports box scores and other information, has launched a new fundraising round to raise $4 million to support a nationwide expansion.