Wecker Hospitality to Open Bistros in Downtown Columbia
The Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC) has announced that the locally-based Wecker Hospitality Group will open Cured, a restaurant that embodies the rustic elegance of the region’s recipes, with a modern new twist; and 18th & 21st, a cocktail lounge featuring dining and live music that gives a nod to the classics.
Both additions to Downtown Columbia will be located on the ground level of the One Merriweather office building at Broken Land Parkway and Little Patuxent Parkway. Local restaurateur Steve Wecker, leader of Iron Bridge Wine Co., in Columbia; and Mutiny Pirate Bar & Island Grille, in Glen Burnie, is opening the new bistros, which are scheduled to open this winter.
Cured, a 125-seat restaurant, will feature a menu crafted by the restaurant’s culinary specialists. The forgotten cooking traditions of the mid-Atlantic region will be reimagined, with a changing array of dishes paired with a selection of rustic cocktails and craft beers; 18th & 21st is named after the Constitutional amendments that created and repealed prohibition and will be an intimate, 1,900-square-foot “modern speakeasy,” with a 38-seat dining room and larger bar and lounge with live music six nights a week.
Turf Valley Unveils Multi-Million-Dollar Refresh
Turf Valley Resort, in Ellicott City, has announced a multi-million-dollar renovation to its hotel, which features 172 guest rooms and suites, as well as an American fusion restaurant, spa and two private golf courses.
Renovations included updates to 128 of the 172 hotel room restrooms, which include installing new marble vanities with backlit electric mirrors, magnifying mirrors and sliding shower enclosures; 40-inch flat-screen televisions in all guest rooms; complete redesign of all hotel corridors, including hotel elevator landing areas; and updated kitchen and bathroom areas in all hospitality suites.
Also included in the update are newly renovated ADA-compliant rooms, including roll-in ADA showers and increasing the number of accessible rooms; and a new entryway into “The Garden,” Turf Valley’s outdoor wedding ceremony space. First Finish completed all general contracting work in time for the opening of Turf Valley’s 2017 season, which marks the Mangione family’s 40th year of owning the property.
SHA to Resurface Portion of B-W Parkway Southbound in BWI Business District
The State Highway Administration (SHA) is resurfacing two miles of southbound Route 295 (the Baltimore-Washington Parkway) between Winterson Road and Hanover Road, in Anne Arundel County. This $2 million resurfacing project will be complete by late summer, weather permitting.
SHA’s contractor, P. Flanigan & Sons, of Baltimore, will patch, grind, resurface and restripe 2.1 miles of the southbound portion of the parkway. Other work on the project includes upgrading and replacing guardrail; repairing, cleaning and upgrading existing stormwater management inlets and pipes; and roadway slope repair and sediment control.
Crews will work Sundays through Thursdays between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Motorists should expect single-lane closures through the work zone. Last resurfaced in 1997, this section of Route 295 has an average traffic volume of 101,300 vehicles daily and is a primary route to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Electronic Road Construction Brochure Available From SHA
As temperatures rise, highway construction and maintenance projects across Maryland roadsides will become more prevalent. Marylanders are encouraged to learn about these projects with the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) State Highway Administration’s (SHA) Road Ready 2017 electronic brochure.
SHA contractors and crews are working to enhance safety and reduce congestion through hundreds of improvement projects. With MDOT reaching a record number of projects, drivers will encounter numerous construction zones across the state. This brochure highlights 165 of the major projects and the timelines for completion.
The Road Ready 2017 electronic construction brochure is now available at http://maryland.maps.arcgis.com. It highlights major road construction and maintenance projects in each of MDOT SHA’s seven engineering districts, which cover Maryland’s 23 counties. Maryland drivers can also “know before they go” by calling 511 or visiting www.md511.org for live traffic updates, including construction delays and lane closures.
Howard County Farmers
Market Returns
Howard County has welcomed summer with the return of its local farmers markets, as the county will be hosting the events at five locations, four days a week. Shoppers can buy produce, meats, baked goods and cuisine made in the county.
The Howard County Library System will host local food producers every Wednesday until Nov. 15 at its Miller Branch, in Ellicott City, and every Thursday until Oct. 26 at its East Columbia Branch, in Columbia. The new Clarksville Commons is also hosting markets every Thursday. The Ellicott City Old Town Market has returned and will operate every Saturday until Oct. 28 out of The Wine Bin parking lot, on Main Street in the historic district.
On Sundays, until Nov. 19, the Oakland Mills Village Center, in Columbia, will be hosting a market at 5851 Robert Oliver Place. For more information, visit www.hceda.org/markets.
Capitals to Play Toronto at USNA Stadium Next March
The NHL has announced its latest outdoor game is scheduled for early next year at the U.S. Naval Academy’s football stadium. To be held on Monday, March 3, 2018, the Washington Capitals’ contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs will mark the first time a U.S. service academy will host an NHL outdoor game. The matchup will be a rematch of the first round of the 2017 NHL playoffs.
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium — home of the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team, as well as the Military Bowl — will host the event. Its capacity of approximately 34,000 makes it a relatively small venue for an outdoor NHL game, as they are often held in NFL or MLB facilities; but the NHL recently held an outdoor game at Investors Group Field, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which has a capacity of approximately 33,000 for football.
The Capitals have played in two outdoor games, both times in the NHL’s New Year’s Day showcase, the Winter Classic.
Clarksville Commons Hosts
First Look
Clarksville Commons, a 40,000-square-foot sustainable, mixed-use commercial center on Route 108 in the center of Clarksville, has opened. The center, which was developed by GreenStone Ventures II (whose principals, Holly and George Stone, have lived in and raised their family in Clarksville), features environmentally sustainable architectural design, including photovoltaic panels, a living green roof, cisterns to capture rainwater, and stormwater runoff mitigation through rain gardens and porous surfaces.
The project won the 2017 Wintergreen Award for Excellence for Small Commercial Redevelopment from the United States Green Business Council (USGBC) Maryland. Tenants include You Pizza and Scoop & Paddle; Kupcakes & Co. and Vanguard Orthodontics to open in early June; the Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate scheduled to open in July; and Food Plenty is set to open by early fall.
Shore United Bank Opens Three Bank Branches in Area
Metropolitan Area-Shore Bancshares has announced that its banking subsidiary, Shore United Bank, has extended its footprint across the Eastern Shore to the Baltimore area in Elkridge, Arbutus and Owings Mills by opening the doors of three former Northwest Bank branches as Shore United Bank.
The transaction resulted in Shore United Bank receiving $215 million in assets from Northwest Bank, the bank subsidiary of Northwest Bancshares. “We look forward to the opportunities in the Baltimore market area,” said Shore Bancshares’ President and CEO Lloyd “Scott” Beatty Jr. “These branches provide geographic diversification for our organization and will help to support future growth.”
KatzAbosch Announces New Service to Help Optimize Businesses
KatzAbosch has announced that it now offers process improvement services based on Lean Six Sigma methodology for organizations that seek ways to improve performance. The group is led by KatzAbosch’s Claudia Wolter, and the methodology is now common in various industries. It helps identify the cause of a problem and implement a fix based on facts, rather than assumptions.
The benefits include increases in customer satisfaction, revenue and/or resources and production of results. The KatzAbosch team works directly with a business owner, an executive or a team leader to identify the highest-value opportunities, focus on the most critical challenges and help create new strategies.
Hub International Acquires Rossmann-Hurt-Hoffman
Hub International Ltd., a global insurance brokerage, has acquired Ellicott City-based Rossmann-Hurt-Hoffman (RHH). RHH is a multi-lines insurance solutions provider, including commercial and personal lines of insurance, as well as employee benefits solutions. Norman Breitenbach, executive vice president, RHH, will join Hub as president of Hub Mid-Atlantic and report to Charles Brophy, president of Hub New England, regional president U.S. East. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“RHH is one of the most respected brokerage firms in Maryland, and their staff of seasoned professionals will be a welcome addition to our organization,” said Brophy.
Acquiring RHH provides Hub with an attractive opportunity to establish a footprint in the mid-Atlantic region.”
PharmAthene Acquired by Gaithersburg Firm
Altimmune, of Gaithersburg, has announced the completion of its merger with Annapolis-based PharmAthene. Upon the completion of the merger, the combined company was renamed Altimmune Inc., and has commenced trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol ALT. The new entity is a fully-integrated and diversified immunotherapeutics company with one preclinical-stage and four clinical-stage drug-development programs.
Bill Enright, president and CEO of Altimmune, and Elizabeth Czerepak, chief financial officer and executive vice president of corporate development of Altimmune, will serve in their respective positions in the combined company. The new board of directors will be initially composed of three PharmAthene directors and four Altimmune directors. The combined company’s headquarters is located in Gaithersburg.
CA Launches New, Simpler Membership Structure
Columbia Association (CA) launched a new membership structure early last month, offering membership plans that provide improved options for members and residents. The new membership plans are CA Fit&Play, 1Fit, Play, 5Day Golf&Play, 7Day Golf and Golf Fit&Play. Current memberships transitioned on May 1 to the new plan that most closely mirrored their existing plan. Members who are in a current contract will see no rate changes until their normal contract renewal date.
The new membership structure followed a 24-month analysis led by CA’s board of directors and leadership team and a consultant firm. Research identified what options residents would prefer, and CA worked to create a new, simpler membership structure. Information about the restructure is available through various media platforms. Customers seeking to sign up for one of the new membership plans can visit www.ColumbiaAssociation.org/membership/buy-a-membership.
Matan Sells Former Kane/Office Movers Property
Matan Companies has sold its 81,795-square-foot warehouse located at 6500 Kane Way, Elkridge. Acquired by Matan in December 2004, the property was the former headquarters of the Kane Company, one of the nation’s largest commercial movers, which filed for bankruptcy and vacated the space in late 2016. The property features 62,115 square feet of warehouse space with 36-foot clear ceiling height, and an additional 19,680 square feet of office space.
“The Kane building was a unique asset with its highly desirable location and prime visibility along the I-95 corridor,” said Dan Milligan, finance manager for Matan Companies. “After owning the property for almost 15 years, the strong industrial market makes this the perfect time to sell.”
Merkle Becomes a Snapchat Partner for Audience Match
Columbia-based Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, announced that it is a Snapchat Audience Match API Partner. Through the audience match API, Snapchat will enable advertisers to take customer relationship marketing level data — email and mobile ID — and anonymously match that data with Snapchat’s trove of consumer data to reach more consumers more accurately and at scale.
Through M1, Dentsu Aegis Network’s people-based marketing platform, brands can improve their engagement with customers to access a true target market while optimizing cost. The combined solution enables audiences to be targeted on a personal level, with more relevant ads across mobile devices. This presents a new channel for reaching the 150-plus million daily active Snapchatters; more than 60 million of them in the U.S. and Canada.
Holistic Closes on $8M in Investments
Holistic Industries LLC, the only company in Maryland awarded license pre-approval for growing medical cannabis in Prince George’s County, has announced the closing of more than $8 million in investments in a private convertible debt offering. In 2016, the Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission announced that Holistic was awarded license pre-approvals for growing, processing and dispensing medical cannabis in the state. Holistic is building its facility in Capitol Heights and is one of the few companies to be awarded preliminary approval for vertically integrated medical cannabis operations in Maryland.
Holistic, which broke ground on its state-of-the-art cultivation and processing facility in January, is planning for its Prince George’s County facility to be fully operational by August, with medical cannabis product lines coming online late this fall. It is licensed to dispense medical marijuana in Rockville.
BWI Marshall Welcomes International Service From Spirit
Spirit Airlines has announced that it will add international service between BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and Cancun, Mexico, starting on Nov. 9. Cancun will be the first international route for Spirit Airlines at BWI Marshall.
Spirit Airlines has grown quickly at BWI Marshall in recent years. With the new service, Spirit will operate flights between BWI Marshall and 19 markets. The airline first shifted its regional operation to BWI Marshall in September 2012 with flights to two destinations. Spirit Airlines operates flights to about 60 markets in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.
New Health Company Opens in
Ellicott City
A new company based in Ellicott City, Recharge, is integrating physical therapy, CrossFit and Mindfulness training under one roof, at a company that is run by doctors of physical therapy in an environment with a reactive, instead of a proactive, foundation.
At ReCharge, CrossFit classes are developed and led by doctors of physical therapy and are offered via membership.
Better Homes & Gardens
Expands to Crofton
Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate has added Apex Realty, in Crofton, to its franchise network. The newly named Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Live Well Group, led by broker Bryan Gleason and co-owners Jeff Caruso and Mark Somerville, will continue to serve Crofton, as well as Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties.
The Apex Realty management team has more than 60 years of combined experience in almost every aspect of real estate including home sales, building and development of properties. In its first three years of business, Apex has seen steady growth, but under the Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate name, the company is poised to further expand and better serve their clients.
ByteGrid Receives FedRAMP
Ready Status
ByteGrid Holdings, which has an office in Annapolis, has been awarded FedRAMP Ready status by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The designation is granted to cloud systems that are ready to begin the FedRAMP Security Assessment Framework, which is a comprehensive three-step process that helps ensure confidence in cloud solution security and the consistent application of current security practice.
A government-wide program that utilizes a standardized “do once, use many times” approach to security assessment, authorization and monitoring for cloud products and services, FedRAMP works closely with cloud and cybersecurity experts from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and other key government agencies.
Howard County Earns Excellence in Financial Reporting Award in Fifth Decade
Howard County has continued its streak of more than 40 years having merited a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. For the 41st consecutive year, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the United States and Canada has honored the county for exceeding generally accepted accounting principles based on Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) submissions.
Issued by the county each fiscal year, the CAFR is an official financial statement of record that includes statements of special revenue, capital projects, enterprise, internal service and trust, agency and general funds. An independently-audited report, it also provides information on long-term obligations and fixed assets, including infrastructure, and statistical charts on multi-year tax collection and assessable base figures.
Howard County Master Bathroom Wins Remodeling Award
Elkridge-based April Force Parode Interiors is one of 80 companies across the U.S. that has won the Chrysalis Award for Remodeling Excellence. The entries were judged on overall design, creative use of space and materials and the degree to which the project enhanced the original structure.
April Force Pardoe’s modern master bathroom project was awarded the best bathroom remodel under $50,000 in the entire Northeast. The compact master bathroom, which was designed in a home in Columbia, features a wall-mounted vanity with a slab door style and custom gray paint finish. A wall-mounted toilet, chrome plumbing fixtures and straight-stacked linear glass gray tile completes the modern feeling in this bathroom.
COLA Launches Patient, Specimen Misidentification Video
COLA, a national laboratory accreditor and an advocate for quality in laboratory medicine and patient care, unveiled a video designed to address the issue of patient misidentification which the ECRI Institute (formerly the Emergency Care Research Institute), ranked second in a 2016 list of top 10 patient safety concerns for health care organizations.
Entitled “Dr. Daly Discusses … Patient and Specimen Misidentification Issues,” the video is hosted by Dr. John Daly, COLA’s chief medical officer. The video is the third in an ongoing series on topics of interest to laboratory personnel, as well as other health care professionals. Each presentation is less than five minutes in length, and is posted on the on the third Thursday of each month on LabTestingMatters.org. Additional topics currently scheduled include Hand Hygiene (June 15); Liquid Biopsy (July 20) and Tuberculosis (Aug. 17).
Lee & Associates Unveils New
Lee & Associates, the largest broker-owned commercial real estate firm in North America, has revealed its new corporate imaging and brand identity package. The centerpiece of the new program revolves around the design and integration of a modernized logo into all corporate branding elements including signage, the website and the internal and external identity package.
The new design features a modernized icon of the “L” and “A” representing Lee & Associates that reflects a proactive approach that the company feels is embraced by real estate brokerage and property management professionals working for the organization.
St. John Center Dedicated at UMD
The University of Maryland (UMD) recently dedicated the new Edward St. John Learning & Teaching Center, named for Baltimore-based developer, philanthropist and 1961 alumnus Ed St. John, founder and chairman of St. John Properties, who donated $10 million toward the building’s construction. The 187,000-square-foot space, which includes 12 classrooms and nine teaching labs with a total of 1,500 seats, is designed to elevate the culture of collaborative learning on campus.
Focused on a student-centered approach to learning and teaching, the center features labs, informal study spaces, group study rooms and technology-enhanced TERP (Teach, Engage, Respond and Participate) Classrooms with flexibility, such as tiered seating, mobile desks and swiveling chairs that encourage active learning and collaboration. Other unique features include four food spaces and two green roofs, one of which is intended for instructional use.
Newberry Group Acquires Ellicott City-Based Line of Sight
The Newberry Group, an employee-owned information technology consulting and cybersecurity firm based in St. Peters, Mo., with its operational headquarters in Howard County, has announced the acquisition of Line of Sight, an Ellicott City firm with expertise in project management, organizational change and business process improvement services. The move supports the Newberry Group’s ongoing expansion, as the combined firm has more than 100 employees serving clients from Maryland to Hawaii.
“When I started Line of Sight 12 years ago, two of my goals included becoming an employee-owned company and achieving a 50-50 split serving government and commercial clients. Joining the Newberry Group accomplished both goals overnight,” said Line of Sight’s Founder Jon Weinstein, who will join Newberry as the executive director for the new division and is also chair of the Howard County Council.
HCGH Receives Awards for
Stroke Program
Howard County General Hospital (HCGH) received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, evidence-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Hospitals must achieve 85% or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods and achieve 75% or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
Welcome Center in Ellicott City to Expand Hours
With the summer travel season beginning and the ensuing increase in traffic to restaurants, shops and attractions on Main Street in Ellicott City, Visit Howard County is expanding the hours at the Howard County Welcome Center.
Beginning June 1, the Howard County Welcome Center will be open from Sunday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and on Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. In addition to the increased hours of the Welcome Center, the two public bathrooms accessible from the building’s side entrance are now open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.