Harford County : Development News

Sigmatech, Inc. is hiring 20 to 25 people for its first office in Maryland. Based in Huntsville, Ala., the defense service provider opened its first Maryland office in May in Belcamp, near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.

The office started off with a staff of two but Brian Simmons, senior vice president for Washington, D.C., and APG operations, says he is looking to add system engineers, scientists and acquisiton experts by the end of this year.

“We are interested in supporting the U.S. Army at APG. What they do is different from Huntsville,” site of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Simmons says.
 
“Every other weapons program comes through APG at some point,” says Simmons. With future contracts in “R&D (research and development), test evaluation, foreign military sales and security assistance to allies at APG, my goal is for the office to pay for itself by the end of the year.” 
 
Sigmatech opened its first office outside its Alabama headquarters last year in Crystal City, Va., to serve the northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., market. The private company has 320 employees, two-thirds of them in Huntsville, and $60 million in annual revenue.
 
Sigmatech’s APG office is located in the Water’s Edge Corporate Campus. “It is a bold move for us because of cutbacks, a tight market. But the timing is right for us,” says Simmons. “We need to grow and bolster our technical talent.”
 
Simmons says the company was particularly interested in APG because after the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, several large military-defense agencies moved there.
 
“After Huntsville, APG is the next largest Army hub for weapons development and acquisition, new R&D, computers and intelligence,” he says.
 
Simmons expects to expand Sigmatech’s e-learning courses to future clients at APG. Based on a topic chosen by the client, the company designs a curriculum and develops a web-based instructional course. For example, one client was the United States Military Academy West Point, for which Sigmatech developed a course for its counter-terrorism center.
 
Source: Brian Simmons, Sigmatech, Inc.
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

Construction crews broke ground this month on the first phase of a new 39,000-square-foot nursing home at the Bulle Rock development in Havre de Grace.
 
Lorien Health Systems' $9.5 million building will have 78 beds and will eventually include an assisted-living facility. The company expects to open the building for patients in April 2013.
 
The site's location provides a needed resource in an area that is getting more people, says James A. Forsyth, an attorney for Lorien Health Systems.
 
Harford County has gained thousands of new residents thanks to the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure and these new residents will likely need services for their aging families, Forsyth says.

Lorien's model of healthcare combines skilled nursing facilities with assisted living under the same roof so that patients can move between facilities if necessary. Individuals with more medically complex cases, from accidents for example, will also be able to receive care at this facility, Forsyth says.
 
Lorien's additional sites are located in Bel Air, Belcamp, Columbia, Ellicott City, Mt. Airy, Taneytown, Timonium, and a 64-bed facility nearing completion in Elkridge.
 
Any new healthcare facility of a certain threshold requires a certificate of need approval which is a permitting process overseen by the Maryland Health Care Commission. The process uses county-by-county demographics to determine how many beds will be needed to serve the elderly population.
 
 
Writer: Alexandra Wilding
Source: James A. Forsyth, council for Lorien Health Systems
 

A million-dollar, Caribbean-themed seafood restaurant, lounge, and tiki bar has opened in Harford County.

Owner Anthony Ashe hopes Fallston’s Mallet Restaurant and Crabhouse will stand out from the county’s chain restaurants.

He also hopes the location, at the busy intersection of Route 1 and Maryland Route 152, would attract plenty of drive-by traffic. Though the economy has not been kind to some restaurants, Ashe is hoping the county’s new residents from the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) will bring in business.

The 13,000-square-foot restaurant, which opened last month, features a martini lounge serving sushi, a raw oyster bar, steamed crabs, and a patio decked out with palm trees. It seats 650.

“We have multiple environments in one destination,” Ashe says.

Prior to opening the restaurant, Ashe was an executive for Canadian airline technology firm GuestLogix Inc. He also had a career as an investment banker.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Anthony Ashe, Mallet Restaurant and Crabhouse

LifeBridge Health's sports medicine division has acquired a Baltimore-area physical therapy practice, giving it an another five clinics and nearly doubling its patients.

The clinics it acquired from Henning & Cole Therapy Associates are located in Hunt Valley, Bel Air, Essex, Perry Hall, and Belcamp, bringing its total number to 11.

The expansion in physical therapy also allows the health care organization to keep its grip on aging baby boomers as they stay active longer.
Having more clinics makes it easier for LifeBridge to keep patients once they leave the hospital and seek physical therapy, says Matt Carlen, executive director of LifeBridge's wellness division. LifeBridge will handle about 6,000 physical therapy patients per month with the acquisition.

Each of the Henning & Cole clinics pulls in about $1 million in revenue, Carlen says. He declined to disclose the purchase price. The practice was known for relying on manual, hands-on therapy more than machines, he says.

LifeBridge Health is composed of Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital, Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital, Courtland Gardens Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and LifeBridge Health and Fitness.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Matt Carlen, LifeBridge

A senior housing community has taken the first step toward building a $125 million continuing care retirement facility in Harford County.

The Presbyterian Home of Maryland Inc. received approval from the Maryland Dept. of Aging to determine the feasibility of constructing 183 independent living units, 10 assisted living beds and 10 comprehensive care beds in Aberdeen.

If the plan goes through, the 138-acre site will break ground in 2011 and the facility will open by late 2013. The Village at Carsins Run will be adjacent to Ripken Stadium. The site will include wetlands, tree buffers and nature trail.

The feasibility study indicates that a reasonable financial plan has been submitted for development and operation of the project, and that there appears to be a market for a continuing care retirement community in Harford County.

The Village at Carsins Run will employ about 80 full-time workers once it opens. Approximately 200 construction jobs will be available once actual work on the project begins.

Construction will be funded with seed capital from the Presbyterian Home of Maryland, a faith-based Towson nonprofit and municipal bonds.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Presbyterian Home of Maryland