Commercial Real Estate : Innovation + Job News

Baltimore BioWorks is in the process of applying for state certification as a Minority Business Enterprise that would allow the life sciences manufacturing and training firm to bid on state contracts that set aside a slice of business for minority- and women-owned companies.

John Powers, president, says the company will bid on contracts for manufacturing and distribution at health-related agencies and systems like the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the University of Maryland Medical System.

The company expects to sign a lease for a 14,000-square foot manufacturing and distribution facility at 1100 Wicomico St., Baltimore City next month, after which it will begin to make, sell and ship biomedical products and to offer toxicology testing services. Earlier this month, the life sciences company opened its headquarters in the University of Maryland BioPark, on its downtown campus, and located a few blocks from the distribution facility.

In addition to toxicology testing, BioWorks will manufacture its own line of common biomedical products and buy and sell other lines of supplies like latex gloves, says Powers, who co-founded the privately-owned company this year with Louise Dalton, at a cost of about $1 million, split between the founders and the Abell Foundation.

Besides state agencies, Powers expects BioWorks customers’ in the private sector to range from institutions like Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to biotechnology companies.

In addition to its own business ventures, BioWorks is providing training for workers in the biotech field. The company has a core staff of eight. Powers intends to add one full-time employee per month, or 12 employees per year, for ongoing, year-long vocational training. Trainees will be paid as they progress through a regimented program that covers all aspects of the field.

“It’s a paid position with benefits. It’s your first real job” in biotechnology, says Powers. “You can put it on your resume.”

Training positions are open to all qualified applicants although Powers is working in particular with the Baltimore City Community College Life Science Institute, which has an office at the UM BioPark. There will be an applicant review process, and graduates of the program will be given help finding a job.

However, the minority-focused training program is intended to be self-sustaining and depends on BioWorks’ sales. The company currently has $350,000 in annual sales but Powers says it is on track to reach the $1 million goal by the end of 2012 or early 2013.

The state Department of Transportation qualifies MBEs applicants; the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs administers the MBE requirements. The current goal is for about 25 percent of contracts in qualifying state agencies go to MBE companies.
 
Source: John Powers, Baltimore BioWorks
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 
 

Digital marketing firm WebMechanix  is moving from its current headquarters to a larger office next month, and expects to hire additional staff. 

The three-year-old company is leaving a 1,200-square foot townhouse in Ellicott City and moving to a 2,500-square-foot office in Howard County's Columbia, Partner Josh Mechanic says. He runs the company with his brother Chris Mechanic and cousin Arsham Mirshah, who founded the company in 2009; Josh joined a year later.

"We started out at a kitchen table," Mechanic says. Mirshah's father owned the townhouse and Chris and Arsham lived in it until the company began hiring employees and it was turned into the company headquarters in 2010.

 "We've been growing steadily and we have the financial stability to move to larger quarters," Mechanic says. "Our initial focus was on small businesses. But as we got more referrals, we started selling to bigger companies."

Mechanic says he had been looking for awhile for a suitable new home and found a "great deal" on a "great space." The company has a sublease until October 2014 on its new office. In fact, the relatively short sublease was one of its appeals. "We are not locked into a space for three to five years. We're not sure where we will be when the lease is up so this gives us flexibilty to move in the future," he says of a relocation that will cost WebMechanix $35,000 to $40,000.

Mechanic says the company’s sales have doubled every year since its founding, and projects more than $2 million in revenue this year. It has 40 clients for whom it does mobile, web, search, conversion and analytics as well as design development for new websites.
 
The company is also rolling out a new product, a digital marketing package that improves a company's website performance. It is priced so it's affordable to small businesses, from $800 to $2,250 per month, depending on the amount of work required. He says it usually takes three months to optimize the website, which is typically followed by ongoing marketing.

The company currently has 14 full-time employees plus four to five interns. It is moving into an office that accommodates about 25 full-time employees and within the next few months, is looking to fill a sales position, web developer and search engine optimization specialist and add five more interns.
 
He says the company constantly gets inquiries from college graduates about jobs. In response, it has a policy of taking on unpaid interns for 90 days, after which time they may be hired if the work is satisfactory.  
 
Source: Josh Mechanic, WebMechanix
Writer: Barbara Pash
 

IT firm SITEC Consulting relocated from the cybersecurity incubator at bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park to an office in Anne Arundel County last month.

The minority-owned company moved to Annapolis Junction, a business park, because of its proximity to customers at Fort Meade.
 
SITEC Consulting was founded in 2007 and was acquired in February of 2012 by Kevin Coby, who is president. Since then, he has made changes in management and location "to better serve our customers,” according to Lubna Sher, SITEC’s chief of staff.
 
SITEC Consulting is a business process automation consulting and IT firm for both federal and commercial markets.
 
Since its founding, SITEC Consulting has had a corporate office in Cambridge, a federally Historically Underutilized Business Zone, aka HUBZone, an incentive for federal contractors. Last year, it joined the UMBC incubator and has since grown its staff from 26 to 31, Sher says.
 
Sher says the company is maintaining its Cambridge office, and the two offices will share the staff. She says the company is in a “growth mode” and is looking to increase the number of employees as work progresses. Sher says additional staff would be in IT-related fields like software engineering, visualization, engineering services, and business analytics and support, its core competencies.
 
Source: Lubna Sher, SITEC Consulting
Writer: Barbara Pash

GreeNEWit, an energy efficiency and implementation company, expects to hire at least a dozen employees within the year. It is looking for retrofit service providers, engineers and software developers, says Co-founder Jason Jannati.
 
The company is also working on a new product that it expects to roll out next year. The product is a proprietary software program to measure and assess energy efficiency measures that was originally developed for internal company use.
 
Jannati co-founded the company in 2008 with Josh Notes and Matej Harangozo, who were all classmates at Oakland Mills High School, in Columbia, where greeNEWit has its office. The company is a member of the Howard Technology Council but is not a tenant in its incubator. GreeNEWit won the council’s annual technology award for 2012 Green Company of the Year.
 
The company now employs 35 people and expects to have $4 million to $7 million in sales for FY 2012. It subcontracts with utilities BGE and Pepco to evaluate and install energy-efficient measures in individual residences, multi-family units and businesses. Jannati says greeNEWit is the leader in multi-family properties, having seen over 15,000 apartment units in under a year, from August 2011 to July 2012.
 
The company also works with property managers and property owners on an apartment complex’s common areas like pools and parking lots, focusing on storm water run-off and rain water capture.
 
Depending on the situation it encounters, Jannati says the company may do something as simple as installing energy-efficient light bulbs and timers so power is off when not needed to replacing heating and ventilation systems.
 
He mentions that the state of Maryland recently announced Empower Maryland, a program whose goal is to cut energy consumption by 15 percent by 2015. “It’s all about building sustainable communities,” he says.
 
Source: Jason Jannati, greeNEWit
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Chesapeake Regional Tech Council relocated its headquarters this month to a commercial building that it says will help it better reach its members.

The council left its space in the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., a county agency, to 839 Bestgate Road in Annapolis.
 
Chris Valerio, the council’s executive director, says the move was made to better reflect the council’s growing, regional membership and the fact that it is an independent agency and not a government entity. The council’s new office is located in one of its recent members, Annapolis Offices at Bestgate, a flex-office facility. Flex space is a former industrial building that has been converted to office space. 
 
The council has been situated in the county economic development office, a long-time sponsor, because it provided in-kind space and office help. “We have an independent board but there was confusion. People assumed we were a government entity,” Valerio says. “We are proud of that independent, entrepreneurial spirit.”
 
The council was founded in 1992 as the Anne Arundel High Technology Council. In 2008, the name was changed to Chesapeake Regional Tech Council because, at the time, 40 percent of its members were from outside Anne Arundel County.
 
Since then, half of its 280-company members are in Anne Arundel County or do business in the county, typically at the U.S. Army’s Fort Meade, and the other half are located in Baltimore County and City, Howard County, the Washington, D.C., area and the Eastern Shore.
 
Valerio, who runs the council with two full-time employees, says the move also allows her more mobility in meeting with member companies. They range from startups to large, established businesses. Most are in information technology rather than biotechnology, but members also include service providers like law firms and accountants. In the IT field, many are government contractors but there are also commercial firms.
 
 
Source: Chris Valerio, Chesapeake Regional Tech Council
Writer: Barbara Pash

By the end of the summer, entrepreneurs in the Baltimore metro area will have another place to call home. Betamore, “technology campus,” in the words of co-founder Mike Brenner, should be open by then. 

Brenner co-founded the privately-financed facility with Greg Cangialosi. They are in the midst of renovating an 8,000-square-foot shell at 1111 Light St., a new building in Federal Hill, into part incubator, part classroom and part co-working space. The facility will serve its members and the community at large. Membership applications will be available online next month.

Brenner says Betamore is the first incubator in the region, as far as he knows, that will also act as a classroom. In addition, the two founders bring a sizeable mentoring network that they have acquired by working in the city.

Both are well known in the Baltimore tech scene. Cangialosi's Blue Sky Factory, an email marketing and service provider, was bought in 2011, and he now serves as managing director of Baltimore Angel's and CEO of Nucleus Ventures, an investment vehicle. 

Brenner closed out his other ventures to focus on Betamore. These included Sunrise Design, a web consulting and design studio, and Startup Baltimore, a blog that was acquired in March of 2012 by a company in Philadelphia that plans to transform it into Technically Baltimore, an online publication covering technology. The company also puts out Technically Philly.

Brenner declined to discuss financing for the facility except to say that while it was private, the founders are actively looking for public support as well. He says they are not ready to announce the fees that will be charged for memberships at the incubator and community space. 

The facility will have two classrooms. It will offer classes on entrepreneurship and technology for people in the community at large who are interested in the topic. It will also offer six- to eight-week-long courses for people who are career-oriented and want more in-depth study. Brenner says fees for both classes and courses will be charged, the amounts still to be decided.  
 
In the dedicated incubator space, desks can be rented by the month. Brenner says that renters will have access to Betamore's mentor network, events and weekly happy hours. From early indications, he expects renters to be two- to eight-person teams, and to have 50 teams and “really early stage” companies in that space at any given time. He also expects many renters to be programmers.
 
Betamore will not take an equity stake in its renter-companies. Moreover, it will put a time limit, as yet undetermined, on how long they can rent, "to get a fire under their feet," he says.
 
The third space is a community space that, like a typical co-working space, is a social environment. It will be available for people who want to drop by the facility on an occasional basis, whether once a week or once a month. There will be a fee for the community space. 

"So far, we've gotten a lot of interest. Everyone wants to know when the doors open," says Brenner. "I'm hesitant to reveal too many details. We want to do a proper rollout when we're ready to open."

Source: Michael Brenner, Betamore
Writer: Barbara Pash

A report from the Goldseker Foundation takes an optimistic view of Baltimore City’s potential for job and neighborhood growth.
 
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s goal of increasing the city population by 10,000 over the next 10 years is doable, according to report, “Great Neighborhoods, Great Cities, Strategies for the 2010’s.”  Released last month, it details how to improve the city to attract and retain residents.

Among them:
 
• Focus on retaining and attracting middle-income residents;
 
• Build from market strength wherever it’s found rather than concentrating all resources on the most distressed neighborhoods; 
 
• Market properties and neighborhood amenities to potential buyers; and,
 
• Give city-based employers incentives for workers to live nearby.
 
Timothy Armbruster, foundation president and CEO, says the report was intended to gather and analyze the demographic and economic data that has become available since the previous report in 2010. The foundation has put the report on its Web site and also sent it by email to public policy and nonprofit groups in order to reach the “opinion leaders,” says Armbruster.
 
The project started out as a small-scale look at the neighborhoods the foundation traditionally supports, and expanded to the entire city. The mayor’s goal gave the project a sense of urgency.
 
The report found that Baltimore’s population dropped 4.6 percent from 2000 to 2010. By contrast, Baltimore metro’s population rose by 6.2 percent and Washington metro by 16.4 percent during the same period. It concluded that people were not leaving Baltimore for job relocation.
 
Armbruster says the Goldseker Foundation’s works with community groups, businesses and nonprofits to focus its expertise and funding. 

“There is widespread interest and enthusiasm about the mayor’s goal,” he says. But it is not a city-project only. The institutions, businesses and public need to participate, too.

To that end, Armbruster has met privately with members of the institutional, real estate and nonprofit communities. He is considering holding forums with these groups as well.
 
“The response has been positive,” he says.
 
Source: Timothy Armbruster, Goldseker Foundation
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 
 

Baltimore City is spending $150,000 to create a Climate Action Plan as part of the city’s overall sustainability initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015.

The city adopted the sustainability plan in 2009 but it wasn’t until this year that there was funding to implement it. Beth Strommen, director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, says Baltimore received $6.1 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a variety of energy projects, among them the climate action plan.

“Our goal is to help Baltimore be a more sustainable city, with environmental education and green buildings,” Strommen says.

But Baltimore has unique challenges.

Unlike many cities where the major source of greenhouse gas emissions is vehicle-related, in Baltimore the emissions are overwhelmingly come from commercial and residential buildings. That's because 40 percent of the housing stock was built prior to 1939.

"We are an old city with old houses," Strommen says. 

The Climate Action Plan will have different short-term and long-term goals, by 2020 and 2030, respectively. Stommen says the city has hired AECOM Technology Corp., a global company with expertise in climate action plans, to create the plan.

The plan will look at such issues as land use, green infrastructure, water and waste.

“We are including an adaptation piece,” says Strommen. “How do we adapt to extreme weather events, and to flooding in the Inner Harbor? How do we minimize economic loss? And, also, minimize loss of life with, for example, cooling centers.”

Strommen did not have a timetable for the plan’s completion. Once it is ready, Baltimore City has already received two grants, for a total of $107,000, to begin putting the recommendations in place. The city is also seeking additional federal and state money to implement the plan.
 
Source: Beth Strommen, Baltimore City Office of Sustainability
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Annapolis Offices at Bestgate is not the first, or even the only, executive office space in Annapolis. Nonetheless, the Annapolis Offices officially opened last month with what Christy Dupras, president, calls a new product for the area. 

"Unlike the traditional model," which has only individual offices, "we offer private multi-office suites," says Dupras of the Annapolis Office, at 839 Bestgate Road. Once the home of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which moved its office to Baltimore, the building has been renovated for its new use.

There are two other executive office spaces in Annapolis. 

“With the type of small, private companies that do business between Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, we felt there was a lot of opportunity” for another, Dupras says. Moreover, in the vicinity are the U.S. Naval Academy, Anne Arundel Medical Center, numerous state government offices and, 12 miles away, Fort Meade.

“Many people aren’t willing to make a commitment to a commercial lease,” she continues. “We offer another product.”
 
Dupras says the venture was undertaken with local partners and is a “sister” center of the Washington Offices at Dupont Circle, an executive office space. Clients of the facilities have reciprocity at each.
  
Rent includes utilities, use of the kitchen, eight hours of meeting room time, cleaning and furnishings. For an additional charge, secretarial, phone service and copy/scan/fax service are available. The rent runs from $500 to $3,000 per month depending on office size. Individual offices range from 82-square feet to 700-square feet with a window view; the multi-office suites hold two to five offices. 

Dupras says the rent "is more economical" than competing office spaces. Leases are flexible and can be signed month to month or for a year at a time.

So far, Annapolis Offices is 50 percent occupied with six different companies. Clients include a financial services company, an IT consultant and a commercial real estate development. Dupras  expects it to be fully leased by 2013.
 
Annapolis Offices has one full-time employee. Another employee may be hired if needed.
 
Source: Christy Dupras, Annapolis Offices at Bestgate
Writer: Barbara Pash

Newly passed legislation allows the state to review tax credits for individuals and businesses and to evaluate whether the credits are benefiting the state. 

The legislation eliminated a provision to "sunset", or automatically terminate, tax credits after businesses initially opposed the bill.

Tax credits have become a powerful tool in attracting businesses in film, biotech and other industries. Though the tax revenue lost from the credits are small, the number of business tax credits have increased, according to a legislative report on Senate Bill 739/House Bill 764. There are now a total of 30 different tax credits in Maryland, the report states.

The 2012 General Assembly passed the Maryland Program Evaluation Act. Gov. Martin O'Malley has not yet signed the legislation but is expected to do so. The business community opposed one of its provisions, to automatically end tax credits for about 20 to 30 entities on a rolling, five-year basis. The provision was deleted from the final bill.

"Not only would the provision have killed the tax credit, but in order to get the tax credit restored, the General Assembly would have had to act legislatively," says Brian Levine, vice president government relations, Technology Council of Maryland Inc. "The portion [of the bill] that impacted business negatively was removed."

About 70 entities and business-related activities are subject to periodic evaluation for tax credits. Originally opposed by the business community, the Maryland Program Evaluation Act went through several changes before getting the business community’s approval.  

The provision for automatic termination was removed from the bill, which, instead, sets up a process and an evaluation committee of members appointed by leaders of the Senate and House of Delegates that works in consultation with state agencies.
 
The committee must submit reports to the General Assembly if the tax credit should be continued, with or without changes, or terminated. Public hearings are also required. The onus is on the committee to show why the tax credit should be removed, says Levine, rather than having it happen automatically.

Levine says that legislators “worked with the business community to craft a compromise. We are pleased with the outcome. In the end, we did not oppose the bill.”
 
Levine says the Tech Council and the business community opposed the automatic termination provision.

For example, he says, the state has an $8 million biotechnology tax credit to help early-stage companies. In the original statue, the biotech tax credit does not have a termination date. Had the provision remained in the bill, it would have meant that "every five years, this tax credit would be terminated automatically and could only be revived through legislative action,” says Levine. “We felt that was untenable.”
 
Ronald Wineholt, vice president government relations for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, calls the tax credits “one of the most important economic development” tools.

But, he says of the original bill, “We were concerned that automatic termination of tax credits could limit the usefulness of businesses that were considering coming to Maryland.”
 
 
Sources: Brian Levine, Tech Council of Maryland; Ronald Wineholt, Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

Follow the sun could be the motto of Advanced Technology & Research, a firm that a few years ago developed a product to do just that.

Instead of stationary solar panels, an increasingly familiar sight on rooftops, the Columbia-based company makes a solar tracking device that rotates as the sun moves. The rotation of the device allows for maximum performance, capturing 30 to 45 percent more energy than stationary solar panels aligned at an optimal angle to the sun, says Robert Lundahl, Advanced Technology's vice president for energy systems and automation.
 
Lundahl says the device has residential and commercial use as an energy-saving measure. But it is being bought and installed for other uses as well. Mid-Atlantic Terminal at the Port of Baltimore recently installed three devices to power electric vehicles operated by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. Wallenius Wilhelmsen is powering two electric vehicles to move personnel and material around the port, and has indicated it may order more devices in the future.
 
Another recent installation was a row house residence in Federal Hill, where the company's distributor NEXUS Energy Homes installed one on the rooftop. It was the first sun-tracking device installed on a Federal Hill residence.
 
Advanced Technology's device can be ordered with one standard-size, 235-Watt solar panel (known as a single tracker) or with two 235-Watt solar panels (dual tracker). The tracker is connected to a mounting. The mounting can be placed on a rooftop or on the ground. A GPS-controlled drive unit rotates the panels to follow the sun.
 
Like solar panels, the device is then connected to an electric grid; accumulated energy reduces the electric bill.
 
The basic cost of the ATR device is $2,895 before installation. The number of devices is determined by roof size and budget. The devices are eligible for state and federal renewable energy tax credits. 
 
Advanced Technology & Research is a 38-year old engineering company that traditionally works with military and coastal agencies. It began making the solar device four years as a response to the increased demand for energy-efficient products, Lundahl says.
 
Landahl says the company is focusing on the mid-Atlantic region now but may go nationwide as the market increases. 
 
Source: Robert Lundahl, vice president for energy systems and automation at Advanced Technology & Research
Writer: Barbara Pash

The competition is heating up for foodies who want to work at the new Columbia Wegmans.

Wegmans Food Markets has received more than 6,000 resumes from applicants eager to work at the Howard County store, a local spokeswoman says.

Opening June 17, the Howard County store will hire 700, or about 11 percent of the applicants who have thus far applied. Of those positions, 250 will work full-time. Not surprisingly, the company was ranked No. 4 this year in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.

The hiring focus right now is on culinary jobs — chefs, line cooks and other folks who can work in food service, says Cynthia Glover, who handles local PR for Wegmans.

Jim Thompson, who worked in the Bel Air store, will be Columbia’s merchandising manager, says Store Manager Wendy Webster. Nate Starkweather has moved from New Jersey to work as the store’s perishable manager. Tom Schwarzweller will be its executive chef and Rob Griffin its service manager. Both worked at the Hunt Valley location.

The 145,000-square-foot store will house a 432-seat restaurant and market serving up made-to-order sushi, ice cream, a hot-and-cold veggie bar and other prepared foods. 

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Cynthia Glover; Wendy Webster, Wegmans

Woodberry Kitchen’s Spike and Amy Gjerde will open a coffee shop at Hampden’s Union Mill this spring.

The 1,500-square-foot café will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Also still in the works is Half Acre, a fast-casual eatery that the Gjerdes will open at 3801 Falls Rd. in the middle of this year. The 75-seat restaurant will serve lunch and dinner.

The café will be under construction next month and open in March or April, says Michael Morris, the real estate manager for the Gjerdes’ restaurant ownership group behind Woodberry Kitchen, Artifact and Half Acre.

One of the area’s first farm-to-table restaurants, Woodberry Kitchen is one of the Baltimore area’s most popular restaurants. It earned the accolade of Bon Appetit magazine, which named it one of the Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America in its September 2009 issue.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Spike Gjerde, Woodberry Kitchen; Michael Morris, real estate manager

A group of Baltimore Main Streets board members and merchants attended a White House Business Leaders Briefing last month to showcase the Federal Hill microloan program at a small business forum.

“Federal Hill Main Street is launching this because of a lack of access to capital for small businesses in our community. I think nonprofits are the future for lending to small businesses - banks certainly aren't doing it,” says Jane Seebold, Executive Director of Federal Hill Main Street.

The program offers small, short-term loans – from $500 to $2500 – to businesses in Federal Hill for low interest rates. The loans can be used by the businesses for specialized tasks like technology upgrades or seasonal inventory purchases. The loan board has secured an insurer after a lengthy struggle.

Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Jane Seebold, Federal Hill Main Street

Social media and application development company Mindgrub Technologies LLC could grow beyond Baltimore.

President Todd Marks says the company is considering an expansion to New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los Angeles or Las Vegas where it has clients.

The company recently tripled the size of its staff and moved into a new office in the historic First National Bank building in Catonsville.

“We were practically sitting on each other’s laps, so we had to make another move,” Todd Marks says. “Fortunately for us we lucked into one of the best buildings. The area we are in has some of the finest restaurants around, a skate park behind us and a very hip community."

Marks says he has dubbed his new basement “the Vault,” which will be its new wine cellar.

Mindgrub is still looking for help. The company is currently hiring a junior account manager, production manager, several mobile and software engineers and a quality assurance lead.

Mindgrub will be launching a new mobile app in Las Vegas this week.


Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Todd Marks, Mindgrub