Choice Hotels today announced that it has completed the acquisition of the franchise business, operations and intellectual property of Radisson Hotels Americas for approximately $675 million from Radisson Hotel Group. The company has been located in Montgomery County since 1968, when it moved into a campus of three separate neighboring buildings it occupied on Columbia Pike in Silver Spring. Choice Hotels moved to its current headquarters at 1 Choice Hotels Circle in Rockville in 2013. The company will move down the street to Pike & Rose upon the completion of a new 276,000 SF building.

With the close of this transaction, Choice Hotels International has added approximately 67,000 rooms, expanding its presence in the higher revenue upper upscale and upscale full-service segments, and bolstering its core upper-midscale hospitality segment, particularly in the West Coast and Midwest of the United States.


A joint-venture between Minkoff Development and South Duvall has signed a lease with Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) to build a 140,000 square foot build-to-suit project on Montgomery College’s Germantown Campus. The campus currently is home to the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology at Montgomery College (PIC MC) with Holy Cross Germantown Hospital as its anchor tenant. Located at 19710 Observation Drive in Germantown, Maryland, adjacent to the Hughes headquarters complex (11717 Exploration Lane), the new high-tech manufacturing building will house production of Hughes satellite broadband and networking equipment. Full press release below:

“This new facility reflects our long-standing commitment to Montgomery County, as a local employer and business leader for more than 50 years and will help Hughes advance our mission of connecting the unconnected around the world with innovative satellite and networking solutions,” said Jim Muir, III, vice president, corporate real estate at Hughes. “We look forward to inviting students from PIC MC to learn and grow with us and continuing to engage with the community where so many of our employees live and work.”


Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: SENS) a medical technology company based in Germantown that focuses on the development and manufacturing of long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems for people with diabetes, announced that Anthem is providing coverage for implantable CGM, which includes the Eversense CGM System. Anthem’s decision will add more than 45 million covered lives for the long-term implantable CGM system to help manage their diabetes. This recent coverage decision adds to the growing number of payers who are writing Eversense into their CGM coverage policies that now benefit approximately 250 million covered lives, as well as paying for the healthcare provider’s time for the in-office sensor insertion. This allows Ascensia Diabetes Care, Senseonics’ global commercial partner, to introduce the Eversense CGM System to more people living with diabetes.

Per the press release: Anthem (now Elevance Health) is the second largest health insurance company in the U.S. and a leading health company dedicated to improving lives and communities, and making healthcare simpler. Through its affiliated companies, Anthem serves people across 14 states, including more than 45 million within its family of health plans. This most recent coverage decision, in addition to Cigna, Aetna, Humana, HCSC Blue Cross Blue Shield and other health insurance providers, demonstrates broad-based coverage across the United States from the majority of commercial payers, enabling their members to access the benefits of the long-term Eversense CGM System.


A press release sent out by The Teamsters announced that more than 17,000 Costco Teamsters are currently working under an expired contract and that workers are “planning job actions across the country to send message to the company.” The release noted that the Costco Teamsters are “one step closer to a nationwide work stoppage” as they negotiate for a new national contract. There are two Costco locations in Montgomery County- Gaithersburg and Wheaton. The full press release can be seen below:

Costco Teamsters are one step closer to a nationwide work stoppage following another day of contentious negotiations for a new national contract. The Teamsters are bargaining with the company this week for the first time since members overwhelmingly rejected Costco’s “last, best and final” contract offer in June. “Our members at Costco will stand up for their rights and withhold their labor if necessary,” said Sean M. O’Brien, Teamsters General President. “As always, if our members decide to act, they will have the backing of the 1.2-million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters behind them.”


PNC is closing “about 127 in-store branches at Giant Food and Stop & Shop supermarkets in Maryland, Virginia and the District as well as in New Jersey and Delaware”, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal. The Pittsburgh-based bank will close these branches in waves throughout 2023, according to the report, but has not mentioned which specific branches will be closing.

Late this past spring, PNC began the conversion of what will be 1,000 branches to an automated model. The conversion of all of these branches is expected to be completed by 2026. In September 2020, PNC Chairman and CEO William Demchak announced the bank was on track to close nearly 160 branches that year and another 120 in 2021 (109 ended up closing), as part of the bank’s strategy to lean harder on more prosperous digital sales. In April, Pittsburgh’s WPXI reported that PNC was on track to shutter more than 100 branches by the end of June 2022. In July, PNC reported a second quarter 2022 net income of $1.5 billion.


The Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Board of Directors today announced that MCEDC President & CEO Benjamin H. Wu has submitted his resignation effective August 15, 2022. Executive Vice President & COO Bill Tompkins will assume the position of President & CEO.

“We thank Ben for his service and his dedication and life-long commitment to Montgomery County. As we continue to position and elevate Montgomery County as one of the premier regions in the country in which to do business, our vision remains clear and focused. We are confident that Bill’s leadership, business acumen and reputation as a strong and well-respected collaborative business partner will help to ensure a smooth and seamless transition and advance the organization to the next level.”


Gaithersburg’s 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc.’s, (“20/20”), Clinical Lab InnovationAxcellerator (CLIAx), received an honorable mention in Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Health category. The category “honors medical innovations that save lives, extend longevity, or increase access to care.” About 60 companies joined 20/20 as Health category honorees on this year’s coveted Fast Company’s list including Johnson & Johnson, Bose, Abbott, 3M and Colgate-Palmolive.

Believed to be the first shared CLIA lab designed to help diagnostics start-ups more rapidly enter the U.S. market, CLIAx offers nearly 3,000 square feet of ready-to-use communal clinical laboratory space and testing equipment. Additionally, 20/20’s marketing and sales teams help promote the new tests introduced by CLIAx’s clients to the market segments in which 20/20 is currently active. Since its launch in fall 2021, CLIAx was designated by the Maryland Department of Commerce as a “Soft Landing” program for overseas companies seeking to enter the U.S. market, securing its first tenant, Australian-based Minomic International Ltd, a diagnostics firm, with several diagnostics firms coming onboard in the coming months.


Deka Biosciences announced that it is breaking ground on a 14,000 square foot office and lab in Germantown which will house a state of the art Research and Development, Process Development, and Manufacturing facility to further develop their novel cytokine therapies. This will be the first facility to house a dual targeted cytokine development lab in the DC/Maryland/Virginia region and the only company in the US developing a therapeutic of its kind. The new headquarters will be located at 20380 Seneca Meadows Parkway in Germantown, Maryland and Deka anticipates the move to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.

Per the press release: “Our new facility will provide us with essential space to expand our research, development and manufacturing efforts, allowing us to continue to successfully develop our Diakine™ therapies, using single use technology to scale both quickly and economically,” Dr. John Mumm, CEO of Deka Biosciences shared. “This is an exciting new chapter for our company and I believe the expansion will provide a work environment that will amplify a strong culture of innovation and collaboration as Deka seeks to deliver on our mission to bring life-changing therapies to patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases.”


Maryland-based AeroVanti Air Club announced it has engaged Network1 Financial Securities Inc. to raise up to $9.75 million in a Series A fundraising round. The company believes this capital infusion will position the charter aviation club, which has experienced 20X growth since launching in June 2021, to continue to scale its operations, grow its fleet, and expand its destination offerings and flight availability to its growing roster of delighted customers.

Per the press release: AeroVanti has completely reimagined air travel and is in the midst of redefining the entire charter aviation industry, a $25 billion-a-year industry. Through its unique, tiered membership model (as low as $1,000 per month) and competitive hourly pricing at a fraction of the industry standard, AeroVanti has created a completely new market segment in private aviation. AeroVanti members are not burdened by costly initiation fees, expensive hourly rates, capped miles or inconvenient booking restrictions like other membership-based charter services.


MedStar Health In Olney announced a $250,000 philanthropic gift from long-time community partner Sandy Spring Bank to expand cancer care services at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center. The gift will be used toward the development of the Oncology Pavilion at MedStar Montgomery to house oncology services such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, and other treatment and support services.

Sandy Spring Bank’s support of MedStar Montgomery dates back to the founding of the then Montgomery General Hospital in the early 1900s and has continued for more than 100 years through various community, philanthropic, and volunteer support initiatives.


Macy’s will be adding Toys”R”Us store-in-store shops to all of its U.S. locations over the next few months. The shops will range from 1,000-10,000 sq. feet, depending on the size of the Macy’s and will expand during the holiday season to offer a wider assortment of products. There are currently Macy’s locations in Lakeforest, Montgomery, and Wheaton Malls.

Depending on the success of the Macy’s version of Toys”R”Us, the company could consider bringing back standalone stores. The former Toy”R”Us location at 600 Frederick Rd in Gaithersburg has remained vacant since the company closed all its stores in 2018. Did you know the first ever Toy’s “R” Us opened in Rockville? 


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