UMUC Opens Entrepreneur Development Center
UMUC will open its new Entrepreneur Development Center (EDC) this fall at UMUC’s Dorsey Station campus in Elkridge.

UMUC picked its new Dorsey Station location for the EDC program because of its location in the fastest-growing business and technology area in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. The 22,000-square-foot facility offers state-of-the-art display and communications equipment, including a fully-equipped computer lab, wireless Internet access, computer projection systems and a business resource center.

The EDC will offer a special nine-month program, composed of six three-hour seminars and three networking events. The seminar program is designed to help entrepreneurs and small-business owners continue their career growth and enhance their existing business management capabilities.

Sessions will focus on planning and growth strategies, leadership development, creation and protection of value, and exit planning. An orientation breakfast will be held Friday, May 16, which will feature an address from Dick Story, CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

Fort Meade to Upgrade Barracks
Fort Meade is scheduled to receive $52 million during the next three years to renovate four 1950s-era barracks for service members in Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at the Defense Information School (DINFOS).

The Army Installation Management Agency (IMCOM) has allocated $26 million for fiscal ’08 and is earmarked for the upgrade of two barracks this year. The allocation will be followed by $13 million for fiscal ’09 and an additional $13 million in fiscal ’10.

IMCOM initially allocated $26 million for fiscal years ’09 and ’10 after contractors for the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) conducted an engineering study. IMCOM’s commanding general, Lt. Gen. Robert Wilson, visited the AIT barracks last January and confirmed that an additional $26 million would be allocated in an effort to upgrade the living arrangements.

AVI, Columbia’s SPL Announce Merger
Audio Visual Innovations (AVI) and Columbia-based Signal Perfection Ltd. (SPL) have merged to form AVI-SPL, thus establishing the largest provider of global audio video systems and integration services.

AVI-SPL now employs more than 1,200 workers in more than 40 offices spanning across the United States, Mexico and Dubai. It provides a network of services, including custom design and installation of audio video equipment as well as rental services, product sales, managed conferencing, IP integration, staging and production and event management services in the performance venue, corporate and education arenas, among others.

“This merger enables AVI and SPL to build on their respective track records by creating a new company with a national and global presence while offering our customers a wide range of services that are consistent and compatible across geographies and throughout an enterprise,” said Martin Schaffel, executive chairman of AVI-SPL. “Our customers can now employ just one company for all of their AV needs for all of their locations across the map.”

The merger was supported by equity financing from Silver Lake Sumeru, the middle-market group of Silver Lake, an investment firm focused on technology-driven growth industries. Financial terms of the merger and the Silver Lake investment were not disclosed.

Fitch Upgrades MedStar Health to A-, Outlook Stable
Fitch Ratings has upgraded the Maryland Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority and the District of Columbia’s (D.C.) approximately $883.3 million of revenue bonds issued on behalf of Columbia-based MedStar Health to A- from BBB+, with the rating outlook stable.

MedStar has approximately $283.9 million outstanding D.C. multimodal revenue bonds, which are currently set at auction rate mode. MedStar plans to convert approximately $142.2 million of these bonds to a fixed-rate mode and approximately $142.2 million to a variable-rate demand mode.

The upgrade to A- is largely due to MedStar’s evident sustained improvement in operations, driven mainly by improved performance in the D.C. market for the past three fiscal years.

After multiple years of losses, MedStar broke even in fiscal 2004 and continued the trend with positive operating margins since then. MedStar earned $39.7 million (1.3% operating margin) from operations in fiscal 2007 and $35.1 million (1.5% operating margin) through the first eight months of fiscal 2008.

CMI Rebounds in April, But Still Close to Contraction
The seasonally adjusted combined Credit Manager’s Index (CMI), which is distributed by the Columbia-based National Association of Credit Management, rose slightly to 50.1, barely above the critical 50 level indicating economic expansion. The increase of 0.2% was a result of the manufacturing sector falling 0.8% while the service sector rose 1.2%.

Five of the 10 components in the combined index fell, but six are below 50. Eight components fell in the manufacturing sector, leaving six below 50, the most ever.

“However, the service sector showed a rebound in April, breaking a six-month streak of decreases, which made it only the second month in the past 11 to show improvement,” said Daniel North, chief economist with Owings Mills-based credit insurer Euler Hermes ACI. “Finally, note the respective levels of the combined, manufacturing and service indexes — 50.1, 50.2 and 50.0 — all perilously close to showing economic contraction.”

North said that comments from participants this month include the usual litany of slow paying customers and overall economic weakness, especially in businesses exposed to the housing industry.

“However, there was a significant increase in comments about the negative effects of higher input costs, especially fuel,” he said. “No doubt the Federal Reserve will cite these inflationary pressures as a concern when it signals to the financial markets that the cycle of monetary easing is about to end.”

COPT Signs 41,500 Square Foot Lease at M Square Research Park
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), headquartered in Columbia, has leased 41,500 square feet of research office space for the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) in the first four-story, 116,000-square-foot Class A office building at M Square Research Park.

ESSIC’s goal is to enhance the understanding of how the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land and biosphere interact as a coupled system and the influence of human activities on this system. ESSIC will occupy the fourth and (part of) the third floors of the building, which is located at 5825 University Research Court in College Park. It has a scheduled occupancy date of May 2008.

COPT recently announced the formation of a joint venture with the University of Maryland and Manekin in which COPT owns a 45% interest, to co-develop, lease and manage approximately 750,000 square feet of new office space in eight buildings.

This is COPT’s second public/private collaboration to develop research campuses for institutions of higher education. COPT’s first collaborative effort was with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Research and Technology Park, bwtech@UMBC.

Manekin Negotiates $44.2 Million Sale of Rivers Corporate Center
Commercial real estate company Manekin LLC has negotiated the $44.2 million sale of Rivers Corporate Center, a portfolio of nine single-story office/R&D buildings near the intersection of routes 32 and 29 in Columbia.

Columbia-based Oekos Management Corp. acquired the property from Rivers Center LLC, a group of Howard County-based private investors. Located in the Rivers Corporate Park, the portfolio totals 280,000 rentable square feet of space at addresses on Guilford Road and Old Columbia Road.

TEDCO Provides $250,000 to Incubators for Business Assistance Funding
The Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) has provided $250,000 to incubator members of the Maryland Business Incubation Association (MBIA). The funding was awarded through TEDCO’s Incubator Business Assistance Funding program.

TEDCO has signed commitments for the funding with 15 of the state’s incubators. The funding allocation is based on the individual square footage of the incubator and is to be used to support companies located in each facility.

Anne Arundel County Organizes DFAC
The Dairy Farm Advisory Committee has been formed in Anne Arundel County. The entity will meet for a year under the guidance of consultants from Towson-based land planners Human & Rohde to develop a proposed master plan for a portion of the U.S. Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills.

The DFAC consists of citizens from communities surrounding the dairy farm and representatives from agricultural, gardening, historic preservation and environmental organizations. One of the centerpieces of the county’s conceptual plan for the dairy farm is a formal display garden.

EMBARQ Selects Ciena’s CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform
Linthicum-based Ciena Corp. has announced that Embarq Corp., headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., has selected the CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform for deployment throughout its network. The solution will support the aggregation and transport of a variety of residential and business services.

EMBARQ selected Ciena’s CN 4200 for its ability to dynamically increase bandwidth to handle growing capacity demands. For example, with CN 4200, EMBARQ can theoretically carry the entire collection of books in the Library of Congress — or the equivalent of more than 3 billion voice calls at 64 kilobits per second each — in approximately eight minutes across a single fiber. In addition, the platform is capable of carrying multiple types of voice, video and data traffic, eliminating the need for additional equipment.

RLTV, MPT Seek Health Care Answers
Retirement Living TV (RLTV) and Maryland Public Television (MPT) are working to produce dialogue on the health care system in America in the Maryland, D.C., Northern Virginia and Southern Delaware television markets through RLTV’s original series, “Healthcare ’08: Search for Solutions.”

In the series, the nation’s leading political and public leaders present their position on the present and future state of health care through in-depth conversations with Bill Brody, M.D., president of The Johns Hopkins University. “Healthcare ’08” is produced in association with The Johns Hopkins University and the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC).

C Zacks No. 1 Rank Top Performers Includes Martek Biosciences
Zacks.com has announced a recent list of top performing Zacks No. 1 Rank (“strong buy”) stocks that included Columbia-based Martek Biosciences. The stocks with the highest returns also included LaBranche & Co., McMoRan Exploration Company, Big Lots and Stone Energy Corp. Each of these stocks easily outperformed the S&P 500.

Stocks ranked No. 1 by Zacks have produced an average annual return of +32% since inception in 1988. During the 2000–2002 bear market, Zacks No. 1 Rank stocks gained 43.8% while the S&P 500 tumbled 37.6%.

Conmed Announces New $2.4 Million Contract With County in Oregon
Hanover-based Conmed Healthcare Management, a provider of correctional facility health care services, has signed a three-year, full-service agreement with Douglas County, Ore.

The contract includes approximately $800,000 of gross revenue in the first year and two one-year renewal periods for an approximate $2.4 million total value for the three-year contract. The agreement calls for Conmed to provide a turnkey inmate medical services platform that includes staffing of nurses, physicians and clerical personnel, dental services, mental and behavioral health screening services, and ancillary services such as laboratory and diagnostic X-ray and pharmacy services.

Briefing for Business Leaders on Healthy Howard
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, the Howard County Health Department, the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, The Horizon Foundation and The Columbia Bank have invited local business representatives to a briefing on the Healthy Howard Plan on May 28.

The briefing will be held on Wednesday, May 28, at 8 a.m. at the County Executive’s Board Room on the fifth floor of The Gateway Building at 6751 Columbia Gateway Drive. The briefing will acquaint businesses to the goal of this countywide initiative — to bring affordable access to health care to all uninsured county residents. This event is free and open to all. Pre-registration is requested by calling 410-730-4111 or visiting www.howardchamber.com.

CAC Seeks Nominees
The Community Action Council (CAC) of Howard County is seeking nominations for awards given to county residents and organizations for outstanding community service at its annual Holland Awards Dinner.

One individual will be recognized for the Rev. John W. Holland Humanitarian Award and two organizations will be given Community Service Awards.

Since 1992, the CAC awards have been given to recognize hands-on and selfless service to the needy in the county. Selection criteria model the inspirational example of Rev. John Holland. For complete details and a nomination form, visit www.cac-hc.org/CAC/cac_holland.htm. Deadline for nominations is June 3.

CAC is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and emergency services for the low-income population in Howard County. Services include energy and housing assistance, a Food Bank and a Head Start program for pre-kindergarten children.

The dinner will be held Oct. 16 at the Sheraton Columbia Hotel. For specific questions, call Deepak Chadha at 410-313-6440 or e-mail dchadha@h