By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
The second annual Baltimore Region Investment Summit, a spinoff event of the international investment summit hosted by SelectUSA, took place on May 15 at Baltimore Center Stage. The Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), a non-profit that aims to strengthen Baltimore’s economy, co-hosted the event.
The summit was an opportunity for investors and industry pioneers to connect with top executives, exchange ideas and consider partnership opportunities to grow one’s business or investments.
“The Baltimore region is making transformative investments, turning legacy infrastructure into next gen logistic assets,” said Erica Myers, Greater Baltimore Committee’s director of the regional innovation office, during the summit. “Our geographical positioning on the East Coast– and at the crossroads of port, rail, air and highway access–makes us an essential national hub.”
Myers highlighted that over 65,000 supply chain workers and more than 2,100 businesses in the sector reside in Baltimore.
It also featured mini presentations by local leaders and business executives who highlighted the various current and future investment opportunities in Baltimore.
“We were founded in this city in 1937,” said Stephon Jackson, head of T. Rowe Price Investment Management, sharing highlights of T. Rowe Price’s investments in Baltimore. “In 2024, the total [we gave] to communities–including direct grants, matching gifts, associate donations, corporate responsibility sponsorships and community and business memberships–reached $13.2 million.”
The T. Rowe Price Foundation has distributed more than $194 million to Baltimore in directed grants and matching gift contributions since its founding in 1981.
Jackson supplied advice for youth interested in a career in investing.
“Concepts of accounting and finance are fundamental to evaluating and measuring success, but also investing is really about ideas,” said Jackson. “It’s about innovation being rewarded for well considered risks said differently, one person’s bold move might be another person’s deeply researched insight about an overlooked opportunity.”
Bradley McKinney, the deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Commercial Service in the U.S. Department of Commerce, spoke about the work the U.S. Commercial Service is doing in the Baltimore region.
“Earlier this year, Select USA achieved a new milestone of having facilitated–since its inception in 2011–over $270 billion in client verified foreign direct investment supporting more than 240,000 jobs throughout the country,” said McKinney. “This directly benefits the Baltimore region and Maryland as a whole, where between 2011 and 2021 employment generated by foreign direct investment grew by 13 percent.”
McKinney said their Baltimore office is actively working to attract even more investment to Maryland, and is working with their Select USA and Foreign Commercial Service colleagues at embassies and posts abroad to make it happen.
Other major investments mentioned included, the grand opening of Under Armour’s global headquarters, a $1.3 billion commitment, Bluesight’s acquisition of a $50 million backed midstage technology startup and Tradepoint Atlantic’s transformation of a former steel mill and shipbuilding yard into a 3,300-acre logistics and industrial center.
Tradepoint Atlantic is currently developing a 330-acre Sparrows Point using a $1 billion investment to expand the Port of Baltimore’s container capacity by 70 percent.
“We are doubling down here in Baltimore,” said Kristin King, director of Corporate Affairs for Tradepoint Atlantic. “We hope that all of you will put Baltimore at the top of your site selection list.”