Shoppers grocery chain moving HQ to Bowie
Shoppers Food & Pharmacy will uproot its corporate headquarters in Lanham and move to Bowie in October.
The discount grocer will take 25,000 square feet of office space at the new Maryland Science and Technology Center near Route 50 and Route 301.
The 466-acre campus, which is being built by Baltimore-based St. John Properties Inc., will include 3.2 million square feet of office, retail stores, shops and restaurants. Shoppers will become one of the first tenants in the second of two newly constructed office towers, called Melford II.
Washington Post faces downgrade
Moody’s Investors Service may downgrade its Washington Post Co. credit rating because potential changes in student loan guidelines could curtail business for its profitable Kaplan Inc. education division.
Proposed Department of Education guidelines would impose minimum student loan repayment rates and cap debt-to-income requirements for students at for-profit schools to remain eligible for government student loans. Moody’s says it will monitor Kaplan’s level of compliance with any new guidelines, as well as its efforts to make changes to meet the new standards.
The Education Department has suggested some of Kaplan’s schools do not meet the proposed guidelines.
Expenses drag down Radio One
Radio One Inc., struggling to refinance debt, reported higher revenue as advertising sales rose, but expenses dragged earnings sharply lower.
The Lanham company had second-quarter revenue of $75.2 million, up 7.6 percent from $69.9 million in revenue during the same quarter a year earlier. Net income fell to $2.05 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $7.2 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.
Overall radio revenue rose 8.4 percent. Revenue from its online operations, where it is concentrating on growth, rose 48 percent.
Radio One is negotiating with bondholders to amend terms and most recently extended an exchange offer to Aug. 30.
