Baltimore’s City Garage became more than a backdrop for a gubernatorial visit today. It became a statement.
Standing inside the former industrial space now reimagined as a life sciences and advanced manufacturing hub, Wes Moore used his visit to City Garage to do three things at once: spotlight the companies building the next generation of medical and industrial innovation, underscore the early impact of state-backed growth capital, and formally announce what he positioned as a signature economic competitiveness bill — the Delivering Economic Competitiveness and Advancing Development Efforts Act, or the DECADE Act.
The announcement came after a tour of City Garage, where Moore met with founders and CEOs from companies operating at the intersection of medtech, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing — several of which were recent recipients of Maryland’s Build Our Future grants. The setting was intentional. As Moore made clear, City Garage represents the kind of place, and the kind of work, the state plans to double down on over the next decade.
City Garage as Proof Point
City Garage, located in Baltimore and originally envisioned as an innovation center by Kevin Plank, has evolved into a commercialization-focused life sciences campus anchored by organizations like LaunchPort and Blackbird Laboratories.
In his opening remarks, LaunchPort founder Bob Storey framed City Garage as a modern extension of Baltimore’s manufacturing legacy — from steel and ships to personalized medicine and advanced medical devices. He emphasized how public-private investment has already helped channel hundreds of millions of dollars into companies based at the site, with more expected to follow as commercialization accelerates.
Moore echoed that sentiment during his remarks, describing City Garage as “exactly what we mean when we talk about building the economy of the future here in the state of Maryland.” He pointed to Blackbird’s work bridging breakthrough science with real-world applications, and LaunchPort’s role in enabling medtech startups to manufacture devices in Baltimore rather than outsourcing production overseas.
In June, the Moore administration awarded nearly $3 million in Build Our Future pilot grants to Blackbird Laboratories and LaunchPort — funding designed to strengthen Maryland’s commercialization infrastructure rather than subsidize individual companies alone.
For Moore, those awards are less about one-time checks and more about validating a model. He framed the grants as examples of how targeted state investment can unlock private capital, accelerate job creation, and keep high-value manufacturing and R&D anchored locally.
That framing matters, particularly as Maryland faces ongoing economic headwinds tied to federal workforce disruptions and budget pressures — a reality Moore addressed directly during the press conference.
Specifically, he pointed to TEDCO’s role in supporting early-stage companies and entrepreneurs across the state, noting that its work has helped generate more than $2.7 billion in economic activity in Maryland.
BioBuzz is a recent recipient of TEDCO grant funding that is enabling us to launch a strategic effort and new technology platform to foster stronger career pathways into life sciences for under-represented communities, while amplifying the state’s position as a leading Bio-hub to help attract new companies, investment and talent.
The DECADE Act: From Asset-Rich to Strategy-Driven
The centerpiece of the event was Moore’s first public announcement of the DECADE Act, legislation he plans to introduce in the upcoming General Assembly session.
According to Moore, the bill is designed to extend and refine programs like Build Our Future through 2030, while sharpening Maryland’s economic strategy around what he called “lighthouse industries.” Among them: life sciences, biocomputing, cybersecurity, quantum computing, aerospace, and defense.
The governor was explicit that the state’s challenge is not a lack of assets — citing institutions like Johns Hopkins University, the National Institutes of Health, Fort Meade, and NASA Goddard — but a lack of alignment. The DECADE Act, he said, is meant to close that gap by focusing investment, reforming permitting and regulatory pathways, and sunsetting programs that data shows are not delivering results.
“We cannot cut our way to prosperity,” Moore said, arguing that disciplined spending must be paired with aggressive growth strategies and private-sector leadership.
Key provisions of the DECADE Act include:
- Build Our Future Grant Program Extension and Modernization: Extends the Build Our Future Grant Program, which provides matching grants of up to $2 million to increase construction of innovative infrastructure for high-growth sectors, to 2030. The Act also moves the program’s administration to the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO) to streamline processing and expand opportunities for more Maryland businesses.
- RISE Zone Program Revitalization: Modernizes and strengthens the placemaking initiative by moving administration to MEDCO, extending zone certification and rental assistance eligibility, creating “RISE Zone Catchment Areas” to enhance community development, and removing restrictive eligibility requirements for start-up businesses. The program continues to leverage higher education and federal facility assets to attract businesses and create jobs, with a new option for quantum-focused zones.
- Strategic Fund Modernization: Moving administration of the Economic Development Opportunities Program Fund—which supports economic development opportunities that create and retain employment—to the Maryland Department of Commerce to increase flexibility to target incentives to major business attraction projects in target sectors.
- Tax Credit Extensions: Providing long-term certainty for businesses by extending the Research and Development Tax Credit to 2031. The legislation also extends the Employer Security Clearance Cost Tax Credit until 2032, providing income tax credits to small Maryland businesses that perform security-based contract work.
- Encouraging Film Industry Growth: Eliminating the $10 million per-production cap for the Film Production Activity Tax Credit, allowing Maryland to secure larger productions—which will hire more Marylanders and engage more Maryland businesses, creating greater economic impact.
For Baltimore — and for Maryland’s broader life sciences ecosystem — today’s announcement ties place-based innovation directly to statewide economic policy.
City Garage is not positioned as a one-off success story, but as a prototype: a dense, urban commercialization hub where startups can design, build, test, and scale products without leaving the state. The DECADE Act, if passed as outlined, would aim to replicate and reinforce that model across Maryland.
For founders and operators, the signal is clear. The administration is prioritizing speed, focus, and sector specificity — and is increasingly willing to measure programs by outcomes rather than intentions.
The DECADE Act now moves from announcement to legislative scrutiny, where details around funding levels, program reforms, and implementation timelines will matter. At the same time, City Garage’s resident companies — many still early in their growth curves — will serve as real-time indicators of whether Maryland’s strategy is translating into sustained job creation, manufacturing retention, and venture-backed scale.
If Moore’s framing holds, City Garage will be remembered not just as a tour stop, but as the place where Maryland publicly set its economic compass for the next ten years.
Photo Credit: Joe Andrucyk, Chief Photographer. Executive Office of the Governor
