From basement to Baltimore: Mindgrub celebrates new space

Long before Mindgrub did digital work for Fortune 500 companies, it was actually a member of an incubator of sorts.
“We started in the greater Oella incubator, a.k.a. my basement,” founder and CEO Todd Marks quipped Wednesday.
Since 2002, his development and creative content firm has grown from that modest space into a succession of offices near Catonsville’s Main Street before finally relocating to Locust Point.
Officials including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and City Councilman Bill Cole were on hand to mark the opening of the new space on the campus of Phillips Seafood‘s Fort Avenue headquarters.
Marks came across the new space after looking at employees’ residences and commute times, a search that took him “from Canton to East Columbia,” he said. He settled on Locust Point. He called developer Mark Sapperstein to inquire about space at McHenry Row. Sapperstein said there was no space there, but suggested it might be available next door at the Phillips headquarters, which Sapperstein bought in January. Marks said his employees appreciate being near restaurants and other amenities.
“I went to school here, but had really forgotten in terms of what the city offers,” Marks said. “Now the blinders are off, I really realize how good it is and what we have.”
The 13,000-square foot office includes a conference room, event space and even a ping pong table for Mindgrub’s employees.
Rawlings-Blake hailed Mindgrub’s move as a sign that “Baltimore is clearly open for business” and said she took particular pride in luring the company from neighboring Baltimore County. She also discussed other successes in her remarks, including a recent report that concluded the Emerging Technology Centers and its tenants have been responsible for more than $100 million in direct economic impact.