KB Homes pulls out of mid-Atlantic

The Los Angeles builder has five communities in the mid-Atlantic area under construction including Whetstone Run townhouses in Gaithersburg, and communities in Waldorf, Accokeek, Upper Marlboro, Leesburg, Va., and Alexandria, Va.

The company’s decision came only about a week after the end of the company’s first quarter Feb. 29, in which it took a $267 million operating loss for excess housing inventory and terminated 53 percent of new home contracts, according to KB’s public earnings statement released recently. In the Washington metropolitan region, 17 full-time employees will be displaced until new positions are found for them in other parts of the country, said Lindsay Stephenson, a KB Home spokeswoman.

‘‘We evaluated market performance in the area and we had to make the decision to focus on areas that will allow us to grow our business and profits, given the current conditions in the real estate market,” Stephenson said. ‘‘We informed our employees and homebuyers on March 6 that we made the difficult decision not to invest in additional communities in the area and to make a gradual transition out of the market.”

Marking 20 years

Corporate Fitness Works, a fitness management and wellness company in Montgomery Village, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Co-owners Sheila Drohan and Brenda Loube started the company to develop, manage and maintain fitness and wellness centers in workplaces.

Corporate Fitness Works has more than 45 locations at corporations, government agencies and residential communities around the country.

Medallion Financial Group celebrated 20 years its Gaithersburg location with an open house last month. Medallion is an independent, family-owned financial planning practice.

People on the move

WeatherBug of Germantown promoted Mike Lombardi to vice president of advertising sales and marketing in its New York office. Before joining WeatherBug in 2005, Lombardi managed East Coast sales for Undertone Networks and Bloomberg Media. He has also worked for Bonneville International’s WMVX and WDBZ, and Darcey & Darcey Advertising and Public Relations.

Ruppert Nurseries of Laytonsville named Chuck Whealton of Sykesville regional director of business development for its landscape management division. Previously, Whealton worked for Ruppert through 1998, when the company was sold to TruGreen, with whom he was vice president of landscape management for the mid-Atlantic and Atlantic region.

Susan Neuberger Weller of Gaithersburg, a member of the intellectual property section at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC in Washington, D.C., was named a Washington Super Lawyer for 2008, based on a survey of lawyers by Law & Politics.

Fusion UV Systems Inc. of Gaithersburg named Bill Tongen key account manager in St. Paul, Minn.

Alan D. Eisler of Potomac, a bankruptcy lawyer and founding partner with Stark, Meyers, Eisler & Leatham in Rockville, was named to the list of Super Lawyers in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

This report originally appeared in The Business Gazette.