Nonprofit to invest $20M in South End

Community Builders Inc. is planning more than $20 million in renovations to its South End properties, including 32 additional apartment units it has acquired for 
$5 million.

The Hub-headquartered nonprofit housing developer, which has a 49-year history with affordable housing in the South End, will outfit a total of 146 apartments in 29 South End buildings with new safety systems, upgraded heating systems and improved handicap accessibility. The work is scheduled for completion in late 2014.

Included in the rehab program will be the apartments in eight separate, but contiguous buildings at 160-174 West Springfield St. that Community Builders purchased from Ebenezer Homes Associates.

"The acquisition ensures continued affordability and professional management of the Ebenezer-owned apartments as part of the (Community Builders) portfolio," spokeswoman Stephanie Anderson Garrett said.

Community Builders recently formed Historic South End Limited Partnership to combine into one entity the West Springfield Street units and the two other South End Section 8 developments slated for renovations.

It is financing the acquisition and rehab with tax-exempt bonds, 4 percent low-income housing tax credits from the state, federal and state historic tax credits, and a $22.9 million loan from the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, according to Garrett.

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Michael Jordan estate fails to sell at auction

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Michael Jordan's 56,000-square foot home in suburban Chicago has failed to sell at auction after the bidding fell short.

Jordan spokeswoman Estee Portnoy says nobody offered the reserve price of $13 million for the seven-acre estate in Highland Park, north of Chicago.

Portnoy says Concierge Auctions publicized Monday's auction well, but that market conditions aren't ideal. She says options for the property will be evaluated next year.

The former Chicago Bulls superstar's home originally was listed at $29 million in early 2012.

It has nine bedrooms, 15 full bathrooms, a pool pavilion and a regulation-size indoor basketball court. It also features what's described as a "gentleman's retreat," complete with a library, wet bar and the original doors from the Playboy Mansion in Chicago.

Jordan now owns the Charlotte Bobcats.

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Buses to make Back Bay to Logan run

The Massachusetts Port Authority plans to launch a new express shuttle bus service between the Back Bay and Logan International Airport.

The agency is soliciting proposals from operators to start the route in April, initially to help mitigate the impact on airport passenger access when the MBTA's Government Center Blue Line Station closes in the spring for at least two years of renovations.

The proposed fare is $5 for the shuttle service, which would run from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. from the Back Bay and from 6 a.m. to midnight from the airport.

The service is subject to approval by the Massport board once proposals are submitted by the Jan. 23 deadline, according to spokesman Matt Brelis.

The shuttle bus service tentatively is slated to make Boylston Street pickups at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center and the MBTA's Copley Station, outside the Boston Public Library, before heading to Logan.

Return service from the airport would drop off passengers on St. James Avenue, across from the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, and on Boylston Street at the Hynes. The stops are subject to approval from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and the city's Transportation Department.

At the airport, passengers would be dropped off at designated Logan Express stops at the upper-level departure areas of Terminals A, B1, B2, C and E, while pickups would occur at stops at the terminals' lower-level arrival areas.

Massport has reserved the option of extending the service contract for up to three one-year periods after the initial two-year run.

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Google will keep robot co. in Mass.

Boston Dynamics — the maker of uncannily agile robots including Cheetah, WildCat and BigDog — is staying in Massachusetts for now after its acquisition by Google, a purchase that could draw investors to other robotics companies in the state and ultimately lead to more jobs.

A Google spokesman yesterday declined to comment. Marc Raibert, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, said in an email:

"We have had a great time building our unusual robots and bringing them this far along. Now we are excited to see how much further ahead we can take robotics, working with Google's gangbuster team. Our entire robotics team will continue on, working here in Waltham."

The acquisition — Google's eighth in robotics in the past six months — "materially changes the odds of getting a return if you're a prospective investor in robot companies," said Colin Angle, CEO and co-founder of Bedford-based iRobot.

"Massachusetts is kind of the Silicon Valley of the robot industry, with more than 50 companies here," Angle said.

"If these exits create more of an appetite for investments in robot companies, Massachusetts will benefit disproportionately because we're the hot spot for robot entrepreneurship in the world. Even though we're losing one of our top-tier robot companies as an independent business ... we could see the creation of new jobs as other robot entrepreneurs found new companies here."

Angle said he suspects Google acquired Boston Dynamics to help develop an autonomous car that can drive itself and deliver packages, which could lower costs and decrease delivery times for e-commerce.

Jordan Graham contributed to this report.

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Need for dementia caregivers grows as boomers age

ELMHURST, Ill. — World leaders set a goal for a cure or treatment for dementia by 2025 at the recent G8 summit in London.

But for now, caregiving is among the most pressing issue for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

The Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association says there are an estimated 15 million caregivers in the United States. And as baby boomers age and live longer, those numbers are expected to grow.

Katie Halloran, a 29-year-old teacher from suburban Chicago, is one of those caregivers.

She races home each day to her 62-year-old father Mike, who has Alzheimer's, to take over for his paid caregiver. As his condition worsens, she and her siblings are considering full-time care — a move Katie dreads.

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China bans shellfish imports from US West Coast

SEATTLE — China has suspended imports of shellfish from the U.S. West Coast, cutting off one of the biggest export markets for Northwest companies.

KUOW public radio reports (http://bit.ly/1fe35To) that the Chinese government imposed the ban after discovering that recent shipments of geoduck clams from Northwest waters had high levels of arsenic and a toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning.

The Chinese government says the ban that started last week will continue indefinitely.

Clams, oysters and all other two-shelled bivalves harvested off Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Northern California are affected.

The U.S. exported $68 million worth of geoduck clams last year — most of which came from Puget Sound. Nearly 90 percent of those geoduck exports went to China.

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Information from: KUOW-FM, http://www.kuow.org/

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Chamber lists priorities for next Boston mayor

BOSTON — Boston business leaders are out with a list of priorities for the city's incoming mayor.

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce unveiled a "growth agenda" that outlines four key initiatives the group hopes Mayor-elect Martin Walsh will focus on after taking office on Jan. 6.

The chamber is calling for Walsh to work with business and government leaders throughout Greater Boston on infrastructure improvements including the expansion of South Station, upgrades to the Port of Boston and new international connections from Logan International Airport.

The report also asks Walsh to work toward lowering of the city's commercial property tax rate, a streamlining the permitting process and relaxing the current cap on charter schools in Boston.

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Michelin recalls 1.2 million tires in US

WASHINGTON — Tire-maker Michelin says it is recalling about 1.2 million tires sold in the U.S. because an increasing number are experiencing tread loss or rapid air loss.

The tires are commonly used for pickup trucks, heavy-duty vans, small RVs and commercial light trucks. The Greenville, S.C-based company says no deaths or injuries have been reported because of the tires.

The tires, known as Michelin LTX M/S tires, were manufactured between January 2010 and June 2012. They were sold as original equipment on some vehicles and as new replacement tires.

The company says that fewer than 200 of the tires have been returned by customers. Owners can have them replaced at Michelin stores for no charge.

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Reading the tech tea leaves

Predictions are a tricky business, but I did tell you last year that 2013 would be the year that Best Buy started to go bye-bye, that wearable devices like the Jawbone Up would be huge and that Apple's stock surge would start to collapse. So I'm reading technological tea leaves again for 2014. Here is my five-part forecast for next year:

5: It will be the year foreign diplomacy goes social. We saw the first hint of this Nov. 23, when the Iranian president retweeted Secretary of State John Kerry's comments following a historic agreement on nukes between the two parties in Geneva.

Though I wouldn't call Kerry and the Iranian president "tweeps," Hassan Rouhani's Twitter olive branch received thousands of retweets and exposed a new way to take foreign policy directly to the people — for better or worse — in 140 characters or less. More foreign leaders, perhaps even some right here at home, are sure to follow suit.

4: Health care will go the way of the wearable. Consumers will begin to see and experience many more devices and apps that help them to monitor personal health and wellness, with metrics like blood-sugar levels, blood pressure and more. These devices will begin to automatically send information on you to your doctor, and will be pushed by health insurance carriers who see their value in disease prevention.

3: Google Glass will not come to market. Though I'm as jazzed as anyone about the prospect of augmented reality goggles that make my line of sight a whole lot smarter, I don't see how they get the price down to a level that consumers will be willing to pay. Despite many pronouncements that the product will be available to consumers in 2014, I see the device remaining with a select group handpicked by Google for their beta-testing program, at least for the next year.

2: Haptics will be the next big thing. That's a field of technology devoted to tactile feedback, or in some cases tricking your nerves into thinking they feel virtual objects that aren't actually present.

We'll start to see the first rumblings of tablets that allow you to virtually "feel" a sweater before you buy it online.

1: The next holiday shopping season will feature a new addition: 3-D printers and pens. A beneficiary of this hopefully will be the fine folks at Somerville's Formlabs, whose pioneering 3-D printer, the Form 1, is a sleek-looking producer of three-dimensional objects.

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Fuel assistance drying up

Community activists are urging the federal government to increase fuel assistance funding, saying 50,000 households across the Bay State who depend on the aid to heat their homes may be left out in the cold by Christmas.

"We have thousands of households who do not have enough assistance," said John Drew, CEO of Action for Boston Community Development. "We're not in a position to help a lot of people right now."

ABCD has significantly less money this year, in part because of the federal sequester, to provide fuel assistance benefits to those who heat their homes with oil, Drew said.

"We're starting this winter off with about 25 percent less money than last year," he said.

The maximum benefit for the poorest families is $950, and with oil at $4 a gallon, ABCD is only able to fund one tank of oil, he said, meaning those who applied early will use up their benefits soon. ABCD estimates 5,000 households they help are maxed out and may run out by Christmas, and 50,000 across the state are in the same position.

"In past winters, we had enough money to provide two tanks for the winter," Drew said.

ABCD has received more than 17,000 applications for fuel assistance so far.

Maria Cazeau, a 54-year-old minister who was laid off and receives heating assistance, said she depends on the oil ABCD provides.

"I don't have enough money to support me, so I need that help," Cazeau said.

She said her home needs to be kept warm because a sick, elderly woman is staying with her.

In November, Gov. Deval Patrick and governors of 13 other states sent a letter to Congress seeking a boost in the funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program from the current $2.6 billion to $3.6 billion. The letter noted average winter home heating costs have increased by 6 percent.

"LIHEAP is a critical bridge of Americans — many of them elderly, disabled or caring for dependent children — who otherwise may be forced to choose between paying home energy bills and paying for food, medicine or other essentials," the letter said.

Still, Drew said more funding is anything but certain, even with the promise of a newly signed federal budget deal.

"There may be some federal money, and there may not be federal money," Drew said.

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