Economic data up, but weather stalling recovery

A slew of economic data released yesterday pointed to a recovery that is still struggling to take off, experts said.

"The numbers we had today show a continuation of a recovery, although it's subpar and it's anemic," said Christine Armstrong, senior vice president at Morgan Stanley.

The Commerce Department said the economy grew at 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, revised down from its previous estimate of 3.2 percent. Also yesterday, the National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index inched up 0.1 to 95 last month, while the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 81.6 in February, up 0.4 from January.

"We continue to be in an environment of recovery and modest growth," said James Abate, chief investment officer at Centre Asset Management.

Many economists have blamed subpar economic data on poor weather across the country, and say the GPD will temporarily dip because of the cold and snow.

"Due to Mother Nature, quarter one is not going to be anything worth writing home about," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a research note. "The rebound ... and all of that pent-up demand won't show up until the second quarter.

Earlier this week, Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve, said data have been difficult to interpret because of the weather.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Expert: HubSpot IPO will boost region

Cambridge-based marketing software company HubSpot is on the verge of an initial public offering, a move that will likely pay dividends for the company and the region.

HubSpot has begun the IPO process, working with Morgan Stanley, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Scott Johnson, managing director of Cambridge-based New Atlantic Ventures, said a successful IPO will have a trickle-down effect for local startups.

"These IPOs are as important as winning a championship is for a sports team," Johnson said. "Strong exits attract talent and capital."

Anand Sanwal, co-founder of CB Insights, a venture capital and IPO research firm, said the timing is good for an upcoming IPO.

"The public markets look fairly receptive," Sanwal said. "The window has to be open. That is the case right now."

In January, Care.com became the first Boston tech company to go public in more than a year.

A HubSpot spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's IPO plans.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Water views grace Wellesley Colonial

This contemporary Colonial in Wellesley, built in 2001, sits on Morses Pond and almost every room overlooks the water.

The three-bedroom house at 9 Bacon St. slopes down to a pond and has three levels of living space, including a basement finished in 2008 with a large family room, home office and full bathroom.

The 2,860-square-foot home down the road from Wellesley College is on the market for $1,195,000.

The gabled house is set down from street level and steps down two stories to the pond. The exterior has gray clapboard on the front and gray vinyl siding in the rear with two rear decks on stilts. There's a large covered front porch whose wooden deck was recently redone.

You enter the house into a large Absolute black granite foyer, added in 2007, off which is a large coat/storage closet. There's a stylish staircase with flared bottom steps and custom newel posts. On one side of the foyer is a light brown marble and black granite built-in bar with two wine coolers below.

Straight ahead is the home's showpiece space, a cone-shaped glass atrium used as the dining room, with 13 windows and radiant-heated marble floors. Glass doors lead out to a rear deck with pond views and has a gas grill.

Off the foyer to the left is a recessed-lit living room with oak floors, windows overlooking the pond and a gas fireplace set into a faux-marble finish wood mantel.

To the right is the updated recessed-lit kitchen with curved custom cherrywood cabinets and Uba Tuba granite counters. There's a bi-level island with a Wolf gas cooktop on one side and a breakfast bar that seats three. There are black DCS double wall ovens and a Kitchen Aid dishwasher. The current owners added a Wolf gas stove and a Sub Zero double drawer refrigerator in 2009. In an adjacent pantry/mudroom area is a cherrywood-encased Sub Zero refrigerator.

There's also a full bathroom off the kitchen with a beige ceramic tile floor, a pedestal sink and a one-piece Fiberglas shower.

The turning oak staircase with clerestory windows leads up to three bedrooms on the second floor, off an oak hallway.

The oak-floored master bedroom suite was expanded in 2009 with a sitting room and a uniquely designed pullout closet with built-in wardrobe and storage bins. The master bedroom is decent sized and has glass doors to a back deck overlooking the pond. The en-suite bathroom has beige marble floors and a marble-topped wood vanity with two antique sinks. There's a marble-surround raised whirlpool tub and a marble-lined walk-in shower with a glass door.

There are two hardwood floored bedrooms suitable for children and a full bathroom with beadboard walls, ceramic tile floors, a Fiberglas tub/shower and double-sink vanity. This bathroom also has two large linen closets.

There's also a laundry room with stacked front-
facing Kenmore washer and dryer and a stainless-steel sink.

A spiral staircase from the foyer leads down to the basement, refinished in 2008, with a large oak-floored family room with glass doors out to a rear deck. There's an adjacent home office, which could serve as a fourth bedroom. And there's a Tuscan-style full bathroom with black ceramic tile floors, salmon-colored marble walls and surround for a tub/shower and a white vessel sink on a dark wood vanity table. Each of these rooms has
radiant-heated floors and there is also built-in surround sound speakers.

There's an additional closet room with floor-to-ceiling built-in storage cabinets.

The unfinished areas of the basement hold a gas-fired heating and central air-conditioning system as well as a stainless-steel water heater. There's also a workroom area with glass door leading out to a small back yard and down to the pond.

The home has space for two cars in the driveway and there are two additional spaces in an easement across the street, above which runs the MBTA commuter rail train.

• Address: 9 Bacon St., Wellesley
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: 
Four full
• List price: $1,195,000
• Square feet: 2,860
• Price per square foot: $418
• Annual taxes: $11,712
• Features: Waterfront home with views of Morses Pond from almost every room; hardwood floors throughout; glass atrium in dining room; kitchen with custom curved cabinets and upgraded appliances; gas fireplace in living room; master bedroom suite with sitting area and custom pullout closet; basement gut renovated in 2008 adding a family room, home office, bathroom and built-in storage units, all floors radiant heat; new central vacuum system in 2013; new washer and dryer in 2012; driveway for two cars plus deeded parking area across the street for additional vehicles.
• Location: About a mile from shops and restaurants in Wellesley center and Linden Square; about a mile from commuter rail station.
• Built in: 2001; updated 2007-2014
• Broker: Lisa Berger of William Raveis Realty at 617-388-5751

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Slots parlor to spin ahead

Penn National Gaming is moving quickly on plans to build a slots parlor at a Plainville racetrack now that it has been awarded a state license, despite the possibility of a ballot question this fall to repeal the casino law.

"We're not going to slow down our construction process with this threat out there and we're going to fight for the right outcome," Tim Wilmott, Penn National's chief executive, said. "We have a lot of experience in political battles with gaming in other parts of the United States and we feel confident we're going to get the right outcome."

The state Gaming Commission voted unanimously yesterday to award the state's sole slots parlor license to Penn National, and company officials said they would begin construction planning next week at Plainridge Racecourse with a goal of opening next spring. Company officials celebrated the awarding of the license with workers at the track yesterday.

But a group working to strike down the casino law, Repeal the Casino Deal, is petitioning the Supreme Judicial Court to get on the November ballot over the objection of Attorney General Martha Coakley, who argues the question would violate the implied contractual rights of license applicants. The SJC is expected to hear the case in May.

John Ribeiro, chairman of Repeal the Casino Deal, said he is confident the question will get on the ballot in November and that voters will turn against gambling.

"The casino industry's empty promises may have bamboozled the governor, Legislature, Gaming Commission and a handful of struggling cities, but convincing voters across the state that any of this amounts to 'destination resort casinos' is vastly different," Ribeiro said.

Wilmott said the company's most recent election battles involved ballot measures in Ohio. The fights there involved an intense campaign with fliers, direct mail, television, radio and newspaper ads, said Eric Schippers, Penn National's vice president for public affairs.

Penn's ad blitz worked in both 2008 and in 2009, said Rick Lertzman, who was on the losing end of the measure in 2008.

"We've had a lot of interaction with Penn in the past," said Lertzman, chairman of Quest Gaming, which operates rival gaming facilities in Ohio. "We've had a lot of conflict with Penn in the past."

No date has been set for groundbreaking at Plainridge, but Penn National is promising to create 1,000 construction jobs as well as 500 permanent jobs. The facility will have 1,250 slot machines, and will help preserve roughly 100 harness racing jobs at the track.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wilmington tops for buying home

Considering buying a home in Massachusetts but unsure where to look? How does Wilmington, Franklin or Reading strike you?

They're the top three of the 20 best places to own a home in the Bay State, according to consumer finance website NerdWallet, which based its recommendations on U.S. Census data for the 77 communities with more than 15,000 residents. The website chose that as the cutoff because not all of the data for smaller communities were available and even when it was, the smaller the population, the greater the possibility that the data could be skewed, said Jaime Ortiz, senior analyst for strategy.

For each municipality, NerdWallet looked at three main criteria: whether homes were available, how affordable it was to live there, and whether the area was growing — a signal of a robust economy, Ortiz said.

"A lot of these places — 13 of the top 20 — were clustered around Boston," she said. "That definitely tells me they benefit from their proximity to Boston, including its jobs, its universities, its arts and entertainment."

Wilmington also had a homeownership rate of 89.8 percent — the highest in the state — as well as monthly costs that took up only 27 percent of the median monthly household income.

Franklin had a homeownership rate of 79.3 percent and monthly costs that took up 29.2 percent of the median monthly household income, while Reading's 
homeownership rate was 82.2 percent and monthly costs were 30.9 percent.

NerdWallet's other top places were, in order, Burlington, Hudson, Wakefield, Randolph, Lexington, Methuen, Longmeadow, Winchester, Braintree, Saugus, Abington, Danvers, Dedham, Milton, Somerset, Wellesley and Milford.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘Moneyball’ event playing in Hub

A "who's who" of the professional sports world — from owners, coaches and athletes to business leaders, researchers and other supporting players — converges on Boston today to examine the increasing role that analytics play in the industry.

Some 2,000 attendees are registered for the eighth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which runs through tomorrow at the Hynes Convention Center. Speakers include NBA commissioner Adam Silver, former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Red Sox owner John Henry, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, Kraft Group president Jonathan Kraft and Indianapolis Colts QB Matt Hasselbeck.

A 1,000-strong waiting list, cut off a month ago, speaks to the growth of the conference since 2006, said co-chairman Jessica Gelman, vice president of customer marketing and strategy for the Kraft Group.

"At the beginning, sports analytics wasn't very widely used and, basically today, if you're not doing analytics either on the team or the business side, the question is 'why?'" she said.

Sports analytics reached a mainstream audience through the 2011 film "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt. The Kraft Group, owners of the New England Patriots and Revolution, are longtime proponents.

"Analyzing athletes in a non-cap era was about your experience in watching them and working with them as opposed to the numbers related to their contracts," Kraft said. "As salary caps and luxury taxes came into the major sports leagues, analytics became more important on the personnel side and, as these businesses turned into larger and more complex businesses, analytics were needed on the business side."

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Ticker

Commission says Hub
 Olympics feasible

A special commission examining the possibility of hosting the Summer Olympics in the Bay State released a report yesterday saying that it would be feasible to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games based upon its initial assessment that the state meets many of the International Olympic Committee's criteria.

But the commission recognized that pursuing a bid would be an enormous task, and that infrastructure and venue requirements would need to be addressed. The commission said the Olympics could accelerate the economic development and infrastructure improvements necessary to ensure that the Bay State can compete globally now and in the future.

Mass. fisheries get $33M from feds

The Patrick administration yesterday announced that nearly $33 million will be allocated to the New England Multispecies Groundfish Fishery by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration following the federal disaster declaration for the region's ground-fishermen. The state's groundfish industry makes up approximately 90 percent of the New England groundfish fishery.

The funding is part of $75 million appropriated by Congress for six fishery disasters nationwide declared by the Secretary of Commerce in 2012 and 2013. The U.S. Department of Commerce declared commercial fishery failure for the Northeast groundfish fishing industry in September 2012.

Smarterer raises $1.6 million

Smarterer, a Boston company that offers online skill assessments through quizzes, has raised $1.6 million for its new product for businesses, Flock.

With the investment led by Rethink Education, an education technology venture capital firm, Smarterer will continue to grow and develop Flock, a shift from the company's existing consumer-focused skills quizzes.

Today

 Commerce Department releases fourth-quarter gross domestic product.

 National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales index for January.

THE SHUFFLE

Jones Lang LaSalle announced the firm has hired Jason Fivek to lead its Mass Pike/Route 128 brokerage team as a managing director. He will specialize in representing tenants and investors in the leasing and sale of office, research and development space in Waltham and the surrounding marketplace. Fivek joins JLL from Boston Properties and brings 15 years of commercial real estate experience.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

MFA director Rogers retiring after 20 years

Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, announced his plans to retire yesterday after nearly 20 years with the museum.

Appointed in 1994, Rogers helped to open the Art of the Americas Wing in 2010, which features 53 galleries and the glass-enclosed Shapiro Family Courtyard. He was also focused on "opening doors" to communities around Boston, eliminating admission fees for children and extending the museum's hours, the museum said in a statement.

In May, Rogers became the longest-
serving director in the MFA's 144-year history, bringing "innovative exhibitions," and expanding the museum's "encyclopedic collection," as well as expanding arts education and community outreach programs, and renovating the landmark building, the museum said.

"Malcolm's accomplishments over two decades have touched every aspect of the MFA — he has transformed the museum. He will forever be a part of the foundation of this museum and of an arts and culture renaissance in Boston," said MFA trustees chairwoman Grace Fey. "As we prepare to search for his successor, we will strive to build upon his legacy of community enrichment and global engagement — cultivating the future growth and evolution of this world-class museum and its collections."

The museum will celebrate Rogers' 20th anniversary this fall with a series of events. He will remain as director until a successor is chosen.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

MBTA won’t be capitalizing on station naming rights

The MBTA won't be putting corporate names on stations anytime soon as only one bid for naming rights was filed by yesterday's deadline, and it didn't meet the minimum qualifications, officials said.

"We have to figure out why it didn't work this time," said state Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford). "You have got to make this easy. We know the companies and nonprofits and individuals like to name things."

Montigny, who introduced the amendment to last summer's transportation bond bill, said he will continue to push for naming rights to be sold.

"Anywhere you can actually sell or lease something to the private sector to lessen the burden on riders, it's a no-brainer," he said.

The lone proposal for the Blue Line did not meet the minimum bid of $1.2 million per year, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Supporters had estimated naming rights could generate up to $20 million, but the lack of bids won't leave a budget gap.

"The MBTA did not craft its budget with a reliance on potential revenue from corporate sponsors," Pesaturo said.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mass. may ditch Obamacare website

State officials still grappling with a backlog of 54,000 paper applications are considering scrapping Massachusetts' botched Obamacare website, which already has cost taxpayers about $15 million.

The state's options include continuing to try to fix vendor CGI's platform, using parts of health care exchanges set up by other states and the federal government, or starting over, Sarah Iselin, Gov. Deval Patrick's Obamacare czar, said at a meeting yesterday of the Health Connector board.

"We are frankly hedging our bets," she said.

Iselin told reporters afterward it's still unclear exactly how long it will take to fix the Health Connector website or how much it would cost. Of the $69 million the state budgeted, it has already paid about $15 million, said Jason Lefferts, a Connector spokesman.

Over the past two weeks, the Connector has made some progress, including enrolling 21,000 more residents into transitional coverage and reducing the average time it takes to enter paper applications from two hours to 39 minutes, Iselin said.

But it still has a paper application backlog of 54,000, 15,000 of which already have coverage and 39,000 of which have yet to be screened.

"There's clearly a sense of urgency," said state Rep. Carolyn Dykema (D-Holliston).

Dykema stopped short of saying that the website should be scrapped, but said the state "absolutely" should consider looking at what has worked in other states.

Connecticut, for example, has so far exceeded its own expectations for getting people to sign up for health insurance through its website that it is setting up a consulting practice to help other states.

20.25 | 0 komentar | Read More