Business in brief

BRA approves 2 projects for colleges, 1 for business

October 4, 2007

Harvard University got the go-ahead for a $1 billion, 589,000-square-foot, four-building science complex in Allston. The complex, to be built starting this year with a package of neighborhood improvements, will house Harvard's Stem Cell Institute and is intended to keep Harvard and Boston in the forefront of research in how to treat and cure diseases. Harvard said it intends for the complex to achieve a difficult Gold environmental rating from the US Green Building Council. In addition, the board approved John F. Palmieri, director of development services in Hartford, as the 15th director of the city's planning and economic development agency. He will be paid $168,000 a year and will start Nov. 13.

Tufts University won approval to expand its Dental School building at Kneeland and Washington streets on its Boston Health Sciences campus with a five-story, 95,000-square-foot addition to a 10-story building. The architect is ARC/Architectural Resources in Cambridge. The addition will increase capacity by 24 dental chairs, accommodate 52 more students, and 10 new people for the 200-person faculty, university officials said. Enrollment is now about 800. The university also committed to improving Washington Street and the building's entrance, making contributions to community dental and neighborhood cleanup programs.

Boston Properties Inc.'s revision of plans to redevelop three historic buildings at Russia Wharf, along Congress Street at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, was approved. The $500 million project will yield 215 residential units under a 31-story glass office tower. The complex will have about 32,500 square feet of space for retail, restaurant, performance, and cultural uses. The tower has been shifted 15 feet farther away from the Greenway, toward the Fort Point Channel. One floor each in the two buildings closest to the channel, as well as cross-bracing considered to be unsightly, will be eliminated. Construction is expected to start soon with completion set for 2011.
(Thomas C. Palmer. Jr.)

THE REGION

Utah company acquired for automatic data backup

EMC Corp. of Hopkinton has purchased Berkeley Data Systems Inc., a privately held Utah company that runs the Mozy automatic data backup service. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal puts EMC into a new business - selling data backup services to consumers as well as business clients. Mozy subscribers pay $4.95 a month for a service that uploads data from their computers via the Internet, then encrypts and stores it at a remote location. The service protects users against data loss due to theft, disaster, or equipment malfunction. Carbonite Inc., of Boston, offers a similar service. (Hiawatha Bray)

Delta to add flights from Boston to 2 N.Y. areas

Delta Air Lines will begin flying between Boston and New York's Saranac Lake and Plattsburgh on Oct. 31. The airline will offer one or two round-trips each day between Logan International Airport and Saranac Lake's Adirondack Regional Airport. It will operate one round-trip each weekday to Plattsburgh International Airport and a one-way flight to Plattsburgh on Sundays. The new service will be on 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D aircrafts operated by Big Sky Airlines, a Delta Connection carrier. On Nov. 4, Big Sky will also add two more round-trips each weekday and one or two round-trips on weekends between Boston and Bangor, Maine. (Nicole C. Wong)

THE NATION

Verizon to offer model in challenge to iPhone

Verizon Wireless, the second-largest US mobile-phone service, plans to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPhone by releasing touch-screen devices that browse the Web and play music. The phones, from LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., will go on sale within a few weeks, Verizon said. The devices will join Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Pearl in anchoring Verizon's product lineup this holiday season, the company said. (Bloomberg)

Bear Stearns to lay off 310, merge its mortgage units

Bear Stearns Cos. said it is laying off 310 workers and fusing its two mortgage businesses, after turmoil in the home loan industry contributed to a dramatic slide in the investment bank's profit this summer. The news came only hours after Credit Suisse Group said problems in the mortgage market will linger as long as 18 months. It disclosed a fresh round of layoffs in its commercial mortgage-backed securities division, mostly in New York. Bear said it is integrating its Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage and Encore Credit divisions into a single subsidiary. The new unit will soon begin offering loans that are eligible to be purchased by government-sponsored entities. Such loans are considered safer than most. (AP)

NEED MORE?

Get local business news updates from The Boston Globe on the Business Update, at boston.com/business/ticker. And for big picture business stories, go to the Business Filter, updated every weekday at boston.com/business/blog/filter.

BRA approves 2 projects for colleges, 1 for business

More from Boston.com