CDM decides to stay put at One Cambridge Place

CDM, a Cambridge consulting, engineering, and construction firm with 4,000-plus employees worldwide, has decided to stay in 180,000 square feet at One Cambridge Place in East Cambridge, according to Lincoln Property Co., the broker representing the landlord. CDM's option to renew expired and the company explored other locations but chose to stay in the building owned by MetLife Real Estate Investments. John D. Miller, senior vice president of Lincoln Property, said it was the largest office lease signed in Cambridge this year. CDM, which had been a tenant there since the building went up a decade ago, was represented by CresaPartners. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Mark C. Roopenian, a partner at the Chiofaro Co. and a 24-year veteran of the real estate industry, has been appointed vice president of leasing and asset management for Broadway Partners of New York, a private real estate firm that owns the John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay. Roopenian will handle leasing, management, and capital improvements for Broadway's properties in the area, which include 200 State St., 116 Huntington, Ten Post Office Square, and Bay Colony Corporate Center in Waltham. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Wachovia Corp. will pay as much as $144 million to settle a US regulator's claims that the bank's poor oversight let telemarketers and payment processors withdraw millions from customers' accounts. Wachovia will pay as much as $125 million in restitution, a $10 million civil penalty, and $8.9 million for consumer-education programs, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said. The Charlotte, N.C., bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, the OCC said. The settlement comes after an investigation determined Wachovia profited from fees and charges on accounts held by payment processors and telemarketers who took advantage of thousands of consumers, most of them elderly, from June 2003 through December 2006. (Bloomberg)

Countrywide Financial Corp. chief executive Angelo Mozilo received a compensation package last year valued at more than $22.1 million, a sharp cut for the mortgage lender's chief, according to an analysis of a regulatory filing. The package was a fraction of the $121.5 million in stock options Mozilo cashed in 2007, when Countrywide lost more than $700 million and saw its stock fall 80 percent from its peak. Mozilo was paid a salary of $1.9 million in 2007, according to a preliminary filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mozilo did not receive a bonus or nonequity incentive plan compensation, which was pegged to specific performance targets Mozilo failed to meet, the company said. Still, he received stock and option awards that had an estimated value of about $20 million when granted. (AP)

A New York state judge dropped Clear Channel Communications Inc. from a lawsuit filed by six banks sued for allegedly refusing to fund a $19.5 billion acquisition of the company by Boston-based buyout firms Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP. The firms sued Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, Wachovia, and Deutsche Bank. The banks countersued the buyers, Clear Channel, and CC Media Holdings Inc., a shell company created for the deal. (Bloomberg)

The owner of the New York Daily News offered $580 million to acquire Newsday from Tribune Co., matching a bid this week by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. A person familiar with the situation, but who declined to be identified because of the confidential nature of the offer, confirmed that real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman offered $580 million to buy the Long Island daily. The source said the deal involved a "significant amount of cash and other considerations," but would not provide further specifics. Zuckerman's Daily News is the rival tabloid to Murdoch's New York Post. Spokesmen for Tribune and News Corp. declined any comment. (AP)

• Searched
• E-Mailed