Today in Globe Business

Jurys out

What's in a name change? For Jurys Boston Hotel, which officially becomes The Back Bay Hotel today, it's about highlighting its swanky location.

The hotel's parent company, Dublin-based Doyle Collection, formerly known as the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, has launched a rebranding campaign for its 11 luxury hotels in England, Ireland, and the United States, remodeling many of them and changing their names to reflect their geographical location. At The Back Bay Hotel, which opened in 2004 in the former Boston police headquarters, improvements included $1 million for new flat-screen TVs, armoires, and coffee makers in the rooms, among other improvements.

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Navy questions plans at former South Weymouth Naval Air Station

Frustrated by a lack of progress, the Navy is questioning the ability of the public agency overseeing redevelopment of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station to complete a deal to buy the air base and proceed with one of the state's largest building projects.

A top Navy official on Wednesday sent a terse e-mail to the head of South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., a joint venture of Abington, Rockland, and Weymouth, admonishing the agency for failing to answer even basic questions about the status of the project, such as whether its partnership with a private developer of the base is still valid.

The Navy official also questioned whether Tri-Town has taken any meaningful steps to raise the $43 million necessary to purchase the remaining 900 acres from the Navy. Tri-Town has already missed a March 31 deadline to buy the land.

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Ex-Madoff brokerage attracts big players

The Medfield investor who won the bidding for the brokerage business of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff has quietly assembled a powerful team of financial backers and executives to run the new firm, including former brokerage chiefs of Fidelity Investments and TD Waterhouse Group.

Darin S. Oliver, owner of upstart Castor Pollux Securities Inc., last month agreed to pay up to $25.5 million for the only legitimate business in Madoff's fraudulent empire - buying and selling Nasdaq-traded stocks for large investors. The sale of the business was conducted by a court-approved trustee charged with raising money to repay Madoff victims.

Castor Pollux is a one-man operation run by Oliver, 47. Though he is relatively unknown in brokerage circles, Oliver's gamble on a venture few others wanted to touch has drawn some major players. Only two other firms bid on the brokerage, which many saw as tainted by the Madoff link.

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Publisher GateHouse will cut pay of most New England staff

GateHouse Media Inc., which owns more than 100 newspapers in Massachusetts including The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, said it will temporarily cut salaries by an average of 7.75 percent for most of its 1,500 New England employees as the chain struggles in an advertising slump.

Rick Daniels, the chief executive of GateHouse Media New England, said the recession has disproportionately hurt advertising revenue at newspapers in major metropolitan markets like the Bay State, forcing it to pare costs at its New England unit. Daniels said the temporary salary reductions, which begin Monday, are expected to save the company $2.5 million, or the equivalent of 100 full-time jobs.

"Outside New England, smaller or midsize cities or rural areas are much more typical GateHouse markets. They haven't seen the whipsaw effect that major markets have seen," said Daniels in an interview. "We are the largest market that GateHouse operates." The New England papers generate 22 percent of Fairport, N.Y.-based, GateHouse's revenue, he estimated.

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BOSTON CAPITAL: High interest in lower rates

The economy needs a lot of things to help it get out of the ditch. Low interest rates are near the top of the list.

That's why sharply rising yields on US Treasury securities could turn out to be such a financial wet blanket. Interest rates on government securities, especially longer-term notes and bonds, have been climbing all year. But their more recent advance has accelerated that trend.

For most of the year, consumer interest rates on loans to buy cars and houses have not gone up in lock-step with yields on Treasury securities. But that can't last indefinitely and 30-year mortgage interest rates took a big jump higher in just a single day this week, to an average of nearly 5.3 percent.

People and companies have to start buying more things for the economy to recover. The ability to borrow at attractive interest rates must be available for them to say yes to big-ticket items.

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