Construction on Seekonk post office to begin
QUINCY – The Grossman Companies, based here, announced that construction will begin soon on a new post office in Seekonk at the Town Centre development off Route 44 (Taunton Avenue) at Route 114A (Fall River Avenue). Grossman will manage construction for the property’s owners, SeP Associates LLC, who will lease the finished building to the U.S. Postal Service. The building will replace an existing post office, also on Route 44. Construction is scheduled to be completed in early 2001 for the opening of the post office in February of that year. The post office building will join a Compass Bank that opened a branch on the Town Centre site in June. The location was formerly occupied by another shopping center anchored by a Kmart store. The developer is evaluating the building before it decides whether it will be used for retail or office/back office space.
Mass. Electric seeks rate increase
NORTHBORO – Massachusetts Electric Company, a subsidiary of National Grid USA, which is based in Westboro, has filed for a rate increase from the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy based o the rising costs of oil and gas. The company seeks an increase of 1.2 cents per kilowatthour (kWh) on the Standard Offer Rate portion of customers’ bills, effective October 1, 2000. If approved, the company estimates, the average customer, using 500 kWh a month would pay $5.97 more a month, a 12.3 increase. Massachusetts Electric serves 1.2 million customers in 168 Massachusetts communities.
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Boston Y to overhaul facility
BOSTON – The Boston Young Men’s Christian Union announced that it had obtained an $8.5 million loan from Eastern Bank to renovate the building on Boylston Street downtown. Construction is scheduled to begin this month and continue for a year. It will be located next door to the Millenium buildings which will include a health and fitness facility at prices considerably higher than the Y’s. The YMCA hopes to expand its membership, now at 500, with completion of the renovation, the Boston Globe reported.
Sales of multi-family homes slow
BOSTON – Sales of multi-family homes throughout the state declined by 6.5 percent over the last six months, compared with the previous six months, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported. The REALTORS reported sales for the first six months of this year at 3,279 multi-family homes, compared with 3,508 for the same period a year ago. The drop-off in sales brings to an end the streak of 18 consecutive months of rising sales in the multi-family category, the REALTORS reported. Only Central Massachusetts, with an increase of 13.3 percent and the western part of the state, with an increase of 12 percent ran counter to the trend, the REALTORS reported. The biggest drop in sales was reported in Greater Boston, at 22.3 percent, a drop from 1,446 in 1999 to 1,123 through June this year.
Robertson Stephens lobbies FleetBoston for IPO
BOSTON – Top executives of Robertson Stephens are trying to persuade their parent, FleetBoston Financial Corp. to sell shares of the investment banking group to the public to provide Robertson attractive stock and incentive options for employees and give Fleet large potential stock gains on a valuable property. Although the Boston Globe reported that Fleet sources assure there is no imminent plan to take Robertson public, the Boston-based banking giant is said to be mulling an IPO of a minority slice of the group, with Fleet keeping controlling interest. Analysts say a partial IPO of Robertson, known for taking Net and other tech firms public, would make sense in retaining key talent to the investment banking business. Fleet became Robertson’s parent with its merger of BankBoston Corp. nearly a year ago.
Northeast Wireless gets certified by feds
BOSTON – Northeast Wireless, a new company offering high-speed Internet access in parts of Greater Boston through fixed wireless links, said it has received federal certification so schools and libraries can get federal aid for using the company’s services. Designating Northeast as eligible for so-called universal E-rate subsidies, which pay for up to 90 percent of monthly service costs, could help the company grab market shares as it competes with Verizon Communications, AT&T Broadband, Digital Broadband Communications and other land-line high-speed Net access providers with schools. Northeast has begun delivering service to buildings near South Station and in Chinatown and will expand this fall to Boston neighborhoods including Beacon Hill and the Back Bay and to Brookline, Cambridge, Braintree and Randolph.
NewEnergy, Enerplan forge consulting pact
NewEnergy Inc. which owns the former National Energy Choice LLC in Boston, and electricity buying agent for businesses, said it has formed a pact with Enerplan of Nova Scotia to add energy-management consulting expertise. Enerplan will offer NewEnergy customers advice on how to install lighting, machinery and heating to save energy under a joint marketing plan. Enerplan said it will open an office in Newburyport as part of the partnership. NewEnergy buys electricity on behalf of more than 10,000 New England businesses, including companies associated with the Mass High -Tech Council and New England’s convenience store trade group.
Business lobby to challenge rate hikes
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state’s biggest business lobby representing more than 5,000 firms, said yesterday it will challenge moves by four state utilities to raise rates by 4 to 12 percent to cover power generators’ soaring oil and gas costs. The group also blasted Massachusetts Electric for giving only one month’s notice before proposing with its biggest rate increase, from 9.7 cents a kilowatt hour to 10.9 cents starting Oct. 1, saying it is far too little time for business and residential customers to line up alternatives. Late on Sept. 1, Massachusetts Electric and Nstar, the parent company of Boston Edison, Commonwealth Electric and Cambridge Electric sought state approval to raise the cost-of-power component of their 2.5 million Bay State customers’ bills by 13 to 31.6 percent. Added to fixed rates for distribution and transmission the increases would drive up the average residential bill by 4 to 12 percent.
The four utilities have said that although the 1998 utility deregulation law claimed to guarantee inflation-adjusted 15 percent rate cuts for all consumers, it does not prevent them from passing on extraordinary increases in fuel prices, as they could before the law took effect.
Harvard Pilgrim enters the black
Harvard Pilgrim, Massachusetts’ largest health maintenance organization reported its first profitable month since 1997 with a small operating surplus of $740,000 in July. Revenue for the month was $186.3 million, and with investment income, the HMO’s surplus for July was $1.3 million.
According to the Boston Globe, Harvard Pilgrim Chief Executive Charles D. Baker Jr. attributed the turnaround to a new contract with an outside company that is aggressively managing pharmacy benefits for the HMO. Harvard Pilgrim has also saved on administrative costs because of a decline in membership, which now hovers around 950,000, a 25 percent drop since last December. Harvard Pilgrim, which was forced into state receivership Jan. 4, lost $226 million last year and has since embarked on an ambitious turnaround plan, the Globe reported. Despite the good news, analysts say members of the HMO shouldn’t really relax until audited financial figures become available at year’s end.
