The old John Hancock building, left of the large tower, and the new John Hancock, the large tower, dominate the skyline in Boston, in this June 24, 2004, file photo. Behind and to the far right is the Prudential tower, and foreground is the Boston Common and Public Garden.
March conventions help set record hotel stays
More gatherings at the Hynes Convention Center in March pushed Greater Boston’s hotel occupancy to its highest level since 2005, according to the latest PKF Consulting survey.
The 90 hotel operators in the PKF Trends in the Hotel Industry sample for the region achieved an average 75 percent occupancy at a $168.16 average daily rate (ADR) with a resulting $126.19 revenue per available room (RevPAR). These performance levels represented an occupancy increase of 3.6 percent, a 1.7 percent increase in ADR, and an overall 5.3 percent rise in RevPAR compared to March 2012.
The March 2013 performance for Greater Boston hotels achieved the highest ADR since 2008, and highest RevPAR since 2007. The best March for the region over the last eight years, based on our Monthly Trends sample, was 2007 with a RevPAR of $127.82.
“March was a huge convention month,” said Andrea Foster, vice president of PKF Consulting. “The total room nights was 54,000 this year compared to 30,000 a year ago, that’s an 80 percent increase. Hynes had a notable convention with the World Irish Dancing Championship and that resulted in more than 22,000 rooms booked.”
RevPAR increases were primarily driven by occupancy growth in the Back Bay, Cambridge and Downtown submarkets. The Back Bay achieved a notable occupancy gain of 13.5 percent, in part, because the four conventions in March compared to two a year ago. Conversely, the Route 128 submarket witnessed RevPAR gains primarily driven by ADR growth. The Route 128 submarket had an ADR growth of 5.3 percent in March 2013.
On the down side, the Route 495 North submarket experienced a nearly 4 percent drop occupancy and ADR fell to $98.06, down from $100.13, a 2 percent dip.
Cape businesses get together, oppose Lowe’s
In a meeting of mid-Cape chambers of commerce last week, small business owners on Cape Cod were nearly unanimous in their opposition to a proposal to add a Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Dennis, the Cape Cod Times reports.
Chambers of commerce from Harwich, Dennis, Brewster and Yarmouth met Wednesday for an “information exchange” on the proposal, but of the approximately 35 people who showed up, only one spoke in favor of the planned Lowe’s, the Times reports. The rest were “nervously preparing for battle.”
“Lowe’s is one of the largest home improvement stores there is. We’re not going to compete with them,” Sid Snow, owner of Snow’s Home and Garden centers in Orleans and Harwich, told the Times.
With a limited customer base on the Cape, “the only way I see Lowe’s being successful and staying here is by putting everybody else out of business,” he said.
Idera Pharma to raise $16.5 million in offering
Idera Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge will raise about $16.5 million through a stock offering next week, enough to fund mid-stage clinical trials of its drug candidate aimed at psoriasis, and to last the company through 2015.
On Thursday, the company announced that the pricing of the offering, which will involve about 33 million shares of common stock and related warrants. The offering will close on May 7.
The company’s stock fell 25 percent on Thursday after the news was announced to trade at 54 cents a share as of 1:30 p.m., just about at the announced price of the stock for the offering.
Just over a month ago, the company issued its annual report, which said that it only had enough money to fund operations into the third quarter 2013, and would need to raise additional funds before the end of the second quarter 2013 to fund development of its autoimmune and inflammatory disease program. The company ended the year with $10 million in the bank, less than half of what it had at the end of 2011, and at the time said that amount would run out before the end of the year.
Last year, the company took in only $51,000 in revenues, but spent $13.7 million on research and development and another $6.3 million on general and administrative expenses.
New building opens at Worcester’s Gateway Park
O’Connell Development Group dedicated its $32 million building at Gateway Park in Worcester, home to emerging companies, educational programs, and research laboratories.
The brick four-story, 92,000-square-foot building is located at 50 Prescott St. More than 100 people attended the dedication ceremony, including city, state, and national leaders who helped plan the development of Gateway Park. About 35,000 square feet of the new building is occupied by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which owns the land. The school leased the building site to the Holyoke-based developer. Under the agreement, the developer is financing the project and managed construction.
A WPI spokesman declined to reveal the terms of the lease, but said the development will generate $32,500 in annual tax revenues over the next 16 years. City officials approved a tax increment financing deal that will save the developer more than $4 million in property taxes over 16 years. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center gave WPI $6.6 million to support the development.
To date, WPI has led the investment of more than $110 million in Gateway Park and transformed a blighted and underutilized area in the downtown into a thriving, mixed-use park that is home to academic, research and commercial enterprises, the school said.
The first building at Gateway Park, a 125,000-
square-foot facility, opened in 2007. Gateway’s $12.5 million, 660-space parking garage also opened that year to serve the campus.
Celeb chef refinancing to save pricey liquor license
Todd English is reportedly refinancing his entire culinary empire to pay off debts from one failed Faneuil Hall restaurant. At stake is a liquor license that could be worth as much as $450,000.
English shut down Kingfish Hall last spring, owing hundreds of thousands to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and potentially more than $1 million to his Quincy Market landlord. The former Quincy Market operator, General Growth Properties, has sued English, claiming over $1 million in unpaid rent.
Last Tuesday, Todd English Enterprises CFO Ron Chorney told the Boston Licensing Board the company is refinancing to get the cash to pay its debts, Universal Hub reports. According to Universal Hub, Chorney said English Enterprises has paid $24,000 of $215,000 in back taxes demanded by the DoR.
The pile of debt has already kiboshed a deal to sell the Kingfish Hall liquor license, English’s attorney, Dennis Quilty, told the board, according to Universal Hub.
The hearing was on English’s request for more time to sell the liquor license. Full-bar liquor licenses in Boston fetch prices from $245,000 to $450,000, the Boston Business Journal reported back in 2011. The board votes Thursday on English’s request.
Boston home prices flat since December
Hub prices have remained flat since December while the year-over data reflects among the smallest increases in the nation, according to SP/Case-Shiller Index.
From January to February, Boston area home prices improved just 0.1 percent, and from December to January, prices were flat. When it comes to year-over year, February 2013 was up 5.2 percent compared to the same month last year, the survey said. New York had the lowest annual increase of 1.9 percent while Chicago was second at 5.1 percent.
Still, real estate experts say that a 5 percent annual gain reflects a healthy market.
All 20 cities covered by the indices posted year-over-year increases for at least two consecutive months. Phoenix continued to stand out with an impressive year-over-year return of 23 percent while Atlanta and Dallas had the highest annual growth rates in the history of these indices since 1992 and 2001, respectively.
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