Friday, August 31, 2012, 11:26am Jones Lang LaSalle has hired five brokers away from Colliers International in order to expand its business into Greater Boston's suburbs.The firm hired Matthew Daniels as managing director, Christopher Lawrence and Brian Tisbert as senior vice presidents, Christopher Decembrele and Andrew Whipple as vice presidents.The team will represent tenants, owners and investors in Continue reading >>>

Greater Boston is pocketed with major developments that promise to transform huge swaths of underutilized and abandoned property into commercial and residential hubs. Pictured is a rendering of the planned 5.2 million-square-foot NorthPoint development in East Cambridge. For a region of the country that’s not supposed to have enough land available for mega-development projects, the Continue reading >>>

Readville resident Martha McDonough, the lead organizer of the event, said the effort was a good beginning. “We know we don’t have everything out, but we got a lot out, and a lot of hard work from a little over 70 volunteers,” McDonough said. McDonough, an avid canoeist, began thinking about a clean-up several years back, when she first saw how polluted some stretches of the Neponset were. “It was almost impassible for a lot of canoes,” she said. “Motorboats could no longer get through there.” She worked with the Neponset River Watershed Association and a host of local organizations Continue reading >>>

In late July, amidst growing street violence, a heated and sometimes nasty political campaign, and a faltering hometown team, greater Boston finally got some attention that it could be proud of.  The Milken Institute, a non-profit think-tank based in Santa Monica, Calif., ranked Boston the fourth best large-metro area in its Best Cities for Successful Aging index (seniors 65+), and number one for seniors ages 80 and plus. For those of us who have spent most, if not all, of our lives in the greater Boston area, we tend to take for granted all of the resources our wonderful metropolitan area Continue reading >>>

Thursday, August 30, 2012, 11:29am   Greater Boston hotels reported stable operating results for July 2012, according to PKF Consulting USA, a division of Colliers International Occupancy slipped slightly in July from the same period a year ago, but hotel revenue rose, the latest survey from PKF found. The 94 hotel operators in the PKF Trends sample for the Greater Boston area achieved an average 85.9 Continue reading >>>

Here's Trulia's top ten list for the Boston area, including price-per-square-foot numbers. To convert the square foot numbers, just base it on a home of roughly 2000 square feet. For example, in Westford, a 2,000 square foot home will cost you just under $400,000. What's your take? Is Trulia full of it or has it hit upon a new way of looking at where parents are buying? School District Ratio Price per SQFT Westford School District 1.74 $197 Duxbury School District 1.72 $231 Westwood School District 1.70 Continue reading >>>

While most youth partake in traditional summer camp activities such as archery, horseback riding, and swimming, Belmont resident Dana O’Rourke, 14, chose to participate in a weeklong global diplomacy summer camp. O’Rourke spent a week at Harvard Business School to participate in the United Nations Association of Greater Boston’s Summer Institute. O’Rourke answers a few questions about her unique camp experience. Out of 44 middle school and high school students in the Greater Boston area, only three students in Belmont participated in the Model UN Summer Institute and you were one Continue reading >>>

The Food Project, a Lincoln-based youth development and sustainable farming organization, has completed its 21st summer working with teens from throughout Greater Boston and the North Shore. For nearly seven weeks, participants learned how to farm using sustainable methods, helping to grow and harvest more than 68,000 pounds of fresh produce. Alongside farming skills, they encountered peers from different walks of life. Lexington High School student Emma Brinton, 16, first visited the Lincoln farm two years ago as part of a volunteer trip organized by one of her teachers. “Since then, Continue reading >>>

By Derek J. Anderson, Globe Correspondent A Dorchester man pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to four counts of arson, federal prosecutors said. Jose L. Baez, 40, set fire to a Whole Foods Market in Cambridge on Dec. 26, 2008, to Jamaica Plain Auto Body in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood on April 29, 2009, a brownstone building in the Back Bay neighborhood on July 31, 2009, and a three-family residence in the Roslindale neighborhood on Aug. 9, 2010, all buildings that he had connections to, the US attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement. Baez, who had previously Continue reading >>>

The third annual Boston Equestrian Classic will host some of the top equestrians on the beautiful Myopia Hunt Club show grounds in historic Hamilton, Sept. 6-7. The World Class show jumping competition begins on Thursday, Sept. 6, with competitors vying for more than $83,000 in prize money culminating on Sunday, Sept. 9, with the Donald V. Little $35,000 Grand Prix. Coming on the heels of the exciting equestrian events at the 2012 Olympics, the Boston Equestrian Classic will feature some of the world’s best athletes including Leslie Burr Howard, winner of Olympic Silver and Gold medals; Continue reading >>>