Newsbriefs

Houghton St. apartment building brings $620K

WORCESTER – A Milford man has spent $620,000 on a three-story, eight-unit apartment building on Houghton Street in Worcester. According to broker Glickman Kovago & Co. of Worcester, Mario Dafonte bought the 29 Houghton St. building from Christina King of Ware. Brokers with Glickman represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.

Squibb breaks ground on Devens facility

DEVENS – Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb broke ground on its new biologics manufacturing facility in Devens. The company announced Devens as the site for the new facility last summer, and began construction at the site recently. The company has committed $750 million to fund the construction of the facility. The facility is modular in order to accommodate future expansion. The first phase of the construction will include four main buildings: a manufacturing facility, a central utility building, an administrative building, and a warehouse. The company expects the facility to be completed in 2009. Construction of the first phase of the project is expected to employ about 350. Future expansions could require 550 workers.

Providence group buys Plantation building

WORCESTER – A group from Providence, R.I., has bought the office building at 338 Plantation St. in Worcester for $1.8 million. Northborough Realty Holdings LLC, led by Scott B. Adams of Barrington, R.I., bought the 6,000-square-foot office building March 29. George A. Debs, the chiropractor who bought the property and built the office building about seven years ago, said he's planning on moving out. Debs said he built the office building to house his practice, which in 2000 included four other chiropractors. For the last two years, Debs has been operating a solo practice, and doesn't need a 2,900-square-foot office. Debs said Worcester broker Kelleher & Sadowsky is marketing the space. The rest of the building is taken up by two medical industry staffing agencies, Placement Pros and Clinical One.

Planning commission to lease Union Station second floor

WORCESTER – The Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission has leased the entire second floor of Worcester's Union Station. The commission has agreed to a 10-year lease with two five-year options to follow, according to city officials at an announcement of the agreement at Union Station. The quasi-public commission will pay the Worcester Redevelopment Authority, which owns the station, market rate, about $15-per-square-foot, for the 8,500-square-foot space, according to commission and city officials.

Holy closing

PAXTON – The Teresian Carmelites, a small religious group based in Worcester, closed on the purchase of a 99-acre property in Paxton for $230,000 and has moved forward with plans for a monastery and wind farm. The Teresians had entered into a purchase-sale agreement with the property's owner, Boston-based American Tower, in 2005, but American Tower attempted to back out of the deal, according to the Teresians. The issue ended up in Worcester Superior Court, but a recent court decision in the Teresian's favor cleared the way for the closing. The Teresians – whose membership includes approximately 30 men and women – plan to build a "green monastery" on the property for about 14 of its members, according to Brother Dennis Anthony Wyrzykowski. The group also hopes to build between two and six power generating wind turbines on the property, although the Teresians need to get approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration to do so, Wyrzykowski said.

Vision center leases in Stafford Station plaza

WORCESTER – The Stafford Station Shopping Plaza in Worcester has a new tenant: The Vision Center of Webster Square. The vision center leased 700 square feet there, according to broker Glickman Kovago & Co. of Worcester. The center is also home to a bookshop, a flower shop, a tanning salon and a staffing agency. There is currently 10,000 square feet of space available at the center.

Truck company coming to Lancaster

LANCASTER – A truck equipment company has received tax incentives from the town of Lancaster, clearing the way for the company to build a $5 million facility near Route 2. J.C. Madigan Inc., which sells and outfits trucks with plows, winches, running boards, dump bodies and other after-market accessories, currently operates out of the same Harvard headquarters as Madigan Lime Corp., which distributes industrial and agricultural lime. The Lancaster facility would become the main location for J.C. Madigan, and Madigan Lime will remain in Harvard. Construction on a 40-acre site on Old Union Turnpike in Lancaster could begin next spring, according to president Tim Madigan, who said the company chose the 7,100-resident town for its expansion because of "growth potential" and highway access. It has already presented a preliminary site plan to the Lancaster Office of Community Development and Planning.

High Tech

Laser co. beams over results

OXFORD – IPG Photonics Corp. reported first quarter revenue of $41.8 million, a 28 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. The company, which makes fiber lasers, reported operating income of $11.1 million, and net income of $6.6 million, increases of 48 percent and 113 percent respectively. The company's expenses grew from $3.3 million during the first quarter of 2006 to $8.3 million during the most recent quarter. The company credits increased sales of its fiber lasers in the materials processing market, especially automotive cutting and welding. For the second quarter, the company expects revenue between $42 million and $45 million.

Banking & Finance

Biotech pushes venture capital to strong quarter

First quarter venture capital investment in New England jumped 29 percent over investment in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers New England Money Tree report. New England trails only California's Silicon Valley in venture funding for private companies. According to the report the $975.5 million invested between January and March in New England is the highest quarterly total in three years. The total represents a decrease in deal volume compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the report. With fewer but bigger deals, the average deal total for the first quarter in New England was $10.3 million. According to the report, biotechnology companies led venture investing with a 32 percent share of all venture deals, and an average deal size of $18.2 million.

Construction

Completed projects lead to strong quarter for Perini

FRAMINGHAM – Perini Corp. reported first quarter revenue 61 percent above the company's revenue from the same period last year. With its $987.4 million in first-quarter revenue, the building and construction management company reported net income for the quarter of $22.7 million, 180 percent above its net income for the first quarter of 2006. The company said the increases were due to "an increased volume of work in the hospitality and gaming market" as a result of new contracts. Also, the company finished "a significant amount" of backlogged projects. The company said it currently has a project backlog worth about $8.6 billion, and anticipates a record year for revenue and earnings per share. The company expects 2007 revenue of between $3.8 and $4 billion.

Manufacturing

PLC posts loss for quarter

FRANKLIN – Medical device maker PLC Systems Inc. reported a first quarter net loss of $686,000 on total revenue of $1.5 million. The company's revenue for the first quarter of 2006 was $1.8 million. Also during that period, the company reported net income of $1.3 million. PLC said the first quarter 2006 positive net income was the result of a $1.4 million gain from the sale of its Optiwave disposable manufacturing rights to the Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

Fuel cell co. to test mass market

SOUTHBORO – Protonex Technology Corp., a Southboro-based fuel cell manufacturer, said it was awarded a second contract by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. The company contracts largely with the government and the military. The new, $400,000 contract with the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based center allows Protonex to improve the manufacture of its fuel cells and components. The contract is part of a drive to commercialize Protonex products. During the first contract between the center and Protonex, the company reduced the number of parts used to make certain types of fuel cells, cut the time it took to make them, and cut the overall cost of making the fuel cells. The second contract is expected to fund similar improvements to Protonex's complete fuel cell systems. Also, Protonex appointed Robert V. Barry, vice president of product engineering, to sharpen the company's focus on the development of products for the mass market.

Biomedical

Abbott seeks approval for child arthritis drug

ABBOTT PARK, ILL. – Abbott Laboratories Inc., which has a research center in Worcester, has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval for an arthritis drug for use in children. The company is asking for the same approval from the European Medicines Agency. The drug, Humira, would be used to fight juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The filing marks the first time Abbott has sought permission to market Humira for use in children. Abbott said testing during a 48-week trial showed Humira to be effective in treating juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Humira is currently used to treat arthritis and Crohn's disease in adults.

Cytyc helps fund med. device start-up

MARLBORO – Cytyc Corp., through its Cytyc Corp. Development Co. subsidiary, is taking part in start-up investment in Combinent BioMedical Systems. Combinent is an early stage company developing a single-device vaginal drug delivery method for a combination of drugs currently given orally and intravenously that treat hormonal disorders. Cytyc is a medical device company that specializes in cervical cancer screening and other women's specialty products. Combinent was founded by doctors and chemical engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital. The company will be based in Boston. Cytyc is funding the start-up along with VIMAC Ventures and Commons Capital. John McDonough, Cytyc president, will have a seat on Combinent's board of directors.

Quarterly loss more than double at Caliper

HOPKINTON – Drug research company Caliper Life Sciences Inc. reported a first-quarter net loss of $9.6 million on revenue of $28.4 million. For the same quarter the previous year, the company reported a net loss of $4.4 million. The company said the loss is the result of its acquisition of Xenogen Corp., a biotechnology company also based in Hopkinton. But without Xenogen, the picture would have been worse. The company said Xenogen revenue offset a decline in "automation revenue," unfavorable quarter-to-quarter sales, and "timing delays in technology spending by certain large customers." Revenue for the quarter was 28 percent more than the same period of the previous year. The company predicted 23 to 44 percent growth in the second quarter, and 27 to 33 percent revenue growth for the remainder of the year.

Business confidence lowest since 2003

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts' Business Confidence Index is at its lowest level since October 2003. According to AIM, the index lost eight-tenths of a point in April, and dropped to 53.9. April's decline, according to AIM, came on the back of a decline in March, and "indicates that the March result was neither an artifact of timing nor a statistical outlier," said Raymond Torto, co-chairman of AIM's board of economic advisors. "Employers from across the commonwealth expressed serious concerns about the direction of the state's business climate and did not foresee improvement in the general business climate of the state or the nation in the next six months ahead," Torto said. According to the report, confidence was up slightly among manufacturers, but down among other employers for the fifth consecutive month. Large companies were more confident than medium and small companies, the report said.

Mass. economic growth outpaces nation

According to the MassBenchmarks Current Economic Index, the commonwealth's economy grew by 4.7 percent during the first quarter of the year. The growth outpaces the nation's and is the fastest rate of growth since the second quarter of 2003, according to MassBenchmarks. The index was up 4 percent from March of last year. MassBenchmarks said strong employment gains in high-tech, bioscience and health technology, and a falling unemployment rate, were responsible for Massachusetts' strong showing. MassBenchmarks said the Commonwealth's economy "should be viewed with caution" in future months because of "softness in the housing market," and the possibility of rising inflation and interest rates.

The News Briefs are compiled from staff and wire reports.