Developer drills one in Fenway

The Boston-based Abbey Group broke ground on the $200 million Viridian mixed-use project on Boylston Street yesterday, just blocks from Fenway Park, with a projected completion date of spring 2015.

"It will enhance our economic strength, create jobs and bring more vitality to our neighborhoods," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said during yesterday's groundbreaking ceremony. "I'm proud this project will bring to the Fenway 600 construction jobs, 342 units of housing and a community center where residents can hold events and meetings."

Of the 342 apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, 38 units will be affordable housing.

The $200 million project will "preserve the unique character" of the Fenway and will also consist of 10,000 square feet of retail space, 295 underground parking spaces, on-site bike spaces, 2,700 square feet of street level community space, along with a new coffee shop and sidewalk seating, according to developers.

"This is because the BRA is working out there everyday. And the community process we have in Boston is second to none," Menino said of the project, calling the future site, "a pedestrian-friendly urban village that attracts residents and businesses alike."

"The Fenway continues to be a magnet for investment, housing, creating jobs and bringing retail options for people in our neighborhoods," Menino said.

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New Microsoft center to be window on Mass. innovation

Microsoft New England is launching a technology policy center in Cambridge to increase the computing giant's involvement with industry and government in Massachusetts, the company said.

The Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center in Kendall Square will be announced at an event today, and will focus on moving innovation from research to real world use as well as influencing government policies to help innovation thrive in New England.

"We want to bring together the region's key stakeholders from the technology, broader business, academic and government communities to respond to important issues that are byproducts or unintended consequences of technological advancements," Annmarie Levins, associate general counsel for Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. Levins will lead the center.

An uproar in the state's technology industry recently helped force the Legislature to revisit a controversial tech tax, and the tech community has begun organizing in the wake of the episode. Microsoft officials were not available to discuss the tech tax issue yesterday.

Similar Microsoft policy centers exist in places including Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley.

Microsoft will also award a three-year, $350,000 grant to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council's Education Foundation to help with its mission of increasing computer science in schools.

"This is going to really help us to start mobilizing industry even more," said MassTLC Education Foundation executive director Heather Carey. "I can't even tell you what this means to the education foundation."

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Liz channels Ted on NIH $$

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a step into the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's shoes yesterday, calling for a "nonpartisan" effort to double the funding of the National Institute of Health that could pay huge dividends for Massachusetts.

"I'm calling to double the funding for the National Institutes of Health and to give them more assurance long-term in their funding so they don't get caught up in this crazy budget process," the Bay State's senior senator said at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

"Research creates economic growth. It reduces health care costs. It creates a better life for our people," she said in her speech to Boston business leaders. "Refusing to invest in the NIH is the budgetary equivalent of cutting off your feet to save money on shoes. We are the world leader in this work only so long as we are willing to commit the resources."

In 2011 and 2012, NIH funding nationwide dropped two years in a row for the first time since at least 2000.

Robert K. Coughlin of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council said increased NIH funding will add jobs and other economic benefits here.

"There's a huge local economy benefit," Coughlin said. Of Kennedy, he said, "His leadership many decades ago has led to this industry that exists in Massachusetts today. The members of Congress are trying to continue to build off of that."

Harry Orf, senior vice president for research at Massachusetts General Hospital — which receives the most NIH funding in the country — said bioscience innovation is crucial.

"Whatever nation is at the forefront of that will be leading innovation and will be the leading economy," Orf said. "It's a worthwhile endeavor."

Massachusetts receives the most NIH funding per capita by a wide margin, and of the six hospitals and organizations with the more NIH funding, five are in Massachusetts. In fiscal year 2012, Massachusetts received $2.56 billion in NIH funds.

Sue Windham-Bannister of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center said "NIH funding has a tremendous impact here."

While Warren billed the NIH funding effort as something both sides of the aisle could get behind, that may not be the case.

"It has to be part of a larger discussion about the priorities of spending in our country at large," said Joshua Archembault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute. "I don't think you can get bi-partisan agreement for anything unless you talk about financing."

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Hub FEMA maps may unleash flood of anger

Property owners in Suffolk County, including Boston's booming Seaport District, are bracing for the release of FEMA's new flood zone maps, which could force hundreds of owners to get costly insurance for the first time and jack up rates for those who already have it.

Next month, the federal agency is expected to begin reviewing and approving Suffolk County's maps, which include Boston, Revere, Chelsea and Winthrop. Suffolk is the last of the Bay State's coastal counties not remapped.

In Boston, which boasts more than $460 billion in waterfront real estate assets, officials are girding for the impact of the new flood zones on property owners. Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office has enlisted an independent consultant to review the Federal Emergency Management Agency's preliminary maps, which could be released as soon as Nov. 15.

"Our primary concerns are ensuring that the maps are accurate and that people are aware of the financial impact," said Brian Swett, Menino's Chief of Environment and Energy.

Under legislation Congress passed last year, FEMA is required to remap flood-zone boundaries and phase out decades-old flood insurance subsidies for owners of homes in high-risk areas. The move is aimed at shoring up the National Flood Insurance Program, which is more than $24 billion in debt.

Statewide, thousands of property owners could be affected, including many in areas not previously considered at risk for floods.

Vivien Li, president of the Boston Harbor Association, an environmental advocacy group, caught a glimpse of FEMA's preliminary flood maps a few months ago and said there will likely be a backlash from property owners when the new zones are made public.

"When the maps come out, you're going to have a lot of angry people," she said.

FEMA officials plan to hold community meetings to discuss the maps with property owners, who will have 90 days to appeal their inclusion in flood zones.

"It's going to be a long process," FEMA spokesman Dennis Pinkham said.

Municipal officials, real estate brokers, lenders, and several Bay State congressmen want FEMA to postpone approval of the maps and rate increases until a long-awaited study on the financial impact of the new law is conducted.

Winthrop Town Manager James McKenna estimates 500 homes will be moved into high-hazard flood zones, many of them in neighborhoods with working-class families and seniors living on fixed incomes. Federal flood insurance can cost $400 a year to more than $8,000 in high-risk zones, FEMA said.

"This is going to hurt a lot of people," McKenna said. "They need to take a serious look at what this will to do to families."

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Apple sweetens suite of apps

Apple's newly upgraded suite of productivity and lifestyle apps makes the iPad feel much more like a full-fledged computer. Many consumers can now grab one of those keyboard accessories for the iPad and forget about their laptop.

Simply put: It's a game-changer.

Last week Apple released upgraded versions of its six lifestyle and productivity apps — iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, Keynote, Pages and Numbers. Apple's photo and movie editing apps have long given it a leg up on Microsoft, Google and Amazon, but now they're even better, and the productivity apps are a serious blow to the competition.

Two of the lifestyle apps, iMovie and iPhoto, are $4.99 for iOS 7 users and free with a new device. The third, GarageBand — which lets you compose music and plunk around on a virtual keyboard, set of drums or guitar — is now totally free. My favorite is iMovie. It doesn't require the remotest bit of creativity or artistic prowess to make a respectable film. Particularly fun are the templates for trailers. Just pick one of the pre-made templates and add your own video clips and text. It took me 20 minutes to make a funny and poignant trailer documenting my son's first six months.

Each of Apple's productivity apps — Pages (a word processor), Numbers (a spreadsheet) and Keynote (for presentations) — follows a similar formula, with Apple having done much of the work for you. Pre-designed themes and templates abound, each one sleeker than the next. Buttons are unobtrusive and features are intuitive. Basically, it's simpler than ever to make things prettier than ever. Each is $9.99 for existing iOS 7 users, and free for those who purchase a new iPad, iPhone or fifth-generation iPad touch.

The move to make these apps free with the purchase of a new Apple device was a clear assault on Google and Microsoft, who have been luring consumers with free stuff, whether it's free music through the Xbox mobile app, free storage with SkyDrive or Google Docs.

For consumers considering the Apple ecosystem, these newly updated apps may be reason enough to take the plunge. Though the productivity apps aren't going to replace Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for heavy users, they're just fine for a small business owner or someone who sends out a weekly newsletter or writes the occasional resume, note or essay.

For that reason, the upcoming iPad Air, which hits stores Friday, could be the hottest selling device this holiday season.

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Niki Tsongas to address Merrimack Valley businesswomen

HAVERHILL  — U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Conference.

The conference is scheduled for Monday the Phoenician Restaurant in Haverhill.

The Democrat is expected to discuss her efforts to support legislation important to women and families, her outlook and ideas for business growth and improving the economy, and ways the federal government can assist and support the business community and women-owned businesses.

The annual event brings together women in business and leadership positions throughout the region.

Others scheduled to attend include Dianne Anderson, president and CEO of Lawrence General Hospital; and Sara Gold, president at Schwartz Hannan PC.

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Accelerating growth

MassChallenge, the Bay State's groundbreaking global startup accelerator and competition, is planning an extensive expansion that will include manufacturing facilities and outposts in Israel as well as potentially Europe, Asia and South America, according to its executives.

"We might launch a new office in London or Bogota toward the end of next year," said John Harthorne, MassChallenge's founder and CEO, "and it would launch its first competition in 2015."

The 4-year-old organization offers free incubator space, mentors and grants to innovative startups.

When it moves to the Innovation District's Boston Design Center next summer, its new digs will include for the first time space for manufacturing materials that its startups will be able to use to build prototypes, said Harthorne.

"One of our goals will be to add lots of equipment and tools," he said.

Lightspeed MFG President Richard Breault, who already has helped several startups build prototypes for free, will be donating the materials and expertise, Harthorne said.

MassChallenge, which saw more than 1,200 applicants this year, also will continue its international expansion by hiring a full-time executive director to head up the program it launched in Israel this year with the support of The Kraft Group and EMC Corp., he said.

It also will look to identify locations for new offices internationally and possibly in the U.S., Harthorne said.

Some options abroad include the United Kingdom, Colombia, Taiwan, Korea and Germany.

The organization, which will give its 2013 awards on Wednesday, is building on a startlingly successful track record.

The 361 finalists who completed its annual, four-month accelerator program from 2010 to 2012 raised a total of $362.5 million in funding, created 2,912 jobs and generated $96.1 million in revenue. Of those 361 finalists, 88 percent are still active, 3 percent were acquired, and 265 are based in Massachusetts.

The 78 winners raised a total of about $157 million, created 850 jobs and generated $35 million in revenue. Ninety-four percent of them are still active, 5 percent were acquired, and 59 are headquartered in Massachusetts.

Harthorne attributes these results partly to the expertise of MassChallenge's army of more than 300 mentors and judges, who include entrepreneurs, lawyers, investors, marketers, finance professionals and other executives.

"What we look for is how big is the idea and its impact on humanity, and how likely are you to achieve that," Harthorne said.

Jordan Fliegel won $50,000 in last year's competition for CoachUp, an online marketplace connecting young athletes with private coaches.

Today, the Boston company has nearly 20 employees, recently launched native IOS and Android apps, and has registered more than 12,000 coaches and 40,000 athletes.

"MassChallenge was super helpful for us," Fliegel said. "It really helped us raise money, develop our connections in Boston and in the great local startup ecosystem, and get us to where we are today."

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Aereo’s CEO signals more hiring in Hub

Internet TV company Aereo continues to expand and is looking to Boston to beef up its engineering staff even as it faces lawsuits across the country from broadcast industry giants.

"Our expectation was there would be a lot of controversy around this, but there was some hope that people would recognize it's a good idea," said Chet Kanojia, Aereo's founder and CEO. "We think we're on to something very big."

Aereo uses over-the-air antennas to capture TV broadcasts and relay the signals over the Internet, letting users watch and record local live programming. Aereo launched its Android app last week and will debut in Detroit tomorrow — the eighth market in its 22-city expansion plan.

"They clearly are getting enough traction that the investors are saying let's expand this nationwide," said Brett Sappington, a media analyst and director of research at Parks Associates in Dallas.

Kanojia said the company plans to add 30 to 40 employees, mostly at its Hub offices on Summer Street. Aereo is headquartered in New York City, but the engineering and software come out of Boston.

"When you're building machines, you kind of have to go where the people that know how to build machines are," Kanojia said.

But as Aereo is expanding, the legal fight over its service is climbing the appellate ladder. A group of broadcasters, including Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox Inc., NBC Universal and CBS Corp., have petitioned the Supreme Court to rule on Aereo's legality. Earlier this month, a federal judge refused to shut down Aereo over a copyright claim filed by Hearst-owned WCVB. A trial is scheduled next year.

"When you have these upstart companies that refuse the existing business models, they also ruffle the feathers of the established copyright holders," said Rutgers University law professor Michael Carrier.

At stake is $3 billion in fees that broadcast station owners will receive this year from pay-TV systems to provide signals to subscribers, according to Bloomberg Industries.

"Aereo's business model is based on taking content they don't own and reselling it without compensating the copyright holder," said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters. "We're cautiously optimistic that ultimately the courts will rule in our favor."

Kanojia said he fundamentally disagrees that Aereo is in the business of selling content.

"I think there's a lot of concern or misconception about this company that we are somehow a content company," he said. "It's a pure technology company."

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GOP hopes 'Obamacare' woes have staying power

WASHINGTON — For nearly five years, Republicans have struggled to make a scandal stick to President Barack Obama's White House. One by one, the controversies — with shorthand names such as Solyndra, Benghazi, and Fast and Furious — hit a fever pitch, then faded away.

But some Republicans see the disastrous rollout of Obama's health law as a problem with the kind of staying power they have sought.

The health care failures are tangible for millions of Americans and can be experienced by anyone with Internet access. The law itself is more closely associated with Obama personally and long has been unpopular with the majority of the American people.

The longer the technical problems persist, the more likely they are to affect the delicate balance of enrollees needed in the insurance marketplace in order to keep costs down.

"There's no question the issue has legs, in part because it affects so many Americans very directly and in part because the glitches with the website are simply one of many fundamental problems with this law," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.

The cascade of computer problems began Oct. 1, when sign-ups opened for the marketplaces at the center of the law. Administration officials blamed the problems on high volume, but have since acknowledged more systemic issues with HealthCare.gov.

White House officials contend the website is just one piece of the broader law offering an array of benefits. They say that when the online issues are fixed — the latest estimate is the site will be working normally for most users by the end of November — few people will remember the problems that have marred the opening weeks of the six-month enrollment window.

"It says a lot about Republicans that their focus here is not on helping Americans get insured, but on making political hay of this mess," said Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's senior adviser.

There's another mess the White House is dealing with that could have long-lasting implications, too: U.S. government spying on foreign leaders. The scope of the surveillance programs was first made public in June and the revelations keep coming. The latest concern the alleged monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone communications.

But unlike with the health law, many Republicans support the government surveillance policies, making it more difficult for the party to create a political furor over the revelations.

For GOP lawmakers, the White House's stumbles on the Affordable Care Act have come at an optimal time, just one week after their strategy to shut down the government in exchange for concessions on health care imploded.

The health care debacle has overshadowed some of the Republican missteps and the GOP appears more than happy to keep the spotlight where it is.

Republicans have scheduled a series of congressional hearings on the program's shortcomings, and have called for officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, to be fired. She is set to testify this coming week before a House committee.

Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist, said Republicans should be wary of overreach, and he urged the party to "focus on the basics" in the hearings. If they do, he said, "they can really align themselves with a lot of public anxiety about what's wrong with Washington."

Anxiety about the website's problems also appears to be on the rise among members of the president's own party, a worrisome sign for the White House.

Ten Democratic senators urged Sebelius in a letter to extend the insurance enrollment window beyond the March 31 deadline; White House officials say they don't believe that will be necessary. Also, Democratic leaders have been critical about the seeming lack of preparedness for the sign-up rollout.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no excuse for that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Las Vegas radio station KNPR. "I think the administration should have known how difficult it was going to be to have 35 million or 40 million people to suddenly hook up to a place to go on the Internet."

The health care law has been unpopular with large swaths of the American public ever since Obama signed it into law in 2010. A CBS News survey taken last week found that 43 percent of Americans approve of the law, compared with 35 percent in May.

Crisis management expert Eric Dezenhall said that if the White House wants to prevent the current troubles from being a long-term problem, it will have to do some basic damage control.

"There has to be a component of hand-holding, clarity and bedside manner with the early stages of Obamacare," he said.

The White House appeared to start taking a page from that playbook this past week.

On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began holding daily briefings to address technical problems with the website, though the many of the issues still remain shrouded from the public.

Republicans are turning to a familiar tactic, congressional hearings. It's the same tactic they took as they looked to connect Obama to wrongdoing in the deaths of Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the bankruptcy of the solar energy company Solyndra, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' failed gun-smuggling sting operation known as "Fast and Furious," and a number of other problems that have arisen since the president took office.

"This is more than a website problem. We are also concerned about what happens next," GOP Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, chairman of the House committee that will hear from Sebelius on Wednesday, said in the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address.

Dezenhall said that while investigations may help Republicans do some damage to the health care law, "there's a difference between roughing up your enemy and defeating them."

"They can certainly put some points on the board but I don't see a great Republican coup anytime soon," he said.

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AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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Online:

Health care site: https://www.healthcare.gov

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Nancy Benac at http://twitter.com/nbenac

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Style built in to sunny, 4-level Newton condo

This updated townhouse in Newton's Auburndale neighborhood may not look large from the outside, but it has four levels with 3,000 square feet of airy living space.

The four-bedroom end-unit at 580 Auburn St. is part of the three-building, six-townhouse Auburn Woods development built in 2000. The current owners have updated their unit, replacing carpeting in all the bedrooms and a washer/dryer and adding custom built-ins and window treatments throughout. The townhouse, which includes two bedroom suites and a basement-level two-car garage, is on the market for $875,000.

Set back from the street, the exterior of the unit is gray clapboard with white trim and there's a covered front entryway. The door opens into a spacious L-shaped oak-floored foyer lined on one side with custom built-in cabinets added in 2010, and there's an adjacent half bath with a pedestal sink.

In one direction the foyer leads to a sunny living room with oak floors, recessed lighting and a three-part picture window. Against one wall sits a gas fireplace with a carved wood mantel.

A wide archway leads into an oak-floored formal dining room with three 6-over-6 windows and a glass door that leads out to a brick patio in a small back yard area.

A wall opening and French doors lead into an open kitchen/family room. The recessed-lit kitchen has 27 white wood cabinets and Uba Tuba granite counters. A center island holds a Jenn Air gas stovetop and white oven below. A white G.E. dishwasher is also original to the unit but a white Kitchen Aid refrigerator was added in 2010. The oak-floored family room area has a wall of 6-over-6 windows, recessed lighting, oak floors and French doors. A built-in with cabinets and bookcases, as well as space for a flat screen TV, was added in 2010.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor via a stairway in the foyer and all off a carpeted hallway. The master bedroom suite, recarpeted in 2010, has a good-sized bedroom and walk-in closet. The en suite master bathroom has beige marble floors and surround for a whirlpool tub. There's also a walk-in shower and a double-sink vanity topped with white Corian.

The second bedroom also has updated carpeting and a three-part picture window as well as a built-in dresser and mirror added three years ago. A third bedroom, currently used as a home office, has a wall-length built-in desk, cabinets and bookcase. An additional bathroom on this floor has white ceramic tile floors and a Fiberglas shower, and there's an alcove with a full-size front-facing Bosch washer and dryer.

The entire third floor is taken up by a second bedroom suite with a large carpeted bedroom under the eaves with recessed lighting and a wall-length built-in window suite. There are three closets, two of which run under the eaves, and an en-suite bathroom with white ceramic tile flooring, a Fiberglas shower and Corian-topped vanity.

The current owners added a carpeted exercise room in the unit's basement. There are also unfinished storage areas, one of which holds a gas-fired central heating and cooling system. And there's direct access to a two-car garage.

There's not much yard space — just a small landscaped front yard framed by a stone wall and back yard strip of grass and a stone wall ­— but there is a common grass and wooded area off to the left of the unit. There's also a paved area for guest parking.

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