Deck the Faneuil Hall

The managers of Faneuil Hall Marketplace are seeking city approval to build a large deck off the south side of the Quincy Market building for an outside "lounge" — one of a series of changes in the works to attract new visitors.

The year-round, 61-foot by 31-foot wooden platform, which would be placed over the cobblestones, would provide a level surface for musical performances and more interactive programming, including yoga classes and an authors' series, according to general manager Kristin Keefe. It also would include an outdoor reading room with books, magazines and newspapers, a piano, a chess table, and moveable chairs and tables.

"It will be stuff for visitors to do instead of just watch," Keefe said. "Currently most of our programming is 'watch a street performer perform.'"

New historic tours of the retail center and tourist mecca's Quincy Market, South Market and North Market buildings also will be launched from the deck.

"We're just acknowledging that ... we're surrounded by amazing historical sites, but often (they're) overlooked," Keefe said. "They will focus on the history of our three buildings."

New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which purchased the lease for the city-owned Faneuil Hall Marketplace in 2011, hired New York's Biederman Redevelopment Ventures last year to create outdoor programming for the center as part of larger revitalization plans to attract more locals. Those proposed changes are expected in the form of a master plan that Ashkenazy originally said it would release in the spring of 2012.

"We're continuing to work diligently on it and hope to have an unveiling soon," Keefe said. "We're trying to be extremely thoughtful on this process and make sure we come out with the best product."

A spokesman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority said it anticipates seeing a master plan this fall and looks forward to "working with the merchants of the marketplace and Ashkenazy on next steps."

Ashkenazy pitched plans last year to add a pair of two-story tenant additions encased in glass "sheds," along with two escalators, to the Quincy Market building, but the city's Landmark Commission panned the proposal. The real estate investment firm is not proceeding with the addition "in that form," according to Keefe, who declined further comment.

Ashkenazy also is seeking Landmarks Commission approval of the deck.

The Quincy Market building has historic landmark status, and the commission plans to study this year whether the South Market and North Market buildings also are worthy of the designation. The status affects proposed changes to buildings, plans for which are subject to the commission's review.

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Graduate to a Davis Square condo

This stylish three-unit condo complex has been carved out of a traditional triple decker just outside Somerville's Davis Square.

The three-bedroom duplex units range from $849,000 to $969,000, and all have red oak floors throughout, quartz and cherrywood kitchens and open living/dining areas.

The exterior of the building has been re-sided with blue HardiePlank with white trim, and has all new windows, roof and systems, including gas-fired heat and central air conditioning.

We took a look at staged model Unit 2, a 1,647-square-foot three-bedroom duplex selling for $969,000 on the second and third floor with two decks that overlook a park.

The unit has an open living/dining area with recessed lighting, 9-foot ceilings and lots of windows. Off this area is a half bathroom with porcelain tile floors.

The adjacent kitchen has white quartz countertops and glass mosaic tile backsplashes, with a breakfast bar that seats two and contemporary pendant lamps overhead. There are 15 cherrywood cabinets and top-of-the line Jenn Air refrigerator, dishwasher and six-burner gas stove with a fluted stainless steel hood.

Off the kitchen is a very tiny "third" bedroom, which is actually more of a home office.

The other two bedrooms are on the second floor. The master bedroom suite has oak floors and lots of front-facing windows. A leaded glass door leads out to a second private front deck overlooking a park. There's a large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom with porcelain tile floors, a dual sink vanity and a ceramic-tiled glass-doored walk-in shower.

The second bedroom has three windows and two closets. Across the hall, a second full bathroom features porcelain tile floors, and white subway tile surround for a tub/shower with a rainhead fixture. A closet inside the bathroom holds a washer/dryer hookup.

There's a stairway with a skylight opening onto the roof. The owner has roof rights, but will have to secure permission from the city to build a roof deck. But gas, electricity and water have already been brought up to the roof.

The unit comes with one deeded outdoor parking space behind the building.

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Jaguar Coupe’s 
a sexy sportster

To say that the 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe is a head-turner would be an understatement.

During our four-day trial, this sexy sportster was subjected to catcalls, oglers, hoots and hollers whether parked or rolling through town.

This coupe screams "look at me!" Sporting a gorgeous front grille, sleek profile, shapely sides and a well-rounded backside, this Jaguar is a tantalizing hot rod that fascinates anyone it passes.

Retractable door handles and a rear spoiler that automatically rises at speeds of over 70 mph add to its already aerodynamic body.

Beautiful 19-inch black centrifuge alloy wheels give the salsa red exterior a striking contrast that will get you noticed.

And if they don't see you coming, they'll hear you.

The roar of the F-Type's switchable active twin exhaust yowls with a loud throaty roar, which gives way to a barking burble when stepping off the accelerator.

If you prefer a bit more stealth, you can lower the volume of the exhaust with the flick of a switch. But seriously, who would want that?

Stimulating steering and a heart-pounding 340-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 engine make this two-seater exciting to drive. A punch of the gas pedal puts you well over the speed limit in a flash — the F-Type's speed combined with its bright red exterior will certainly attract law enforcement. Somewhere there are pin-up posters of this car in police departments.

This Jaguar's suspension keeps you glued to every bend in the road.

The F-Type's dynamic mode gives you all the thrills without having to manage the 8-speed Quickshift transmission. Manual override is also possible with both steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters and drive selector control. The dynamic mode does seem to use more gas, so don't expect to get 28 miles per gallon on the highway with a lead foot.

With an MSRP of $77,375 as tested, the F-Type has 14-way adjustable bucket seats that are both supportive and comfortable. Seating is very low to the ground with a great feel for the car's center of gravity. Visibility was surprisingly good in spite of a small rear view mirror and window. One puzzling omission is the lack of a back-up camera. With such a beautiful car, you would want every chance to keep its exterior scratchless.

The stitched leather interior is also pretty. It has a smart look and good ergonomics, but a clumsy GPS/entertainment interface that is a real let down. A Meridian sound system pumps 380 watts into the cockpit and sounded great doing it, but quite frankly the exhaust sound is more fun to hear.

The bottom line is that the F-Type is the red-hot roadster that will make your friends jealous. Of course, you can share the experience with them — one at a time. Just tell them to leave the luggage home as this coupe has virtually no room for bags.

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Market Basket deal could extend beyond today’s 5 p.m. deadline

The parties negotiating the sale of Market Basket — facing a self-imposed deadline of 5 p.m. today — are signaling talks may spill into the weekend, with sources on both sides saying they're close to an agreement, but are wading through a series of complex deal points.

Ousted former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and his rival cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, Market Basket's controlling shareholder, maintained their weeklong silence yesterday, but sources briefed on the negotiations told the Herald that the passing of today's deadline won't necessarily mean talks are dead.

One source said the parties are still working toward today's deadline — agreed to after a five-hour session with Gov. Deval Patrick and New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan on Sunday — but that if the sides remain close, it's "very possible" talks would extend into the weekend.

Kevin Griffin, publisher of the Griffin Report of Food Marketing, said he continues to hear the sides are "trying to finalize the bid and work out the details.

"But again, this is just weeks and weeks on end," Griffin said. "I believe it's happening, that's what I understand. I think that the past week has been probably more movement than there's been in the past four."

Speaking to reports Wednesday, Patrick said the parties left Sunday's conversation "feeling hopeful that a resolution was within reach" and that he asked them to consider an internal deadline because "there are a number of issues that could be debated endlessly."

Griffin said there have been few indicators two read into this week "except for the fact that we don't have the board coming out and talking about shutting stores and firing people, which leads me to believe that all the indicators are in place that they're getting close."

Sources have told the Herald talks have focused partly on how much Arthur T. and his backers are willing to put down up front, and the schedule on which future payments would be made. The unknown backers, sources told the Herald, would want assurances store revenue can return to where it was prior to when protests began more than a month ago.

The 71-store Market Basket chain has been hemorrhaging millions a day since managers and workers walked out in protest of Arthur T.'s ouster more than a month ago. Some vendors have stopped doing business with the company and are saying they won't come back unless Arthur T. returns.

The nearly five-week impasse has raised questions about whether Arthur T. will be able to quickly generate enough revenue to satisfy creditors while keeping all stores open and their 25,000 employees on the payroll — all while maintaining the chain's signature low prices that drive customers' fierce loyalty.

"I don't know, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that there will be no layoffs," Griffin said. "My guess is he will forgo short-term profits ... because it would be instrumental to the momentum that he needs to get the place in order."

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MassBio: Seed-stage funds slow

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is sounding a warning over seed-stage funding — the earliest form of investment in startups — saying recent dips could hurt innovation in the long run, according to its latest report on the health of the state's biotech industry.

The Bay State leads in research and development jobs, in addition to federal research funding and venture capital invested per capita, but seed-stage funding needs to approach
$200 million this year to ensure a strong startup environment into the next decade, according to the 2014 MassBio Industry Snapshot.

"Massachusetts' strength in the life sciences depends on its vibrant startup and early-stage research activities, but funding for those activities — the fuel for industry growth here — is getting more difficult to come by," Robert K. Coughlin, MassBio's president and CEO, said in a statement. "We must find new avenues for companies seeking seed funding to ensure life-changing treatments make it ... into the hands of patients in need."

Seed-stage deals have grown from 20 deals totalling $52 million from 1999 to 2003 — when Massachusetts companies received 13.1 percent of all biotech seed funding in the U.S. — to 95 deals totalling 
$761.91 million from 2009 to 2013, when Bay State startups received 33.4 percent.

While that's good news, seed-stage funding has dropped since the 2008-to-2010 highs — when they totaled $275.89 million, $265.54 million and 
$177.92 million, respectively — to $148.10 million last year.

Still, other industry statistics look positive. Although research in the Impact 2020 report shows biotech venture investment overall is decreasing, last year Bay State venture investment increased to $984 million, with the state receiving more than 21 percent of all VC investment in biotechnology in the U.S.

The industry's economic impact as measured by Massachusetts-based payroll also topped $7.2 billion, with biopharma employment reaching 57,642 in 2013, an increase of almost 1,200 jobs over the previous year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

Employment in the industry has grown nine to 10 times faster than state and national employment growth rates.

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Biotech $ barometer

Total Massachusetts seed-stage funding 
by year:

1999: $11,395,000

2000: $5,040,000

2001:$3,019,900

2002: $27,600,000

2003: $5,000,000

2004: $6,750,000

2005: $15,799,800

2006: $48,201,000

2007: $90,334,100

2008:$275,896,900

2009:$265,548,900

2010:$177,925,000

2011:$117,126,000

2012: $53,707,500

2013:$148,105,000

Source: PWC MoneyTree

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GE brings good things to Massachusetts

GE Healthcare Life Sciences' new $21 million headquarters for U.S. operations will open in Marlboro next year, the company said yesterday, bringing 220 new jobs in the fast-growing industry to the state.

"Our new facility in Massachusetts will position us for continued innovation and competition in such a fast-paced, innovative industry," said Kieran Murphy, president and CEO, in a statement. "We will be close to industry-leading talent, customers, and world-class academic and medical institutions across all the industry sectors we serve, from biotech and pharma, to diagnostics and medical devices."

The headquarters, scheduled to open in spring 2015, will establish a new site for more than 500 employees and create more than 220 new jobs, company officials said.

"Today, Massachusetts' life sciences sectors are the fastest-growing sectors of our economy. We look forward to welcoming the U.S. life sciences headquarters of GE Healthcare and are pleased that the company will create a substantial number of new, STEM-related job opportunities in central Massachusetts," Gov. Deval Patrick said in the statement.

A currently unoccupied space will be transformed into state-of-the-art labs, customer application facilities, and office space to complement the company's existing manufacturing capability in Westboro.

"This GE Healthcare Life Sciences investment ... is proof that innovation is thriving outside Route 128," said Marlboro Mayor Arthur Vigeant in the statement.

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Analysts see steep cost to Market Basket debt

A debt-financed acquisition of ailing Market Basket chain by ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas could end up driving up the revived chain's signature low prices — and drive off its loyal customers — according to experts who say the celebrated grocery titan will be newly beholden to creditors expecting immediate returns regardless of what it takes to nurse the company back to health.

"You spend cash on making­ sure that you get the ratios set and the loans repaid, and that's cash that is simply not available to be flexible enough to address the competition from Shaw's down the road, who will smell blood in the water," said Bob Reynolds, a former executive at the Safeway grocery chain and a consultant who advises companies on acquisitions.

"It hamstrings the flexibility of the operation to do those new and special things which are important not only to bringing an operation back, but to fighting off competition," Reynolds said.

The Herald reported yesterday that a key factor that has emerged in sales talks between Arthur T. and his rival cousin — majority shareholder Arthur S. Demoulas, who controls a 50.5 percent stake worth an estimated $1.5 billion — is how much the former CEO will pay up front, and how much his unknown backers would put up.

The backers, sources told the Herald, would want assurances Market Basket revenue can return to a point where the debt obligations can be paid.

Yet the 71-store chain has been hemorrhaging millions a day since managers and workers walked out in protest of Arthur T.'s ouster more than a month ago, and now several of its vendors have stopped doing business with the company. They have been joined by thousands of boycotting Market Basket customers who also de­manded Arthur T.'s return.

Reynolds said he's skeptical business will return to pre-walkout levels in short order, especially if cus­tomers are faced with higher prices. "If I were making an equity investment and my payback was dependent upon the operation returning to its former glory, whatever that was, I wouldn't be very optimistic about that," he said.

Kevin Griffin, editor of The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, said Arthur T. may not be constrained in a typical way by debt fi­nancing because he has a loyal, proven executive team ready to return to work the second he resumes control.

"Sure, they'd have a monumental task ahead of them, but nobody's better suited to do it," Griffin said. "The financial structure of the business will be different, and having to service a significant amount of debt is going to be something new, but I think that they are a com­pany that's very streamlined."

Both sides were mum yesterday on any developments, even as Gov. Deval Patrick — who met with them for five hours Sunday — said they seem to be at a "critical point." The parties have set a self-imposed deadline of tomorrow to make a deal.

"Frankly, it's taken longer than it should," Patrick told the Herald. "It's a very complicated transaction in which the employees are caught up. … What I want is to get a deal done because a deal seems to be a prerequisite for stabi­lizing the company."

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Experts downplay bid by Hannaford

A bid to buy Market Basket by the parent company of Hannaford Supermarkets is improbable given not only the current state of the Tewksbury chain's stores, but also the likely extended federal antitrust review it would require, according to grocery analysts.

Delhaize Group, the Belgian owner of the 180-store, Maine-based Hannaford, is purported to have bid for the 71-store Market Basket chain, but overlap in Massachusetts and New Hampshire likely would mean a six- to 12-month Federal Trade Commission review, said Kevin Griffin, publisher of the Griffin Report of Food Marketing. By the time a deal would be consum­mated, Market Basket stores — already bereft of customers and sales — would have to be closed to stave off losses.

"I can't see the Hannaford thing happening," Griffin said. "It's just unrealistic."

A Delhaize spokesman declined comment.

The FTC likely would force Hannaford to divest stores given the proximity of locations between the two chains, said supermarket consultant David Living­ston of DJL Research in Milwaukee. "It would be pretty messy," he said.

And despite Hannaford's opportunity to increase its market share — and non-union synergies — Market Basket is "not much of a going concern," said grocery analyst Andrew Wolf of BB&T Capital Markets.

Market Basket share­holders are believed to be focused on former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas' bid to buy the chain from rival cousin Arthur S. Demoulas' side of the family after the CEO's firing in June, which set off a worker protest that's decimated the chain.

Tom Gordon, a former grocery department district supervisor for Market Basket, is hopeful Arthur T. Demoulas will wrap up a deal by Friday. "Knowing (Arthur T. Demoulas) as well as I do, if he didn't think this was possible, he somehow would have let us know," Gordon said.

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Disney stock closes in on $100 after hitting $90 high

Disney enjoyed a magical day on Wall Street Tuesday with its stock trading at record levels of $90 a share -- the highest in more than 16 years.

The stock ended the day at $90.09, up 12 cents, a 52-week high. It nearly broke the $90 mark on Monday, closing at $89.97.

It was up another 16 cents in after-hours trading at $90.16.

Analysts currently recommend Disney's stock with a moderate buy, although Jeffries analyst John Janedis predicted in June that the company's shares will break $100. "We think Disney is still at the early stages of a multi-year run where all segments will post solid growth," he said at the time.

Others also were optimistic.

Argus raised its price target from $96 to $101 last week. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its price from $90 to $100, earlier in the month. And Nomura was more cautious with a price target of $97, up from $95.

The last time Disney's stock traded at this level was the 1990s, but stock splits brought it back down to the $34.50 range in 1998, after hitting $106.

Disney's third quarter, which wrapped June 30, marked the best three months in the company's history, with profits rising 22% to $2.2 billion on a 8% gain in revenue of $12.46 billion.

The gains came as the studio is firing on all cylinders with "Frozen" earning $1.3 billion at the box office, Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" performing strongly this summer and "Maleficent" also scoring big worldwide.

During the period, all of the company's divisions -- cable, broadcast, theme parks, consumer products and interactive -- saw considerable gains. But analysts have their eye on what's coming next year: a slate of high-profile tentpoles like "The Avengers" sequel "Age of Ultron," the potential launch of the "Ant-Man" franchise, and a new "Star Wars."

In fact, Disney is planning on upping the presence of the sci-fi franchise at the company's theme parks; it has new animated series "Star Wars Rebels" launching in October.

A focus on franchises and tentpoles boosted revenue at the studio 14% to $1.8 billion during the company's third quarter that doubled profits to $411 million.

Overall, Disney's stock is up 18% since January.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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