MCCA plays up $1.1M temporary Lawn on D

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority spent $1.1 million to build a lush open space in the Seaport District to host concerts, artwork and lawn games, but it will be usable for no more than two years before the acres of newly laid sod and rows of fencing are ripped up to make way for an expanded convention center.

James E. Rooney, head of the MCCA justified the expense of creating the new, 2.7-acre open space, dubbed The Lawn on D, as a working experiment that will help fine-tune plans for a permanent green space farther up the block where there are currently state transportation department buildings.

"The idea in our research on great open spaces is that most of it has been redesigned two or three times before it achieves greatness," Rooney said. "And there is a lot of money in building open space and then rebuilding it, and then rebuilding it again. Our idea is to make this part of the design process, experiment with it, figure out what we did wrong, program it, figure out what worked and didn't work. Then build it once."

Rooney acknowledged that much of the area that has been spruced up — a once rock- and gravel-covered field now wired with electricity and Wi-Fi, hooked up with water and landscaped with trees and grass — will be torn up in 18 months to two years as the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center gets a $1 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot add-on.

"It's not all throw-away. Some of it we will be able to reuse," said Rooney, who noted that the event space, when not in use by conventioneers, will be open to the public to play bocce and ping-pong, and enjoy live music and interactive art. "We wanted to create a sense of space in the South Boston waterfront. ... Think of it as a college quad, that you just go out and just hang out with your friends, with Wi-Fi."

The MCCA said in May it was paying HR&A Advisors $200,000 for the concept and the design, and Chris Wangro, another New York consultant, $50,000 to develop programming for the space.

It is also a walkable connection to and from the Convention Center, D Street and the Aloft and Element hotels, as required under an agreement the MCCA has with their developers.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh called the lawn "really a great way of showcasing our city."

"It gives the neighborhood a sense of pride," Walsh said. "Having The Lawn on D is another way to make our city more innovative."

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Boston online retailer Wayfair files for public offering

Boston-based online home goods retailer Wayfair filed paperwork for its initial public offering yesterday, a long-awaited move for a company that has seen more than $1 billion in sales during the past 12 months.

According to the paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wayfair is hoping to raise up to $350 million in its IPO.

Wayfair sells furniture and other home goods, and said it took in $574.1 million in the first half of the year. Still, Wayfair took a $51.4 million loss, largely because of sales and marketing expenses.

William Preston, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, said e-commerce companies have done well with their IPOs recently.

"We've seen pretty good success in e-commerce this year," he said.

Founded in 2002, Wayfair will likely be the first U.S. e-commerce company to go public this year. Other e-commerce offerings this year have been from foreign companies.

Preston said one of Wayfair's biggest challenges will be proving to investors it can coexist alongside Amazon, the established king of e-commerce.

Wayfair has raised $363 million in venture funding, but co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine each still own 28.9 percent of the company.

Wayfair said in the filing it will trade under the symbol "W" on the New York Stock Exchange.

A spokeswoman for Wayfair declined to comment.

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Experts: GE Healthcare move will be healthy for Mass.

GE Healthcare's decision to move potentially hundreds of jobs to Massachusetts — and the already-existing cluster of major life sciences companies — could help reduce health care costs and create greater access to cutting-edge medical technology in the Bay State, an expert told the Herald.

"Having these companies close by where research staff are studying these diseases, it probably means our hospitals remain on the cutting edge of medicine," said Barry Bluestone of Northeastern University. "So when a breakthrough comes and it's FDA approved, the first who get to use it are probably patients in the Boston area. We probably do benefit — by being the first adopters of new medical breakthroughs."

The Herald reported yesterday that GE Healthcare is relocating its U.S. headquarters for its life sciences division from New Jersey, where it employs about 400 people, to Massachusetts. It already has an office in Westboro.

Cambridge officials plan to meet with GE Healthcare execs about possibly locating there, said Brian Murphy, the city's assistant manager for community development. He added the company hadn't found a permanent location yet.

GE Healthcare spokesman Benjamin Fox did not return messages yesterday.

Analyst Ross Muken of ISI International Strategy & Investment called the Massachusetts relocation "a fairly sensible move."

"Clearly they want to draw on the great biology talent, the chemistry talent in the region," said Muken. "I think given where the customer base is, it's a natural fit. ... In general, it solidifies the state as a hub of biomedical research and cutting-edge scientific talent."

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Boston docs look to help with Ebola

Boston-area researchers, responding to ambassadors from Ebola-stricken nations who are frustrated with a slow international response, are looking for ways they can help West Africa as the region grapples with the deadly outbreak.

"Organizations like CDC and WHO have come late into the process and have not helped them build their own capacity," Dr. Michael VanRooyan, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, said after a meeting yesterday with current and former ambassadors from countries including Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Zambia and local researchers. They discussed having local experts train health care workers in Africa in both basic care and crisis management.

VanRooyan said there is frustration with the speed and scope of the world's response to the disease, adding that it took WHO far too long to declare the Ebola outbreak an international crisis.

"Moving forward, they need more than just a Band-Aid solution," VanRooyan said.

"Harvard is prepared to provide support to African countries through things like health care training, and to help overcome barriers in treating patients," said Mustapha S. Fofana of the Harvard-affiliated Fellowship in Disaster Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who reached out to the ambassadors and helped organize the meeting.

The World Bank has pledged up to $200 million in emergency assistance to help Liberia. WHO launched late last month a $100 million plan, which includes hundreds of health workers being dispatched to the infected areas.

But Sierra Leone Ambassador Bockari Stevens told the researchers the region is still desperately short of equipment, training and isolation units. The ambassadors could not be reached for comment after yesterday's meeting.

"Beyond dealing with just Ebola, there's an urgent need to support the organization of health care services," said Barry Bloom of the Harvard School of Public Health. "The international community is largely focused on diseases, but the real weakness is in the whole health systems themselves."

Bloom said the meeting focused on practical solutions, rather than vaccines and serums that "are not yet available, and will not be available anytime soon." The Canadian firm NewLink Genetics said Wednesday it will have enough doses of an Ebola vaccine to begin its human trials this summer.

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Workers: It’s not up to Deval Patrick

Market Basket workers said they won't take their cues from Gov. Deval Patrick, after the governor said yesterday protesting employees need to return to work to "stabilize" the crippled Tewksbury company.

"We don't take direction from the governor," said Tom Trainor, one of the fired senior Market Basket workers leading employee protests and job walk-offs that, along with a customer boycott, have brought the chain of 71 stores to a virtual standstill as they seek the reinstatement of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. Demoulas was fired in June by a rival board faction led by his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas and since has offered to buy the company.

"We take direction from Arthur T., and if somehow he gets word to us that he wants us to go back to work and stabilize the company, that's what we'll do," Trainor said. "The governor should be using his power … to get the two sides to finalize the deal rather than telling employees to go back to work when they don't know what they're walking into or what will happen next week."

Patrick told reporters yesterday: "It's appropriate for the workers to know … that they can go back to work and indeed that we need them to go back to work to stabilize the company. I hope that they can see a way to do that while the buyer and seller work out the final terms of a transaction."

Patrick's call for warehouse and headquarters employees to return to work echoes repeated calls from the company's three independent board directors and the two new co-CEOs. The CEOs have set "final" deadlines of Aug. 15 and 18 for protesting workers to return to work without penalty.

A post yesterday on the protesters' website, wearemarket
basket.com, said what Patrick "doesn't seem to understand is that the 2 million customers are boycotting our stores because they want Arthur T. Demoulas back as the CEO with full authority. Associates going back without (Arthur T. Demoulas) will not stabilize the company."

Market Basket's three independent directors yesterday applauded Patrick's call in a statement: "We, as independent board members, cannot force any shareholders to buy or to sell, nor can we control the timing of their decisions. All we seek is to get our associates back to work earning a steady income so our customers can go back to shopping. It's well past the time when anyone can frame the crisis as 'us vs. them,' or a 'family feud.' There are too many families being impacted."

A spokeswoman for Arthur T. Demoulas declined comment.

Patrick may be getting involved because Market Basket is "pretty close to having the wheels off the bus completely, said Kevin Griffin, publisher of The Griffin Report of Food Marketing. "All of a sudden in the blink of an eye you have one of the healthiest companies in the commonwealth now in real danger. I think the governor is getting involved to put more pressure on both sides to try to get the deal finalized."

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Reported deaths, injuries jump at major Mass. hospitals

The number of "serious reportable events," such as deaths or injuries, at Massachusetts acute-care hospitals more than doubled in the last three years, according to data collected by the state Department of Public Health.

The total number of events soared from 366 in 2011 to 753 last year at acute-care hospitals, and from 123 to 206 over the same period at non-acute-care hospitals, the department said.

Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, DPH's associate commissioner, said the increases can be attributed to a number of factors.

"The adoption of new national quality definitions led to an expansion of the number and types of events that need to be reported, which resulted in a marked rise in reporting in several existing categories, particularly falls and pressure ulcers," Biondolillo said in a statement. "The implementation of online reporting system reduced barriers and streamlined the facility reporting process to DPH. DPH also increased outreach to facilities to emphasize reporting as an important part of patient safety and quality improvement. DPH anticipates a continued upward trend in number of reported events in 2014 as facilities become increasingly efficient in evaluation & reporting."

At acute-care hospitals, the number of suicides or serious injuries resulting from self harm jumped from one to 22 from 2011 to 2013, while the number of serious injuries or deaths rose from six to 16 due to burns, and from five to 14 due to assaults or abuse. The number of wrong surgeries or procedures performed climbed from two to 11.

In a statement, Anuj Goel, the Massachusetts Hospital Association's vice president for legal and regulatory affairs, said: "Massachusetts hospitals are closely focused on eliminating serious reportable events (SREs) and make patient safety a top priority. Hospitals are diligent in reporting adverse events, including those that fall within the definition recently updated by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and adopted by the state Department of Public Health. The Massachusetts Hospital Association and our member hospitals have worked very closely with DPH to develop and provide guidance materials, educational sessions and best practices to ensure that hospitals are reporting events that meet these revised and expanded SRE criteria."

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Expert: Market Basket threat may be illegal

Market Basket issued letters to hundreds of protesting employees yesterday giving them until Friday to return to work or lose their jobs — a move that legally will be difficult to enforce, a labor expert told the Herald.

"An employer in this situation has to be very careful because no matter how this has been labeled, the rank and file employees are on strike, and strikers have certain rights, including the right not to be terminated for engaging in a strike," said Keith H. McCown, a top labor lawyer at Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP. "Even though there's no union in the picture, these employees are withholding their services collectively and that is a strike."

Strikers can technically be replaced, but even then retain certain protections. McCown told the Herald that, under the law, supervisors do not have a similarly protected right to strike.

Workers launched the protests and walkouts July 18 calling for the reinstatement of Arthur T. Demoulas, who was fired as CEO in June by the company's board, which is controlled by rival cousin Arthur S. Demoulas.

Market Basket said yesterday it had issued the letters to about 200 "associates" — both at the supervisor level and in administrative support — working at headquarters and distribution centers who have stopped showing up.

The protesting workers estimated as many as 700 letters went out.

"Should you choose to ignore either of these directives, the company will consider you to have abandoned your job, thereby ending your employment with the company," Market Basket wrote in the letter, according to the web site WeAreMarketBasket.com.

Mike Meuse, a Market Basket operations supervisor and safety manager, told the Herald he was "shocked" when he received the letter yesterday, but vowed not to cave.

"If they release me on Friday, I guess they release me on Friday," said Meuse. "They can call it job abandonment, but I look at it as them terminating me."

Now that Market Basket has given workers an ultimatum, it has to follow through to preserve its credibility in the ongoing mess, said supermarket analyst David Livingston of DJL Research in Milwaukee.

"They'll have to let people go because if they don't, no one's going to believe anything they say," said Livingston. "I think these employees are prepared for that. I think they've got a cult-like following of Arthur T., and they're prepared to lose their jobs for this man."

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City eases zoning appeals for changes to small properties

Boston is trying to make it easier for small businesses and homeowners to make changes to their properties, the latest in what the city says is a series of improvements to the zoning process.

A new Zoning Board of Appeals subcommittee will hear requests for variances from zoning rules exclusively from small businesses and 1-2 family owner-occupied homes — a move that will "streamline" the process for minor changes, according to Mayor Martin J. Walsh.

"This change will allow one- and two-family homeowners and small business to request zoning relief without having to take time out of the weekday schedule to do so," said William Christopher, commissioner of Inspectional Services.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, said the zoning appeals process — formally asking for an exception to the zoning code — needs to be fixed.

"Without a question, something should be done and must be done," Mainzer-Cohen said. "It's part of what has contributed to Boston's reputation for being hard for small businesses."

Still, some said the changes don't go far enough.

"The limit to the one-two family owner-occupied is a really tight definition of what small is," said Skip Schloming, executive director of the Small Property Owners Association.

Kate Norton, a spokeswoman for Walsh, said the subcommittee guidelines are based on the state building code, which defines a building with more than two units as commercial.

Last month, Walsh announced extended hours for ZBA hearings and that they would be televised.

"This is one part of a bigger initiative we've been rolling out over time and will continue to roll out," Norton said. "Everything we're doing around ZBA is designed around making it a more user-friendly experience."

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Market Basket’s board calls on parties to end impasse

The three self-described "independent" directors of Market Basket's seven-member board yesterday repeated their demand for an end to the "standoff" by store employees supporting ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, while an industry expert says he doubts the company can hold out much longer in its current state of impasse.

"We have a series of difficult business decisions to work out," the directors said in a statement. "However, there is no reason to continue to hold the 25,000 associates, 2 million shoppers and our local economies hostage to an ongoing business negotiation between shareholders.

"We must end this zero sum game and act in the best interests of our associates, customers — and in the end, our company," they added. "We are ready to meet. It's time."

A spokeswoman for Arthur T. had no immediate comment.

The three directors — Keith O. Cowan, Eric Gebaide and Ronald G. Weiner — last week called on him to return in run the company in a non-CEO capacity while he continued to pursue his stated intent to buy the half of the supermarket chain controlled by his rival cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and his allies.

Arthur T., who was fired in June by a board majority headed by Arthur S., rejected the proposal, dismissing it as "games" and "windowdressing."

Kevin Griffin of The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, a Duxbury-based trade publication for the food industry, said he doubts the standoff, which has left store shelves empty and driven away customers, can go on much longer.

"Every day that goes by, the company is losing its value, its market share and its reputation," Griffin said. "It's become a public spectacle, and the appetite for this is waning. This is a crisis situation. You have a company in free fall. I would encourage them to think about all the people who make their livelihood from this chain, and I would encourage them to get the deal done."

Last Thursday, thousands of part-time employees were told they would not be working this week because there is so little business at the chain's 71 stores.

Ann Dufresne of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, yesterday said she could not say whether any employees have filed for unemployment insurance.

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Developer set to launch $210M Seaport cargo project

Groundbreaking on the $210 million Boston Cargo Terminal project in the Seaport will take place in a matter of weeks, a project official told the Herald yesterday.

The nearly 30-acre property is expected to include three commercial warehouse buildings, a 120,000-square-foot building with a lufa farm, 160 parking spaces, and a Harborwalk path.

The complicated deal involves land owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and leased by Massport. The developer is Cargo Ventures.

Two previous groundbreakings had been scheduled with Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, but were postponed, said City Hall spokeswoman Kate Norton.

The project official said the developer was in talks with the New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund to help finance the project, but that nothing had been finalized.

That official said the Teamsters pension fund was already helping finance another project by Cargo Ventures — the One Harbor Street property in the Marine Industrial Park, whose current tenants include Vertex.

Officials at the Teamsters pension fund did not return messages for comment yesterday.

It's been a long road for the project, which was originally proposed in 2007 before the economic downturn delayed the development. The BRA approved a revised plan in April.

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