Lab and office space planned for South End

DEVELOPMENT

Lab and office space planned for South End

The Druker Co. has proposed building two, 150-foot lab and office buildings at 1033-1055 Washington St. in Boston’s South End, a site abutting another parcel where the real estate development firm this spring won city approval to develop another 150-foot lab and office, according to a letter filed Dec. 28 with the Boston Planning and Development Agency. The 1033-1055 Washington St. site is bounded by Washington, East Berkeley, and Herald streets and Shawmut Avenue and is currently home to a one-story commercial building and surface parking. It’s immediately adjacent to 80 East Berkeley St., where The Druker Co. had long planned an office before pitching a change to office and life-science laboratory use last January. The area is part of a stretch of the South End that’s seen substantial change in recent years with the development of Ink Block, several luxury housing projects, and forthcoming labs at 321 Harrison Ave. and 1000 Washington St. As proposed by Druker Co., the labs at 1033-1055 Washington St. would span 588,000 square feet, be linked via “an above-grade connection,” and have a landscaped pedestrian plaza connecting Washington Street and Shawmut Avenue. Other features include ground-floor retail or restaurant space and an area for community gatherings or for nonprofit use, along with two levels of underground parking. Beyond the labs, construction is underway on another Druker Co. project in Boston: a nine-story office at 350 Boylston St. in Back Bay that will house consulting firm Bain & Co. That project is scheduled to be completed by year end 2025 or early 2026. — CATHERINE CARLOCK

SKI RESORTS

New lift, trails, housing planned for Sugarloaf

A big expansion that would add new ski trails, a lift, and hundreds of units of housing at the Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley has been approved by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. In an order released on Tuesday, the department approved the $104 million project for Sugarloaf’s West Mountain area. The expansion on approximately 550 acres of land would include more than 200 units of new housing, new ski trails, a new lift, base lodge, roads, and parking lots as well as construction of a new network of hiking and biking trails. The project is to be paid for with corporate revenue from Sugarloaf’s parent company Boyne USA, Inc., financing, and the sale of the proposed single-family lots. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORTAGES

Rates climb after six-week drop

The average long-term US mortgage rate rose this week after falling for six straight weeks, adding to the challenges potential homebuyers face amid higher home prices and a limited supply of available houses. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the benchmark 30-year rate increased to 6.42 percent from 6.27 percent last week. That is more than double the year-ago average rate of 3.11 percent. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

A customer makes a purchase during the opening of Housing Works Cannabis Co, the first recreational cannabis dispensary in New York on December 29, 2022 in New York City. Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Housing Works

MARIJUANA

Nonprofit opens first NY legal pot shop

Housing Works, a nonprofit that helps New York’s homeless and HIV-positive population, has long supported itself with a network of thrift stores selling secondhand designer clothing, used books, and and its own activism-inspired merchandise. Starting Thursday, the 31-year-old organization will add another line of business: marijuana. The Housing Works Cannabis Co. will open New York state’s first legal retail weed shop on the corner of Astor Place and Broadway in Greenwich Village, near the New York University campus. The official opening is set for 4:20 p.m. in a nod to marijuana culture slang. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

PHARMACEUTICALS

Novartis settles lawsuit over generic copies of blood-pressure medicine

Novartis agreed to pay $245 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it attempted to delay the launch of generic copies of its Exforge blood-pressure medicine. The settlement, if approved by a judge, will resolve all outstanding claims on the matter for Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker said in an e-mailed statement. The class action against Novartis and Endo International Plc’s Par unit was brought by drug distributors and retail pharmacies like Rite Aid. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter outage impacts thousands worldwide

Twitter restored services hours after thousands of users worldwide reported glitches and other issues, one of the more significant disruptions since Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover triggered the loss of three-quarters of its workforce. More than 9,000 users at one point reported problems accessing the service, data from Downdetector showed. Users from San Francisco to Tokyo and Hong Kong said they experienced trouble logging into their accounts or encountered a variety of error messages early Thursday in Asia. The number of glitches reported to Downdetector was down to just a handful by the afternoon. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

People walk by Goldman Sachs headquarters in Manhattan on Dec. 16, 2022 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty

FINANCE

Goldman Sachs CEO says layoffs to be finalized next month

Goldman Sachs is working on a fresh round of job cuts that will be unveiled in a matter of weeks, chief executive David Solomon said in his traditional year-end message to staff. “We are conducting a careful review and while discussions are still ongoing, we anticipate our headcount reduction will take place in the first half of January,” Solomon said. “There are a variety of factors impacting the business landscape, including tightening monetary conditions that are slowing down economic activity. For our leadership team, the focus is on preparing the firm to weather these headwinds.” The firm may seek to eliminate as much as 8 percent of its workforce, or up to 4,000 jobs, to contain a slump in profit and revenue, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month, although the final number could come in lower. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

INTERNATIONAL

Indian-made cough syrup implicated again in child deaths

India is investigating claims made by Uzbekistan’s government that 18 children died after ingesting a cough syrup brand made in the South Asian nation just two months after a similar tragedy was reported in Gambia. The Uzbek health ministry in a statement Tuesday said a preliminary study of the Doc-1 Max syrup manufactured by Marion Biotech Ltd. — a small pharmaceutical maker based in the Delhi satellite town of Noida — found it contained toxic ethylene glycol and was responsible for the fatalities. It has been withdrawn from sale in the country. The children’s deaths are the latest tragedy linked to India’s $42 billion drugmaking industry, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly marketed as the “pharmacy of the world” thanks to the abundance of cheap generic manufacturers that operate in the country. However, multiple medical scandals have originated from Indian plants in recent years and public health campaigners say attempts at reforming the industry have been slow. In October, the World Health Organization issued a warning after four cold and cough syrups made by another little-known New Delhi-based firm, Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd., were potentially linked to acute kidney injuries and dozens of infant deaths in Gambia. They were contaminated with “unacceptable amounts” of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, its analysis showed. — BLOOMBERG NEWS