Employers are tripping over each other to get into downtown Boston or the Seaport these days.
But not Peter Palandjian. The chief executive of Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. is staying put on the city’s outskirts.
Palandjian just completed a deal to buy two properties next to his firm’s headquarters on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton. Together, the two sites total nearly one acre of land; there’s a small office building on one. Palandjian acquired the parcels from Harvard University last month for about $3.7 million, according to Suffolk Registry of Deeds records.
The goal is to have more room to expand. Palandjian says there is no space to add desks at his headquarters, so the summer interns are working out of a conference room.
Palandjian says he never seriously considered relocating downtown. Most of his employees like being able to drive and park easily, and working in a standalone building as opposed to a few floors in an office tower helps build an esprit de corps.
The land purchases come on the heels of another deal he made with Harvard, although he says the two are completely unrelated. The university just announced an endowment that would fund the position of head coach of the Harvard women’s tennis team, made possible through a donation from Palandjian in the name of his mother, Sheila Kelly Palandjian. He declined to say the exact amount, but these types of endowments typically require about $2 million to establish.
Before going into real estate, Palandjian was a tennis standout, at the scholastic level at Harvard and then on the pro circuit. Palandjian’s gift intentionally coincides with his upcoming 30th year college reunion; he is cochairing the event.
Palandjian credits several mentors for his success, people like Boston businessman Joe O’Donnell, the late Tom Stemberg, founder of Staples, and former Harvard administrator Jack Reardon.
But no one was more important than his mother.
“She taught us to give back,” Palandjian says. “This is a way to say, ‘Mom, thanks for everything you did.’ ” — JON CHESTO
Businesswoman’s success is in the air
When a family member asked if unpleasant bathroom odors could somehow be trapped before they wafted through the air, Suzy Batiz got chills – not because the idea disgusted her, but because she knew it could be done. Batiz, who dabbled in aromatherapy, experimented with essential oils for nine months and came up with Poo-Pourri, the “before you go” solution sprayed on the surface of toilet water that prevents smells from escaping. In 10 years, the Texas-based business has become a $300 million sensation, thanks in part to its frank, funny digital ads that don’t shy away from what happens behind closed bathroom doors.
Batiz, who also speaks openly about the domestic abuse and bankruptcies in her past, credits her success to paying attention to her intuition, and to those chills. She calls it the Radical Resonance System, which harnesses the body’s “central intelligence,” a concept she’ll share as the keynote speaker at the B oston Business Women’s annual conference at the Sheraton Boston Hotel Wednesday. Also appearing at the conference are Melanie Whelan, the chief executive of SoulCycle, Elizabeth Goodman Artis, the editor in chief of Shape magazine, and a bevy of local business leaders.
“I listen to my body way more than I do my mind,” Batiz said. “What I find is that my mind doesn’t always tell the truth, but my body always tell the truth.” — KATIE JOHNSTON
Bigger wings for angel investors
Cambridge venture capital firm Accomplice is placing another sizable bet on the power of AngelList, an online matchmaker that helps connect startup companies with early-stage investors.
The firm has raised a $35 million fund that it will distribute to about 30 individual investors who use AngelList’s website to find and execute startup deals. The investors will be able to freely make funding decisions, with no limits on the size and no need for permission beforehand. Pick a winner, and the investor keeps 20 percent of the proceeds.
The idea, says Accomplice partner Jeff Fagnan, is that well-connected entrepreneurs are among the first to see promising deals that later bloom into huge companies.
It’s more than theory. Fagnan and Accomplice have been involved with San Francisco’s AngelList from the beginning, and the firm has previously experimented with smaller investments through the site. One notable winner: Cruise Automation, an autonomous car software startup acquired last year by General Motors for $581 million.
Accomplice figured it’d be the better-known, successful entrepreneur who would find the best deals — but that turned out to be wrong. “It’s the younger, scrappier, first-time founder that wants to back his buddy,” Fagnan says.
The new AngelList fund, organized under Accomplice’s sister fund Maiden Lane, is still finalizing its list of check-writers. Boston will be well represented, Fagnan says, with Michael Viscuso, chief technology officer for Carbon Black, among those already selected.
“If you ask most founders who is the most valuable person they’ve had in company-building, it’s another founder who’s helped them along the way. We’re basically allowing them to get paid for their mentorship,” Fagnan says. — CURT WOODWARD
Banking on the long term?
Has Sage Bank found a leader who can stick?
The new president of the Lowell community lender, Diane L. Walker, took over Monday, just a few days after being tapped for the job. She is the bank’s fourth leader since 2014.
Community bank presidents tend to stick in their jobs for years, but the Lowell bank has been struggling to hold onto a boss, even with regulators increasingly scrutinizing its practices.
In 2014, then-president Richard Bolton Jr. suddenly resigned. The board named Peter Conrad, a longtime banking industry insider, to serve in an emergency basis, and he was appointed president in mid-2015. Less than a year later, Conrad retired, and then Ted Pratt filled in for a few months on an interim basis.
Now it’s Walker’s turn. She previously was a vice president at Andover Bank and since last fall has been a financial consultant for Sage Bank. Board members touted her experience in risk management, financial planning, and regulatory reporting.
The bank will need that experience. Last year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Massachusetts Division of Banks issued a consent order requiring Sage Bank to rein in its mortgage business and add to its capital.
— DEIRDRE FERNANDES