Apartment tower in Bay Village wins approval

DEVELOPMENT

Apartment tower
in Bay Village
wins approval

An apartment tower in Boston’s Bay Village neighborhood cleared a key hurdle this week when it was approved by the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals. Despite concern from some residents that the 199-foot building was out of scale with the low-slung brick neighborhood behind it, ZBA members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the project. Transom Development wants to put 133 apartments on what’s now a surface parking lot and empty lot alongside the Revere Hotel. They hope to start construction in spring of 2018.
— TIM LOGAN

TRANSPORTATION

Peter Pan reaches settlement in disabilities discrimination case

A Massachusetts bus company accused of discriminating against passengers with disabilities has reached a settlement with federal prosecutors that resolves the allegations. The US attorney’s office in Boston said Wednesday that Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc. violated federal law by failing to ensure its motor coaches were accessible to people with disabilities. Prosecutors say although the Springfield-based company’s buses were equipped with wheelchair lifts they frequently malfunctioned. Under terms of the agreement, Peter Pan will test buses weekly to ensure accessibility features are operable. It will train employees on federal disability law and on the proper use of wheelchair lifts and other accessibility equipment. Peter Pan also agrees to pay undisclosed damages to a customer affected by the faulty equipment. Peter Pan hasn’t responded to a request for comment. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANKING

Wells Fargo chair first woman
to oversee
one of nation’s largest banks

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Betsy Duke was working in a Virginia Beach dinner theater in the mid-1970s, struggling to make ends meet, when she applied for a job at a dry cleaner. It turned her down. Instead, she became a part-time teller. On Tuesday, Wells Fargo & Co. named her the first woman to oversee one of the nation’s largest banks. She will become chair of the lender’s board at the start of next year, capping one of the most epic climbs — by man or woman — into the financial industry’s top echelons. Her career already included a stint as a Federal Reserve governor, starting on the brink of 2008’s financial meltdown. This time, she will supervise a management team contending with scandal after scandal. — BLOOMBERG NEWS RETAIL Target shows signs that turnaround
is succeeding Target, which is spending billions to remodel stores and strengthen its online business, showed signs Wednesday that the turnaround efforts are starting to win back shoppers. The retailer reported that a key sales figure rose in the second quarter, its revenue beat Wall Street expectations and its online sales jumped 32 percent. The Minneapolis-based company also boosted its earnings expectations for the year. The strong results from Target came a week after J.C. Penney, Macy’s, and other major retailers reported another quarter of falling sales as more people shop online or at other stores. Rival Walmart will report its earnings on Thursday. Target is spending $7 billion in three years to remodel old stores, open small ones in cities and college towns, and offer faster delivery for online orders. It is also adding more clothing and furniture brands, and said Wednesday that its children’s line Cat & Jack brought in $2 billion in sales since its launch a year ago. — ASSOCIATED PRESS CONSTRUCTION Housing starts
fall in July Get Today's Headlines in your inbox: The day's top stories delivered every morning. Homebuilders pulled back sharply on construction of apartment complexes in July, causing housing starts to tumble to a three-month low. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that housing starts fell 4.8 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million. Groundbreakings for multi-family buildings such as apartments slumped 17.1 percent, while single-family house construction slipped 0.5 percent. Construction has risen 2.4 percent year-to-date, but the gains have done little to offset the dwindling number of homes listed for sale. The shortage of properties for sale has pushed prices up at a faster pace than income growth, making home ownership less affordable for many. — ASSOCIATED PRESS RAILROADS Union Pacific
to lay off 750 Union Pacific is laying off 500 managers and 250 other workers to reduce costs and eliminate about 8 percent of the railroad’s managers. The railroad told the affected workers Wednesday that their jobs will be eliminated by mid-September. Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz said that eliminating open positions through attrition and improving productivity isn’t enough to cut costs. Railroads have been under pressure to reduce costs because of weak growth in freight shipments overall and a sharp decline in coal shipments in recent years. Both of the major freight railroads in the eastern United States — CSX and Norfolk Southern — have announced more aggressive cost-cutting efforts in the past year. — ASSOCIATED PRESS MEDIA AMC weighing legal action over $9.95 monthly pass AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s largest theater chain, is weighing legal action against MoviePass over its low-cost cinema subscription, saying the service is unsustainable and bad for the industry. MoviePass on Tuesday dropped the price of its monthly theater pass to $9.95 a month from $30 or more, offering consumers admission to one show every day at any cinema that takes debit cards, excluding Imax and 3-D screens. The company plans to pay exhibitors full price. AMC, which charged moviegoers an average of $9.33 a ticket last quarter, said in a statement it’s consulting with attorneys about barring the service in US theaters. The company said the plan was setting up consumers for disappointment if or when the product can no longer be fulfilled. MoviePass chief executive Mitch Lowe called the AMC statement ‘‘bluster’’ and said that the only way the theater chain could refuse to work with MoviePass would be to decline the Mastercard debit cards that MoviePass subscribers use to buy tickets. The cards link to accounts controlled by MoviePass and are used to pay for tickets at full price. — BLOOMBERG NEWS RETAILUrban Outfitters surges on strength of Free People and AnthropologieAdvertisement Urban Outfitters Inc. surged the most since the apparel company went public 24 years ago, after its Free People and Anthropologie chains performed better than predicted, helping offset a slump at its flagship business. Earnings in the quarter were 44 cents a share, the company said Tuesday. That topped the 36 cent-average of projections. On Wednesday, the retailer’s stock climbed as much as 27 percent. Chief executive Richard Hayne highlighted “encouraging fashion apparel trends,” which could help boost the company’s performance in future quarters. Hayne has been working to improve sales in a retail environment plagued by store closures, slow fashion trends, and discount-hungry shoppers. The chain has been investing in growing internationally, improving digital offerings, and expanding its wholesale market, but progress has been slow. — BLOOMBERG NEWS TECHNOLOGY Protests at Google offices postponed over alleged threats Protests planned at Google offices around the country over the firing of an employee who questioned company diversity efforts have been postponed. A statement on the ‘‘March on Google’’ website says Saturday’s protests were being canceled because of threats from what it called ‘‘Alt Left terrorist groups.’’ The planned events in nine locations were in reaction to Google’s firing of a software engineer who argued that biological differences helped explain why women are underrepresented at the company. Protest organizers didn’t respond to requests for information about the alleged threats. A Pittsburgh public safety spokeswoman says organizers had informed them ‘‘of plans to cancel and why they were cancelling,’’ but she wouldn’t elaborate. Organizers said the protest had been unfairly characterized despite their statements denouncing ‘‘bigotry and hatred.’’ — ASSOCIATED PRESS