Latest news with #Andover-based
Business Journals
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Five things: Cold Brook Preserve restoration, Harvard finances, W.E.B. DuBois
Already have an account? Sign in Welcome! Register now to read your first few articles at no cost. Good morning, Boston. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your busy Wednesday, plus Harvard finances, W.E.B. DuBois and Cold Brook Preserve restoration on Cape Cod. Good morning, Boston. Here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your busy Wednesday. 1. Here's where Harvard's finances stand as it faces off with Trump As Harvard faces off against the Trump administration with its lawsuit filed Monday, the university's finances beyond its eye-popping $53 billion endowment is worth closer attention. Grant Welker has more details to know about the university's finances. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events 2. Harvard, MIT, BU sign call against federal overreach Welker also reports that a total of 16 Massachusetts colleges have signed on to an industrywide statement yesterday 'against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference." Start each day with the 5 Things You Need to Know. Sign up for the Morning Edition. 3. Mass. health center conducts layoffs Isabel Hart reports that Brockton Neighborhood Health Center has laid off 65 workers. 4. L.A. fires prompt local homebuilding startup to head west An Andover-based modular-construction startup founded by three former Amazon Robotics employees is building its first homes in Greater Boston — and also entering the Los Angeles market, where the devastating wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in January, Greg Ryan reports. 5. Roche's $50B U.S. investment includes Mass. R&D center Roche's plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years includes a plan to invest here in Massachusetts — to open the Roche Genentech Innovation Center Boston at Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus in Allston, Hannah Green reports. What else you need to know By the numbers $262 million — oversubscribed second fund amount for a venture capital firm founded in 2023 known as Venture Guides, Eli Chavez reports. oversubscribed second fund amount 2 — companies remaining in the final round of the Inno Madness bracket challenge . Vote for your favorite here. final round of the Inno Madness bracket challenge $65,000 — settlement paid by the giant insurer Mutual of Omaha to Massachusetts regulators in response to allegations of deceptive advertising by one of its affiliates Today in history On this day in 1904, W.E.B. DuBois gave a lecture on "the race question" at Harvard, where nine years before he had been the first black person to receive a Ph.D. (Read more at What's good on WERS-FM Planet Earth, by Duran Duran What I'm reading Erasure, by Percival Everett What I'm watching The Americas, on NBC An engineering marvel, a nice nature walk — why not both? In the town of Harwich on Cape Cod, there's a former cranberry bog that was known locally for years as Bank Street Bogs. For years now, some 66 acres of what once were cranberry bogs has been under construction, but recently those acres have been opened to the public as the Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve at 203 Bank St. I was in Harwich visiting my parents a few weeks ago and walked the paths at the preserve. We walked around three separate ponds and along a newly created water channel, where dozens of saplings and shrubs had been newly planted. Wooden benches and bird boxes aid walkers and birders in navigating the space. It's an amazing achievement, and such groups as the Harwich Conservation Trust, the town of Harwich, the state Division of Ecological Restoration and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service should be proud for having achieved it. And it's not just a matter of beautifying a former bog. Cape Cod faces a serious nitrogen pollution problem from having grown in population faster than its septic systems can handle. And this project's 'nitrogen-attenuating wetlands' achieves goals in wastewater treatment and coastal climate resilience that earned it top honors in this month's American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA) 2025 Engineering Excellence Awards. In terms of regional sustainability and engineering innovation, the Cold Brook Preserve is a major feat: It may appear untouched by human intervention, but it is the product of years of advanced engineering, 'potentially saving millions in future wastewater treatment costs,' according to the ACEC/MA. And for those of you who aren't impressed by all that engineering, guess what? It's also a peaceful and beautiful place to take a nice walk in nature in the middle of Cape Cod. PARTING SHOT Lower Cape TV just aired this short piece on the Cold Brook Preserve restoration project. You can learn more here: Subscribe to the Morning Edition or Afternoon Edition for the business news you need to know, all free. Largest Women-Owned Businesses in Massachusetts Total 2024 revenue Rank Prior Rank Firm/Prior ranked (*unranked in 2024)/ 1 1 Continental Resources Inc. 2 3 Atlas Travel & Technology Group 3 2 Granite City Electric Supply Co. Inc. View this list
Business Journals
22-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Reframe Systems eyes Los Angeles market after fires
Reframe Systems, an Andover company started by former Amazon Robotics personnel, is entering the Los Angeles market in response to the devastating wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes in January. The Andover-based modular construction startup Reframe Systems is building its first homes in Greater Boston. But some of its next units could go up on the other side of the country. Reframe is entering the Los Angeles market in response to the devastating wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes in January. It's staffing up in California and plans to ship a 400-square-foot showroom unit out west this summer, as a proof of concept for contractors, government officials and residents whose homes were destroyed in the blaze. The company was founded in 2022 by Vikas Enti and two of his former colleagues at Amazon Robotics in North Reading. Enti, Reframe's chief executive, wanted to start a business focused on addressing climate change and decided that putting his robotics and software background to use building energy-efficient homes was the best way to do it. Today, robots named Adam, Jeanie and Carlsbad are busy framing and painting walls in an Andover factory. Reframe has only built a handful of houses so far, including its first last year, a two-story, nearly 1,000-square-foot accessory dwelling unit in Arlington. Vikas and his partners have big ambitions, however, envisioning a nationwide network of micro-factories. They thought they'd enter California in 18 months or so, but they accelerated that timeline literally days after the fires started: Reframe's board decided in mid-January to go to L.A. 'It became pretty clear very quickly that the existing supply and infrastructure in the L.A. market would not be able to keep up with the sudden spike of demand,' Enti said. 'All of the work we've been doing to build homes that are resilient applies really nicely to what the market needs there.' Reframe's emphasis on climate-friendly construction makes particular sense in Los Angeles, he said, given that the city is fast-tracking permitting for homes that are all-electric and more fire-resistant. The company's leaders are taking a two-phase approach. In the first phase, it will build the homes in Massachusetts and ship them to California, where a local general contractor will finish the job. It's already been in talks with GCs, Enti said. It has a design team in northern California and has been interviewing candidates for sales jobs in the L.A. area. Reframe would then open a micro-factory in the Golden State, likely in Los Angeles County itself. That would depend on generating enough business to make the investment worthwhile, Enti said. The company is eyeing at least $10 million in contracts as a starting point. It is not easy for a small Boston-area modular startup to gain a foothold in a real estate market 3,000 miles away, but Enti sees the wildfires as presenting unique circumstances. Generally speaking, shipping a pre-built home across the country would be prohibitively expensive, as contractors often have to pay for escort vehicles and sometimes a police escort to tail the trucks carrying the structures. However, the significantly inflated costs of rebuilding in fire-ravaged places like Altadena and the Palisades changes that math, according to Enti. Labor and other costs are substantial for rebuilding so many properties at once, especially given the construction already set to happen in L.A. for the World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics in 2028. 'It's a market that is four to five times as high in cost compared to what we're seeing in New England,' Enti said. As it is, for duplexes and larger buildings, Reframe has aimed for a price of under $300 per square foot. The company designs modules narrower than 12 feet in order to limit shipping costs, he said. The showcase ADU is meant not only to 'allow us to have a product in the field that customers and regulators can touch and feel,' Enti said, but to help get Reframe's Andover factory certified to produce housing in California. He said earlier this month that the company hopes to start shifting production to an L.A.-area factory in early 2026. Largest Homebuilders in Mass. No. of deed closings Rank Prior Rank Firm/Prior rank (*unranked in 2023)/ 1 1 Pulte Homes 2 2 Toll Brothers 3 3 Stonebridge Homes View this list
