RIDE HAILING
Uber to be investigated for surge pricing during March storm
Shortly after Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency during a storm in March, government officials sent an e-mail to Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing firms, warning the companies not to raise prices for riders until the emergency was over. But Uber apparently did not follow the directive and is now under state investigation for using its long-controversial surge pricing tactics, which boost fares based on the number of riders and drivers on the road. The state Department of Public Utilities, which oversees ride-hailing services, has asked Uber to document its fares before, during, and after the state of emergency, which lasted from March 3 to March 6. The state is also asking for revenue information and the number of drivers that worked during the period. The investigation, originally reported by the Boston Herald, is the first of a ride-hailing firm by the DPU since new state regulations took effect last year. At issue is a 2016 Massachusetts law meant to prevent the ride-hailing firms from using surge pricing during major storms, catastrophes, and other officially declared states of emergency. But Uber — which does not deny raising prices during the storm — argues the language of the law does not actually ban surge pricing. The law says companies “shall not raise base fares’’ during an emergency. Uber maintains that means it cannot increase its normal rate, but is not barred from multiplying the rate during periods with high demand. — ADAM VACCARO
SHORT-TERM RENTALS
Walsh proposes new rules for renting out homes
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh proposed new rules Wednesday that could stifle growth in the city’s booming short-term rental industry and, he hopes, help ease sky-high housing costs. Walsh filed a bill with the City Council that would ban investor-owned apartments from being rented by the night hotel-style, while setting up guidelines for people who occasionally rent out a spare room or their entire home when they’re out of town. Walsh is proposing rules that would be among the toughest in the country. They would bar the practice of using a home exclusively for short-term rentals, while setting caps on the number of nights people can rent their homes when they’re not there. It also would limit how often people can rent an extra unit in a two- or three-family building they own and live in. The proposal is considerably more restrictive than one Walsh offered in January. City housing chief Sheila Dillon said the regulations are an attempt to balance residents’ desires to make extra money against worries that too much of Boston’s already-scarce housing stock is being turned into “de facto hotels.’’ The city estimates that at least 2,000 apartments in Boston are essentially full-time, Airbnb-style rentals, a number that has grown in recent years. — TIM LOGAN and MILTON J. VALENCIA
DEVELOPMENT
Project at Riverside terminal in Newton to more than double
To developers, the vast parking lot at the MBTA’s Riverside terminal should be one of Greater Boston’s best transit-oriented opportunities. Normandy Real Estate Partners sure thought so. But the New Jersey firm’s project has been stalled for years, and the company now owes $1.6 million in back rent to the T, a debt that grows by about $82,000 a month. Both sides were called in to a Newton City Council hearing last week to explain the situation. Normandy is crafting a new plan with Mark Development — best-known in Newton for its efforts to reshape Washington Street — that would more than double the size of the nearly 600,000-square-foot proposal that was approved in 2013. The key to unlocking the site: the Hotel Indigo property next door. With the additional land, Normandy and Mark envision a complex with up to 1.5 million square feet, spanning about 15 acres. The new Riverside complex could be the biggest project Newton has seen in recent memory. — JON CHESTO
DEVELOPMENT
BPDA unveils new digital 3-D model of Boston
For years, the Boston Planning & Development Agency has kept a wooden scale model of downtown in a room on the ninth floor of City Hall. It’s a way for officials to see what proposed buildings would look like in context. Now the BPDA is bringing that concept into the 21st century, and making it public. The agency on Tuesday unveiled a new digital 3-D model of Boston on its website, the latest step in the BPDA’s push to be more transparent, and to spark conversations about planning for the city’s future. It’s a model of the entire city, with 129,000 buildings from East Boston to Mattapan. The map is pannable and scannable, and detailed enough to capture backyard sheds, rooftop furniture, and lots of trees. And it comes with tools that allow anyone to layer on zoning maps, schools, MBTA stops, and even flood-prone areas. The map was inspired, in part, by the debate over shadows cast on the Boston Common and Public Garden by the proposed skyscraper at Winthrop Square. City officials found themselves supporting complex changes to state law to permit the tower based only on snapshots of shadows supplied by developer Millennium Partners. — TIM LOGAN
HEALTH CARE
Athenahealth subject of takeover bid
Athenahealth’s days as an independent company may be nearing an end. A New York hedge fund feared in corporate America for its aggressive tactics on Monday proposed buying the Watertown health-records company for about $6.5 billion, saying its executives have repeatedly failed to improve financial results and boost its stock price. If successful, the campaign by Paul Singer and his Elliott Management Corp. would be a dramatic turn for a successful startup that had bridged two of Massachusetts core industries — software and health care — and which has been an anchor of a major business revival in Watertown. Singer had already owned a large position in athenahealth and pressured the company into cost cuts that resulted in about 500 layoffs last year. But on Monday, Elliott said the company has not done enough, and it criticized in particular the recent decision to appoint former General Electric Co. chief executive Jeff Immelt as its new chairman. Athenahealth said in a statement that it will bring in outside financial and legal advisers to review the “unsolicited proposal.’’ — ANDY ROSEN
RESTAURANTS
Smith & Wollensky to close at the Castle
Smith & Wollensky will soon be taking down its banners from the Castle walls, ending a nearly 15-year run as a fixture in the Back Bay dining scene. The Medford-based steakhouse chain plans to close its high-profile restaurant on Arlington Street this summer, focusing instead on a new location in downtown Wellesley and its other Boston restaurant overlooking the Fort Point Channel. Smith & Wollensky president Michael Feighery said the company reevaluated its local space needs with its 15-year lease coming up for renewal at the Castle building, a former armory in Park Square, and concluded it needed only two restaurants in the Boston area. Smith & Wollensky is leasing the former Blue Ginger space in Wellesley, a much smaller venture than the 26,000-square-foot Castle restaurant, where as many as 500 customers can dine at one time across its three floors. The Wellesley restaurant will have 250 seats, plus a patio. — JON CHESTO
