Quincy Company Wins Redevelopment Pact

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

PATIENCE REWARDED ON SUBSIDIARY’S SALE, ROYAL AHOLD CEO SAYS

The CEO of Royal Ahold, the Dutch parent company of Quincy-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., said Ahold waited several years before selling its once-troubled U.S. Foodservice unit so Ahold would have time to turn it around and get a better price.

Speaking at Ahold’s annual meeting in Amsterdam yesterday, Anders Moberg defended his decision to rebuild U.S. Foodservice, a wholesale food distributor that dragged the entire company down in an accounting scandal, by pointing to the higher-than-expected sale price Ahold got for the subsidiary. The company reported Wednesday that it would sell the division to private equity firms Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $7.1 billion.

“There were many who wanted us to sell U.S. Foodservice back in 2003,” Moberg said yesterday. “I said then that it would be a mistake at that time and would destroy shareholder value.”

QUINCY COMPANY WINS REDEVELOPMENT PACT

QUINCY – Dickinson Development Corp., of Quincy, has reached an agreement with the city of New Bedford to redevelop an industrial site on the waterfront and turn it into a retail project.

Dickinson agreed to pay $500,000 for the Fairhaven Mills site and assume responsibility for any environmental cleanups needed there. Dickinson edged out another bidder, partly by agreeing to build a boathouse, waterfront park and pedestrian walkway at the site. The Standard-Times of New Bedford reported that the project’s anchor tenant would likely be a Home Depot, with a few smaller retail tenants.

UPGRADES PLANNED AT BUILDING HOUSING THE PATRIOT LEDGER

QUINCY – A Boston real estate brokerage plans a series of upgrades to 400 Crown Colony Drive as it looks to fill about 74,000 square feet of vacant space there.

Richards Barry Joyce & Partners has been named the exclusive leasing by owners USB Global Asset Management for the 120,000- square-foot building, where the biggest tenant is The Patriot Ledger.

RBJ plans upgrades including the addition of food service, renovations of common areas and more office suites.

ENVIRONMENTAL FIRM PLANS NEEDHAM MOVE

NEEDHAM – An environmental consulting firm is expected to move its headquarters to Needham in October.

Environmental Health & Engineering has leased 20,000 square feet on the second floor at 115-119 Fourth Ave. in the Needham Industrial Park. The firm, which will employ about 70 people in the recently renovated building, is currently at 60 Wells Ave. in Newton. Jones Lang LaSalle negotiated the lease terms on behalf of EH&E, and Cushman & Wakefield represented property owner Davis Marcus Partners.

A YEAR LATE, NSTAR TRANSMISSION LINE GOES INTO SERVICE

Boston-based NStar said yesterday that it “has officially flipped the switch” on its underground, 18-mile high-voltage transmission line. The project was almost a year behind schedule.

The $220 million line, extending from Stoughton to Hyde Park and South Boston, creates a new way to bring power into Boston and nearby towns from plants in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council yesterday cited the NStar line as one of the reasons the New England power grid should be able to handle electricity demand this summer, even during extremely hot days. The nonprofit industry group said regulators and utilities would only need to resort to emergency measures if several power plants and transmission lines were not working during a heat wave.

Patriot Ledger staff

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