business

DPV Transportation Worldwide, a multi-million dollar company specializing in luxury transportation for corporate employees, has grown enormously in the last three years. With close to $11 million in assets, CEO Jose Perez is making big plans for the company’s future.

Payday lenders are among the biggest beneficiaries of this policy about-face. Instead of a string of state legislative initiatives, federal regulators are stepping up to help these predatory lenders, with the cooperation of banks.

RCC held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Center for Smart Building Technology, a program designed to prepare students for the future of sustainable energy.

Monday afternoon, five entrepreneurs and bank officials were typing away on laptop computers at tables, desks and benches at the new Reevx Labs coworking space on Washington Street near the Dudley Station bus terminal.

For the last three years, business owner Brandale Randolph of 1854 Cycling Company was running his operation out of his garage, selling around 300 bikes total. Now he’s planning to scale up his business, moving it into a factory in Hopkinton and expecting to break even by the second quarter of the year.

Since the first shovels went into the ground for the redevelopment of the Boston State Hospital site in the late 1990s, three residential communities have been built with hundreds of new housing units, a nature preserve was created and the UMass Medical School built a manufacturing plant for its MassBiologics division.Now, with the last 10-acre parcel on the Boston State Hospital site up for bids, a team of firms called the Neponset Cooperative Trust is seeking something completely different for Mattapan: a locally-focused, environmentally-friendly business park.

For more than seven years now, Hyde Park’s ZaZ restaurant has been offering a fresh and healthy menu that focuses on Caribbean and Asian fare, from BBQ Chili Jerk Chicken to Quinoa Asian Shrimp Wraps and Thai Basil Fried Rice.

Boston began its Main Streets program under then-Mayor Thomas Menino, starting in Roslindale. Boston’s program grew to be the biggest in the nation, with 20 districts.

The Boston City Council last week passed legislation aimed at increasing the share of cannabis businesses owned by people from communities that were impacted by drug prosecution.

Wescon has more than 40 employees -- all people of color -- with major clients like Emerson College and Millennium Partners, to whom Conrad says the business owes much of its growth.

The Small Business Administration supported capital to 1,971 firms in Massachusetts last year, according to SBA Massachusetts District Director Robert H. Nelson.

A new partnership between Cambridge College, Mel King Institute for Community Building and Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC) has formed a program to educate small business development officers throughout the commonwealth.