Catherine Carlock

3 weeks ago | bostonglobe.com | Catherine Carlock

Harvard University, the country’s oldest continually operating college — indeed, an institution older than the United States itself — has long enjoyed a tax-exempt status with the federal government. A 501(c)(3) designation from the Internal Revenue Service allows Harvard, like many colleges and universities, hospitals, and religious organizations, to not pay taxes on most of its substantial property holdings and for Harvard donors to treat their contributions as tax-deductible.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Catherine Carlock

A resurrected Great Scott music venue in Allston, a new zoning district surrounding the Roslindale Village MBTA Commuter Rail station, and housing projects in five neighborhoods all got the go-ahead from the Boston Planning and Development Agency board on Thursday evening. The board approved 591 residential units and some 588,000 square feet of development, including a 333-unit project at 83 Leo Birmingham Parkway in Brighton. The beloved Great Scott closed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Catherine Carlock

First they planned a hotel. Then condos. Then a hotel again. After nearly seven years and three failed redevelopment attempts, the owners of the long-empty Alexandra Hotel on the border of the South End and Roxbury are back with another proposal to revive the historic property.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Catherine Carlock |Niki Griswold

In a surprising reversal, Thomas N. O’Brien has decided not to run for Mayor of Boston, the prominent real estate developer said Monday. Late last week, numerous sources told the Globe that the 61-year-old was planning to announce a challenge to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in the coming days, joining Josh Kraft in a three-way race for the city’s top job. But over the weekend, apparently, O’Brien changed his mind.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Catherine Carlock

The old Barnes & Noble in Downtown Crossing has sat vacant for nearly two decades. It’s a historic building on a corridor of Washington Street that’s both bustling with pedestrians and dotted with vacancy signs. Out front, there’s a payphone that still crackles when picked up and a piece of street art designed to spark renewed vitality into downtown. Now, 399 Washington has new life, in the form of new owners, who bought it at a bargain-basement price.