The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 44

E4 Business The Boston Globe MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2006 Research grant eligibility limit may be increased jT illllWBBlpin, ii qi mH'l 4 i fen. i -X NEOSCAPE INC. When completed, the NorthPoint project will a $70 million station, 5.2 million square feet of buildings on 45 acres, 2,500 new residences, 20 buildings on 19 blocks, a 10-acre central park, and retail space. East Cambridge's NorthPoint project builds around mass transit Delsys officials, meanwhile, have taken their success stories to Capitol Hill to argue against a change. Trainers working with Olympic-caliber athletes can tell, muscle by muscle, whether cyclists use the most efficient pedal stroke, whether exercises target the right muscles for a ring move that scores high with judges, or whether archers are properly timing the release of their arrows between heart beats to ensure laser-like accuracy.

That detailed knowledge of electrical signals generated by muscles in motion helps with more precise fine tuning. Take ring exercises. Coaches had put their faith in drills to build muscle strength needed to ace a ring move where the person's body lies horizontal, riveted in place through arm strength. "It takes an astonishingly strong person to do it, and it's an extremely valuable skill from a scoring standpoint," said William A. Sands, head of sport biomechanics and engineering for the US Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs.

The drills, it turned out, did not work the right muscles, a surprising discovery made by peering through "a window on how the muscle is actually activating," Sands said. Delsys, started by a Boston University professor, says the know-how was underwritten by Small Business Innovation Research grants. The agency says it has awarded Delsys $3.3 million from fiscal year 1994 through 2005. "I look at the Small Business Innovation Research grant as a pyramid. We just keep building and building on top of the previous work," said Carlo J.

De Luca, Delsys chief executive. FUNDING Continued from Page El nology companies, but is reluctant to expand their access to funds designed to help companies too small and new to garner venture capital. "We are opening up a whole new deal here for these power-packed entities, which have the ability to attract capital, to come in and take a limited pot," Kerry, senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said during a July hearing. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office, requested by Kerry and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, indicated that firms with some degree of venture capital funding got 21 percent of SBIR awards by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal years 2003 and 2004.

That is up from 14 percent in fiscal years 2001 and 2002, before the Small Business Administration changed eligibility criteria Alan Eisenberg, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's executive vice president for emerging companies and business development, joined the National Institutes of Health in questioning the accuracy of that report. "The data that they analyzed was not correct to be relevant to the matter at hand," Eisenberg said. "That conclusion is, therefore, suspect." The SBIR grant eligibility question, part of a larger Small Business Administration reauthorization measure, remains stalled in Congress. A bill expanding grant eligibility, introduced by Representative Michael Capuano, Democrat of Somerville, and endorsed by 50 co-sponsors, has not been voted out of committee. Lawmakers are expected to take up the issue when they reconvene after midterm elections.

roads with names like Amelia Earhart Street, Julia Child Street, and Glassworks Avenue and turn them over to the city. Jones Lang LaSalle also has agreed to clean and maintain the MBTA station for 10 years. The tube-shaped structure, made mostly of glass and steel, is a state-of-the-art design, Warwick said. The Legislature approved MassDevelop-ment bonds for $130 million guaranteed by the value of the NorthPoint land to enable the company to build most of the streets, sidewalks, green space, sewage systems, and utilities. That will pave the way for 18 more buildings residential, commercial, and parking garages as the market calls.

NorthPoint's planners are banking on a strong demand for office, technology, and laboratory space in their development, which when finished will have more than 2 million square feet of commercial space. Although some of those buildings won't be completed for several years, the market currently looks good. The vacancy rate in laboratory buildings in the area has dropped from 32.2 percent to 6.3 percent in just two years, according to Richards Barry Joyce Partners figures. In the office market, vacancy has fallen from 27.7 percent to 13.3 percent in a little over a year. Hamill said Jones Lang LaSalle has been discussing each of the individual commercial blocks with possible future users, who have asked for details of the buildings being planned.

"That shows the depth of the market and demand for anything over 100,000 square feet," Hamill saidL The buildings are being designed by different architects, following an international competition that the developer held for NorthPoint in 2003. Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhendersonghbe.com. ties will be along this corridor," Hamill said. The first phase of NorthPoint construction began last year two residential buildings with a total of 338 condominiums priced from the to the One building, with 99 units, will open in late spring, with about a third of the units already sold. The second building, with 239 residences, is scheduled to open late next year.

The new phase beginning today will open up 1.8 million square feet of mixed-use development, including a hotel. Four buildings one with restaurants and shops, one a lab, and two with office and ground-floor retail are scheduled to be completed by mid-2009, just before the new station goes into operation. The next three years will also see two parking garages built, with 1,100 spaces, later to be surrounded and topped by residential space. The centerpiece of phase two is the station, being paid for by the developer but undertaken in a public-private partnership with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Not only will it be "a catalyst for future growth on the project," said Kyle B.

Warwick, regional director of Jones Lang LaSalle. In addition, "it does help us knit NorthPoint into the East Cambridge neighborhood." One major advantage of the relocated MBTA station is it will allow the authority in the future to extend the Green Line to Union Square in Somerville and Medford. The station is being designed by Parsons Brincker-hoff 's private division and Handel Architects LLP of New York. Handel was the architect for Millennium Place in Boston. NorthPoint's master plan was done by Ken Greenberg of Toronto and CBTChilds Bertman Tseckares Inc.

architects of Boston. Under an agreement with the City of Cambridge, the developer will build the NORTHPOINT Continvedfrom Page El suburbs, like the planned Westwood Station at 128 Station. Closer to downtown Boston, there are multifamily housing projects under construction on MBTA land at Woodland Station in Newton and Ashmont Station in Dorchester. Even in depressed downtown Worcester, a large mixed-use project with a substantial housing component is being drawn up, not far from Union Station, on the Framingham-Worcester commuter line. The new Lechmere Station at NorthPoint is being built as part of a six-year initiative to install most of the transportation foundation for the buildings to come.

It includes construction of a street grid for the area, an old Guilford Transportation railroad yard, and a pedestrian-friendly reconfiguring of the adjacent O'Brien Highway. At least one commercial building, of 270,000 square feet, will be built along with the station, but getting the transit station and roads in, at a total cost of $130 million, will make the rest of NorthPoint possible. That opens up six or seven buildings of development opportunity," said Thomas J. Hamill, project director. "With an active market in Cambridge right now, it's great." Recent market figures from the real estate firm Richards Barry Joyce Partners bear out the developer's optimism, at least in today's market.

"East Cambridge has been the center of an absorption frenzy over the past three years," said RBJ president Bob Richards, "which has brought about dramatic declines in vacancy along with declines in space choices for prospective tenants." The new road network includes an extension of First Street from East Cambridge across O'Brien Highway and north through NorthPoint, passing by the location of the new station. It will be NorthPoint's Main Street. "A majority of our retail and ameni Study: 2 stents have equal risk BLOOMBERG NEWS WASHINGTON Boston Scientific Corp. said its Taxus drug-coated heart stents were no more likely than Johnson Johnson's similar devices to cause blood clots after a year of use. The Boston Scientific-funded study, released at a medical meeting yesterday, reinforced the Natick company's assertion that Taxus and top-selling Cypher device carry equal risk of causing blood clots, which can cause heart attacks and strokes.

has said its product is less likely after a year to cause Concerns about blood clots have risen because of recent studies showing 2.9 percent of drug-coated stents could develop clots within three years. More than 4 million people have received such stents since 2001, which means clotting related to drug-coated devices may have caused as many as 20,000 heart attacks and 10,000 deaths worldwide. The findings are "are particularly compelling because they represent the patients physicians treat every day in a real-world setting," said lead researcher William O'Neill of the University of Miami. Thomas C. Palmer Jr.

can be reached at tpalmerglobe.com. Women take the business networking online ElHunts iHi Photo, Video and. definitely DIGITAL. Designed to Do More; GDfMPUS 'V 1 V- I Cash for your Cwmara' Trade-in your old digital camera and receive a cash rebate toward any Olympus camera. Up 3 Day -CT fJ Show Ij 7.1 1 t'V'1 v.

A Stylus 720 SW Shock Proof from 5 Feet; Waterproof to 10 Feet Digital Image Stabilization Mode Large 2.5 LCD 3x Optical Zoom; 15x Total Seamless Zoom att4t i SARAH BREZINSKY GILBERT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE The Downtown Women's Club held a cocktail event last month at Direct Finance Corp. in Plymouth, attended by, among others, Sash Erskine, managing director of the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra (left); Susan Tellier, a bookkeeper (center); and Paula Harris of WH Cornerstone Investments. Women can also network at DWFaces, the online version of the club. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DWFACES Continuedjrom Page El contact, but tapping into an online social networking site for women strengthens existing connections and fosters communication, Dan-ielson says. The key to DWFaces is its ability to cement online networking by encouraging participation in the club's events, which range from fashion shows to cocktail parties to shopping events and "meet and greets." "Men tend to blend their networking activities with their lives on a more casual basis," Danielson says.

"Women like to organize in advance, even to do the activities we like. Why is that? I'm not sure. But it seems that DWC gives them the opportunity to plan an organized event around activities they enjoy. DWFaces is an online tool that sparks in-person networking." Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet American Life Project, says Linkedln is still the premier site for business people, but there's room for something new, especially for women. "There are a lot of social networks right now, but not necessarily ones with this specific targeted group in mind," she says.

"There are in-person women's groups that have list serves and websites. But this could be the next step a social networking site for professional women that helps them use connections." Danielson founded the Downtown Women's Club while working in the male-dominated commercial real estate industry. "The club was not a substitute for personal meetings, but it helped to know there were women to connect with," she says. Since then, the club has grown from a handful of members to just under 10,000 in Boston, Worcester, New York, San Francisco, and six other cities. Corporate CVS, WALGREENS New stores for sale, leaseback NNN Absolute 1031 with maximum cash out 978-475-3700 Andover Buyers Broker, Inc.

COMPANY OUTINGS CLAMBAKES Beach Boat Sheltered Waters www.essexcruises.com 800-748-3706 Essex River Cruises Charters not, they find something else or create their own." The site, which has been in testing mode since April, expects to add a corporate membership soon, Danielson says. The membership will allow companies to purchase a subscription and run a DWFaces site on their own corporate networks. As with most other social networking sites, the theory behind DWFaces is that users are links in a chain, with only a few degrees of separation. Danielson pitches the small-world aspect of the site, and the reliability of business owners who are vetted by other members. "We have people who can say they have done business with a particular woman," she says.

"Knowing that other women have used a member's service or consulted with her allows you to trust her judgment." Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewisglobe.com. sors include Osram Sylvania, Morrison Mahoney LLP, and Pink Magazine. To join DWFaces, women pay $49, plus a renewal fee of $29 per year. Members post their profiles and personal photographs, along with links to their company websites.

Photographs are accompanied by "e-pitches" that describe what the woman does, how she does it, and what value she brings to other members. The site allows women to search within their regions for other members, or for women who offer the same or complimentary services. Kathy Robinson, 33, owner of TurningPoint, a coaching firm in Arlington, joined DWFaces because she wanted to find a business partner. The site linked her to career coach Annemarie Segaric, owner of Segaric Coaching in New York. "I now think of Annemarie as a potential partner," says Robinson.

"The site allows you to home in on people who do exactly what you do within the geographical area you are in." Maureen Crawford Hentz, manager of talent acquisition at Osram Sylvania, a global maker of lighting products, uses the site for online recruiting. "In the age of online applications where people do not even get acknowledgements anymore, I wanted people to say, 'Oh, I can contact says Hentz. "So, by joining, I assure people that they can send a resume directly to me. And this is the way companies will be hiring, recruiting, and screening people for the next 25 years." While the site is geared to every businesswoman, Daniels takes a particular interest in "millennials" people born after 1982. She says she wanted to create a site with the "functionality" that millennials crave.

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