Devens

MassEcon, the state's private-sector economic development partner, unveiled 81 new sites that have been deemed ready to accommodate business tenants interested in locating in the Bay State.

Devens-based AMSC narrowed its losses in the third quarter ending Dec. 31, according to an earnings statement, while revenue increased due to growth in the clean energy firm's wind segment.

AMSC has agreed to set aside $10 million to settle claims that it artificially inflated its financial results between July 2010 and July 2011, according to court filings.

Since the Great Recession of 2009, business tenants in Greater Boston, including MetroWest towns along Interstate 495, have enjoyed low commercial rents and the upper-hand in negotiations with landlords. But is that starting to change? It's highly possible, according to data released this month in indSTATus, the industrial real estate market publication by TranswesternRBJ, the Boston-based commercial real estate firm that services clients between Boston and the 495 corridor.

This year, the Worcester Business Journal marks its 25th anniversary. In each print edition, we will highlight...

Jabil Circuit, the Florida-based manufacturer that bought Nypro Inc. of Clinton earlier this year, reported an 11-percent jump in profits for its most recent quarter, the first full quarter in which Nypro operated under the Jabil banner.

The catering business that recently announced plans to build in Devens is a harbinger of more economic activity to come, according to Steve Catalano, owner of Dolce Brands, which specializes in serving the film industry. Catalano said he's in talks with other businesses interested in leasing space at the site of the former Hodges Theatre, which Catalano bought with the intention of razing it in the spring to rebuild a state-of-the-art catering facility adjacent to New England Studios. The four-stage studio facility opened this fall, and Hodges scooped up the theater -- which closed along with the former Fort Devens military base in the mid-1990s -- and its 3-acre parcel in anticipation of the start of filming next year.

A local caterer has bought the former Hodges Theater in Devens and the three acres on which it's situated, according to MassDevelopment, which sold the property for $120,000.

National auto parts retailer O'Reilly Auto Parts will be bringing at least 300 employees over the next few years to a recently purchased distribution facility in Devens.

Leave it to Devens to become the destination of the much-anticipated film studios that economic development leaders had hoped would come when Massachusetts implemented tax credits designed to lure the film industry. Developers floated plans for other locations, perhaps most notably a $500-million filming facility proposed for Plymouth, known as Plymouth Rock Studios. Unable to come up with the financial backing to move ahead with construction, that plan failed, while others never got off the ground.