Myechia Minter-Jordan heads to D.C. to lead the AARP, advocate for Social Security
Minter-Jordan started in the chief executive job in November, taking over for
Jo Ann Jenkins
, leading an organization with around 39 million members, about 2,700 employees, and annual revenue of $1.7 billion. She said she took the job in part because it would allow her to have an even broader national impact than where she previously worked, the
CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
. But doing so means she'll leave Boston: She already has a home in Washington, where AARP is headquartered, and is putting her family's West Roxbury home on the market.
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She'll miss the incredible network she established in Boston, led by other prominent people of color such as
Bennie Wiley
and
Carol Fulp
. Minter-Jordan moved here in 2007 from Baltimore to be chief medical officer at the
Dimock Center
in Roxbury, and eventually became its chief executive. She also became a mover and shaker in Boston, and helped launch the
New Commonwealth Fund
for racial equity and social justice in 2020.
Boston, she said, can be a hard place to break into as an executive, because it's a city with a firmly entrenched power structure.
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'I'm grateful for all the support I received from many of those people,' Minter-Jordan said of her Boston network. 'When you have that network, it really supports you as a leader.'
A win for Corporate Boston
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was at the grand opening of The Lyndia, New England's largest permanent supportive housing development, in Jamaica Plain. She was greeted by Lyndia Downie, president and executive director of the Pine Street Inn.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
The grand opening of a 202-unit apartment building in Jamaica Plain last week marked a big victory for
Lyndia Downie
, her team at the
Pine Street Inn
, and her development partners at
The Community Builders
.
After all, with 140 apartments for people who will continue to receive support from Pine Street Inn as they move out of homelessness,
It also represented a victory for Corporate Boston — by showing what can happen when many of the city's largest employers band together. Corporate donors kicked in more than $6 million toward a $10 million initiative known as the Way Home Fund, providing financial support for services at the JP building that range from helping people establish credit scores to ensuring they're current with medical appointments.
The initiative began as then-mayor
Martin J. Walsh
started his second term as mayor in 2018. He led the effort to prod some big names to open their checkbooks, Downie said. Five committed to $1 million each:
MassMutual
,
Bank of America
,
Liberty Mutual
,
Mass General Brigham
, and
Suffolk Construction
. Other donors included
TD Bank
,
Eastern Bank
,
Eversource
,
Related Beal
, and
Natixis
. (Separately from the fund, developer
HYM Investment Group
kicked in $5 million as a linkage payment to the city, to help win approval for its massive
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While he knows of examples in other US cities, The Community Builders chief executive
Bart Mitchell
said this is the first time he's seen a corporate fund-drive of this scope for a project like this in Boston.
TCB developed the $105 million project and assembled the financing, which included money from federal tax credit investors as well as state and city subsidies. Formerly homeless residents in the 140 units pay one-third of their income for rent; the 62 remaining units in the building (dubbed 'The Lyndia' in honor of Downie's career fighting homelessness as Pine Street Inn's president) are available at subsidized rates to lower-income earners. The 166,000-square-foot
'The opening of the JP building, it really was a huge community effort,' Downie said. 'It is the best of who we are, in my opinion, when we can make all these things happen, and get at a really sticky problem. The fact that the corporations are willing to support this, it gives us a lot of confidence in the model and confidence that maybe we can replicate this.'
Betting on bricks at Legacy Place
Halloween Crawl for a Cause at Legacy Place in Dedham features trick-or-treating for the family and specialty beverages for the adults.
Brad Bahner/Brad Bahner/Legacy Place
Ron Dickerman
always figured he would return to Massachusetts after leaving for business school at
Columbia University
in the 1980s. Instead, he stayed in New York, first working in investment banking, and then in private equity.
But the Lexington native does return for one important reason: to shop for real estate investment opportunities.
Dickerman just inked a deal for his private equity firm,
Madison International Realty
, to buy a 50 percent stake in
Legacy Place
, the nearly 500,000-square-foot open-air shopping center in Dedham. Dickerman's firm acquired the stake held by
Nuveen
in the partnership that owns Legacy Place, for an undisclosed amount. The other partners are
WS Development
and the Redstone family's
National Amusements Inc.
, which jointly developed the project more than 15 years ago. (Madison and WS are also partners in
MarketStreet Lynnfield
, and Madison also is investing in lab developer
IQHQ
's
Fenway Center
project.)
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Despite the rise of online shopping, Dickerman is still a big believer in bricks-and-mortar. He notes that Legacy draws regular customers from as far away as 30 miles, because of the tenant mix — it's essentially full — and the experience. The retail sector appears to be stabilizing, particularly because so few new shopping centers were built across the country in recent years.
'There's been so much dislocation with Amazon and home delivery,' Dickerman said. 'In our view, retail is finally starting to catch an equilibrium.'
Crossing out X from PR strategy
A local PR firm is recommending that municipal and public safety clients phase out their use of X (formerly known as Twitter).
Tuane Fernandes/Bloomberg
Scratch
X,
formerly known as Twitter, off the list of social media sites for local publicity firm
John Guilfoil Public Relations
.
JGPR sent out an email last month announcing it would no longer recommend the site to its public safety clients. The reason? It has nothing to do with the controversies surrounding owner
Elon Musk
and his chaotic attempts to dismantle much of the federal government. Instead, the site simply isn't getting anywhere near the engagement levels it once did.
Founder
John Guilfoil
said a survey by his firm drew responses from nearly 150 police, fire, and municipal government agencies across the country, along with 17 news outlets, from mid-December to mid-February. Nearly 40 percent said their use of Twitter/X has greatly decreased in the past two years, and roughly three-fourths said they interact with a member of the public on it less than once a month. 'We would have been measuring that in a matter of minutes or hours with a client five years ago,' he said.
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One big reason: In early 2023, soon after Musk's buyout, Twitter announced it would no longer grant users free access to its Application Programming Interface platform, making it more difficult to use, particularly with other digital tools.
Guilfoil still recommends that clients use
Facebook
, and
LinkedIn
is helpful because it's usually not blocked by workplace firewalls. While he said the survey has been accused of being part of a left-wing conspiracy, he simply wants to be an effective communications rep for clients.
'History tells us,' Guilfoil says, 'that every one of these internet services will eventually disappear and die.'
Jon Chesto can be reached at
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