Olive Garden parent grows
The parent of Olive Garden and several other brands has joined other restaurant companies in sticking with their expansion plans this year, despite consumer jitters about trade tariffs and threats of higher inflation.
Executives of Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants, operator of more than 2,000 full-service restaurants under nine brands, said Thursday the company plans to open between 60 and 65 restaurants over the coming 12 months. Plans are going forward even as the company reported lower than expected same-store sales growth for Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse and overall declines for its fine-dining brands, citing factors that included severe winter weather.
During a quarterly earnings call, Darden Chief Financial Officer Raj Vennam told analysts the company still plans to spend $375 million to $400 million on new location development, and another $300 million to $325 million on maintenance, upgrades and technology enhancements at existing restaurants in the coming year.
The past year has generally been a rough one for the dining industry, with several chains and regional franchisees taking actions that included bankruptcy filings, store closings and job reductions.
Existing home sales rise
February’s existing home sales increased by a higher than expected 4.2% from the prior month, though they were still down 1.2% from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The median sale price rose 3.8% from a year earlier, to $398,000, marking the 20th straight month of year-over-year increases.
“Home buyers are slowly entering the market,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement, noting about 4.3 million homes were sold in February based on seasonally adjusted annual figures. “Mortgage rates have not changed much, but more inventory and choices are releasing pent-up housing demand.”
Based on its weekly national survey of lenders, Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.67%, up slightly from last week’s 6.65% average but lower than the 6.87% average in the comparable week of 2024. The 30-year fixed rate average has stayed under 7% for nine consecutive weeks, “which is helpful for potential buyers and sellers alike,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said in a statement.
Boston Celtics sold
The NBA’s Boston Celtics are being sold for a reported $6.1 billion to an ownership group led by private equity executive Bill Chisholm, and the deal could revive plans to build a new sports arena, relocating the team from its longtime venue known currently as TD Garden.
The Boston Globe reported in October that buyers forking over that much cash would likely be looking to build a new arena with the latest amenities to maximize revenue, costing well over $1 billion as part of a larger real estate development. But government subsidies and tax breaks deemed necessary for such a project “would likely be a tough sell in Boston,” sports economist Andrew Zimbalist told the Globe.
The new ownership group includes Related Cos. President Bruce Beal Jr. and Sixth Street, the private equity firm that recently snapped up a portion of the San Francisco Giants.
The NBA was not commenting on the pending sale of the team, currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners, led by the Grousbeck family. The price, reported by several news outlets based on sources familiar with the matter, would be the highest ever paid for a U.S. sports franchise.
Jobless claims edge higher
Initial claims for U.S. unemployment insurance totaled 223,000 for the week ended March 15, rising 2,000 from the prior week and landing in the mid-range of weekly claims posted for the past year, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Analysts said initial claims do not yet reflect ongoing federal government agency closings and job reductions, some of which are being challenged in court. “Claims by federal workers are likely being held down by the fact that many workers who received termination notices are on administrative leave,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, said in a statement Thursday.
Vanden Houten noted there has still been a sharp increase from a year ago in both initial and continued claims for unemployment insurance in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, the areas most likely to be affected by federal program and workforce cuts.