Growing pains. Boston Properties and Avalon Bay Communities have proposed a pair of towers that will bring 200 residences and a 19-story office building to Boston ’s Prudential Center . But some members of a city advisory panel already have raised red flags about the height, look and location of the towers.

“Height, density and appearance are always a worry,” said Richard Kiley, a member of the Prudential Project Advisory Committee (PruPAC), a group formed in the 1980s to advise City Hall on development proposals in the neighborhood.

Genzyme Corp., the Cambridge biotechnology giant, is planning a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday morning for a $150 million expansion of its Allston manufacturing plant along the Charles River.

A Genzyme spokesman said the work is expected to take two years and will boost the size of the building by nearly two-thirds, to 300,000 square feet. The additional space will be used for offices and manufacturing support, and an underground steam and electrical generation system will be added to power the facility.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved a $130 million Boston cargo terminal to be located on 30 acres in the Boston Marine Industrial Park in South Boston. The multi-tenant facility will include seafood processors, cold storage and warehouse distribution facilities, and bulk cargo operations, including a large-scale cement import/export operation.

Boston-based developer has been given the green light for a $500 million transit-oriented project that could remake downtown Lowell.

Following months of deliberations, the Lowell City Council has selected Trinity Financial to turn an underused 15-acre waterfront site into a neighborhood with apartments and condominiums, shops, offices and a $100 million courthouse near the city’s commuter rail station...

The 10-year wait for an IKEA store in Somerville could be near an end.

Sweden’s purveyor of inexpensive, build-it-yourself furniture that lures 458 million shoppers to its U.S. showrooms annually presented plans for a store in Assembly Square last week to the Somerville Planning Board. The 340,000-square-foot, warehouse-style blue-and-yellow building also would house a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish meatballs...

Suffolk University is weighing plans to move its art school to a former state building at the foot of Beacon Hill that had previously been targeted for a giant student dorm.

The university dropped the high-rise dorm plan a few months ago after a fierce battle with Beacon Hill residents who didn’t want the historic neighborhood turned into a college party pad.

Back at the drawing board, Suffolk is now considering other uses for the 20 Somerset St. building, a now-empty 1930s office building that was once the headquarters of the Metropolitan District Commission.

A new tower that would soar over Back Bay’s Copley Place mall is under consideration by the retail complex’s owner, local officials and an executive familiar with the planning said.

Simon Property Group, which is working with local project manager RF Walsh Project Management, is weighing options for redeveloping the Neiman Marcus site at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets, officials said.

Boston-based developer Trinity Financial has been chosen as the master developer of a $500 million, 10-year urban renewal effort in the slowly-gentrifying mill city of Lowell,

“It’s going to bring jobs, and more people living and working in the downtown,” said Lowell City Manager Bernard Lynch who plans to formally announce Trinity’s appointment this morning at a news conference inside the now-blighted 15-acre Hamilton Canal District. “A half of a billion dollars is getting invested here, to create a 24-hour downtown that is full of activity.”

The fate of one of the last key development sites in downtown Boston, the hulking Harbor Garage, could be decided within days, with final offers due Friday, according to executives close to the deal.

InterPark, the garage’s owner, is now seeking “best and final” offers after an initial round of bidding. With both local and out-of-state developers competing, the price could soar past the $130 million mark, executives said.

Three months after Mayor Thomas M. Menino christened a state-of-the-art warehouse on the Boston waterfront, the city wants more.

The Economic Development Industrial Corp., an arm of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, has issued a request for proposals for a pair of lots at the Marine Industrial Park. The RFPs are due on Monday, Oct. 15 at noon...