Regional Business Digest

REGION

Conservation group to buy land near Blossom

CLEVELAND — A land conservation group says it has an agreement to buy property around Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls and preserve it as green space.

The Trust for Public Land said Tuesday it intends to buy about 620 acres from the Musical Arts Association, which oversees Blossom and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Bill Carroll, director of Trust for Public Land Ohio, says the deal would keep the surrounding forested area free from development. The deal depends on congressional funding, and an appraiser also must determine fair market value.

NATION

Fla. attorney general sues Countrywide Financial

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit Monday against Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender.

The suit, which was filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County for unspecified damages, claimed the lender hid from borrowers the potential costs of some loans, including higher interest rates and prepayment penalties.

Starbucks announces closing of 600 stores

SEATTLE — Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday it will close 600 stores in the United States in the next year and cut back the number of new stores it had planned to open.

Seventy percent of the stores slated to be closed had opened since the start of the 2006 fiscal year. The total includes 100 previously announced store closures.

Once those underperforming stores have shut down — a process the company said will happen gradually from now until the first half of 2009 — Starbucks said it expects the change to boost earnings by $100 million a year.

Associated Press