8 things: Signs of approval for D.C. streetcar; Starbucks ends cup campaign

Good morning and welcome to your Monday. Here’s some of your business:

1. AM News Talkers:

D.C.’s troubled streetcar line, while still not carrying any passengers as it continues testing, got a little outside love Friday. A team of outside transit experts cobbled together by the American Public Transportation Association weighed in with its preliminary report, which stated, in part,“there are no fatal flaws that would prevent the DC Streetcar from starting revenue service on the H Street/Benning…

US construction volume slips in January

U.S. construction volume just can’t get back on the trillion dollar track.

January construction numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau slipped 1.1 percent in January from December for an annual pace of $971 billion.

In December, the annual pace for construction topped $980 billion. 2015 is on a pace 1.8 percent higher than a year ago. The bureau’s numbers take monthly data and project them for the next 12 months to determine the annual volume pace.

Monthly construction volume has been trending…

Full coverage: Depression, entrepreneurs and startups

Entrepreneurship and the modern startup culture may seem like an exciting, vibrant, creative way to build a career. But it also is often a high-stress, hyper competitive and demanding lifestyle, which the Business Journals explores in a new special report.

Business Journal reporters in Tampa Bay, Puget Sound, Denver and New York City talk to startup founders, business funders and others in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to find out more about the pressures being placed up on this group of business…

Public land for sale: downtown river frontage, I-94 access and City Hall itself

A riverside property in downtown Milwaukee is among three high-profile public sites that local governments plan to list for sale to developers.

The others are 30 acres fronting on Interstate 94 in Pleasant Prairie and, pending approval, the St. Francis City Hall building.

The downtown Milwaukee property is at 1027 N. Edison St., with 172 feet of frontage on the Milwaukee River. The city-owned green space is the eastern landing of a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river.

The city of Milwaukee…

Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express coming Downtown in 2015

Developer Mark Patel is converting the Gumbel Building, at 801 Walnut St., and the Interstate Building, at 417 E. 13th St., into chain hotels. The conversions of the historic buildings is set to be finished by the end of 2015.

“Downtown is growing and we saw the need for newer, modern hotels,” Patel said.

The Gumbel Building

The more than $6 million conversion of the 50,000-square foot Gumbel Building into a 74-room Hampton Inn is well underway and work is expected to be done soon. The hotel will…