Business news in brief

Drivers for Uber, the electronic ride-hailing service, will be permitted to use older vehicles, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ruled Thursday. Uber drivers will be able to use vehicles that are up to 10 years old, with fewer than 350,000 miles. But they must wait until new PUC regulations are approved by the state Independent Regulatory Review Commission and published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which could be in June. Lyft, a competing service that also offers rides in private cars, won a similar ruling from the PUC in March. Uber and Lyft were given authority last year to operate in all of Pennsylvania, except Philadelphia, where the Philadelphia Parking Authority - not the PUC - regulates taxi services. The Parking Authority has prohibited such ride-share services, but the companies have continued to operate in Philadelphia in defiance of the ban. - Paul Nussbaum

Johnson & Johnson said it was raising its quarterly dividend by 7 percent, marking its 53d straight year of dividend increases. The world's biggest maker of health-care products announced the increase, from 70 cents per share to 75, at its 127th annual shareholders' meeting, held in New Brunswick, N.J., where J&J is based. - AP

Brandywine Realty Trust is considering a mixed-use development at the current site of a parking garage at 618 Market St. that it bought for $17 million, chief executive Gerard Sweeney told analysts in a conference call. The site, which now also houses a suit shop and the office of radio personality Jerry Blavat, could accommodate at least 600,000 square feet of development, Sweeney said. The company does not have a specific plan for the parcel and will operate the garage until one is chosen. - Jacob Adelman

As chief financial officer of the former Revel Casino Hotel, Theresa Glebocki sat through months of bankruptcy hearings in Camden. But she didn't wait long to land a new job after the sale of Revel to Glenn Straub for $82 million was completed on April 7. Tropicana Entertainment Inc., which owns Tropicana Casino & Resort Atlantic City and seven other casinos, said it hired Glebocki as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Glebocki, whose base salary at Tropicana is $300,000, has worked in the casino industry since 1987, including 16 years with Trump Entertainment Resorts. - Harold Brubaker

St. Joseph's University has been selected to offer Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) With Disabilities, a small-business education program founded in 2007 at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, the schools announced Thursday. At St. Joseph's, the program will be offered through the Erivan K. Haub School of Business. To date, nearly 1,000 veterans have graduated from EBV programs throughout the United States, resulting in the creation of more than 200 veteran-owned businesses. Other participating schools include Florida State University, UCLA, Texas A&M University, Purdue University and Cornell University. - Diane Mastrull

San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties completed its purchase of 1818 Market Street, the private real estate investment firm said Thursday in a statement. The 988,000-square-foot tower serves as headquarters for Beneficial Bank and discounter Five Below. Terms of the sale were not released. Shorenstein made the acquisition on behalf of a real estate investment fund it formed in 2014 with $1.22 billion in capital, the company said. - Jacob Adelman

PPL Corp. and Riverstone Holdings L.L.C. said they were notified by the U.S. Department of Justice that the agency had closed its antitrust review, the last regulatory step before a proposed spin-off transaction involving PPL Energy Supply and RJS Power Holdings, both competitive generation businesses, can close. - Inquirer staff

Sales of new U.S. homes plummeted in March, as the spring buying season opened with sharp declines in the Northeast and South. The Commerce Department said Thursday that new-home sales fell 11.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000. This marks a swift reversal from an annual sales pace of 543,000 in February, the strongest showing in seven years. - AP

Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates are down slightly this week and remain near historic lows. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.65 percent from 3.67 percent last week. The average rate for a 15-year mortgage, popular with homeowners who refinance, slid to 2.92 percent from 2.94 percent. - AP

Quicken Loans Inc. submitted insurance claims for hundreds of improperly underwritten loans insured by the U.S. Federal Housing Administration, the government alleged in a lawsuit. Quicken said last week it wanted a court order barring the government from using a sample to evaluate compliance with U.S. underwriting rules. - Bloomberg News