Business news from today's Buffalo News: Two local folks are a big step closer to closing on the downtown Statler Towers, and a lot of New Yorkers are getting ready for the possible end of tax-free coffin nails sold by Native American nations:
- Bankruptcy court approves sale of Statler to Croce, Eagan - Matt Glynn/The Buffalo News Mark D. Croce and James J. Eagan are on their way to owning the Statler Towers, after a bankruptcy court judge today approved a sale of the property to their entity, Statler City LLC. The timetable calls for Croce and Eagan to close the deal in mid-November. They submitted a bid worth $700,000, including $200,000 for the property and $500,000 to cover outstanding taxes on the Niagara Square landmark. A sale was held Monday morning, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carl L. Bucki that afternoon authorized the trustee in the Statler bankruptcy case to sell the property to Statler City LLC. Croce and Eagan referred questions to their attorneys, and remained mum about their plans for the property. They say they want to complete the deal before sharing specifics. ... Croce is well known for his downtown property holdings, including restaurants such as the Buffalo Chophouse and Laughlin's, as well as parking lots. He is working on converting the Curtiss Building at Franklin and West Huron streets into a boutique hotel. Eagan is a partner and executive vice president of Midwood Financial Services. The firm provides and distributes financial products and services to more than 300 banks, regional brokerage firms and independent brokerage dealers. Its Web site says Eagan has "contributed substantially to the growth of the company owing to his reputation and extensive network of contacts in the industry." Both Croce and Eagan also serve as Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority commissioners.
- Fast sell for tax-free cigarettes - Aaron Besecker/The Buffalo News CATTARAUGUS INDIAN RESERVATION -- Smokers have been coming here in droves in recent days as they prepare for the possibility of the end of untaxed cigarettes. With the state scheduled to begin collecting taxes Wednesday on cigarettes sold to non-Indians, the pace of sales spiked over the weekend, several tobacco retailers said Monday. "We probably doubled what we normally do," said Diane Anderson, owner of Heron's Landing. "Even my gas was busier." New York State's plan to start collecting a $4.35-a-pack sales tax on cigarettes sold to non-Indian customers may also lead some businesses to cut off sales of national-brand cigarettes, retailers said.
- Seneca leaders vote to withhold payments to state - Charlie Specht/The Buffalo News Seneca Nation of Indians tribal leaders voted Monday night to withhold future exclusivity payments to New York State, claiming the state has violated terms of the 2001 Gaming Compact that allowed the nation to build Class III casinos. Tribal Council Co-Chair J.C. Seneca said the action was taken because of state-sponsored casinos that threaten existing Seneca casinos, as well as a judge's ruling Monday to lift two injunctions which had prevented the state from taxing any Native American cigarette sales. Seneca referred to the Hamburg Casino at the Fairgrounds, Batavia Downs Casino and Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack as examples of state breaches of the compact.
Business stories from the last couple of days run the table from a business that is quickly becoming a major regional player, one that slimmed down in order to survive, to one that aspires to start really tiny and grow to pleasingly small.
-Koelmel takes another winning shot - Jonathan D. Epstein/The Buffalo News John Koelmel [right], CEO of fast-growing First Niagara Financial Group, wants to make sure he and his company are poised -- and not hesitant -- when opportunity knocks. ... The Buffalo-based banking company agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash and stock to buy NewAlliance Bankshares of New Haven, Conn., propelling First Niagara to No. 25 among the largest U.S.-based banks. It's the biggest bank merger nationwide in nearly two years -- and the first between two healthy banks. Industry experts say it shows bank consolidation is back. The rapid pace of deals also is garnering Koelmel -- a relative newcomer to banking -- and First Niagara increased attention and respect. More than 375 people -- including the mayor of New Haven who is among a group who opposed the deal -- listened in on the company's investor conference call [slide show here] following the deal's announcement. And Koelmel and the bank have been the subject of national television and newspaper coverage in the past week. For example: - 23 Million Possible Reasons for Chief to Leave Her Bank - New York Times The chief executive of NewAlliance Bancshares was coy about her future when she announced plans on Thursday to sell the bank to First Niagara Financial for $1.5 billion. There may be millions of reasons. The executive, Peyton R. Patterson, stands to collect an exit package worth as much as $23.4 million — nearly six times her annual pay — if she leaves the bank after the deal is closed, according to an analysis conducted by Brian Foley, a compensation consultant in White Plains. - Take the money and run - New Haven Register Editorial The mayor predicts, and banking analysts agree, that First Niagara itself will be sold eventually as banking consolidation accelerates under pressure on profits from new government regulation and the uncertain financial picture. - Marketing Fight Likely After NewAlliance Deal - Hartford Business Journal -First Niagara Hunts for More Takeovers After Biggest Bank Deal Since 2008 - Bloomberg News - Deflation noise drowns out First Niagara deal - Fortune - Kendall Law Group Investigates NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. Merger for Shareholders - BusinessWire
- Reinvented Jiffy-Tite is poised to become more profitable - Dino Grandoni/The Buffalo News Few industries in the United States have been hit as hard as the automotive industry during the current recession -- a hard pill to swallow for a city as invested in the industry as Buffalo. American Axle & Manufacturing had to drastically cut its operations in Western New York, even before the recession began. The Ford and General Motors plants in the region had to scale back production when demand for new cars plummeted (though it has rebounded slightly). Another company, Jiffy-Tite Co. in Lancaster, has weathered the financial crisis in a similar way. The auto parts maker has become smaller, owner Steve Zillig said, but with reshuffling of the company's top brass and an award-winning engine thermostat being launched this fall, it is poised to come out of the recession a leaner, more profitable company.
- Drafting plans for a nanobrewery - Brian Meyer/The Buffalo News A few local entrepreneurs want to turn a West Side building that served as a storehouse and office for a malting company nearly a century ago into a small brewery. The sponsors are hoping that the two-story structure at 13 Lafayette Ave., east of Niagara Street, will become the first in a chain of neighborhood-based "nanobreweries." Nano-what? you ask. A nanobrewery is a beermaking operation even smaller than popular microbreweries, and they are popping up across the country, according to Ethan A. Cox, a partner in Community Beer Works. These nanobreweries are attracting so much interest, that some regions even sponsor "nanobeer festivals," where tiny brewers showcase their specialized suds. "Our hope is that we can grow quickly and efficiently," said Cox, who leads the group of nine individuals who have backgrounds that include home brewing, marketing and architecture. ... "We want to be a small neighborhood brewery and 10 years down the line have a series of Community Beer Works in other neighborhoods," he explained.
OK. We mentioned beer again. [Though we probably should not have done it in the same post with anything about automobiles.] Let's see those page views jump.
In Business Today: No manufacturing, no jobs. No jobs, no housing market. No housing market, no recovery.
-Lee's plan boosts manufacturing - Samantha Maziarz Christmann/The Buffalo News Rep. Chris Lee'sbackground is in manufacturing, and he wants to make sure that vital segment of the U.S. economy stays strong and grows. The freshman lawmaker visited Buffalo Tungsten, a 61-employee company in Depew, on Thursday to unveil a plan aimed at bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Lee's plan, "Manufacturing for Tomorrow," calls for tax relief, education, tort reform, customs reform and supporting trade agreements to open up new international markets. ... [The] firm makes tungsten and tungsten carbide [explained below] powder used to make a variety of products, including mining tools, heating elements, lightbulb filaments and medical equipment.
- Job crisis imperils housing sector - AP/Buffalo News The jobs crisis is putting more Americans at risk of losing their homes. One in 10 households is facing foreclosure, and more than 2 million homes have been repossessed since the recession began. Few expect the outlook to improve until companies start to hire steadily again and layoffs ease. And while there was some good news Thursday — a modest decrease in the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time in a month — the figure is still too high to bring down the unemployment rate. So the housing crisis goes on. “Ultimately, the housing story, whether it is delinquencies, homes sales or housing starts, is an employment story,” said Jay Brinkmann, the top economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. It’s just one of the problems confronting Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke as he speaks Friday at a closely watched conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Fed has mostly exhausted its ammo to give the economy a jolt. Related: - Bernanke: Fed will take action if economy falters - AP/Buffalo News - Loan Mod Profiles: Fed Up, Giving Up - ProPublica - Bernanke, Trichet Economic Paths May Diverge at Jackson Hole - Bloomberg News - Economy slows to 1.6 percent as trade gap widens - AP/Buffalo News The economy grew at a much slower pace this spring than previously estimated, mostly due to the largest surge in imports in 26 years and a slower buildup in inventories. - Mortgage rates again at record low - AP/Buffalo News Mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in decades for the ninth time in 10 weeks, as concerns grow that the economy is weakening.
Once again, Business Today has a lot about the area's economic health, which has a lot to do with businesses that deal in healthcare.
- Michigan-based company buys Gaymar for $150 million - Matt Glynn/The Buffalo News Gaymar Industries' new owner has no changes planned for the Orchard Park medical device maker's local operations or work force, Gaymar's chief executive officer said. Michigan-based Stryker Corp. announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Gaymar for $150 million in an all-cash transaction. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the deal. ... Gaymar in Orchard Park has about 170 full-time employees, plus 35 temporary workers and contractors. Its Puerto Rico operation has 135 employees. The company earlier this year closed a plant in Kitchener, Ont., and shifted the work to Orchard Park. Gaymar makes products that treat pressure ulcers and manage body temperature. It has been owned since 2003 by private equity firms Nautic Partners and Norwest Equity Partners. Gaymar was founded in 1956, and its operations have been based in Quaker Centre Industrial Park since 1984. Gaymar's buyer is a vastly larger medical products company. Stryker, which is publicly traded, reported 2009 profits of $1.1 billion on sales of $6.7 billion, and ranked No. 333 on the Fortune 500. By comparison, Gaymar reported 2009 sales of about $77 million.
This how-to-invest video focusing on Stryker is more than three years old, but still some nice comic relief:
- Health insurers ranked by complaints - Jonathan D. Epstein HealthNow New York’sCommunity Blue had the least upheld complaints among all HMOs in the state last year, while Independent Health’s traditional indemnity plan had the fewest in that category, according to a new report by state regulators. According to the latest Consumer Guide to Health Insurers, released Wednesday by the state Insurance Department, Community Blue had just one complaint upheld by the state out of 34 filed with insurance regulators last year. Seven others were filed with the state Department of Health, with three upheld. Independent Health’s HMO was second among the 12 HMOs statewide, with three complaints upheld out of 32 filed with insurance regulators, and neither of two upheld at the Health Department. Excellus, parent of Univera Healthcare, was fifth, with 42 of 155 upheld by insurance regulators and nine of 22 at the Health Department.
In The Buffalo News Business Today, the fast-growing and the long-lasting.
- Local firms shine making Inc. 5000 list - Matt Glynn/The Buffalo News Suzanne Witnauer [right] knows a thing or two about speed. Earlier this year in Florida, the business owner took a turn at the wheel of a stock car, driving around a race track at more than 140 mph. Her Buffalo general contracting firm, Construction and Service Solutions Corp., is also going fast. It was the top-ranked Buffalo Niagara company on the Inc. 5000, an annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held companies. CSSC was No. 157, based on its 1,771 percent increase in revenues over a three-year period. Its revenues jumped to $3.4 million in 2009 from $181,594 in 2006. ... Two other Buffalo Niagara companies made Inc.’s top 500: U.S. Energy Development Corp. [No. 354] in Getzville and ESC Select [No. 407] in Amherst. To qualify for Inc.’s list, companies had to have generated at least $100,000 in revenue in 2006, and at least $2 million in 2009. They also had to be based in the United States and independent.
- Fundamental things apply, as times goes by - Jonathan D. Epstein/The Buffalo News In December 1966, the CEO of a much smaller M & T Bank filled a long metal box with mementos of the time and then had it entombed in the concrete cornerstone of what would become One M&T Plaza. Tuesday, nearly 44 years later, M & T’s current leaders opened that time capsule for the first time, revealing a peek at what was considered important to executives back then. Workers accidentally discovered the long-forgotten box, reportedly placed in the stone by Charles Millard Jr., M & T’s chairman and CEO at the time, during recent reconstruction of the greenstone plaza in front of the One M&T Plaza tower. It had been hidden in a hole on a side wall of the steps leading to the front of the building, behind greenstone. Tuesday’s opening ceremony was held before a packed crowd of employees and visitors attending one of the summer’s last performances during the M & T Concert Series, which itself is 42 years old, having kicked off in 1968. The building, announced in August 1966 to coincide with the bank’s 110th anniversary, opened in 1967.
You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can take it, so can I. Play it, Sam, er, Rosemary.
- Region ranks 5th in affordable housing - Matt Glynn/The Buffalo News The Buffalo Niagara region continues to stake its claim as one of the nation's most-affordable housing markets. Based on median sale price and median income, the region ranked fifth among large metro areas on the quarterly "Housing Opportunity Index" created by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo. The region earned an "affordability" score of 93.3 percent, meaning that percentage of new and previously occupied homes sold from April through June were considered affordable for a family earning the region's median income. In Buffalo Niagara, the median sale price was $112,000, meaning half the homes sold for less than and more than that amount, according to the NAHB and Wells Fargo. The median family income was $63,700. The survey does not take into account property taxes, often cited as a negative factor offsetting the region's relatively inexpensive housing. No. 1 on the most-affordable list for the second quarter was Syracuse, with a rating of 97.2 percent. Second was Indianapolis, which had held the No. 1 spot for five straight years. Upstate New York was well represented on the list, with Rochester at No. 10.
- Birdair will replace Canada Place roof - Dino Grandoni/The Buffalo News Birdair Inc., the Amherst-based specialty contractor, will replace the fabric roof of Vancouver’s iconic Canada Place that it originally built 25 years ago, installing the first new roof panel this week. The builder of lightweight, long-span roofing systems and other tensile structures was awarded an $11.3 million contract to remove the current roof and design and build a new one for a building made all the more prominent after the 2010 Winter Olympics were held the city. ... The company will replace the roof with 91,210 square feet of fiberglass fabric to match the five-sail design that become a symbol of the Canadian city. ... The fabric itself is made by French multinational Saint-Gobain SA in New Hampshire, while the roof paneling is fabricated by Birdair in Tijuana, Mexico. Birdair employs 60 people at its headquarters in Amherst and about 100 people at its Mexican manufacturing facility. The company is a member of the Taiyo Kogyo Group. The $21 million project to renovate Canada Place is being funded by the country’s economic stimulus package, passed in January 2009, which includes more than $500 million in infrastructure improvements in British Columbia. On Vancouver’s waterfront, Canada Place houses a world trade center, convention center, hotel and cruise ship terminal. The facility hosts 3 million visitors a year. Birdair’s work in Vancouver is the latest in a long line of renowed projects that include roofs for Denver International Airport, the new Cowboys Stadium and three of the four stadiums built for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
- Western New York's heavy lifters - Dino Grandoni/The Buffalo News Nicholson & Hall Corp., an 88-year-old Buffalo boiler making company, made history in July by installing a massive, record-setting boiler at a power facility in Queens, New York. But the Cobblestone District firm isn't the only Buffalo heavy lifter to make its mark in the last several years. Another area firm made it into the Guinness World Records when it weighed one of NASA's launch pads, and another set its own record and went on to break it -- twice. At 3,000 tons (5,899,510 pounds, to be exact) and 124 feet high, the boiler Nicholson & Hall installed was the heaviest and tallest one-piece shipment of a boiler in the United States, company officials said. Sixty feet wide and 118 feet long, it was fabricated in Indonesia, assembled in Mexico and welded to a barge to be brought to Queens.... Founded only four years after Nicholson & Hall, International Chimney Corp. set the Guiness record for heaviest building moved on rubber wheels in 1999 when it transported the 2,700-ton GEM Theater 1,850 feet, or four city blocks, in downtown Detroit to make way for Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. In 2000, it broke that record with its 1,110-foot move of Minneapolis' 2,908-ton Shubert Theater and broke it again by transporting Building No. 51 at Newark International Airport, which weighed in at approximately 6,700 tons. But the job that got the Williamsville-based company the most attention was successfully moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, N.C. The historic 200-foot, 5,000-ton lighthouse, built in 1870, had to be moved a half a mile inland as the approaching coastline threatened to undermine the building's foundation. The relocation won the firm the job of the year distinction from the American Society of Civil Engineers.... Buffalo Hydraulic on Walden Avenue, too, is a heavy lifter, regularly devising systems to lift bridges weighing several thousand tons across the world. In the winter of 2004, the company was contracted to weigh two of NASA's launch pads to see what modifications needed to be made for the agency's next generation of space shuttle. The company worked out a system of 21 hydraulic lifts to hoist the pads, weighing in at 5.34 million and 5.28 million pounds.
The big business news made it's way to P.1 today -- too much for Business Today to contain.
- First Niagara poised to join top 25 of U.S. banks, thrifts - Matt Glynn/The Buffalo News First Niagara Financial Group shows no sign of losing its appetite for acquisitions. The Buffalo-based banking company said Thursday it had agreed to acquire Connecticut-based NewAlliance Bancshares in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. The combination is expected to propel First Niagara to No. 25 among publicly traded U.S.-based banks and thrifts, and create more jobs in Western New York. First Niagara has made a series of acquisitions in the past decade, while bolstering its local employment and relocating its headquarters to Buffalo's Larkin at Exchange Building. The latest deal raises the expansion-minded company's profile as it extends its reach into New England. ... Bloomberg News said the deal was the biggest merger of U.S. lenders since October 2008. ... NewAlliance's 88 branches will be rebranded as First Niagara. And NewAlliance's headquarters in New Haven, Conn., is scheduled to become First Niagara's New England Regional Market Center.
In New Haven, though, the reaction is "Not so fast, there, pilgrim." - New Alliance falls to Niagara - Angela Carter/The New Haven Register NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. met with a backlash Thursday when it announced plans to sell NewAlliance Bank to First Niagara Financial Group Inc., based in Buffalo, N.Y. “Right now, what I plan to do is ask a lot of questions about how this benefits job creation and how this benefits the economy of New Haven and Connecticut,” Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said. “I expect this new bank will get purchased in five years by another bank.” State Attorney Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said the merger raises significant questions and concerns about “potentially far-reaching” ramifications on bank customers, employees, the New Haven community and the economy.” “My office will work cooperatively with other local and state authorities to look into any concerns, and the potential legal implications of this acquisition,” he said. [Gotta love that headline.] -City decries NewAlliance 'betrayal' - Paul Bass/The New Haven Independent DeStefano Thursday afternoon wouldn’t say yet whether he planned to try to block the planned merger when it comes before federal regulators. He and local labor leaders staged a fight six years ago against a previous merger that created NewAlliance Bank, and won tens of millions of dollars in concessions in the process.
Other takes: - First Niagara To Acquire NewAlliance For $1.5B - Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal Serial acquirer First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (FNFG) said it would buy NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. (NAL) for some $1.5 billion, the first in what many bankers believe will be an eventual wave of deals in the banking industry. The deal marks the first sizable merger of two healthy banks since the financial crisis, rather than an acquisition of a troubled institution by a strong bank. In comments after the deal's announcement, the two banks' chief executives said they wanted the merger to be understood as a pre-emptive strike in a banking environment that is changing in the aftermath of the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul bill. ["Serial acquirer"? Is that good?] -First Niagara to Acquire Rival Bank for $1.5 Billion - Eric Dash/The New York Times The First Niagara Financial Group said Thursday that it had agreed to buy NewAlliance Bancshares for $1.5 billion in cash and stock, catapulting First Niagara into the ranks of the nation’s 25 largest banks and providing tentative hope that a long-expected wave of industry consolidation might follow. [Rival?]
