Strictly Business

From Business Today:

Is the Statler Towers sale finally at hand? Local developer/restaurateur Mark Croce says he is ready to close the deal by early next week. If it happens,  it will bring to a close almost two years of jockeying and uncertainty for the abandoned landmark. Croce says he needs about $5 million in public money to make his deal work. That is sure ignite a furious debate among the downtown landlords who fear a glut of space on the market if HSBC Bank moves out of the HSBC Center tower.

National Fuel Gas Co. keeps moving. The formerly stogy local gas utility has morphed into a fast-paced deal maker, locking up more land in the gas rich Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The company announced it is selling its gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico to concentrate more resources in the Marcellus region.

Why is getting wedding pictures taken so fraught with peril? It seems every year or so another wedding photographer goes out of business and refuses to give the brides the photos they shot. The latest appears to be a Lackawanna studio called JMK Photography. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is suing the shop to recover money and photos for 19 brides.

The Buffalo Niagara region is adding more jobs - slowly. The January employment figures show 2,100 jobs were added over the same period last year. But because so many seasonal jobs ended after the holidays, the unemployment rates actually rose.

Who is getting hired, promoted and honored?

 


Can't get enough Wedding Bell Blues...