The Buffalo News - Business http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Sun, 19 May 2013 14:22:54 -0400 Sun, 19 May 2013 14:22:54 -0400 <![CDATA[ Local workforce is key in FedEx expansion ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130518/BUSINESS/130519070/1005
The expansion will consolidate the office space that FedEx currently leases on Ensminger Road and the warehouse that it leases on Kenmore Avenue, both in the Town of Tonawanda, and provide a major tenant for the Riverview Solar Technology Park off River Road.

Fred Schardt, the president of FedEx Trade Networks, discussed the company’s decision to expand in the Town of Tonawanda.

Q: What will the consolidation allow FedEx do that it can’t do now?

A: Today, we’re spread out over several facilities. The ambition, really, is to consolidate, and in that consolidation, there will be more efficiency.

Q: You also looked at Indianapolis and Memphis for this project. Was there anything in particular that was a tipping point for the Town of Tonawanda site?

A: We looked at other places in the United States. Certainly, this was a very good deal. It was a very good deal in terms of sustainability. And also, we’ve got a great group of people here. They’ve done a very good job for the company for many years.

Q: What is it about the local workforce that helped sell you on building the center in the Town of Tonawanda?

A: One of the reasons we did this, besides the sustainability and the great landlord and the great development, is the people. We have almost 1,000 people here in Western New York.

We looked at other places, but frankly, our people here perform so well and do such and outstanding job that we felt we needed to make a very strong commitment to Western New York and to our people here, who have done a wonderful job.

In any business, it’s important to have technology. It’s important to be FedEx, but what makes up FedEx is really the people. It’s just a very productive workforce. It’s a good workforce. It’s an educated workforce. It’s a solid workforce. It’s been a very loyal workforce. Everything just came together. It just made sense.

Q: You’re getting more than $4.5 million in aid from state and local governments. How big of a factor was that in tipping the scale in favor of the Town of Tonawanda.

A: There isn’t just one factor. There are a lot of factors that enter into any decision that we make.

Q: With a $10.6 million project, $4.5 million in incentives is more than 40 percent of the project’s total costs. That’s a pretty big chunk of the costs.

A: We’re a pretty big company. But again, we look at everything. We don’t just look at one isolated thing. Then we evaluate the project in terms of: Does it make sense? Does it make sense for our people? Does it make sense for the company?

Q: You’ve said these are jobs that essentially could be located anywhere. Did the Town of Tonawanda site have a locational advantage, in terms of being close to Canada, having a major airport in Buffalo and another one in Niagara Falls?

A: Not really, in the sense that these are jobs that really could be located anywhere. Our headquarters is in Memphis.

Q: Was there anything else that made the Town of Tonawanda site stand out?

A: I think it just all fit. This facility, the solar power, certainly the cooperation of the state and local government and the developer and also the people. All of those factors are what really led us to the decision that this is the right decision for us.

Q: What does FedEx Trade Networks do?

A: We’re the freight-forwarding arm of FedEx. Over the past four years, we’ve gone from a company with offices only in Canada and the United States to having them in 26 countries. We’ve actually added more than 1,000 jobs over the last three years. So FedEx Trade Networks has really been a growth story for FedEx on an overall basis.

Q: The new building will include a 100-kilowatt solar array. Were the solar-power features really an important factor in your decision?

A: This was a key decision in terms of our move to come here and build here. Sustainable business practices and reducing the environmental impact are central to the long-term vision of FedEx.

When you look at FedEx, I think we’re top 10 in the world in terms of being a most admired company. We’re cutting edge in terms of technology. When people think of our company, they think of things like technology. Certainly, sustainability is always very important. It’s always critical and it’s becoming more and more critical.

Q: Will your utility costs be lower because of the solar power?

A: The utility costs will be less.

Q: How much will you save?

A: I don’t have it off the top of my head. But sustainability at FedEx is something we take very seriously. We’re looking to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions from our 2005 baseline by 20 percent by 2020. We’ve done a lot of work in terms of our fleet. It’s not something we just say. It’s something we take very seriously.

We want to be sustainable. We want to be green. We want to be good corporate citizens. We believe you can operate a business effectively and be a very, very solid corporate citizen at the same time.

email: drobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 13:57:00 -0400 <![CDATA[ Amherst rejects tax breaks for senior housing project ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/BUSINESS/130519183/1005
The rejection of the tax breaks puts the future of the three-story Maple Road Senior Apartments project in doubt, with the developer saying it would not make economic sense without the incentives because monthly rents could increase by as much as $200.

“The project is not viable without the IDA assistance,” said Michael Connors, the director of development for the project’s developer, MEL Investors. “If you’re asking me what the status of the project is without IDA assistance, I’d say it’s dead.”

The Amherst IDA board rejected the tax breaks in a 4-3 vote, with critics questioning the need for taxpayer subsidies for a senior citizens apartment complex that expected to charge rents of $900 to $1,000 a month. They also cited a study by the University at Buffalo that found that fewer than 1 percent of Erie County senior citizens move out of the county because they are unable to find suitable housing – a finding that contradicted a long-held belief that a housing shortage was driving elderly residents away.

Supporters, however, said the project merited taxpayer support because it would provide Amherst’s senior citizens with more housing choices, and they also noted that the agency had provided tax breaks for two other market-rate senior citizen complexes within the past three years. The market study done for the developers found that the vacancy rate at the eight market-rate apartment complexes in the Amherst area was roughly 1 percent.

The developers also stressed that the eligibility guidelines that all of the IDAs in Erie County follow allows incentives for senior housing projects.

“Just because it’s eligible doesn’t guarantee approval,” said Edward Stachura, an IDA board member who voted against the tax breaks.

While the developer presented a market study that noted that Amherst has nearly 30,000 residents age 60 or older and noted that some senior housing facilities in the town have waiting lists of more than a year, Stachura said many other local facilities have waiting times of six months or less and pointed out that the UB study found that the number of people age 75 and older in Erie County is expected to remain relatively flat through 2030.

The project called for the construction of 15 one-bedroom apartments that would rent for about $900 a month and 84 two-bedroom units that would cost about $1,000 in monthly rent on a vacant lot at 1765-1805 Maple Road, between Youngs and Ayer roads. Without the tax breaks, the developer said rents could increase by $200 a month, pushing them to the high end of the local market and making the apartments affordable only to wealthier seniors.

Amherst Supervisor Barry Weinstein, who voted against the project, said the tax breaks average out to about $160 a month for each apartment. “I’d much rather see them go ahead with the project and have it be unsubsidized,” he said.

The developer had hoped the complex would be ready for occupancy by next summer.

“There is clearly a need for this type of project at this location,” said Sean Hopkins, an attorney for the developers.

Hopkins also said the developers had been working on the project for more than a year under the belief that it would qualify for tax breaks, given the county’s eligibility guidelines and the Amherst IDA’s approval of incentives for the Fox Creek Estates apartment complex in 2010 and a 120-unit complex on Sweet Home Road in 2011.

“They relied on the fact that this project qualifies,” Hopkins said.

But IDA board members who opposed the project said the overview of the senior housing market changed with the UB study, which found that fewer than 1 percent of Erie County’s senior citizens move out of the area because of housing considerations. That undercut a long-held tenet among local economic development officials that providing a range of senior citizen housing options was an important factor in keeping the region’s elderly people from moving away.

“We did approve those projects, but the UB study came out only recently,” said board member Stuart Shapiro, who voted against the tax breaks.

Board member Aaron Stanley, however, said the UB study, which itself recommended that more research be done in the senior housing market, should be the basis for a longer-term review to shape the eligibility guidelines for senior housing projects throughout Erie County, not an immediate catalyst for rejecting the Maple Road project.

“I don’t believe we should be changing our policy based on a study that just came before us,” said Stanley, who voted in favor of the tax breaks. “It’s changing policy on the fly.”



email: drobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 14:44:33 -0400 David Robinson
]]> <![CDATA[ Reinventing an ancient art form ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519011/1005
Now, a team of students and faculty from the University at Buffalo is helping the Orchard Park company bring the techniques into the 21st century.

Researchers in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning have introduced the designers and sculptors at Boston Valley to new, high-tech tools that are saving time and helping them work more efficiently.

“We’re extremely lucky to be close to this caliber of facility,” said John Krouse, Boston Valley’s president. “I think it would have been extremely difficult to do it without their help.”

The tools – including a carving tool that works in three dimensions and a program that uses photos to create digital images of terra cotta pieces – aren’t intended to replace the craftsmen at Boston Valley with machines and computers.

Instead, they are meant to free the workers from the most onerous tasks, allowing them to focus on work that requires creativity while giving them training in valuable skills.

And UB students get the practical experience of putting academic concepts to the test in the business world.

“It’s embedded learning,” said Omar Khan, chair of UB’s architecture department.

The owners of Boston Valley Terra Cotta started fabricating architectural terra cotta 32 years ago, after Krouse and several members of his family bought and reconfigured Boston Valley Pottery, a producer of clay pots that began making bricks in 1889.

The new owners sought to recast the pottery company, located near clay deposits in Orchard Park, as a terra cotta manufacturer with a focus on historic restoration.

The company’s first restoration project was the ornate facade of the Guaranty Building in downtown Buffalo, which led to assignments across the United States and Canada.

Their hundreds of restoration projects have included Craigdarroch Castle in British Columbia, Burnham and Root’s Rookery building in Chicago and the Breakers, the Gilded Age mansion in Newport, R.I.

Today, Boston Valley is one of just three companies in the United States that manufacture terra cotta, which is growing in popularity as a building material in new construction, because ceramics are durable, “green” and sustainable.

“We’re hoping that goes for 20 or 30 years,” said Krouse, a ceramic engineer, referring to the terra cotta revival.

Boston Valley, which declined to provide sales figures, employs 130 people at its 180,000-square-foot facility on South Abbott Road. About half of its business is manufacturing terra cotta for new construction and half is for restorations.Khan and UB researcher Mitchell Bring reached out to Boston Valley prior to the 2011 National Preservation Conference, a major annual event that drew more than 2,000 people to Buffalo when it was held here.

UB wanted to demonstrate a more efficient, less invasive approach to restoring terra cotta details on architecturally significant buildings, and it wanted to work with Boston Valley to do this. “How does computing and craft come together?” Khan said.

The traditional process of re-creating terra cotta tiles, statues and other building features requires drafters to create a two-dimensional drawing of the object. They work off photos, measurements taken by hand or a piece of the object or facade in question if it can be removed.

The drafters’ drawing then is sent to the pattern shop, where sculptors produce a model, typically in plaster.

Plaster is poured over the model to produce a hollow mold, before workers press and form terra cotta into the mold. The terra cotta is then finished, dried and fired in a kiln.

UB introduced Boston Valley to digital fabrication tools already used by students in an architecture department lab.

One, a laser scanner, is used to scan an object that remains on the building or that has been removed from the building. Drafters at Boston Valley were trained to use modeling software to take the data generated by the scanner to create a three-dimensional image.

Another high-tech process, known as photogrammetry, uses photographs taken from a number of angles to create a similar 3-D image, and this process is better than a laser scanner for producing images of complex objects. Both approaches make the drafting process and model-making process easier, Khan said.

The 3-D images created by the laser scanner or the photogrammetry process are then used to produce a model, either using a laser cutter or cutting tools known as three-axis or five-axis routers, which UB also demonstrated to Boston Valley.

The routers get their names from the number of directions the router can move while cutting a piece of foam into a model. Three-axis routers cut along an X-Y axis or up and down.

The fourth and fifth axes refer to this newer router’s ability to rotate 180 degrees in a half circle motion around the piece of foam, creating models with undulating peaks and valleys.

A laser cutter creates a tool, made of wood and metal, that is used in turn to produce the plaster model.

Students at UB built their own five-axis router, following online directions, and used the machine to create replicas of the tiles on the Guaranty Building that were handed out to attendees of the 2011 National Preservation Conference in Buffalo.

Boston Valley officials who used the UB router were so impressed they decided to buy an industrial-sized version for themselves, after UB showed employees how to use it.

The region benefits when more workers are trained in how to use cutting-edge tools and software, Khan said. “We need people who know how to do this,” he said.Boston Valley used some of its new fabrication tools on its most recent major restoration project, the replacement of four aging, terra cotta female figures attached to the corners of the top floor of 150 Nassau, a condominium high-rise in Manhattan that dates to the 1890s.

The 19-foot-tall sculptures, known as caryatids, need to be replaced with terra cotta replicas that will be anchored more securely to the building.

A contractor removed one sculpture from the building, piece by piece, and all 54 of them were placed in separate crates and trucked up to Buffalo.

Boston Valley artisans used photogrammetry and a laser scanner to create 3-D images of each piece. The company then produced 54 models, molds and terra cotta pieces for the first of the replica caryatids, which look like angels and were dubbed “Dorothy” by UB.

Boston Valley’s workers are finishing up the project now, and the first of the replacement caryatids is set to be installed at 150 Nassau in August.

For Boston Valley, the new digital tools allow its employees to finish the drafting and modeling process faster, potentially letting the company take on more work as those skilled craftsmen and women focus on tasks that demand creativity.

Boston Valley is using the tools again for their next large restoration undertaking, the replacement of the terra cotta dome atop the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton.

“It’s something that would be almost impossible to do the old way,” Krouse said.

For UB, the partnership offers its students a chance to gain practical experience, and several students, including Linfan Liu and Peter Schmidt, have worked at Boston Valley part-time and shared what they learned in the lab at school.

The architecture department has set up a Material Culture Research Group and also has started introducing these tools to other companies, including Rigidized Metals, bolstering the region’s push into advanced manufacturing.

“We have a lot of really great manufacturers that are going to be retooling, that are going to be moving to far more sophisticated manufacturing processes, and those are all digital, those are all computationally driven,” Khan said.



email: swatson@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 14:03:29 -0400 Stephen Watson
]]> <![CDATA[ LinkedIn looks to build on its impressive resume ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130518999/1005
LinkedIn Corp. promotes its service as a stepping stone to a more enriching career. As it turns out, the professional networking company’s initial public offering was a great place to start a rewarding investment portfolio, too. LinkedIn’s stock has nearly quadrupled in value from its $45 IPO price on May 20 two years ago. On Friday, it was trading at $181 per share. In contrast, Facebook’s stock is hovering around $26.50 per share, down 30 percent since debuted on May 18, 2012 at $38.

LinkedIn is emerging as the standout performer among its cohort of hotly anticipated IPOs from Internet companies that connect people with common interests. The company is growing faster and yielding far better shareholder returns than the rest of a class that includes online deals maker Groupon Inc., Web game maker Zynga Inc. and business review site Yelp Inc., as well social networking leader Facebook Inc.

With the exception of Yelp, the stocks of all those other companies are stuck well below their initial public offering prices. Although Groupon and Zynga have fared worse, Facebook has been the highest-profile disappointment.

But for all its success, LinkedIn still hasn’t immersed itself into people’s lives and reshaped technology as profoundly as Facebook has. Although LinkedIn has been attracting more frequent visits since its IPO, people still spend far more time on Facebook and share more of their lives there. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn hasn’t become a hub for other online services, ranging from games to music.

Even among its fans on Wall Street, LinkedIn is seen as little more than an online hunting ground for opportunistic employers on the prowl for talented workers.

But that could change if LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and Executive Chairman Reid Hoffman realize their ambitions. As the 10-year-old company heads into its second decade, its two top executives want to establish its website as an integral part of the global economy.

“It would be a representation of every economic opportunity and every skill required to attain those opportunities,” Weiner said. “We would have a digital profile for every company in the world and a professional profile for every one of the 3.3 billion people in the (worldwide) workforce. We would then be able to overlay professionally relevant knowledge for each one of those individuals and each one of those companies.”

LinkedIn still has a long way to go before it’s that pervasive. The service currently has profiles of some 225 million people and 500,000 companies.

But the odds of LinkedIn fulfilling its aspirations may be less of a longshot than the one Hoffman faced when he first started pondering a professional networking service in the midst of the dot-com bust in 2000.

At the time, Hoffman was worried about losing his job as a top executive at online payment service PayPal. The company had just burned through most of its cash, prompting Hoffman to mull other ideas with PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin during a retreat at his grandparents’ house in Gualala, Calif. along the Pacific Ocean’s coastline.

A rough concept for LinkedIn came up then, but Hoffman didn’t pursue it at the time because PayPal started to thrive.

After eBay Inc. bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Hoffman plowed much of the money that he made from that deal into LinkedIn. He started the company in May 2003 with several former colleagues from his pre-PayPal days – Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant. The group debated several potential names, including Netra, Wellconnected, Bizrep and Connex, before settling on LinkedIn.

Hoffman’s gamble paid off. As LinkedIn’s controlling shareholder, his stake in the company is currently worth $3 billion.

LinkedIn now has market value approaching $20 billion and employs about 4,000 people. It’s expanding so quickly that it is running out of space at its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters located down the block from the home of Google Inc. There will be space for nearly 3,000 more LinkedIn workers once construction is completed on its new corporate campus in nearby Sunnyvale next year.

LinkedIn has made a habit of topping analyst projections. That is something the company has done in every quarter since its IPO, helping to propel its stock.

Yet LinkedIn remains in Facebook’s shadow. Since 2008, Facebook has grown even faster as the number of people using its social network swelled 11-fold to 1.1 billion and annual revenue soared 25-fold from $272 million last year to a projected $6.7 billion this year.

But LinkedIn has been outpacing Facebook during the past year, both in terms of user growth (LinkedIn’s membership is up 35 percent versus 23 percent at Facebook) and revenue (LinkedIn’s first-quarter revenue rose 72 percent versus 38 percent at Facebook).

The secret to LinkedIn’s success? The company has turned its service into an easily searchable database, a treasure trove for employers and their headhunters. The company makes most of its money from the fees it charges for analytical tools and better access to individual profiles. About 18,000 companies now pay LinkedIn for its so-called “talent solutions.”

Most employers rely on LinkedIn to find so-called “knowledge” workers who can fill positions that require a college degree or other specialized training. Think: computer programmers, website developers, scientists, accountants, lawyers and executives. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:48:26 -0400 By Michael Liedtke

ASSOCIATED PRESS

]]> <![CDATA[ College graduates are hoping for pomp and … jobs ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519000/1005
Hiring isn’t strong, but it sure looks better than it has since the economy tipped into recession a little more than five years ago.

“For sure, I thought I would graduate with a job — definitely,” said Morgan Woodbury, 22, a senior at Kennesaw State University. “I think the job market is good right now.”

Her experience is evidence: Woodbury felt confident enough to turn down an initial offer from shipping service DHL. The company offered a different job with better pay and — with her graduation still a few days away — Woodbury is working in international sales in a territory arcing from Atlanta to Chattanooga.

“The pay starts with a pretty good base, plus an allowance, plus commission,” she said.

Job growth isn’t absorbing all of these new graduates, said Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. “There has been steady improvement but it’s not enough to clear the new grad market. We need some double-digit (job) growth.”

Still, the hiring outlook is improved. In 2009, when most of this year’s grads started college, the unemployment rate was cresting at 10 percent nationally. Since then, the national rate has ticked down to 7.5 percent in April.

And the job market is better on average for college graduates. Among people with at least a bachelor’s degree, the jobless rate is 3.9 percent.

Another hopeful sign: starting salaries for grads nationally are up 5.3 percent this year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The biggest pay boost comes in the health care sector, while the highest starting salaries go to engineers, according to the NACE survey.

Business hires are averaging 7 percent more than a year ago.

Dennis Loubiere, 51, of Marietta, Ga., went back to school to finish his undergraduate degree after being laid off by a mortgage company amid the housing bust. He graduated summa cum laude from Kennesaw State and stayed on to get a master’s degree this year in business.

“There is definitely hiring going on,” he said. “For the first time in quite awhile, I actually feel confident that I can get a job.”

Technology and finance are the hottest sectors.

“We hire a ton of people each year,” said Bob Eichenberg, greater Atlanta market human resources leader at PwC, a global auditing, accounting and consulting company with about 1,250 employees here.

Experts in finance have been in steady demand, he said. “People still have to have audits. They still have to file their tax returns.”

Grads with liberal arts degrees have to show that their skills “are transferable” to business needs, said Emory University senior Alexi Lauren New, 21, who majored in sociology and anthropology. With so many unemployed Americans, companies can be very selective, so that argument is not an easy one, she said. “I think it’s a tough market out there.”

The Rockville, Md., native has a yearlong fellowship in Washington.

By last year’s commencement, only 16 percent of Emory’s graduating seniors were unsure what they would do in the coming year, said Paul Fowler, executive director of the university career center. About half of them ended up going on to more school.

The situation is about the same this year, but “we have seen a number of companies calling us out of the blue this year,” Fowler said. “That’s an indication that things are getting better.”

There is risk for graduates who do not find a position fairly quickly.

Going without a job — or taking a poor-paying position you’re overqualified for — may handicap a young employee’s economic potential, said Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University and author of “Working Scared (Or Not at All).”

“The basic point is that where you start with your salary and benefit has a tendency to influence the first decade of your career,” he said. “The reason is that employers look at salary history and they tend to pay accordingly.” ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:48:18 -0400 By Michael Kanell

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

]]> <![CDATA[ Retiring boomers are driving sales of small businesses ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519001/1005
In the first three months of this year, the number of sales that closed jumped 56 percent from the same time in 2012, according to BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses. Retirement was the No. 1 contributor to business sales in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey by Pepperdine University and two trade groups, the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source.

“It was almost like a light switch went on in January,” says Michael Schuster, a broker with World Business Brokers in Miami. “We started getting a lot of activity with sellers who said, ‘I don’t want to go through another downturn or tough time. I want to see if I could sell my business.’”

Sales are so strong in Florida that Schuster’s brokerage is opening two more offices in the state. Three-quarters of the sellers or potential sellers that his company sees are baby boomers, most of whom don’t have family members willing to take over their businesses. Some of these owners want to sell just part of their firms, essentially taking on a partner, because they don’t want to keep carrying all the risk themselves.

Honey Rand fits the category. After 17 years of running her Tampa, Fla., public relations firm Environmental PR Group, she’s starting to think about selling. The 55-year-old wants to get away from the administrative work that goes into running a business, and focus on working with clients.

“Like most people who end up starting a business, I’m really good at the work I do and I’d love the opportunity to wallow around in it,” says Rand. She’s optimistic that she’d be able to sell, because she was approached twice by prospective buyers in the last 10 years. And Rand expects that she would remain with the company for a period following a sale to help with the transition to new management — something that many business owners do.

In California, the pace of sales is more of a “slow pickup, not a huge spike,” says Dave Richards, owner of Keystone Business Advisors, a brokerage in Westlake Village, Calif.

“Baby boomers are where we’re really seeing the growth. It’s pent-up demand,” Richards says.

Such sellers are going to keep the market for small businesses thriving for years to come.

“Trillions of dollars of business value are going to change hands in the next 10 to 20 years,” says Bob Balaban, managing director at Headwaters MB, an investment bank based in Denver. He believes so-called ‘strategic acquisitions’ — purchases by companies looking to expand — will be a key factor in that trend. In a tight economy, companies looking to grow feel that it would take years to build up their businesses.

“They have to do acquisitions to continue to grow and grow quickly,” Balaban says.

Buyers appear to be ready to step up and are looking for companies that will be good fit with their existing operations. Health-care related businesses like medical billing firms, pharmacies and even medical and dental practices are particularly in demand, says Keystone’s Richards. He’s seeing less interest in restaurants and retailers, industries where profit margins are thinner and where many companies are still struggling.

Sellers are benefiting from this trend because buyers are willing to pay more money if a deal will quickly get them into the markets they want to serve, says Mike Carter, CEO of BizEquity, a company that helps businesses calculate their sales price.

“For a growth company, we’re seeing them getting almost 15 percent more than what they were getting four years ago (during the recession),” he says.

Creative Kidstuff, a toy retailer based in Minneapolis, just expanded by buying a 26-year-old online and catalog toy retailer, Sensational Beginnings. Roberta Bonoff, CEO of Creative Kidstuff, said the owner was tired and ready to sell. Bonoff declined to disclose the purchase price, but said “everybody walked away from the purchase with their needs met.”

Both companies serve similar markets, but 87 percent of Creative Kidstuff’s revenue comes from its six traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Buying Sensational Beginnings will allow it to expand its online operations.

“We just found this as an opportunity to grow our online business and theirs and have more people get to know who we are,” Bonoff says.

She has her ear to the ground for more opportunities to expand.

“When the opportunity looks like the right fit, we’ll do it,” she says.

BCER, an engineering firm in Arvada, Colo., bought another engineering business, Rimrock Group, which specializes in designing technological systems for new buildings and renovations. The purchase allowed BCER to immediately expand into an area of expertise it didn’t have — and that would have taken it years to develop by putting a staff together one by one.

“Growing things organically is very difficult,” says Marc Espinosa, president of BCER. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:47:44 -0400 By Joyce M. Rosenberg

ASSOCIATED PRESS

]]> <![CDATA[ Mexico, to attract U.S. retirees, may ease limits on landownership ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519002/1005
For the first time in nearly a century, lawmakers are moving to allow non-Mexicans to buy coastal real estate and hold the deeds to it, without having to set up bank trusts or find silent Mexican partners.

Proponents of the change say it pushes Mexico toward the modern era, and is a sign of ebbing nationalism under President Enrique Pena Nieto. They say it will help Mexico compete with Southern U.S. states and tropical Central America for U.S. retirees seeking spots in the sun and by the sea.

The proposed amendment to the Mexican Constitution sailed through the Chamber of Deputies on a 356-119 vote April 23, and is now before the Senate.

But opponents are still rallying, charging in a petition campaign that the change may condemn Mexicans to saying goodbye to ocean views.

“If just 1 of every 20 U.S. millionaires buys a house with 22 meters (72 feet) of beachfront, no Mexican will see the sea again,” the petition drive says, drawing on the nation’s historic allergy to foreign ownership of its resources.

The allergy has its roots in land grabs in the 19th and 20th centuries. After the 1917 Mexican revolution, legislators who drafted the nation’s constitution, fearing a new invasion by land or sea, barred foreigners from owning land within 31 miles of the coast or 62 miles of any border. Those strips of territory became known as the restricted zones.

Foreign investment laws were modified in the 1990s, allowing foreigners to buy coastal properties through trusts in which banks hold the titles. The 50-year trusts allow trustees to buy, sell and pass property to heirs without restrictions.

But many foreigners found it nerve wracking to plunk down money for properties but never caress the deeds themselves, putting a brake on land sales.

“I have many clients who say, ‘Why am I going to buy something and have it in the bank’s name?’ " said Roberto Rivas, a real estate broker in Tulum, a high-profile tourist destination south of Cancun on the Caribbean.

“Maybe 40 percent of potential buyers have backed away because of lack of clarity that clouds their understanding of what a bank trust is,” echoed Bill Barvitski, an American real estate agent in Puerto Penasco, a resort also known as Rocky Point on the Sea of Cortez near Arizona.

The Foreign Relations Secretariat, which must approve each trust, says 30,755 such trusts were set up from 2006 through early this year, presumably all in the restricted zones.

If the Senate approves the proposal, lawmakers in a majority of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures will have to OK it before it’s enshrined in the constitution.

In some coastal resort areas near the United States, real estate agents say the change would boost sales of condos and homes to foreigners.

“I see the increase in sales to non-nationals almost doubling,” Barvitski said.

Some 1 million Americans are thought to live in Mexico at least part time, often congregating around Cancun or Merida in the Yucatan, the Rosarito Beach and Los Cabos areas on the Baja Peninsula and in Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Coast. In inland areas, San Miguel de Allende and Lake Chapala in central Mexico draw many English-speaking foreigners.

Drug-related violence in Mexico in recent years has slowed the arrival of foreigners – and in some cases sent residents fleeing onward to Central America.

“Our competition has been Central America: Costa Rica, Panama and Belize,” said Thomas Lloyd, founder of topmexicorealestate.com, a website based in Playa del Carmen along the Caribbean. “Over there, you can buy properties on the beachfront and have title.”

Some industry experts note that opposition to the proposal may yet build.

“No to the privatization of beaches!! Mexico is not for sale!!” wrote Ricardo Ortega, one of more than 40,000 to sign an online petition against the proposal.

Mexican law requires that a strip of land 65 feet – 20 meters – from the high tide line be considered federal land open to the public.

Linda Neil, the director and founder of a settlement and title insurance company in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula, suggested that the change isn’t certain.

“I don’t think that we should assume this will happen,” she said.

Gustavo Torres, a developer in Rosarito Beach, is more optimistic: “Many of our members of Congress are themselves developers, so they are eager to pass it.”

Nunez, the ruling party legislator, is from rugged coastal Nayarit state, a Pacific region popular among surfers, eco-tourists and lovers of secluded hotels. The change, she said, would draw free-spending foreigners.

“They hire gardeners and watchmen, and they leave money in grocery stores and restaurants,” she said. “We want to give them legal certainty over their property.” ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:47:07 -0400 By Tim Johnson

McClatchy Tribune

]]> <![CDATA[ Citizen soldiers lose jobs; government is biggest offender ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519003/1005
Yet every year, thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops coming home from Afghanistan and elsewhere find they have been replaced, demoted, or denied benefits or seniority.

Government agencies are among the most frequent offenders, accounting for about a third of the more than 15,000 complaints filed with federal authorities since the end of September 2001, records show. Others named in the cases include some of the biggest names in American business, such as Wal-Mart and United Parcel Service.

With good jobs still scarce in many states, the illegal actions have contributed to historically high joblessness among returning National Guard and Reserve members – as high as 50 percent in some California units – and created a potential obstacle to serving.

“The whole point of the National Guard and reserves, how they save the country money, is they get paid only when they are serving,” said Sam Wright, director of the Service Members Law Center at the Reserve Officers Association. “It’s a great deal for the country, but if we don’t protect their civilian jobs ... they aren’t going to volunteer and serve.”

Veterans’ advocates say that the heavy use of the nation’s citizen-soldiers to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan placed a burden on employers in a tough economy. Even as 11 years of war wind down, Guard and Reserve members are being called up for peacekeeping and other duties around the world.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a 1994 law that strengthened job protections for returning troops first introduced during World War II, requires that service members are re-employed in the type of position they would have attained if they had not been called to active duty.

Just how many service members are being denied jobs illegally is impossible to know. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office estimated in 2005 that fewer than a third of service members with complaints seek help from the government. Many don’t file lawsuits, either.

Even so, the Labor Department and Office of Special Counsel, which investigate complaints for possible prosecution, have seen cases surge from 848 in fiscal 2001 to 1,577 in the 12 months ending in September 2011. Last year, the agencies handled 1,436 new cases, according to preliminary figures.

A Defense Department program that tries to mediate disputes handled 2,884 cases in fiscal 2011 alone, including 299 that went to the Labor Department when they could not be resolved informally.

Although the law says the federal government should be a “model employer,” federal agencies accounted for nearly 20 percent of the formal complaints in fiscal 2012, about twice the share recorded in 2007. The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs lead the way with 105 and 47 complaints respectively.

President Obama instructed federal agencies last July to intensify efforts to ensure compliance. But officials say it has been a challenge to ensure that supervisors working at offices across the country are familiar with the requirements.

Obtaining redress can take months, if not years. For service members, the experience can be a maddening double-blow.

Lt. Col. Pierre Saint-Fleur, a former Fresno County, Calif., mental health worker who deployed three times to Iraq as a military chaplain, said he was forced into early retirement because of his service in the California National Guard. He protested to the Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service but said he was told the case had no merit.

“I felt betrayed,” Saint-Fleur said. “This same government that called me to go into harm’s way, into a war zone, failed me when I got back and lost my job.”

Saint-Fleur said he had no problem getting rehired after he demobilized in 2008. But he said he quickly saw that he was no longer welcome at the Department of Children and Family Services, where he had worked as a counselor for 18 years.

Instead of getting his old office back, he was given a desk in what he described as a trailer, with no privacy for counseling patients — a situation he feared could cost him his license. He said his work was criticized, his authority was reduced to the level of a student intern, and a fraud investigation was opened alleging that he had been overbilling patients – claims he said were baseless.

“I had no choice but to leave,” he said.

Only after hiring a private attorney did he win a $100,000 settlement, court and county records show. The county did not admit fault in the 2010 settlement. Fresno County officials did not return calls seeking comment.

A Labor official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said most disputes are resolved without recourse to the courts. He acknowledged past problems, but said the department has revamped its training for investigators. It now takes an average of 60 days to complete an investigation, he said.

But attorneys for aggrieved service members say some employers have grown sophisticated about trying to get around the law. Rather than wait to see whether deploying troops will want their old jobs back, some hand out pink slips as soon as they are notified that their employees are expecting orders. Others refuse to hire people who serve in the Guard and Reserve, a form of discrimination that is illegal but hard to prove.

Some veterans’ advocates would like to see the law strengthened to include punitive damages and mandatory attorney’s fees. For willful violations, courts can require employers to pay twice the amount of compensation a service member lost, but critics say the awards are often small. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:47:02 -0400 By Alexandra Zavis

Los Angeles Times

]]> <![CDATA[ New rules on fees add to 401(k) frustration ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519004/1005
The new federal rules call for companies that administer 401(k) plans to show workers and their employers exactly what fees are taken from their investment returns to pay for the operation of the programs – fees that can drain thousands of dollars from their accounts through the years.

But some financial advisers say many have ignored or given up on the new disclosures, which are to be sent out annually and, to some extent, included in quarterly statements. Although some disclosure statements present the new fee information clearly, others are lengthy, confusing and full of jargon, advisers say – a big turnoff for the average employee trying to make sense of retirement savings.

The rules have already generated dozens of complaints to federal regulators about alleged violations.

“Most people don’t read those kinds of things anyway,” said Cary Carbonaro, a certified financial planner with United Capital Financial Advisers in Clermont, Fla. “And if there’s anything confusing in it, they’ll just toss it in a pile to go in the trash can.”

The rules’ lackluster effects so far are frustrating personal-finance experts who had hoped they would lead to greater transparency and, in doing so, energize workers’ retirement planning.

Instead, the disclosures have been problematic for investors while creating more paperwork for employers and plan-management companies, said Jason Chepenik, a certified financial planner and managing partner of Orlando, Fla.-based Chepenik Financial, which manages 401(k) plans.

“We handle plans for more than 25,000 (employee) participants across the country, and we cannot find one person that has asked a question about this fee disclosure,” he said. “It’s been like a big waste of time so far.”

The Labor Department rules require 401(k) companies to disclose their fees for plan-management services such as administration, record-keeping and accounting; until this past August, such costs were “hidden” in the expenses charged by each investment fund in a 401(k) plan. The rules also require companies to state each fund’s expense ratio, so employee-investors can see how much of their investment returns are being surrendered to cover operating expenses.

The Labor Department confirmed last month that regulators are looking into nearly 50 complaints nationwide from employers and financial advisers who have reported violations of the disclosure rules. It said officials are trying to determine whether the financial-services companies involved violated the requirements willfully or by accident.

Citing its confidentiality policy, the department would not provide details of the complaints. It noted that the number filed so far is very small, given that there are nearly 500,000 employer-sponsored 401(k) and 403(b) savings plans nationwide.

“The department is reviewing the new fee disclosures as part of the normal investigative and auditing process,” a department spokesman said in a prepared statement. “Our primary focus is to work with employers and service providers to encourage and bring about voluntary compliance with the new requirements.” ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:46:17 -0400 By Richard Burnett

Orlando Sentinel

]]> <![CDATA[ Many IRA holders left on their own to manage accounts ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519005/1005
At the end of last year, IRAs had $5.4 trillion in assets compared with $5.1 trillion in 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans. About 40 percent of U.S. households own at least one type of IRA, which offer tax incentives to save for retirement.

Many of these IRA holders are left to their own devices to manage their accounts. Of course, some investors are take-charge types with the ability to maximize savings without taking on too much risk. But in many other instances, portfolio management is hit-or-miss, with little attention to selecting an appropriate mix of mutual funds or other investments.

“Many individuals are still missing out on the long-term savings benefits of IRAs, simply because they don’t understand what they are and how they work,” said Dan Keady, director of financial planning for TIAA-CREF, a financial services company. In a recent telephone survey of 1,008 adults, his company found that nearly half of the respondents lacked a basic knowledge of IRAs.

IRAs provide individuals not covered by workplace retirement plans with an opportunity to save on a tax-advantaged basis on their own. The money put into a traditional IRA can be deducted from the account holder’s taxable income for that year, and the money isn’t taxed until it’s withdrawn at retirement. Also, workers who are leaving jobs can use IRAs to preserve the tax benefits that employer-sponsored plans offer.With so many IRA holders managing accounts on their own, approaches vary widely, often to the detriment of long-term savings.

For example, surveys by the fund industry’s trade organization, the Investment Company Institute, found that low-yielding money-market mutual funds make up a far larger proportion of IRA portfolios than is typically considered appropriate. For example, the ICI found that IRA holders in their 60s had invested nearly 25 percent of their portfolios in low-yielding money funds. That’s four times larger than the average allocation to money funds in 401(k) accounts owned by people in their 60s.

Perhaps even more surprising, IRAs held by people in their 20s had an average 22 percent in money funds.

David Schehr, who follows investment industry trends for research firm Gartner Inc., saif it appears that people “are a little better at investing for the long-term with their 401(k)s than they are with their IRAs.”

He believes there’s a growing need for products to help IRA owners manage accounts on their own. Among the startup firms that have launched in recent years to address this need are online-based services such as Wealthfront, ShareBuilder, Betterment and Motif Investing.The latest entrant into this niche is Rebalance IRA, which launched in January. Its advisory board includes Burton Malkiel, a Princeton University economist and author of the investing classic, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” and Charles Ellis, founder of the investment consultancy Greenwich Associates and author of another renowned investing book, “Winning the Loser’s Game.” Both are advocates of low-cost index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, which seek to match market performance rather than beat it.

Customers can set up portfolios invested exclusively in ETFs, after a free phone consultation with Rebalance IRA’s professional financial advisers to assess their goals and existing investment accounts. Initial calls usually last around an hour.

For a $250 initial fee, a customized account is established, and the adviser maintains periodic contact with the customer. A fee of 0.5 percent of the total assets invested is charged annually for portfolio management, with a minimum fee of $500. An account holder also pays management expenses of the ETFs. Those expense ratios vary depending on which ETFs are selected, and average less than 0.20 percent.

Because Rebalance IRA’s $500 minimum annual management charge per account is steep for someone with a small IRA, it’s not recommended for an account with less than $75,000.The service includes automatic portfolio rebalancing to help IRA holders become more disciplined investors.

“People tend to buy when everybody is optimistic and the stock market is up, and sell when everybody is pessimistic and the market is down,” Malkiel said. “Rebalancing makes you do the opposite of what your emotions tell you to do.”

He cited findings that systematic rebalancing over the last 15 years added 1.5 percentage points to an average annual return of a portfolio invested in stocks and bonds, while reducing volatility.

Schehr, the Gartner analyst, sees significant potential for startups like Rebalance IRA if they can market themselves effectively. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:46:09 -0400 By Mark Jewell

Associated Press

]]> <![CDATA[ Ahead-of-curve ‘motifs’ enhance startup’s allure ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519006/1005
If you’ve noticed that lots of your friends are using tablet computers instead of PCs, it might be a good time to consider stocks of companies driving the tablet revolution.

See evidence that Americans are getting more serious about their weight problems? Consider stocks in fitness center chains and weight-loss clinics. If you’re convinced that we’ll never get disciplined about our diets, try the opposite approach and invest in fast-food chains.

For average investors hoping to beat the market, buying several stocks fitting a broad investment theme is probably a better option than assessing which individual companies to buy. Few have the know-how to routinely make good stock picks, let alone the patience to do the required research.

With those realities in mind, a Silicon Valley startup last year launched a website aimed at do-it-yourself investors who consider themselves savvy trend spotters. Motif Investing enables customers to buy baskets of up to 30 stocks each that fit various “motifs,” as the company calls them.

The bigger player a company is in that investing theme, the larger its weighting is in the basket of stocks. For example, Walmart makes up nearly one-quarter of the portfolio in a retail stock motif called “Discount Nation.”

The website has a menu of more than 100 motifs. Some are fairly conventional, such as offerings focusing on dividend-paying stocks and diversified bond portfolios.

But most are trend-oriented, such as a “Tablet Takeover” motif geared toward tablet computing, a “Fighting Fat” basket of weight loss-themed stocks and a “Junk Food” motif of fast-food and soft drink stocks. If social change is important to you, a “No Glass Ceilings” motif owns stocks of corporations run by female executives. Another invests in companies with gay-friendly workplace policies.Motif Investing, which launched last June, recently announced a new feature enabling individuals to create custom motifs and share them with other customers. Eventually, Motif plans to adopt a royalty system, allowing someone creating a motif to earn small payments when other investors buy it.

Customers can post investing ideas online for all to see, or friends or colleagues can exchange tips privately.Motif Investing is among a small number of young companies trying to challenge traditional investment advisory firms through novel uses of the Internet and social networking. Others include Covestor, MarketRiders, Wealthfront, ShareBuilder and Betterment.

Although none has become a significant player in the industry, some could eventually catch on with certain types of investors.

“There’s room for these niche players if they can get some traction,” said analyst David Schehr of research firm Gartner Inc.

Motif’s likely target audience, Schehr said, is investing enthusiasts who actively trade small portions of their invested savings.

Motif isn’t disclosing how many customers it has or how much money they’ve invested. The company raised $26 million in venture capital funding and has some big backers. Board members include Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Sallie Krawcheck, a former executive with Bank of America and Citigroup.Low costs are one of Motif’s chief selling points. After meeting a minimum investment of $250, there’s a $9.95 charge to buy a single motif of up to 30 stocks. That’s comparable to the commissions that traditional brokerages charge to buy a single stock, although some offer free ETF trades with certain restrictions.

For $4.95, a Motif customer can buy additional shares of an individual stock or ETF in a motif, thus customizing holdings so they’re different from the default motif. And, in contrast with mutual funds and ETFs, there are no ongoing investment management fees.

That said, there’s a potential negative to Motif’s ease of use. As you tap away, it could be easy to get carried away with money that you may be depending on for retirement. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:45:56 -0400 By Mark Jewell

Associated Press

]]> <![CDATA[ Sense of discipline needed in job hunt ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519007/1005
It’s just that doing what we should do can be difficult.

If you want to lose weight, eat less and move more. If you want to find a new job, update your resume and network. Easy, right? And, in fact, the basic steps are straightforward. But it easily falls apart in the execution.

It takes a lot of self-discipline to actually make a change. It requires making a plan (easy) and working the plan (hard). A myriad of barriers to success will inevitably spring up, and achieving goals requires overcoming each of them.

Otherwise, all you have is a fantasy, not a goal.

So, taking it to the next level, here are some things to think about when pursuing a goal:

• What will you do when you’re disappointed? Job searches have disappointment built into them, almost by definition, because few people are offered the first job they apply for. And only you control your reaction to that disappointment.

If your response is harsh, either anger against the potential employer or negative judgment of yourself, try turning that around to acceptance that this is part of the process. If you find that you’re inclined to just give up, take a deep look inside: Is that how you react to all challenges, or is this one different?

• What will you do when you’re tired of the pursuit? Every goal has a boring aspect, and practicing scales or writing yet another cover letter can get old. Think about breaking down self-discipline into some concrete steps you can take. Identifying energizers and rewards can help: “I’ll get one more done, then I can walk around the block.”

Remind yourself of the value of your current activity to your goal. Make sure you have enough fun in your life so that this isn’t the only thing taking up your time and emotional energy,

• What if you really dislike doing the things that need to be done? Evaluate your plan to make it fit your preferences as much as possible.

Many people think they dislike networking, for example, and have a stereotype in their mind of business-style speed dating.

What if you convert that to connecting with people from your past whom you know and like? Build in the pieces that you like less in manageable chunks, and ask for support to help with them. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:45:54 -0400 By Liz Reyer

Star Tribune

]]> <![CDATA[ Executive trading ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519013/1005
E.I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO: Connelly, Thomas M. Jr., officer, exercised an option for 50,000 shares of common between $23.28 and $44.74 each on May 10, immediately sold 50,000 shares of common at $55.08 each and now directly and indirectly holds 178,639. Kullman, Ellen Jamison, chief executive officer, exercised an option for 116,825 shares of common at $44.74 each on May 10, immediately sold 116,825 shares of common between $55.03 and $55.08 each and now directly and indirectly holds 405,534. Fanandakis, Nicholas C., chief financial officer, exercised an option for 27,045 shares of common at $44.74 each on May 9, immediately sold 27,045 shares of common at $55 each and now directly and indirectly holds 142,393. Sager, Thomas L., general counsel, exercised an option for 22,013 shares of common at $44.74 each on May 9, immediately sold 22,013 shares of common at $55 each and now directly and indirectly holds 48,046.

FISERV, INC.: Yabuki, Jeffery W., chief executive officer, sold 4,000 shares of common at $89.56 each on May 13 and now directly and indirectly holds 172,628. Renwick, Glenn Morris, director, exercised an option for 520 shares of common at $30.76 each on May 8.

FORD MOTOR CO.: Fields, Felicia J., officer, exercised an option for 16,299 shares of common at $6.14 each on May 10.

GATX CORP.: Muckian, William M., officer, sold 352 shares of common at $52.47 each on May 10 and now directly and indirectly holds 16,747.

GENERAL MILLS: Hope-Richards, Judith Coleman, director, exercised an option for 10,000 shares of common at $22.50 each on May 13, immediately sold 10,526 shares of common between $50.06 and $50.10 each and now directly and indirectly holds 69,607.

GENERAL MOTORS CO.: Ardila, Jaime, officer, sold 7,144 shares of common between $31.69 and $31.71 each on May 7 and now directly and indirectly holds 26,332. Barra, Mary T., officer, sold 8,000 shares of common between $31.60 and $31.61 each on May 7 and now directly and indirectly holds 81,635. Lee, Timothy E., officer, purchased 500 shares of common at $31.92 each on May 7 and now directly and indirectly holds 1,000.

INGRAM MICRO: Ingram, Orrin H. II, director, exercised an option for 16,502 shares of common at $16.64 each on May 9, immediately sold 16,502 shares of common at $18.05 each and now directly and indirectly holds 221,904. Wyatt, Joe B., director, exercised an option for 16,502 shares of common at $16.64 each on May 9, immediately sold 16,502 shares of common at $18.14 each and now directly and indirectly holds 44,380.

KEYCORP: Buffie, Craig A., officer, purchased 200 shares of common at $10.41 each on May 13 and now directly and indirectly holds 200. Weeden, Jeffrey B., chief financial officer, exercised an option for 350,000 shares of common at $6.12 each on May 13, immediately sold 276,000 shares of common at $10.38 each and now directly and indirectly holds 427,064.

NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP.: Moorman, Charles W. IV, chief executive officer, exercised an option for 42,068 shares of common at $34.10 each on May 7, immediately sold 42,068 shares of common at $78.13 each and now directly and indirectly holds 279,342.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP.: Flach, Gloria A., officer, exercised an option for 3,281 shares of common at $43.08 each on May 8, immediately sold 12,451 shares of common at $77.27 each and now directly and indirectly holds 23,708. Peppard, Denise M., officer, exercised an option for 14,747 shares of common at $54.98 each on May 7, immediately sold 15,854 shares of common at $77.11 each and now directly and indirectly holds 3,486.

PRAXAIR INC.: Gargalli, Claire W., director, sold 1,658 shares of common at $113.12 each on May 13 and now directly and indirectly holds 6,655.

SOVRAN SELF STORAGE: Killeen, Edward F., officer, sold 1,915 shares of common at $69.65 each on May. 8 and now directly and indirectly holds 8,824. Powell, Paul T., officer, sold 1,000 shares of common at $69.52 each on May 6 and now directly and indirectly holds 15,510.

Prepared by First Call/Thompson Financial of Boston, Mass., from Securities and Exchange Commission filings. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 00:40:09 -0400 <![CDATA[ Business Calendar ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/BUSINESS/130519012/1005
Professional groups

• Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives, the Customer Loyalty Advantage, 5:15 p.m., cocktails and networking; 6:15 p.m., dinner; Templeton Landing, 2 Templeton Terrace. Cost: $40 nonmembers; $15 students; free members. Registration: 662-2279 or www.bnsme.org.

Business groups

• The Rotary Club of Amherst East, Golf Classic 2013, to benefit Rotary projects and the American Cancer Society, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Westwood Country Club, 772 North Forest Road, Williamsville. Cost: $150. Information, Gabe Maddalena/president, 688-6114, Ext. 1820.

• Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, Real Estate Committee, noon, ECIDA/BUDC, 143 Genesee St., followed by the Buffalo Brownfield Restoration Corporation. Confirmations, 362-8367 or chocieni@ecidany.com.

• Northtowns Chapter 439, NARFE, National Active and Retired Federal Employees, 1:30 p.m., Harlem Road Community Center, 4255 Harlem Road., Amherst. Information, 694-3073.

Tuesday

Professional groups

• The Buffalo Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, “PR in the Age of Disruption,” 8-9 a.m., University at Buffalo, Crofts Hall, Room 324, UB North Campus. Registration, 7:45 a.m. Continental breakfast provided. Registration, www.prsabuffaloniagara.org or 879-0942.

Business groups

• BNI Executive Marketing Team, breakfast meeting, 6:45-8:30 a.m., Milos Restaurant, 5877 Main St. Williamsville. Information 818-2526 or www.bniemt.com.

• The Parachute Group, a networking group for downsized employees and career changers, 10 a.m., Lakewood Town Offices (upstairs), 20 W. Summit St., Lakewood. Call 276-1127.

• The Amherst Chamber of Commerce, Business After Hours, monthly networking event, 5-7 p.m., Salon Da’Voe, 5759 Main St., Williamsville. Free, Chamber members and first-time nonmember guests. Information or reservation www.amherst.org or call 632-6905.

• Executive Taking Action Forum, Life Coach Roundtable, a leadership and personal development networking group, 7 p.m., Holiday Inn Buffalo Airport, 4600 Genesee St., Cheektowaga. Reservations 202-8423.

Seminars and classes

•The NYS Public Service Commission and the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, Low-Income Forum on Energy series, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Erie Community College, 4041 Southwestern Blvd., Building 5, Orchard Park. For frontline workers, advocates and policy makers. Registration fee $45, includes all conference materials, lunch and breaks. Registration www.lifenynews.org or 1-877-NYSMART, option 5.

• “How Landlords Can Avoid Liability Lawsuits,” presented by Robert Friedman, Friedman & Ranzenhofer, and “How to Reduce Your Multifamily Investment Property Insurance Costs,” presented by John D. Kary II, Wolf Agency, Buffalo Investors & Exchangors Group, 7 p.m., Millennium Hotel and Resort, 2040 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga. Free and open to the public. Reservations, 675-1500.

Wednesday • Western New York Venture Association, WNYVA, company presentation forum, 7:30-9 a.m., Buffalo Club, 388 Delaware Ave. Registration wnyventure5222013.eventbrite.com; Information Jack McGowan or Andrea Mayer, Insyte Consulting 636-3626.

Business groups

• The Advantage Business Networking Group of Niagara County, 6:45-8:30 a.m., Wheatfield Community Center, 2790 Church Road, North Tonawanda. Call 433-2402.

• The Lancaster Area Chamber of Commerce, morning business exchange networking group meeting, 8 a.m., Dutch Mill Family Restaurant, 5259 Broadway, Lancaster. Call 681-9755.

• Pro-Net Professional Networking Group meeting, 8:30 a.m. today and Thursday, Amherst Chamber of Commerce, 350 Essjay Road, Suite 200, Williamsville. Reservations 632-6905.

• Women’s Business Center at Canisius, Women In Networking–City meeting, 8:15-9:30 a.m., Canisius College, Demerly Hall, 2365 Main St. Topic: “Making Direct Mail Work For You” and “Top 10 Reasons Your Company Needs An Employment Lawyer.” Reservations wbcinfo@canisius.edu.

• The Parachute Group, a networking group for individuals in career/job transition, 10 a.m., Harlem Road Community Center, 4255 Harlem Road, Amherst. Call 276-1777.

• Kiwanis Club of Buffalo, 12:10 p.m., Holiday Inn Downtown, 620 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Annual Memorial Day program. Reservations 854-4034 or www.buffalokiwanisclub.com.• Small Business Administration, Human Resources 101 Workshop, 8:30-10:30 a.m., Iron Kettle Restaurant, 1009 Olean Road, East Aurora. Cost $5, includes continental breakfast. Information and reservations, Kelly LoTempio, U.S. Small Business Administration, kelly.lotempio@sba.gov.

• The Ken-Ton Chamber, Sales and Marketing Bootcamp, 4-7 p.m., Colvin Wood Commerce Park, 200 Colvin Woods Parkway, Tonawanda. First 25 registrants are free; $10 per attendee. Light refreshments. Reservations 874-1202 or www.ken-ton.org.

Thursday

Professional groups

• The Leadership Management Council, Medaille College, free Leadership Development Lecture Series, 7:30-9:30 a.m., Medaille’s Amherst Campus, Multi-purpose Room, 30 Wilson Road, Williamsville. Topic: “Strategic Planning: Concise Strategy Can Position a Firm to Maintain a Sustained Advantage Over Competitors.” Information, http://www.medaille.edu/LMCSeries.

Business groups

• BNI Platinum, networking meeting, 6:45 a.m., Milos Restaurant, 5877 Main St., Williamsville. Information 864-0478.

• BNI Pinnacle, networking meeting, 6:45-8:30 a.m., Transit Valley Country Club, 8920 Transit Road, East Amherst. Reservations 585-704-4383.

• BNI Signature, networking meeting, 6:45-8:30 a.m., K of C Banquet Facility, 2735 Union Road, Cheektowaga. Information 886-1257, Ext. 201.

• The WNY Business Alliance, business-to-business networking meeting, 7:30-8:30 a.m., Millennium Hotel and Resort, 2040 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga. Call 310-3235.

• The Western New York Business Network Group for professionals, 7:45 a.m., Comfort Inn, 1 Flint Road, Amherst, Information 553-8883.

• Rotary Club of Buffalo, 12:15 p.m., Templeton Landing, 2 Templeton Terrace. Program: Erie County Comptroller, Stefan Mychajliw. 854-3397.

Friday

Professional groups

• Niagara Frontier American Society for Training & Development, “NYS Department of Labor: Overview of Programs and Services” 7:30-9:30 a.m., Templeton Landing, 2 Templeton Terrace. Cost: $20, members; $30, nonmembers. Registration http://astdniagara.org.

Business groups

• BNI Enterprise, networking meeting, 6:45-8:30 a.m., Fairdale Banquet Center, 672 Wehrle Drive, Amherst. Information, 316-2302.

• BNI Circle of Excellence, networking meeting, 6:45-9 a.m., Milo’s Restaurant, 5877 Main St., Williamsville. Call 408-2525.Professional groups

• Niagara Frontier Chapter, New York State Women, Installation of officers and dinner meeting, 6 p.m. Pane’s Restaurant, 984 Payne Ave,, North Tonawanda. Cost, $19. Required reservation, 695-9272.

Business groups

• Buffalo Urban Development Corp. board of directors meeting, noon, ECIDA/BUDC, 143 Genesee St. Reservations, chocieni@ecidany.com or 856-6525, Ext. 136.Professional groups

• The Upstate Venture Association of New York and Phillips Lytle, panel presentation focusing on cross-border investment, commercialization initiatives and impact, and opportunities on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border, 5:30-8 p.m., Z80 Labs, 1 News Plaza, (Washington and Scott Sts.). Registration information, Margie Ticknor, Upstate Venture Association of New York, 518-320-2746 or margieticknor@uvany.org. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 00:40:45 -0400 <![CDATA[ Brewery District, Binational Alliance unveil summer event schedule ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/BUSINESS/130519104/1005
“Our goal is that no one will ever be able to say, ‘There’s nothing to do in Buffalo,’ ever again,” said Arlene White, executive director at the Binational Alliance. “We can prove them wrong.”

The Buffalo Brewery District and several other partners have put together a slew of events taking place every day of the summer in downtown Buffalo.

On the calendar are tours, pub crawls, concerts, sporting events, speakers and entertainment packages designed to lure visitors to Buffalo Niagara and Southern Ontario and keep them here as long as possible.

“I know I’m not a four-day destination, but I think I’m part of one,” said Earl Ketry, who has ownership positions in several properties – including the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, the Lofts on Pearl and the Sportsmen’s Tavern on Amherst Street – that make up much of the Brewery District.

The Brewery District also includes the Hotel @ the Lafayette on Washington Street.

Ketry has partnered with several entities, such as the Buffalo Bisons, Try-It Distributing and Erie Canal Harbor Corp. as well as destinations north of the border to offer entertainment packages for sale online.

The packages, made up of events and venues throughout the region, are pulled together under the one Buffalo Brewery District brand and will be marketed to potential visitors from places such as Cleveland and Toronto.

Before the initiative was even formally announced, it had booked 260 people for downtown pub crawls, officials said.

Brewery tours will be offered three times a day, every day.

There also will be Sunday gospel brunches each month, an interactive dinner mystery theater at Dug’s Dive, speaker series, behind-the-scenes tours at Coca-Cola Field and overnight travel packages for wine lovers, history buffs and art aficionados.



email: schristmann@buffnews.com ]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 14:38:59 -0400 Samantha Maziarz Christmann
]]> <![CDATA[ On the Record / May 18, 2013 ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/BUSINESS/130519103/1005
...

Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel partner Heath J. Szymczak’s article, “Standardizing Efficiencies in Business Litigation,” was published in the American Bar Association’s Business and Torts Litigation Journal.

...

The Eyes of America Foundation, based in Amherst, announced its 2013 board of directors. Officers: Foundation director, Karen Carlo; governor-elect, Dan Dunn; and chairman, Dr. Kenneth D. Anthone. Directors: Edward J. Rutkowski, Dr. Barry Weinstein, Al Plante, Joni Stovroff, John Yurtchuk and Dr. James Reidy.Kenmore Mercy Hospital, Town of Tonawanda, received the Partner Recognition Award from Practice Greenhealth, recognizing the hospital for its commitment to environmental practices and sustainability.

...

Tecmotiv USA, Niagara Falls, was awarded a $55,155 federal contract for piston pins from the Defense Logistics Agency’s Defense Supply Center, Columbus, Ohio.

...

SKF USA, Falconer, was awarded a $20,695 federal contract for bearings from the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.Title: Azeotrope-like composition of hexafluoropropane, hexafluoropropene and hydrogen fluoride

No.: 8,436,218

Inventors: Hulse, Ryan (Getzville); Pham, Hang T. (Amherst); Singh, Rajiv Ratna (Getzville); Tung, Hsueh Sung (Getzville); Merkel, Daniel C. (Orchard Park); Pokrovski, Konstantin A. (Orchard Park)

Assignee: Honeywell International (Morristown, N.J.)

Date issued: May 7, 2013 ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 22:13:04 -0400 <![CDATA[ Using power sale proceeds to fund Launch NY is attacked ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/CITYANDREGION/130519105/1005
The Western New York Power Proceeds Allocation Board on Monday approved the funding for Launch NY, a state-sponsored initiative to assist start-up companies that also will conduct the nationwide business plan competition that is part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” initiative.

“It is inappropriate to be funding a Buffalo Billion project out of the finite resources available to the proceeds board,” said Assemblyman Robin L. Schimminger, D-Kenmore, who co-authored a letter Friday to the Power Authority board criticizing the use of the power proceeds money to fund Launch NY.

“If the governor wants to have a business contest, that’s great,” said Schimminger, who wrote the letter with Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak, D-Cheektowaga. “To fund it out of Western New York Power Proceeds funds is just not appropriate.”

The assemblymen urged the Power Authority board “not to support” the use of the power proceeds funding for Launch NY at its board meeting Tuesday.

Anthony J. Colucci III, chairman of the Power Authority Proceeds Board, issued a statement Friday evening defending the use of the power proceeds as consistent with the region’s plans for economic development.

“The numerous Western New York representatives on the Regional Economic Development Council supported this very type of effort in developing a regional strategy,” he said. Launch NY is patterned after the successful Jumpstart Cleveland, a program that began in 2004 to accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and has grown to include 440 clients. The program is credited with the creation or retention of more than 1,500 jobs.

The Launch NY program, which aims to help companies in 27 upstate counties, is set to receive $5.4 million in funding – almost a quarter of the $23.2 million that has been set aside for economic development projects within 30 miles of the Niagara Power Project. The funds were raised through the sale of Niagara hydropower that was sold in the open market because it had not been allocated to a local company.

Local business officials and politicians fought for years to have the proceeds from the sale of unallocated power set aside for local development projects, but only recently succeeded through the formation of the power proceeds board. Monday’s awards were the first that the panel has made.

The assemblymen were joined in opposition to the Launch NY funding by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the local business group that was a driving force in the effort to have the proceeds from the sale of unallocated hydropower set aside for economic development projects within the Buffalo Niagara region. They said the power proceeds funds is an especially powerful economic development tool because it is cash, rather than tax incentives or other subsidies that have a less immediate impact.

“We want to make sure the intent of the legislation is followed,” said A.J. Wright, the Partnership’s manager of government affairs. “The proceeds are supposed to be used to support economic development within 30 miles of the Niagara Power Project.”

The assemblymen said the allocation to Launch NY ran contrary to the criteria for distributing the power proceeds funds in several respects. They said the funds are being used to support a business plan competition, which is contrary to the requirement that they be used to create jobs.

They said it was questionable whether the winners of the business plan competition would meet another requirement of the proceeds legislation that recipients have a long-term commitment to the region. The winner of the business plan competition will be required to locate their business in the region for one year.

The assemblymen also said the Launch NY program falls short on requirements that recipients of the power funding make capital investments in the region. They also noted that Launch NY is expected to provide support services and investment to companies in counties stretching from Buffalo to Syracuse and Binghamton, far beyond the 30-mile limitation on proceeds funding.



email: drobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 22:11:07 -0400 David Robinson
]]> <![CDATA[ Costco reportedly shopping for site here ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/CITYANDREGION/130519226/1005
Woods, who got her engagement ring from the wholesale club, fell in love with Costco when she lived in Colorado.

Though the company does not yet have a single location in upstate New York, she has renewed her $55 membership every year, trekking over the border to St. Catharines, Ont., to get her discount fix.

Kallee Reynolds, who moved from Idaho and Utah to East Amherst, has done the same. She has traveled “all over” to shop at Costco and is delighted she might soon have one in her own backyard.

“I am more than excited,” Reynolds said.

Costco has garnered a passionate following around the world for its upscale shopping experience, discount prices, high-quality goods, ever-changing inventory and pleasant customer service. It’s the kind of place shoppers can find everything from cold cuts to televisions to a Cartier diamond watch, at discount warehouse prices.

The company has been looking at potential sites in the Buffalo Niagara area, real estate sources said, though a decision is not expected anytime soon. And it was reported this week that Costco is building a store in the Rochester area.

Western New Yorkers are giddy at the prospect of the membership-only warehouse club’s arrival here.

“People like Costco because it has great stuff at great prices,” said Jody Rohlena, deputy editor at ShopSmart magazine, published by Consumer Reports.

To hear devotees tell it, that is the understatement of the century.

“A trip to Costco is more of an event than it is a shopping trip,” said Abby Kozara, who lives outside Chicago. “It is the one errand the whole family enjoys. We can wander around the store for hours, looking at the merchandise and munching on samples.”

For starters, Costco routinely lands at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys and independent analysis in terms of quality, selection and price.

Its Kirkland store brand, which makes everything from diapers to cookware, is beloved. Its quality regularly trumps other store brands and even national brands in product tests, and the items are very competitively priced.

The store is considered more upscale than Sam’s Club and BJ’s, offering a better overall shopping experience.

“It’s like the difference between walking into Macy’s or walking into Walmart,” Reynolds said.

The Costco stores planned for Syracuse and Rochester are about 40,000 square feet larger than local BJ’s stores.

Costco is known to offer many product samples and product demonstrations throughout the store, and it has a liberal return policy.

Costco’s customer service is also routinely singled out for excellence. Costco’s employees earn an average of $17 per hour and have employer-paid health insurance, so turnover is low, and service is friendly and efficient.

Local real estate sources said Costco Wholesale has looked at a range of sites in the suburbs, from Tonawanda and Amherst to Cheektowaga. The retailer is working with Northwest Atlantic Realty, sources said.

The sites include the former BJ’s Warehouse site on Young Street in Tonawanda; the former Wegmans and other sites on Walden Avenue near the Thruway Plaza between Union Road and the Thruway; two sites on Transit Road, near Wehrle Drive and near Klein Road; and a site on Millersport Highway. Ellicott Development Co. has pitched a couple of properties as well, sources say.

But the company doesn’t appear close to a decision.

“There’s been a lot of stuff that’s been presented, and almost everything’s been rejected,” one source said. “I don’t see an announcement coming soon.”

Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle reported Wednesday that Costco has committed to building a 150,000-square-foot store just outside the Town of Brighton. Costco just broke ground on a new store on the west side of Syracuse, but so far that’s the only location in upstate New York.

All of the company’s 15 locations in the state are downstate, including Long Island. There are other locations in nearby Connecticut and New Jersey.

But it has upstate New York surrounded, with at least 20 locations in Ontario, including one in St. Catharines; 10 in Pennsylvania, including three in Pittsburgh; and seven in Ohio, including three in Cleveland. That means it shouldn’t be too hard to open up here, said Robert Strell, president of Robert P. Strell Real Estate Advisory Services.

“They have their distribution network set up,” he said. “It’s not that hard to open up the stores if you have the locations.”

And that’s likely to impact rivals like BJ’s Wholesale Club or Sam’s Club more than others.

“They’re just cutting the pie thinner and thinner,” Strell said. “The population isn’t changing. Just a new store, new model. They’ll probably take a good slice of the pie from somebody else.”



email: schristmann@buffnews.com and jepstein@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 12:38:50 -0400 Jonathan Epstein
Samantha Maziarz Christmann
]]> <![CDATA[ Planned Parenthood merger planned ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/BUSINESS/130519244/1005
The merged affiliate’s headquarters will be in Rochester, but Planned Parenthood plans to continue operating its five locations in Western New York and does not anticipate layoffs, said Karen Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Western New York. The organization has about 100 employees in Western New York.

The organization says it believes a single, merged affiliate serving Western and Central New York “will assure a secure, long term future for the Planned Parenthood mission in our combined service area.” Merging the organizations will also ensure the health centers will be prepared for implementation of the Affordable Care Act and “be able to compete in the rapidly changing marketplace.” ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 06:16:59 -0400 <![CDATA[ On the Record / May 17, 2013 ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/BUSINESS/130519245/1005
...

CHA, an engineering and construction management firm, named Daniel J. Higgins director of government affairs for the Eastern region based in Buffalo. He was a principal at Clark Patterson Lee.

...

Tompkins Financial Advisors appointed Pamela Rudolph a financial consultant in its Attica office. Rudolph was a financial adviser for Five Star Investment Services. She earned an associate’s degree at Genesee Community College.

...

The Buffalo Niagara Human Resource Association named Ashley Grant the Human Resource Student of the Year. Grant is a business administration student at Daemen College.The Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo received Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Marketing and Communications Award. The organization was selected from hundreds of local clubs across the country for implementing the best marketing strategy for the 2012 AKIDemy Awards, a fundraiser and opportunity to tell the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo’s story.

...

Hanes Supply, Buffalo, was awarded a $2,625 federal contract for slings from the U.S. Naval Supply Systems Command, Philadelphia.

...

The Hamburg Farmers’ Market recently opened its 2013 season. The market is open from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Nov. 2 in the Hamburg Village Municipal Parking Lot. Also, the Blasdell Farmers’ Market recently started its second season. The Blasdell Farmers’ Market is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Nov. 6. The Blasdell Market is located in the Ilio DiPaolo’s Restaurant parking lot, at 3785 South Park Ave.Title: Integrated process to co-produce 1,1,1,3,3-pentafluoropropane, trans-1-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoropropene and trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene

No.: 8,436,217

Inventors: Wang, Haiyou (Amherst); Merkel, Daniel C. (Orchard Park); Pokrovski, Konstantin A. (Orchard Park); Tung, Hsueh Sung (Getzville); Shankland, Ian (Randolph, N.J.)

Assignee: Honeywell International (Morristown, N.J.)

Date issued: May 7, 2013 ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 06:16:07 -0400 <![CDATA[ Lockport town planners approve new Basil VW dealership ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/CITYANDREGION/130519252/1005
Basil Volkswagen will open, perhaps before the end of the year, on the site of the former Basil Toyota, 6179 S. Transit Road.

“We’re shooting real hard for Thanksgiving,” said William H. Wincott of D.R. Chamberlain Co., the Lockport contractor handling the project.

Wincott said the old Toyota showroom will be demolished and replaced by a VW showroom covering about 8,000 square feet, which would be about twice as large as the former showroom.

The service area and body shop will remain intact.

The Toyota dealership has moved next door, to the former Gambino Ford site, acquired by owner Mike Basil.

The Planning Board also approved plans Wednesday for a new cellphone tower and a demolition and remediation business.

Skyway Towers, a Florida company, will erect a 120-foot cell tower for Verizon at the end of Shimer Drive, south of the Home Depot store.

Attorney Matthew Kerwin said Skyway will start work as soon as it can obtain a building permit.

Anthony Bodami, longtime managing partner of Titan Wrecking and Environmental of the City of Tonawanda, received permission to open a demolition business in the former Custom Laser building in the town industrial park off Upper Mountain Road.

His attorney, Trevor M. Torcello, said the purchase has not yet been completed and might not close for a couple of months.

The board was concerned about Bodami’s plans for an outdoor storage area. Board members insisted that it be fenced with vinyl slats and nearly doubled its size, to 200 feet by 110 feet.

“Storage should be minimal,” Torcello assured the board. “There won’t be any scrap taken there. There won’t be any debris taken there.”

Torcello said the storage area is only for Bodami’s heavy equipment. He was told no equipment could be stored elsewhere on the site.

Town Planner Andrew C. Reilly said aerial photos of the Titan site “show the equipment all over the place … This will be strictly enforced.”

The board also set a June 18 public hearing for the makeover of Mantelli Trailer Sales, 6865 S. Transit Road.

Two of the three existing buildings are to be demolished and replaced by a new 18,000-square-foot sales, maintenance and service area, said James Klino of JLK Engeneuring, the designer of the project.

The project will include a trailer display area and green space along the road.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 01:35:34 -0400 Thomas Prohaska
]]> <![CDATA[ University at Buffalo has helped bring modern technology to an age-old process Computers allow for three-dimensional modeling ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130516/BUSINESS/130519036/1005


Now, a team of students and faculty from the University at Buffalo is helping the Orchard Park company bring the techniques into the 21st century.



Researchers in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning have introduced the designers and sculptors at Boston Valley to new, high-tech tools that are saving time and helping them work more efficiently.



“We’re extremely lucky to be close to this caliber of facility,” said John Krouse, Boston Valley’s president. “I think it would have been extremely difficult to do it without their help.”



The tools – including a carving tool that works in three dimensions and a program that uses photos to create digital images of terra cotta pieces – aren’t intended to replace the craftsmen at Boston Valley with machines and computers.



Instead, they are meant to free the workers from the most onerous tasks, allowing them to focus on work that requires creativity while giving them training in valuable skills.



And UB students get the practical experience of putting academic concepts to the test in the business world.



“It’s embedded learning,” said Omar Khan, chair of UB’s architecture department.



The owners of Boston Valley Terra Cotta started fabricating architectural terra cotta 32 years ago, after Krouse and several members of his family bought and reconfigured Boston Valley Pottery, a producer of clay pots that began making bricks in 1889.



The new owners sought to recast the pottery company, located near clay deposits in Orchard Park, as a terra cotta manufacturer with a focus on historic restoration.



The company’s first restoration project was the ornate facade of the Guaranty Building in downtown Buffalo, which led to assignments across the United States and Canada.



Their hundreds of restoration projects have included Craigdarroch Castle in British Columbia, Burnham and Root’s Rookery building in Chicago and the Breakers, the Gilded Age mansion in Newport, R.I.



Today, Boston Valley is one of just three companies in the United States that manufacture terra cotta, which is growing in popularity as a building material in new construction, because ceramics are durable, “green” and sustainable.



“We’re hoping that goes for 20 or 30 years,” said Krouse, a ceramic engineer, referring to the terra cotta revival.



Boston Valley, which declined to provide sales figures, employs 130 people at its 180,000-square-foot facility on South Abbott Road. About half of its business is manufacturing terra cotta for new construction and half is for restorations.

Khan and UB researcher Mitchell Bring reached out to Boston Valley prior to the 2011 National Preservation Conference, a major annual event that drew more than 2,000 people to Buffalo when it was held here.



UB wanted to demonstrate a more efficient, less invasive approach to restoring terra cotta details on architecturally significant buildings, and it wanted to work with Boston Valley to do this. “How does computing and craft come together?” Khan said.



The traditional process of re-creating terra cotta tiles, statues and other building features requires drafters to create a two-dimensional drawing of the object. They work off photos, measurements taken by hand or a piece of the object or facade in question if it can be removed.



The drafters’ drawing then is sent to the pattern shop, where sculptors produce a model, typically in plaster.



Plaster is poured over the model to produce a hollow mold, before workers press and form terra cotta into the mold. The terra cotta is then finished, dried and fired in a kiln.



UB introduced Boston Valley to digital fabrication tools already used by students in an architecture department lab.



One, a laser scanner, is used to scan an object that remains on the building or that has been removed from the building. Drafters at Boston Valley were trained to use modeling software to take the data generated by the scanner to create a three-dimensional image.



Another high-tech process, known as photogrammetry, uses photographs taken from a number of angles to create a similar 3-D image, and this process is better than a laser scanner for producing images of complex objects. Both approaches make the drafting process and model-making process easier, Khan said.



The 3-D images created by the laser scanner or the photogrammetry process are then used to produce a model, either using a laser cutter or cutting tools known as three-axis or five-axis routers, which UB also demonstrated to Boston Valley.



The routers get their names from the number of directions the router can move while cutting a piece of foam into a model. Three-axis routers cut along an X-Y axis or up and down.



The fourth and fifth axes refer to this newer router’s ability to rotate 180 degrees in a half circle motion around the piece of foam, creating models with undulating peaks and valleys.



A laser cutter creates a tool, made of wood and metal, that is used in turn to produce the plaster model.



Students at UB built their own five-axis router, following online directions, and used the machine to create replicas of the tiles on the Guaranty Building that were handed out to attendees of the 2011 National Preservation Conference in Buffalo.



Boston Valley officials who used the UB router were so impressed they decided to buy an industrial-sized version for themselves, after UB showed employees how to use it.



The region benefits when more workers are trained in how to use cutting-edge tools and software, Khan said. “We need people who know how to do this,” he said.

Boston Valley used some of its new fabrication tools on its most recent major restoration project, the replacement of four aging, terra cotta female figures attached to the corners of the top floor of 150 Nassau, a condominium high-rise in Manhattan that dates to the 1890s.



The 19-foot-tall sculptures, known as caryatids, need to be replaced with terra cotta replicas that will be anchored more securely to the building.



A contractor removed one sculpture from the building, piece by piece, and all 54 of them were placed in separate crates and trucked up to Buffalo.



Boston Valley artisans used photogrammetry and a laser scanner to create 3-D images of each piece. The company then produced 54 models, molds and terra cotta pieces for the first of the replica caryatids, which look like angels and were dubbed “Dorothy” by UB.



Boston Valley’s workers are finishing up the project now, and the first of the replacement caryatids is set to be installed at 150 Nassau in August.



For Boston Valley, the new digital tools allow its employees to finish the drafting and modeling process faster, potentially letting the company take on more work as those skilled craftsmen and women focus on tasks that demand creativity.



Boston Valley is using the tools again for their next large restoration undertaking, the replacement of the terra cotta dome atop the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton.



“It’s something that would be almost impossible to do the old way,” Krouse said.



For UB, the partnership offers its students a chance to gain practical experience, and several students, including Linfan Liu and Peter Schmidt, have worked at Boston Valley part-time and shared what they learned in the lab at school.



The architecture department has set up a Material Culture Research Group and also has started introducing these tools to other companies, including Rigidized Metals, bolstering the region’s push into advanced manufacturing.



“We have a lot of really great manufacturers that are going to be retooling, that are going to be moving to far more sophisticated manufacturing processes, and those are all digital, those are all computationally driven,” Khan said.







email: swatson@buffnews.com ]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 23:03:33 -0400