Report: UBS on to Big Apple plan B
UBS reportedly has abandoned plans to lease up to 1 million square feet of space at World Trade Center in New York City as a home for investment banking operations located in Stamford.
According to Bloomberg, the bank is now scouting cheaper options in midtown Manhattan, following a disappointing midyear earnings report. UBS confirmed to Bloomberg it had been in discussions with World Trade Center”™s developer as part of a larger review of its real estate requirements in the tristate area, without specifying any impact on Stamford, and that it is now focusing on midtown options.
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CBIA members pessimistic
Three in four Connecticut companies surveyed expect the state”™s economy to get worse, according to a June poll by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, up from 46 percent who said as much just three months earlier.
Just 35 percent of respondents reported increased sales in the second quarter, down from about half who saw growth in the first quarter. One in five companies expect to cut the size of their workforce, the highest percentage in more than a year according to CBIA.
“The downturn is being largely driven by national factors that we hope will be resolved in the coming weeks,” Peter Gioia, vice president and economist for CBIA, said in a statement. “We”™re not seeing the type of job growth we certainly hoped to see coming out of a recession.”
A separate small business index published by Wells Fargo held steady tracking national sentiments.
Report: AvalonBay buys Norwalk property
For a reported price of $9.9 million, AvalonBay Communities Inc. acquired 8 Norden Place in Norwalk from Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, which had received approval to build a 240-unit apartment complex at the site.
Spinnaker principal Kim Morque told the Norwalk Hour that the company “felt the appropriate thing to do was to sell at this time and let the new owner go vertical.”
AvalonBay last year opened AvalonBay Norwalk, an apartment complex with more than 300 units at 26 Belden Ave. The Arlington, Va.-based company has 10 complexes in Fairfield County.
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Hospital blames taxes for cuts
Greenwich Hospital is cutting 35 jobs as it restructures multiple departments, blaming the loss of $8.5 million in revenue as a result of the state budget.
Among other moves, Greenwich Hospital is relocating its Center for Healthy Aging, reducing services provided through its Center for Integrative Medicine and closing a membership-based exercise program.
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Housing permits decline
First-quarter housing permits in Connecticut were 21 percent lower than a year earlier, according to figures published in late July by the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Builders received about 440 permits, down from 560 last year and about 1,950 in 2006 at the peak of the last building cycle.
Chef”™s Warehouse serves up IPO shares
Ridgefield-based Chef”™s Warehouse Inc. raised $63 million in an initial public offering of stock, with the company”™s shares gaining 3 percent in their first day of trading to close at $17.50 a share.
Chef”™s Warehouse distributes high-end foods to restaurants and markets in the tristate area and several other markets nationally. The company is using the proceeds to pay off debt.
Other food-based businesses holding IPOs late last month were Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin”™ Brands Inc., and Teavana, an Atlanta-based operator of tea shops that has a distribution center in Stratford.
AG no longer a Ridgefield resident
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen reportedly moved in July to West Hartford, citing the length of the commute as the primary reason for leaving Ridgefield.
His wife, Diana Jepsen, recently took a job with CIGNA Corp. in Bloomfield, according to The Ridgefield Press, having previously worked for Covidien in New Haven.
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Settlement gets Picard to halfway point
Tremont Group Holdings Inc. reached a $1 billion settlement with Irving Picard, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities L.L.C.
Picard said Rye, N.Y.-based Tremont was the second largest feeder fund into Madoff”™s Ponzi scheme, and should have known that Madoff”™s company was fraudulent.
The settlement also includes three co-defendants named in the suit, filed Dec. 7, 2010: Oppenheimer Acquisition Corp., an affiliate of the Oppenheimer family of mutual funds which acquired Tremont Group in 2001; and Oppenheimer”™s parent corporations MassMutual Holding L.L.C. and the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Picard stated he has recovered more than $8.6 billion to date for Madoff”™s victims, about half of the total amount for which claims have been filed.
GE ships out container unit
For nearly $1.1 billion, General Electric Co. and an investment partner sold GE SeaCo to China-based HNA Group and Hong Kong-based Bravia Capital, which have made multiple investments together in transportation and logistics companies.
Fairfield-based GE created SeaCo in 1998 with Sea Containers Ltd. Today, the Barbados-based unit leases some about 1 million containers.
Emcor divests Canada unit
Emcor Group Inc. is selling its Comstock Canada Ltd. facility services unit in a management led buyout, with an entity called CCL Equities Inc. taking over the facility services company.
Norwalk-based Emcor said it will receive $44.5 million in cash and debt repayment in the deal.
Comstock performs electrical and mechanical construction services primarily in the health care, nuclear and industrial markets in Canada. For the first six months of 2011, Comstock revenue totaled $99 million and the unit had a $400,000 operating loss.
