Westchester County business news in brief
Yonkers IDA backs housing project
The Yonkers Industrial Development Agency recently smoothed the way for a 77-unit affordable-housing development that would replace blighted apartment buildings on Ravine Avenue near the city waterfront.
The IDA board approved a financial incentives package for the developers of the $25.6 million project, the Center for Urban Rehabilitation, a Yonkers nonprofit agency, and L+M Development Partners Inc. in Larchmont, a leading developer of affordable housing in metropolitan New York.
A seven-story building will be built at 47-75 Ravine Ave., between Point and Gold streets. Plans call for seven studios, 19 one-bedroom, 38 two-bedroom and 13 three-bedroom rental apartments. Families with incomes up to 80 percent of the area median income would be eligible for residence.
Residents at 55, 57 and 61 Ravine Ave., buildings that will be will be torn down to make way for the development, can relocate to the new building or to comparable housing elsewhere, Yonkers officials said. The developers in partnership with the city also will restore Irving Park, a long-abandoned public park that adjoins the Ravine Avenue site.
Yonkers IDA President and CEO Ellen Lynch said the IDA board, headed by Mayor Philip Amicone, in the last year alone gave its final approval on projects that will create or renovate 535 affordable housing units. About 547 units are under construction and more are in the pipeline, she said.
The Ravine Avenue project is expected to create up to 32 construction jobs. IDA officials said work could begin late this year.
The IDA approved a sales and use tax exemption for construction materials and equipment, a mortgage recording tax exemption and a real property tax agreement to be negotiated.
New alliance
Jackson Lewis L.L.P, the workplace law firm headquartered in White Plains, has joined five European boutique firms in employment and labor law to form L&E Global, an international alliance providing counsel to global employers.
“Many of our clients, whether they are emerging companies or large multinational corporations, operate in a global arena and face increasingly complex issues,” Patrick L. Vaccaro, managing partner at Jackson Lewis, said in a statement. “Even with the advent of the European Union and other economic and political partnerships, most laws and regulations governing the workplace are still determined by the individual countries. We are very pleased to collaborate with these highly regarded firms and our clients will benefit from attentive, efficient, and cost-effective legal counsel wherever their growth strategies take them.”
Founding firms joining Jackson Lewis are: Bufete Suárez de Vivero, S.L, Spain; Flichy Grangé Avocats, France, Studio Legale Failla Rotondi & Partners (LABLAW), Italy; Pusch Wahlig Legal, Germany, Van Olmen & Wynant, Belgium.
L&E Global will function as a virtual international law firm, with a practice solely focused on advising employers on workplace challenges and issues, said Stephan Swinkels, the group”™s executive director. Swinkels said members already are collaborating on many international projects, including counseling corporate clients on multi-country organizational restructurings and providing strategic legal advice regarding the potential response to a global corporate labor campaign launched by trade unions.
Johan Lubbe, a partner at Jackson Lewis who coordinates its international practice group said L&E Global will operate “as if we were a single firm with overseas offices.”
William J. Manning, co-chair of Jackson Lewis”™s global immigration practice group, said the international group”™s network of immigration lawyers will enable employers to quickly relocate key employees and developer an integrated global mobility plan.
L&E”™s allied firms operate in every major U.S. city and in key European business centers. The alliance plans to add more participating firms worldwide.
Consultancy forms
Chris Franke, a former executive at J.P. Morgan, has formed Compliance Risk Management, Inc., a Rye firm offering regulatory compliance consulting to investment banks, broker-dealers and banking groups.
Franke, the firm”™s CEO, was managing director and head of compliance in the Americas for the JPMorgan Investment Bank and Private Banking. His partners include John Mittler, founder of JM Capital Market Services; Walter Kapuscinski, founder of Kapco Group Inc., and Victor Emmanuel, founder of VJE Consultants and a former senior vice president with Burson-Marsteller Public Relations.
“This enterprise was formed because in this highly regulated climate we felt something was missing in the client-adviser dynamic,” Franke said in a statement. “We differ from our larger competitors in our ability to put over 30 years of securities industry experience to work for our clients at affordable rates.”
PepsiCo gets OK on Russian buy
Russian Federation antimonopoly regulators have approved PepsiCo”™s $3.8-billion acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods O.J.S.C., Russia”™s leading branded food-and-beverage company. The approval clears the way for the Purchase-based company to close on the deal early this month.
A PepsiCo subsidiary will acquire an approximately two-thirds share of Wimm-Bill-Dann. PepsiCo will own approximately 77 percent of the total outstanding ordinary shares of the Russian company, making it the largest food-and-beverage business in Russia and a stronger competitor in the fast-growing Eastern European and Central Asian markets, according to PepsiCo officials.
They said the acquisition will raise PepsiCo”™s annual global revenues from nutritious and functional foods from approximately $10 billion to nearly $13 billion. The company”™s strategic goal is to build a $30 billion nutrition business by 2020.