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Blue Ocean caps year of growth in 2012
SYRACUSE — Blue Ocean Strategic Capital, LLC went through a growth spurt in 2012, adding two new staff members from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Syracuse and acquiring Hebert Financial Strategies of Liverpool. Stephen Chow and Jeffrey Moro joined Blue Ocean from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in July. It’s one of the first times in […]
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SYRACUSE — Blue Ocean Strategic Capital, LLC went through a growth spurt in 2012, adding two new staff members from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Syracuse and acquiring Hebert Financial Strategies of Liverpool.
Stephen Chow and Jeffrey Moro joined Blue Ocean from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in July. It’s one of the first times in Syracuse that brokers moved from a large investment house to a smaller firm like Blue Ocean, says Theodore Sarenski, Blue Ocean CEO.
It’s a trend that’s occurring nationwide, he adds.
“I think the industry is changing,” he says. “Clients want more than just transactional business. They want advice. They want guidance. It’s not just about their investments. It’s about their whole lives.”
Chow is now president at Syracuse–based Blue Ocean. The firm provides financial planning and investment management.
In August, Blue Ocean acquired Hebert Financial Strategies. Dennis Hebert and Jennifer Spagnola of Hebert Financial joined Blue Ocean as a result.
Both additions brought new clients to Blue Ocean, which took the firm from $165 million in assets under management to $270 million. Blue Ocean had $91 million in assets under management when it first formed in 2010.
The firm spun off from Syracuse accounting firm Dermody, Burke & Brown CPAs, LLC. It originally began in 1997 as Dermody’s financial-services arm.
The additions over the summer were the first of their kind for Blue Ocean, but they probably won’t be the last, Sarenski says. The firm is in talks on another potential acquisition now, which would add two more people.
Further growth is a long-term goal for Blue Ocean, Sarenski says.
Nearly half of the firm’s new business comes in the form of referrals from existing clients, he notes. Adding more clients through acquisitions means greater potential for such word of mouth.
Blue Ocean now employs 10 people and is outgrowing its 4,200-square-foot space at 443 North Franklin St. The firm will relocate in April to a 7,500-square-foot space at 333 W. Washington St. in downtown Syracuse.
The building, called Washington Station, opened in 2010 and is the headquarters of the engineering firm O’Brien & Gere. It houses several other businesses as well.
The move will give Blue Ocean room to grow in the years ahead, Sarenski says.
“We’re not filling it all right away,” he says. “We’re moving with the idea that we will continue to expand and grow in the future.”
About 20 percent of Blue Ocean’s clients are company 401(k) plans and another 10 percent are nonprofits that use Blue Ocean to manage their endowments. The rest of the firm’s clients are individuals and families.
And while much of the firm’s business started out in Upstate and Central New York, Blue Ocean now has clients in 10 states, including Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and the New England area. The firm has at least five clients in four states.
Much of Blue Ocean’s business in other states results from local clients who leave the area, Sarenski says. They often stay with Blue Ocean when they move and also refer business from their new locations to the firm.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com
Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care coming to Syracuse
SYRACUSE — A southern company specializing in orthotics and prosthetics plans to open a location in Syracuse in the middle of January. The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care expects to open a 2,500-square-foot office at 522 Liberty Street. It will be the firm’s fourth location in New York State, joining offices in Elmira, Binghamton,
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SYRACUSE — A southern company specializing in orthotics and prosthetics plans to open a location in Syracuse in the middle of January.
The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care expects to open a 2,500-square-foot office at 522 Liberty Street. It will be the firm’s fourth location in New York State, joining offices in Elmira, Binghamton, and Cooperstown.
The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care, which has main offices in Durham, N.C. and Louisville, Ky., operates 13 locations in Kentucky, Indiana, and North Carolina, in addition to its New York outposts. Its Syracuse expansion will start with three employees but could grow to as many as 12 workers in the future.
“It’s not a high-volume business because everything we do is custom,” says Anthony Marschall, who will be the Syracuse office’s branch manager. “So in general, for one practitioner, you might see eight to ten patients per day.”
In addition to being branch manager, Marschall will be the Syracuse office’s practitioner. He will be joined by a technician and office support worker.
“We’ll do everything from patient evaluations to fittings,” Marschall adds. “This office will have an onsite lab so we can do some fabrication, and then for more major projects, the company uses central fabrication.”
Marschall will be coming to the Syracuse office after working at the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care’s Cooperstown location. The company hopes to generate more than $1 million in revenue in its first year in Syracuse and grow in subsequent years, he says.
He cannot release specific companywide sales totals for the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care. The firm is a “multi-million dollar” company, he says.
Its Syracuse office is set to move into newly renovated space. The building at 522 Liberty St. is being overhauled by its owner, the Syracuse development firm Salt City Enterprises, LLC.
Salt City Enterprises purchased the building at the end of June for $150,000, according to records from Onondaga County’s Office of Real Property Tax Services. It has since added a second floor to the structure, doubling its space to 5,000 square feet, according to Leonard Montreal, who co-owns Salt City Enterprises along with Samuel Flatt.
The development company’s affiliated construction firm, Montreal Construction of Syracuse — also co-owned by Montreal and Flatt — is handling the renovations at the Liberty Street building, Montreal says. He declines to share the cost of renovations, but notes that Solvay Bank is providing financing.
The Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care is moving into the building’s ground floor, a space customized for its needs, according to Montreal. It will later have the option of moving into the 2,500-square-foot second floor.
“We made that, so they can expand into it, a vanilla box,” he says. “The idea is for them to start on the ground floor and move up.”
The Liberty Street property is one of almost 30 Salt City Enterprises owns between Syracuse’s Inner Harbor and Hiawatha Boulevard. It has invested more than $8 million purchasing and rehabbing properties in the area, Montreal says.
“There’s a lot of good stuff happening,” he says. “The city has been kind enough to promise in the spring to do the curbs and walks for the remainder of Liberty Street. It’s like putting on a picture frame. It just cleans everything up nicely.”
Allegiance Realty, LLC of Syracuse brokered the Center for Orthotic & Prosthetic Care’s leasing of the Liberty Street building. That company is co-owned by Montreal, Flatt, and broker Jeffrey Kelsen.
“There’s no better location,” Kelsen says. “It’s fantastic to get them to go from a spot that was heavy industrial that’s now starting to migrate toward medical.”
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com
Canton engineering firm says merger will help it grow
CANTON — A merger with a larger Michigan–based company will help Burley-Guminiak & Associates, Consulting Engineers, P.L.L.C. (BGA) of Canton grow and expand its services. C2AE, an architectural, engineering, and planning firm based in Lansing, Mich., announced Nov. 28 it merged with BGA. The move will help with recruiting new talent to Canton, says Timothy
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CANTON — A merger with a larger Michigan–based company will help Burley-Guminiak & Associates, Consulting Engineers, P.L.L.C. (BGA) of Canton grow and expand its services.
C2AE, an architectural, engineering, and planning firm based in Lansing, Mich., announced Nov. 28 it merged with BGA. The move will help with recruiting new talent to Canton, says Timothy Burley, a partner with BGA.
Unless prospects already lived in the region or had local ties, it was challenging to draw them in, Burley says. Many potential hires, he says, were concerned about a lack of other opportunities in the market.
Being part of a much larger firm will help with those issues, Burley says.
The deal with C2AE will also provide more services for BGA clients. The firm often stuck close to its core expertise in water and wastewater projects, Burley says.
Customers would sometimes ask for work in other areas, but the firm generally turned them down.
“Honestly, we were so busy doing what we were good at, it only made sense to stay in our sweet spot,” Burley says.
Burley says he expects new jobs in Canton as a result of the merger that will allow the office to provide a wider array of services. He says plans are in place for one new hire already.
The deal also solves the issue of succession planning for BGA leaders, Burley says.
“They want to grow,” he says of C2AE.
All 12 BGA employees, including the firm’s leadership team, joined C2AE.
C2AE
Founded in 1996, C2AE has more than 120 employees and additional locations in Grand Rapids, Gaylord, Escanaba, and Kalamazoo. The firm has projects in eight states and three countries outside the U.S.
Expanding C2AE’s expertise in water and wastewater has been a priority for the firm, C2AE Chairman and CEO Bill Kimble says. C2AE began working with a recruiting firm to add to its staff in that area.
The recruiter came across BGA, which was also looking to expand, Kimble says. The firms then began talking about a merger.
“What this allows us to do is strengthen our resources internally,” he says. “We can take their expertise in their fields and apply to all of our clients, no matter what state they’re in.”
The Canton office will be C2AE’s first outside Michigan. The firm wasn’t specifically looking to expand to New York, but leaders are excited about the prospects here, Kimble says.
C2AE works frequently for state and local governments and on industrial, education, and health care projects. The firm’s work includes road design, municipal buildings, water treatment plants, highway projects, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, hospital renovations and construction projects, and work for smaller health care clinics.
In the private sector, C2AE works frequently on large-scale manufacturing projects and has clients in a number of states, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
The firm expects to pursue similar work in New York, Kimble says.
“Strategically, the company wants to continue to expand and grow,” he says.
Further geographic expansion is also a goal for C2AE, he adds. That will help remove the firm’s dependence on government clients in just one or two states, he notes.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com
Barclay named again to State Assembly leadership post
Assemblyman Will Barclay has been re-appointed deputy minority leader of the Republican Conference in the New York Assembly. Barclay represents the 120th Assembly District, which includes Oswego, Fulton, Pulaski, and parts of northern Onondaga County. Barclay serves on the Energy, Judiciary, Rules, and Ways and Means committees and is ranking member on the Insurance Committee.
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Assemblyman Will Barclay has been re-appointed deputy minority leader of the Republican Conference in the New York Assembly.
Barclay represents the 120th Assembly District, which includes Oswego, Fulton, Pulaski, and parts of northern Onondaga County. Barclay serves on the Energy, Judiciary, Rules, and Ways and Means committees and is ranking member on the Insurance Committee.
“I am pleased to have the opportunity again to serve in a leadership role in the Assembly,” Barclay said in a news release. “I look forward again to working closely with the leader on the many initiatives put forth through our conference.”
Brian M. Kolb (R,I,C–Canandaigua) is the New York Assembly minority leader. Kolb represents the 131st Assembly District, which encompasses all of Ontario County and parts of Seneca County.
Kolb has said his policy priorities for the 2013 legislative session include “protecting taxpayers and localities by stopping Albany’s unfunded mandates”; fixing the “broken” Thruway Authority by passing his “Thruway Authority Accountability Act;” enacting the NYS Disaster Relief Fund; and growing jobs and the state’s “innovation economy.”
New leader takes helm at UVANY, plans more programs
The Upstate Venture Association of New York, Inc. (UVANY) has a new executive director and plans for growth in 2013. The nonprofit, based in Albany, works to increase capital investment in private companies through upstate New York. Its member funds manage more than $1 billion in capital and between 2005 and 2012 invested more than
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The Upstate Venture Association of New York, Inc. (UVANY) has a new executive director and plans for growth in 2013.
The nonprofit, based in Albany, works to increase capital investment in private companies through upstate New York. Its member funds manage more than $1 billion in capital and between 2005 and 2012 invested more than $430 million in more than 125 New York companies.
Samuel Ticknor took over as executive director Dec. 4. Ticknor had been on the UVANY board for four years. He previously worked for M&T Bank, Bergen Capital, Corporate Fuel Partners, and Provident Group.
He succeeded Bob Buckley, who retired after nine years as executive director.
UVANY plans to double the number of programs it runs in 2013, Ticknor says. The group will run two programs per month instead of one.
The new events will include smaller meetings at successful companies around upstate New York. The first one took place in the summer of 2012 and will serve as the model for this year, Ticknor says.
The group met at a business in Saratoga Springs that had just received $2 million in new investment. UVANY members had the chance to meet and talk with the investor and the firm’s CEO.
The discussion focused on why and how the investment came about, Ticknor says.
“We got a great response on that,” he says. “This was 25 people. They got to see the company firsthand and have some direct contact.”
UVANY will also continue to host larger events and work to attract significant keynote speakers. During the first quarter of 2013, one of those bigger events will take place at GE where speakers will discuss growth strategies and what they look for when considering investments.
The group will also look go increase its membership by 25 percent this year. UVANY currently has 100 members with 40 percent being capital providers. The others include entrepreneurs and service providers.
The group recently added four new capital-provider members, Ticknor says.
UVANY’s two main goals are to increase awareness of capital availability in Upstate and help companies position themselves to win investments, Ticknor says.
“If you show up wearing the wrong clothes and talking the wrong language, you’re going to turn off that investor,” he says. “We’re trying to prepare those companies to access and retain that capital.”
He adds that there are more investors and capital available in upstate New York now than ever before. The number of angel investors, capital funds, and incubators is growing across the region.
People across the state, Ticknor says, are looking for ways to reinvent the economy. Upstate’s colleges and universities and legacy companies provide a rich stream of innovative technology and employees who could become entrepreneurs in the future, he says.
In addition to Ticknor, UVANY also has a new board president. The group announced the election of Brian Model of Stonehenge Growth Capital to the post in October.
Model is currently managing director of New York City–based Stonehenge.
Dan Penberthy of Buffalo–based Rand Capital Corp. was announced as vice president. Penberthy previously served as UVANY’s board president.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com
SU institute helps launch online hub for veterans
SYRACUSE — The Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and a group of other partners have launched an online hub, called VetNet, to help veterans with their transition to civilian life. VetNet combines the resources of the institute, the nonprofit Hire Heroes USA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes
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SYRACUSE — The Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and a group of other partners have launched an online hub, called VetNet, to help veterans with their transition to civilian life.
VetNet combines the resources of the institute, the nonprofit Hire Heroes USA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes initiative. The hub is hosted online by Google+ at VetNetHQ.com.
“One of the most complex challenges facing this community is the sheer volume of resources available to help with the transition,” says Carrie Laureno, Google audience evangelist and founder of the Google Veterans Network.
VetNet aims to create a single, easy-to-navigate location where veterans and their families can access a wide array of resources.
The site is separated into three tracks. The first involves basic training and is coordinated by Hire Heroes. Veterans can get help with writing a resume and connect to a database with more than 1 million jobs aimed at them.
Hiring Our Heroes provides a second track for those trying to determine what industries or companies might be right for them. Veterans can connect with industry experts and get advice from other vets.
The final track is managed by the institute at SU and is aimed at veterans looking to start their own companies.
VetNet is not just a directory, says Mike Haynie, the institute’s executive director and founder, Barnes Professor of Entrepreneurship at SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and a U.S. Air Force veteran. All three tracks within the site will feature live content like video events with experts.
The events will all be recorded and remain accessible on the site, Haynie adds. The content could include basic career training or advanced college-level work in entrepreneurship.
“I think this is a fundamentally different approach to delivering supportive services to this community,” Haynie says.
The SU institute grew from an entrepreneurship program for veterans that began at the Whitman School. But starting a company from scratch is not for everyone, Haynie notes.
Much of VetNet’s power will come from its ability to help veterans make good, informed decisions, he says.
The institute’s entrepreneur track on VetNet will offer an eight-week cycle of two public events per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Tuesday events are entrepreneurship courses covering topics including financing, business planning and more.
The Thursday events offer participants the chance to engage in office hours with experts including successful business owners, lawyers, investors, and more, according to the institute.
One of the hallmarks of all the partners involved in the project is the quality of their programming and level of service they provide, Haynie says. VetNet will allow the groups to reach more veterans than ever and maintain their high-level offerings.
And while VetNet will serve as a valuable resource for veterans, it should also aid organizations and individuals looking to hire or aid veterans.
“What’s unique about this platform is it’s open to the public,” Google’s Laureno says. “The next challenge is figuring out how de we scale this, how do we include other resources beyond these founding partners?”
Organizers want to hear from groups or individuals with more advice, resources, and helpful content for veterans, she says.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com
La La Land bakes another layer into Mohegan Manor business
BALDWINSVILLE — Mohegan Manor stepped into La La Land this summer. The high-end restaurant in the village of Baldwinsville opened La La Land, a cake shop and creamery that also deals in chocolate and coffee, in July. And its owner, Dennis Sick, believes the expansion will help the manor sweeten its offerings — and its
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BALDWINSVILLE — Mohegan Manor stepped into La La Land this summer.
The high-end restaurant in the village of Baldwinsville opened La La Land, a cake shop and creamery that also deals in chocolate and coffee, in July. And its owner, Dennis Sick, believes the expansion will help the manor sweeten its offerings — and its bottom line.
“La La Land is an old-style ice-cream and dessert place,” he says. “Ultimately, it will help us boost our dessert presentations and sales.”
Sick decided to start offering lunch at La La Land in the New Year. He expects it to help Mohegan Manor post revenue growth between 10 percent and 15 percent in 2013. He declines to share specific revenue totals, saying only that increasing sales in 2013 would mark the fifth consecutive year of growth at Mohegan Manor.
“Longevity builds,” he says. “I think it’s a very unique experience for the Syracuse metropolitan area.”
Mohegan Manor targets customers from throughout the Syracuse area, from Jamesville and Fayetteville to Oswego and Auburn. Many of its patrons are businesses looking to meet with clients in a setting that’s more unique than a hotel, according to Sick.
The manor is located in an 18,000-square-foot structure that Sick owns through a holding company, Ronam Inc., at 58 Oswego St. in Baldwinsville. But it’s comprised of a series of smaller rooms and sections. It includes the Restaurant at Mohegan Manor, a banquet facility, Club Sushi, and La La Land.
“The building is separated into several different areas, so although it’s large, it always feels small,” Sick says. “We have like 10 fireplaces in our building. People really like it.”
A separate building at 56 Oswego St. actually houses the 1,000-square-foot La La Land — a deck connects the dessert shop to the rest of the manor. Sick purchased La La Land’s building June 14 with another holding company, JD Sick Inc. He declines to share details of the transaction, although records from Onondaga County’s Office of Real Property Tax Services shows JD Sick Inc. bought the building for $86,500.
Sick overhauled La La Land’s space before opening it, a major revamp that included heating and lighting. He performed nearly all of the renovations himself and had the shop open 27 days after purchasing it, he says. In the future, he wants to turn the upper level of 56 Oswego St. into apartments.
Opening La La Land meant adding two full-time employees and a part-time worker. Mohegan Manor employs 20 people full time and can have as many as 30 total workers for certain events. In addition to serving businesses, the manor hosts weddings, wedding receptions, private parties, and restaurant diners.
It’s also the site of special events ranging from live musical entertainment to cooking classes to golf clinics. Other events include “wine school” classes and special dinners.
“We’re doing a winter series of the old-fashioned nightclub where we will have a dinner dance, a full band, orchestra-type, where people can get dressed up,” Sick says. “We’re shooting for the last Saturday of each month. We’ll bring a nice date-night, something Syracuse doesn’t really offer. There are no dance clubs for couples to go out and have a nice dinner.”
Sick tries to bring new attractions to Mohegan Manor. For instance, it will rent some space to a bartending school in 2013.
“For us it’s a little bit of rent revenue,” Sick says. “But it’s more that the market needs more bartenders and better-trained staff. I was happy to do it kind of as an incubator.”
Mohegan Manor is sometimes seen as being off the beaten path, Sick points out. It combats problems arising from that perception by operating a courtesy shuttle. Additionally, it caters to a clientele that isn’t afraid to travel.
“Most people eating well don’t mind driving a few miles,” Sick says.
Stevens Office Interiors starts search for smaller space
SYRACUSE — The owners of Stevens Office Interiors have decided their headquarters has a little too much elbow room. “We don’t need as much space,” says Thomas Maugeri, president and co-owner of Stevens. “It’s pretty vast here. When you have too big a facility, it gets too confusing.” Maugeri and his co-owner, Stevens vice president
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SYRACUSE — The owners of Stevens Office Interiors have decided their headquarters has a little too much elbow room.
“We don’t need as much space,” says Thomas Maugeri, president and co-owner of Stevens. “It’s pretty vast here. When you have too big a facility, it gets too confusing.”
Maugeri and his co-owner, Stevens vice president Pat Lewis, decided to shrink the office-furniture dealer’s footprint after the idea spent several years on the table. They want to go from the current company-owned 25,000-square-foot facility at 1449 Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse to about 15,000 square feet.
Such a move would cut the company’s showroom from 15,000 square feet to 7,000 or 8,000 square feet. It would also help the business save on overhead costs like utilities, Maugeri says.
He and Lewis are considering several ways to shrink Stevens’ footprint. The office-furniture dealer could sell its current building and move into new space. Or it could lease out all of its current building and move. Its owners would also be open to leasing out part of the Erie Boulevard facility and maintaining a smaller presence there.
Syracuse–based Pemco Group Inc. is providing brokerage services for Stevens Office Interiors as it searches for potential relocation destinations. The move does not need to take place by a certain date, Maugeri says.
“It’s not like we have to immediately do something,” he says. “It could happen tomorrow and it could happen a year from now.”
A change in the way people shop for office furniture helped push Stevens toward cutting down its physical location, Maugeri says. Online photos and renderings allow customers to preview furniture without coming to a showroom. And a new showroom could be tailored to focus on industry trends including ergonomics, collaboration, efficient use of space, and technology, he adds.
“We can highlight the new innovations — not only furniture, but technology,” Maugeri says. “Because we do sell technology products like electronic whiteboards and scheduling systems.”
Stevens Office Interiors will not be eliminating workers when it shrinks its footprint. The company has 30 employees, Maugeri says. Its employment levels will remain steady unless the economy improves, at which point it would add staff members, he continues.
Maugeri declines to share revenue totals for his company. He also declines to predict revenue growth in the next year.
If Stevens does relocate, Maugeri wants to move to a space that’s to the north of Erie Boulevard and to the east of Teall Avenue. He would like to remain near a main thoroughfare that’s visible and easy to access. Even if showrooms don’t need to be as large as they were in the past, walk-in traffic is still important, Maugeri says.
The potential move wouldn’t be the first time Stevens slashed its showroom space. About five years ago, the company carved a transactional warehouse that handles furniture staging out of its Erie Boulevard building. That warehouse, which is about 8,000 square feet, will move with the rest of the company’s headquarters operations.
Stevens also has about 10,000 square feet of warehouse space off Bridge Street that will not be affected by the headquarters move, according to Maugeri.
Any changes to space will not hurt the company’s ability to cater to its key markets of health care, educational, and corporate environments, he adds. Stevens’ clients include O’Brien & Gere, Welch Allyn, Lockheed Martin, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Saab Sensis, Utica National Insurance Group, C&S Companies, Syracuse University, Cornell University, and the State University of New York at Oswego.
“Nothing’s really changing except the building,” Maugeri says. “Whether business is OK or turning down or upturning, you should always look at what your needs are. I think you can’t afford your wants as much as you used to be able to.”
NBT commercial banking president trumpets small-biz lending
NORWICH — An executive in charge of commercial banking at NBT Bank wants small-business owners to know financing is available to help them expand. “One of the frustrating things that’s been in the press as of late is banks aren’t lending money,” says Jeffrey Levy, NBT’s president of commercial banking. “We are all — not
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NORWICH — An executive in charge of commercial banking at NBT Bank wants small-business owners to know financing is available to help them expand.
“One of the frustrating things that’s been in the press as of late is banks aren’t lending money,” says Jeffrey Levy, NBT’s president of commercial banking. “We are all — not just NBT, all of our competitors — we are all anxious to lend money.”
Levy points to NBT’s lending totals under U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) programs to underscore his bank’s commitment to lending. NBT was the top large community lender in Central New York, the Southern Tier, and throughout the SBA’s Syracuse district in the 2012 fiscal year, according to data the agency released in October.
NBT approved 20 loans totaling $2.3 million in Central New York under the SBA’s 7(a) program. It made 25 loans for $3.3 million in the Southern Tier.
Throughout the 34-county SBA Syracuse district, the bank made 70 loans totaling $10 million. The SBA’s Syracuse district includes Central New York, the Southern Tier, the North Country, and the Capital Region.
NBT trailed only M&T Bank in 7(a) loan approvals in the Syracuse district. M&T, which falls under the SBA’s large commercial lender category, made 166 loans for nearly $17.6 million in the 2012 fiscal year.
The 7(a) program has the SBA guarantee loans from financial institutions to help finance a range of general business purposes. The SBA also has an initiative known as the 504 loan program, which can be used for fixed assets like purchasing buildings or land and for building new facilities.
NBT lends through the 504 program as well. It approved 11 loans totaling nearly $11.3 million in the SBA’s 2012 fiscal year in the Syracuse district. Again, that was second in the district behind M&T Bank. M&T approved 12 loans for $28.5 million in the district during the fiscal year.
NBT’s high rate of SBA lending comes after the bank made moves to increase its work with government-sponsored lending programs through the SBA and other agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Farm Service Agency, Levy says. It started a specialized unit for that purpose about three years ago, he continues.
“The government absorbs the risk,” Levy says. “The 7(a) is probably the most widely utilized SBA program. For the small businessperson who is starting a business or doesn’t have a lot of capital, the 7(a) program provides the bank with the opportunity to make a loan that you might not make without the guarantee.”
The SBA has also streamlined the process for small businesses to apply for loans it backs, Levy adds. He contends that helped NBT increase its lending under the administration’s programs.
Statistics on SBA lending show NBT’s focus on working with small businesses, but the bank doesn’t limit its efforts to government-backed programs, according to Levy. He estimates NBT produced more than $400 million in new loans in 2012.
“The vast majority of our business is small businesses,” Levy says. “The backbone of the USA and the backbone of Upstate is small business.”
Levy expects NBT’s small-business lending to grow once the bank completes an acquisition of Syracuse–based Alliance Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ALNC). NBT Bank’s Norwich–based parent, NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB), revealed plans in October to purchase Alliance in a deal worth more than $233 million. That transaction is expected to close early in 2013.
However, Levy declines to name a specific target for small-business lending going forward.
“It’s still a very, very personal relationship,” he says. “It’s local people working for the local banks, providing not just lending advice but support to the small businesses. We’re going to become a much more prominent lender in the greater Syracuse area.”
However, Levy offers a word of advice for anyone looking for a commercial loan.
“Do a business plan,” he says. “Most people come into the bank and say, ‘I want to borrow X dollars and here’s my idea.’ Well, their idea is great, but they need to document their idea. They need to provide some historical information. Everybody has an idea, but you have to be able to put together a plan on paper that someone else can read and buy into.”
Levy recommended small-business owners seeking help turn to Small Business Development Centers or SCORE counseling, which has experienced executives and entrepreneurs providing business advice.
NBT has 135 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Its assets total $6 billion, and it also owns a 401(k) record-keeping firm and an insurance agency.
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com
Webucator leaders playing in new sector with Acuity Apps
FAYETTEVILLE — The heads of the Central New York–based business-to-business training company Webucator, Inc. are playing games. Not with Webucator. That company’s continuing to grow, boosting its $4.5 million 2011 revenue by about 10 percent in 2012. Instead, they have a new startup, Acuity Apps, Inc., that just launched a consumer-oriented word game for mobile
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FAYETTEVILLE — The heads of the Central New York–based business-to-business training company Webucator, Inc. are playing games.
Not with Webucator. That company’s continuing to grow, boosting its $4.5 million 2011 revenue by about 10 percent in 2012. Instead, they have a new startup, Acuity Apps, Inc., that just launched a consumer-oriented word game for mobile devices and Facebook.
Webucator’s founder, Nathaniel Dunn, and its COO, David Dunn, co-founded Acuity Apps and are its only employees. They started the business after playing an online game called Words with Friends, which is similar to Scrabble, last spring.
“In Words with Friends, in any Scrabble-like game, the better player wins the majority of the time,” David Dunn says. “But if you get better letters, a less-skilled player can still win. We started talking about this game. What if we both had the same letters?”
The Dunns refined their idea from there. They added a time limit, decided to give players fresh letters every round, and agreed players should be able to compete against thousands of people in a single game. They named their game Word Skill. And they hired a developer, North Carolina–based Electrotank, to help design the game’s apps for Apple’s iOS mobile devices, Android devices, Facebook, and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Most of those apps launched the week of Dec. 17, in time for a spike in app purchases that comes with the holidays, according to David Dunn. The Kindle Fire app had yet to launch as of The Central New York Business Journal’s press deadline.
It’s too early to deem the game a success or a failure, Dunn says. He admits he and his brother aren’t sure how high they should ratchet up their hopes.
“We have no idea what to expect,” David Dunn says. “It’s been going up every day. People seem to be inviting other people. The other thing that’s really exciting is the people who are downloading it are playing a lot.”
Of 500 users on Dec. 20, about 100 made more than 10 moves during the day, Dunn adds. He deemed that a high interaction rate.
Word Skill is free to play, but it generates revenue in three ways. The game contains advertising. Users can pay $1.99 to turn off ads. Users can also purchase coins that unlock different advantages, such as the ability to see the highest score that can be played — although not the actual word that would earn that score — before placing their letter tiles.
The Dunn brothers don’t have any revenue projections for Acuity Apps at this point. In the future, the company plans to release an iOS app, Word Learner, that helps players improve their word-game skills. David Dunn wouldn’t rule out releasing other mobile apps after that.
“It’s certainly an incredibly exciting space, and there are a lot of things you can see doing in it,” he says. “There are so many cool things, whether they’re games or tools.”
For the time being, Dunn is focused on promoting Word Skill. Acuity Apps is marketing the game on Facebook. Plus, the company will partner with the Syracuse–based nonprofit ProLiteracy, which will use Word Skill to set up tournaments to raise money in support of literacy efforts.
ProLiteracy hopes to raise as much as $10,000 in a Word Skill tournament starting in January, according to its vice president of programs, Mark Cass. The organization is excited at the prospect of working with Acuity Apps, he adds.
“We had been looking for an opportunity to have our local programs and perhaps our national programs raise money, where we could coordinate something that would be relatively easy for people to get involved with,” he says. “This seems to fit the bill.”
The ProLiteracy partnership is part of a large-scale vision David Dunn has for Word Skill tournaments with entry fees. He wants to continue to apply the game’s large-group capabilities to give nonprofits, political parties, and other groups the option of using it to raise money.
“Imagine Bill Clinton saying that he was going to play, and if you donated $25 to the Democratic Party, you could play against him,” Dunn says. “How many people would play that game?”
Other large-group Word Skill games can be set up based on geography, businesses, or colleges, Dunn adds. For example, Acuity Apps has started a game for people from the Syracuse area that can be accessed by entering the identification code “SYRACUSE” in the app.
The Dunns run Acuity Apps from David Dunn’s home at 173 Brookside Lane in Fayetteville. Webucator, on the other hand, is headquartered at 4933 Jamesville Road in DeWitt. It employs 70 contractors across the country as well as 22 full-time employees, 14 of which are in Central New York, and two part-time workers.
Nathaniel Dunn’s work with Webucator played a role in the founding of Acuity Apps, David Dunn says.
“We were looking at courseware for Webucator for iOS development,” he says. “And Nat, who has written a lot of our courseware, he had to do something with it in order to figure it out. So he was in development mode.”
David Dunn also stresses that Webucator and Acuity Apps are two separate ventures.
“We have a great management team in place at Webucator,” he says. “Things run very smoothly. And that was a big part in the development of this game, getting Webucator to the point where this could be our focus.”
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