SYRACUSE — Gardner & Capparelli CPAs, LLP, a boutique Syracuse accounting firm, has recently added a veteran certified public accountant (CPA) to its staff and secured office space in Boston to serve clients in that market.

Matt Gardner and Jim Capparelli started the firm in June 2016. It operates in a 2,000-square-foot office at 304 S. Franklin St. in Syracuse.

Gardner graduated from West Genesee High School in 2003, and from SUNY Oswego in 2007, with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Capparelli graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse High School in 2005, and from Le Moyne College in 2009, also with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Acquisition

Gardner & Capparelli CPAs acquired Kenneth Cardarelli CPA in a deal that closed Nov. 1. The owners declined to disclose any terms of the acquisition agreement.

Cardarelli says he’s known Gardner and his family “for many years.”

Cardarelli has operated as a sole practitioner in the Syracuse area since 1998 when he worked from an office at 100 Weatheridge Drive  in Camillus. He eventually moved from that space into his own home office.

In his role for the Gardner & Capparelli firm, Cardarelli either works from his home or in the South Franklin Street office.

“It depends [on] what the need is,” says Cardarelli. He spoke over a phone during an interview that CNYBJ conducted with the firm’s principals at their office on Feb. 8.

When asked about any legal guidance they had in pursuing the acquisition deal, all three men noted that attorneys were involved but they declined to name them.

In the deal, Cardarelli brought about 50 business clients to the Gardner & Capparelli firm. Those clients generated about 20 percent growth in the firm’s business, the firm’s principals say. 

Cardarelli had been servicing clients in sectors that included construction, equipment leasing, food and beverage, manufacturing, professional services, real-estate development/leasing and wholesale distribution. 

Before becoming a sole practitioner, Cardarelli had previously served as a partner at Pasquale & Bowers, a Syracuse CPA firm. 

Cardarelli had also served as a mentor to Gardner and Capparelli before and during the startup of their accounting firm in June 2016 “because I had done [the same thing] myself.”

Managing the business, balancing compliance work, and securing clients is a “different experience” than when you’re in a firm with multiple partners and staff. “You’re going to wear a lot more hats when you’re a smaller firm than [when you’re part of] a highly structured, stratified firm,” says Cardarelli.

About the firm

Gardner and Capparelli operate a business that they don’t see as a “stereotypical” accounting firm. 

“We just had this vision that we could modernize it, bring the industry into the 21st century, do it differently,” says Gardner. “We aren’t wearing suits and ties. We’re all very comfortable. I think that makes us very approachable and very attractive to a certain clientele.”

The principals most recently worked at Fust Charles Chambers, a Syracuse CPA firm.

Gardner & Capparelli has 13 employees, including the owners. They rent their space from David Hoyne, publican at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub & Restaurant at 301 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse.

The firm specializes in servicing small and mid-sized business through virtual CFO and outsourced accounting solutions, tax and compliance services, and business consulting.

Gardner & Capparelli offers its services under what are legally separate limited-liability companies operating under the Gardner & Capparelli name, says Gardner.

They include a “traditional” tax and attestation company, which is “very much like every other accounting firm” which services about 200 clients.

It also offers a virtual CFO and accounting services company that Gardner describes as “essentially the entire back office and the chief financial person” for about 35 companies.

“The majority of our growth and the majority of our people” are working with that subsidiary, he adds.

The third company is a human-resources company, which Gardner & Capparelli started recently to “complement the accounting-services business.” The firm needed a way to address “some needs” on the HR side for “a lot” of its clients so it hired someone with the proper experience to handle those issues for 15 clients. 

“All of our accounting-service clients are also tax clients. All of our HR clients are also accounting-services clients and tax clients … It’s like a one-stop shop,” says Gardner.

Boston office

Gardner & Capparelli in November signed a rental agreement and opened an office in the Boston location of Global Silicon Valley Labs, or GSV Labs. 

The firm’s target market is upstate New York along the Thruway corridor, which Gardner and Capparelli wanted to extend into the Boston market. 

“We can work Rochester, Buffalo, and we can work the Capital Region very easily from Syracuse. Boston is a really good book-end for us,” says Gardner. 

The firm had a client who Gardner described as a “great resource”, who ended up in Boston and started working out of the same GSV Labs venue. The client introduced Gardner and Capparelli to the CEO, who liked their vision.

“He essentially invited us to host office hours there and offered to let us work out of there,” says Gardner.

Though not currently staffed, the Boston office provides a space where the firm’s principals can meet with and service clients when they fly in for a visit, he adds. Gardner envisions the firm will eventually hire an account manager for the Boston office.

HAMILTON — Colgate University’s Thought Into Action (TIA) entrepreneurship incubator and Hamilton’s Partnership for Community Development (PCD) will use a state grant of $625,000 over the next five years. 

Colgate and PCD will use most of the money to hire a director for the incubator, says Mary Galvez, director of Thought Into Action entrepreneurship at Colgate University. 

“That person will be responsible for actually running the incubator … the day-to-day administrative duties,” she adds.

Empire State Development awarded the funding that will benefit the 3,000-square-foot business incubator located at 20 Utica St. in Hamilton.

The organizations will spend a “large portion” of the remaining funding on programming and marketing. The programming could include experts on building a website, dealing with taxes and labor laws, and matters pertaining to agriculture. 

Both Colgate and PCD want “to try to reach as many people as possible to help drive economic development in the region and then have the incubator as the hub,” says Galvez.

The funding will “solidify” the space as an official New York State-certified business incubator, “the only designee this year” for Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties, according to Colgate.

The incubator, described as a “low-cost alternative” to renting an office, also provides Hamilton–area startups with access to Colgate’s entrepreneurship program and mentors, the school added. 

“The thought that we can really help drive economic development and sustainable development is really exciting for me, and I think this grant is really going to help us do that,” says Galvez.

About the grant recipients

TIA is an entrepreneurship program that started with Colgate alumni a decade ago, says Michael Sciola, associate VP of institutional advancement and career initiatives at Colgate. It was started initially for Colgate students. Both Sciola and Galvez spoke with CNYBJ in a Feb. 12 telephone conference call.

Colgate’s TIA initiative, now in its 10th year, has helped 528 entrepreneurs to develop 349 ventures, the school said.

Established in 1998, the nonprofit PCD “works to enhance sustainable economic opportunity and community vitality in the village and town of Hamilton and the surrounding areas,” per its website.

“We are very excited about the implementation of this grant and the impact it will have on our community,” Jennifer Marotto Lutter, executive director of the PCD, said in a Colgate news release. “The PCD has worked very hard over the years to create a favorable entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the expansion of co-working incubator services and staffing will take us to a new level.”

About the incubator

Colgate leases the 20 Utica St. property in downtown Hamilton. The site was once home to a car dealership and a hardware store, says Sciola

TIA three years ago opened the incubator up to local residents who weren’t Colgate students, he adds.

Colgate eventually approached the PCD and learned that it had conducted a survey to find out how many home-based startup businesses were operating in the area. “We very quickly identified that there was great interest and opportunity to support our local businesses more,” says Sciola.

He calls the grant funding a “game changer” for Colgate, Hamilton, and the PCD. 

When it was decided to open the incubator to people who aren’t enrolled at Colgate, it provided a chance for students to meet people from the community, says Sciola. The additional funding will allow the school to “broaden and deepen that experience” and the overall relationship with the Hamilton community.

“The goal of what we want out of this grant is to broaden and diversify the economic base here and to bring new people to our area to start businesses and to stay. That is a win-win for everybody,” says Sciola.