SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO will use a $40,000 grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) to establish an export catalyst pilot program.

 

The program will target the region’s middle-market businesses, according to a news release from CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for the 12-county region.  

 

The program will match export specialists with area companies to provide analysis and support for export growth.

 

Through mentoring and one-on-one skills training, company staff will “gain the knowledge and experience they need to continue to grow internationally,” CenterState CEO contends.

 

“Too often, middle-market companies face multiple barriers to growing their business internationally,” Bill Dehmer, managing director and market president for JPMorgan Chase, said in the CenterState CEO release. “Our support for CenterState CEO is one more way we are helping Central New York businesses successfully navigate a complex global marketplace.”

 

The export catalyst pilot program “builds” on the work CenterState CEO and its partners started through the CenterState metropolitan-export initiative, developed as part of the global-cities initiative, a joint project of the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase, “further advancing its joint global-trade strategy,” the release stated.

 

“For the last three years we have worked with businesses throughout the region, engaging them in global opportunities and are beginning to see results,” Robert Simpson, president of CenterState CEO, said. “We are grateful to JPMorgan Chase and the Brookings Institution for their continued support as we advance our strategies and goals to increase the number of businesses that are exporting. Through this program we will be well positioned to leverage global opportunities to create a more sustainable and productive economy.”

 

How it will work

The pilot program will match four to six companies with export specialists to provide market identification and assessment, entry requirements, and buyer-identification services.

 

The goal is to “catalyze export growth for companies that have a globally competitive product but lack experience or capacity for international sales,” according to the release.

 

The Central New York International Business Alliance (CNYIBA) will also work with businesses to help them “establish and grow their international sales.”

 

The total cost of the export catalyst pilot program is $52,000, and CenterState and the CNYIBA are contributing the other $12,000 not provided by JPMorgan Chase, according to a CenterState CEO spokeswoman.

 

“Fundamental to the expansion of sales outside our borders is a knowledge base to construct a successful road map to permit businesses in our community to flourish in the global marketplace,” Alan Fink, president of the CNYIBA, said in the CenterState CEO release. “The export catalyst pilot program brings to Central New York an exceptional opportunity for companies participating to gain a … resource to assist with the right choices for expansion of their international sales network and strategies for new market entry. Export sales do account for significant revenues for companies here locally and efforts of this kind will pave way to allow more Central New York companies to profit similarly.”

 

Following the pilot program, CenterState CEO plans to expand and create a permanent program to “ensure continued growth” for middle-market companies in the area. 

 

 

 

CHITTENANGO — Kinney Drugs opened its newly relocated Chittenango store May 27.

 

The new and expanded store is situated in a shopping plaza at 540 Genesee St., about two blocks from Kinney’s previous location at 703 E. Genesee St. The company says it has operated in the Chittenango market for the past 20 years.

 

Kinney Drugs plans a formal grand opening and ribbon cutting for June 13, according to a company news release.

 

Employees from the previous location, which was comprised of nine full-time and 25 part-time employees, now staff the new store, according to Caroline Tisdell, marketing communications coordinator for Kinney Drugs. She says the company does not have plans to increase the number of staff.

 

Kinney Drugs is leasing the property on which its new store sits, a location it has been pursuing for about three years, says Tisdell. The owner of the land is East Syracuse–based SMP Chittenango LLC, according to Madison County’s property records.

 

Syracuse–based Montreal Construction Inc. served as general contractor on the project. Subcontractors included Cicero–based AHR Mechanical, Inc., for electrical work, East Syracuse–based JOH Commercial Flooring Inc., Syracuse–based DBR Plumbing Inc., and Syracuse–based Quality Mechanical Services, LLC, for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

 

The new Kinney Drugs features a larger retail selection of nutritional, weight management, personal care, and beauty products, and will sell home medical equipment. The larger inventory is expected to boost sales, Tisdell told CNYBJ. She did not specify if the company has a targeted growth number.

 

The store also offers added health and wellness services, and has a pharmacy consultation room and a drive-up window for picking up prescriptions, according to the release.

 

Store and pharmacy hours are the same as the previous location.

 

Kinney Drugs is based in Gouverneur and is the drug store division of KPH Healthcare Services, Inc. It operates more than 100 stores in Central and Northern New York and Vermont, filling about 8 million prescriptions annually, making it the 4th largest chain drug retailer in the country, according to its website.                     

 

 

CAMILLUS — St. Germain & Aupperle Consulting Engineers, PLLC, plans to move to a new building currently under construction at the corner of West Genesee Street and Windcrest Drive in Camillus.

 

The site is a short distance down the street from the structural engineering firm’s current home at 6000 West Genesee St., where it has been since 2003.

 

The company began searching for a larger home three years ago, says owner and president Richard Aupperle, III. It found the site of its future home two years ago, completed the purchase in November 2014, and broke ground this March 16.

 

St. Germain & Aupperle is operating as the project’s general contractor, says Aupperle. He hopes to move into the new building by Christmas, with construction ideally wrapping up a month prior.

 

The building’s floor plan is approximately 3,500 square feet, about twice the size of the firm’s current space, which Aupperle estimates at between 1,600 and 1,800 square feet. Previous designs included a small second story above the building’s entrance, but Aupperle says the firm decided to cut it to reduce costs.

 

The company is paying for the project through a mix of company funds and a line of credit through M&T Bank, Aupperle told CNYBJ. He declined to disclose the total project costs or the company’s revenue history.

 

Aupperle’s wife, Maria Aupperle, created the architectural design for the new building, and his brother Andrew, president of Camillus–based Siteworks Land Developers, is handling the project site work. The foundation was laid by Superior Walls of America, Ltd., says Aupperle.

 

The electrical, framing, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) elements are each being handled by other local, independent contractors, Aupperle adds.

 

Making the new office more energy efficient is a goal, says Aupperle, so the designs call for extra insulation that exceeds code requirements. The company also decided to use as many renewable resources as possible, so it is using wood for a large portion of the building’s materials, including the entire frame.

 

Building a brand new office also means having an improved electrical system, which isn’t difficult because St. Germain & Aupperle’s current offices are in a converted train station built in 1915, says Aupperle. The wiring is literally under the floorboards and inside the wooden trim that lines the ceiling.

 

The firm’s current computer network is essentially a Band-Aid, says office manager Gary Weiermann. Its new home will be wired to accommodate modern technologies, and be adaptable for future technology.

 

Making space

When the company first moved into its current home in 2003, it had three employees. Weiermann says the office first began feeling cramped about four years ago, at which point the firm had seven employees.

 

Today, it has 11 full-time employees: seven engineers, three draftsmen, and an office manager (Weiermann).

 

“It’s pretty simple: We’re out of space,” Weiermann tells CNYBJ.

 

“We don’t have any of the amenities here that we really need to be more efficient,” says Aupperle. There is no conference room, no break area, and no room for the very loud — and very hot — printer used to print building designs. That piece of equipment is located behind an employee’s chair.

 

The office used to have a table that was used to lay out drawings, which Aupperle says is needed so engineers can gather around and talk about the designs. 

However, it had to be removed to make space for more employees.

 

Now, Aupperle says meetings are held in his office, or around his drafting table, which is a detriment to more than just his workers. “A lot of the larger meetings we’d like to offer to our clients, we can’t do.”

 

The new building will fix all of that, according to Aupperle. It has a large conference room, a printer room, and a fixed table approximately 12 feet long by 3 feet wide for laying out drawings and designs. The company’s seven engineers will have their own offices as well. “We’re trying to make it a very productive environment for the whole company,” says Aupperle.

 

The new location will not only provide much-needed breathing room, he adds, but also offer the chance to grow, both in terms of the workload and employees.

 

The finished building will look decidedly house-like, which Aupperle says was intentional. “The purpose of the design was to try to blend in with the neighborhood, because we’re on a commercial street, but we’re also at the corner of a neighborhood.”

 

He says a number of the company’s new neighbors came to zoning board meetings (the plot was previously residential land, which had to be changed to commercial), which afforded Aupperle the chance to interact and work with residents. He says they seem to have appreciated his company’s efforts to fit in.

 

“At the end of the day, they were very happy that it was going to be a local company, [and that] it was a professional office use, so there’s not a lot of in and out traffic,” he says. “And they were ultimately just glad it wasn’t a McDonald’s.”

 

St. Germain & Aupperle has been involved in projects in New England and down the East Coast, but most of its work is in Central New York. It worked on the Landmark Theatre’s Stage House expansion in Syracuse, Destiny USA’s pedestrian bridge that crosses Hiawatha Boulevard, and many of the buildings at the Township 5 retail development in Camillus, according to Aupperle.

 

A large portion of the company’s contracts have been renovation projects for buildings in Syracuse, he added.

 

The company was founded in 1968 by Richard St. Germain, who operated it from his East Syracuse home for many years, says Aupperle. In 2003, four years after joining the company, Aupperle became a partner. When Rich St. Germain retired in 2013, Aupperle became the sole owner, and the firm changed from a partnership to a corporation.

 

Prior to joining St. Germain, Aupperle says he worked for Clough Harbour & Associates LLP, where his work focused on bridge inspection and design. He is a native of Marcellus.        

 

 

ROME — Rsignia, Inc., a Maryland–based cybersecurity technology company, opened a new satellite lab at the Griffiss Institute at 725 Daedalian Drive in Rome in early April.

 

Rsignia established the 240-square-foot lab to gain a foothold in upstate New York, according to Nancy Dillman, Rsignia’s president, CEO, and majority owner, citing the region’s “great talent pool” and business opportunities as decisive factors.

 

One such opportunity is with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, which is located at the same site — the Griffiss Business and Technology Park — as the institute. The AFRL conducts research for new and affordable cyber technologies, and other technologies, according to its website.

 

The Griffiss Institute is a nonprofit that conducts technology transfer activities. Specifically, it takes “technology that is in the Air Force Research Laboratory portfolio and [tries] to bring it out into the world and commercialize it,” says James Cusack, principal engineer at the institute.

 

The Griffiss Institute is providing Rsignia with the lab space at no cost — for the time being, at least — through its business incubator program, according to Cusack. Apart from the lab space, the institute offers Rsignia high-speed Internet access, gives advice regarding government contracting work, and connects it to parts of the AFRL that are relevant to the company’s field, says Cusack.

 

In return, says Griffiss Institute Director William Wolf, Rsignia shares some of its services. For example, it provides solutions to some of the institute’s IT issues, and has worked to improve both the capabilities and the safety measures of the institute’s large research network. Cusack says once the company begins to generate profits, the institute will explore charging Rsignia for use of its facilities.

 

Rsignia has four employees — one full time and three part time — staffing the new lab. Eventually, says Dillman, it would like to have about 25 employees working from there. The company as a whole currently has 10 employees — five full time, and five part time.

 

“We think that would be sufficient enough to support various projects that we have in the works,” she says, adding that positions in Rome, at least in the first year, will remain a mix of part and full time, and will ideally be filled by people living in the area.

 

Most new positions would be created for engineers. Mathematics, telecommunications, big data analysis, and eventually biometrics analysis are areas that will be in demand, says Joshua S. White, Rsignia’s chief scientist and vice president, and the lone full-time employee at the Rome lab.

 

Rsignia’s focus

The company’s focus within the cybersecurity realm is in social-network analysis, in which White says he has an extensive background. White is an Ithaca native who earned his doctorate in engineering science from Clarkson University. He teaches at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, near Utica.

 

The company analyzes social-network data for a variety of purposes, according to White. Work at the lab is focused on developing a large, distributed system that can analyze data from different customers with different needs. It is developing several tools for this general purpose, some for commercial use and others for government.

 

One use for analyzing social-network data is to conduct predictive modeling of human behavior, according to White, which he says can be used to detect potential security threats.

 

“You can develop things like psychological profiles of people based on the things that they write and the things that they post,” he says, the purpose being “to do predictive modeling to see whether or not they’re, let’s say, going to become an extremist or launch a cyber attack.” This is done, he explains, by looking at a person’s online behavior over longer periods of time.

 

In the hypothetical situation of an underground chat room where participants are discussing hacking into a website, for example, “more than 99 percent of it is just a bunch of hype. It’s just a bunch of people talking,” says White. “The question is, can you single out that one person that truly is the bad guy?” Rsignia develops profiles of very specific types of people who could be a threat, and then sifts through data looking for them, according to White.

 

Rsignia is nearing the release of its first commercial product of the year, called Cyberscope, which is a suite of services that offers, amongst other things, flexible social-network analysis. White says organizations such as universities or news agencies, for example, may purchase Cyberscope in order to gain a good understanding of the organization’s “state or role in the world of social media.”

 

Other capabilities he listed include situational awareness, content inspection, intelligent monitoring and forensics, and countermeasure, alert, and offensive operations.

 

He says Cyberscope is nearly complete. Pieces like instruction manuals and marketing materials are in the works in preparation for its release.

 

Strategic partnerships

Dillman says the collective presence, in Rome, of Research Associates of Syracuse (111 Dart Circle), the Cyber Research Institute (725 Daedalian Drive), and the AFRL Information Directorate (26 Electronic Parkway), made the decision to set up shop in the area “strategically” smart.

 

Research Associates of Syracuse (RAS) works in the area of electronic warfare, according to its website, in support of the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community. It focuses on electronic support, electronic attack, and signals intelligence.

 

According to White, RAS designs and builds hardware that is able to compute statistics from live data feeds very quickly. Its technology, he adds, can be adapted to work with Rsignia’s algorithms, which would allow Rsignia to compute its type of data much faster than it could before.

 

For example, says White, to analyze live Twitter feeds means processing “10s of millions of messages a day,” and to do Rsignia’s type of data analysis, “you would need an entire rack of servers … Research Associates of Syracuse can do all of it on a single, little, tiny card the size of a matchbook.”

 

The Cyber Research Institute (CRI), according to its website, is a collaboration of institutions that largely seeks to promote partnerships in order to protect and improve the cyber-based economy, infrastructure, and workforce in New York.

 

CRI helps confirm Rsignia’s mathematics in some projects, as well as to look over its reports and help with proposals, says White. CRI also has extra space that Rsignia can use when needed.

 

Partnerships between Rsignia and each institution were established in the past few weeks, says White. The process was aided by his past work experience with the vice president of software programs at RAS, John Stacy, as well as CRI’s executive director, John Bay.

 

Rsignia is also working on growing its relationship with the AFRL Information Directorate.

 

“We are working out some agreements with them to, kind of, share our technology and share resources back and forth,” says White. “AFRL has a great internal program for development of different technologies. They have a really great record of passing things, and a lot of those technologies are available for commercial organizations to actually take out, license, and then integrate into their product. So we’re working with them to do that same sort of thing. But they’re also interested in bringing in some of our technology because we do have unique mathematical algorithms and ways of computing data very quickly.”

 

Rebooting Rsignia

Rsignia is part of the Griffiss Institute’s incubation program because it is, essentially a start-up. A more accurate description would be to call it a “reboot.” Founded in 2008 by its current chief technology officer, Darrell Covell, it had not been in operation since the end of 2012. That year, says Dillman, the company’s president, “some of [Rsignia’s] assets were acquired by a larger defense contractor who really wanted some of the technology” that Rsignia had developed.

 

Covell, who Dillman describes as a serial entrepreneur, decided to work with the defense contractor for two years in order to help it incubate the technology. During this period, Rsignia lay dormant.

 

After his two-year stint with the contractor, says Dillman, Covell decided to reboot Rsignia, saying that he missed the agility that a small company allows, the ability to get things done quickly and to pursue more innovative technology.

 

Dillman says she and White both joined Rsignia on Feb. 2, in essence restarting the Rsignia engine. White says he has worked with Covell in the past, the first time around 15 years ago when White was a junior engineer. White says he was working for a company that was subcontracted under another that Covell either worked for or owned.

 

Dillman says she spent most of her life in the federal government. “I knew what sort of capabilities, products, and services were out there to help government,” she says. “I knew what we didn’t have, and what we needed.”

 

Rsignia doesn’t have any other products slated to come out this year, according to White, but it does have two in the pipeline: one for early 2016, and one for mid-2016. He would not say what the products are, adding that the firm has dozens on the drawing board that are being explored.        

 

 

 

CICERO — Syracuse Label & Surround Printing is preparing to build a new 60,000-square-foot facility to call home on a 6-acre plot at Hancock Airpark in Cicero.

 

The company prints labels for consumer packaging, such as unsupported films, lid stock, and pouch structures. Specific products include flexible packaging, pressure sensitive labels, cartons, and shrink sleeves, according to its website.

 

Syracuse Label, currently located at 110 Luther Ave. in Salina, is still finalizing the purchase of the Hancock Airpark plot from Onondaga County, which has priced the land at $229,000. The nearly 6-acre space is comprised of two adjacent parcels, according to the president of Syracuse Label, Kathleen Alaimo.

 

The company hired VIP Structures as general contractor for the project on May 22, according to VIP’s chief marketing officer, Meghan Tidd.

 

VIP Structures, which is based in Syracuse at 1 Webster’s Landing, is a design-build company that will handle the design, engineering, and construction of the facility.

 

Construction will ideally begin in July or August, says Alaimo, but much ground needs to be covered before then. VIP is still in the preliminary design phase, having been hired only recently, says Tidd, meaning no renderings of the completed building have been made, and the subcontractor bidding process has not yet begun.

 

Despite that, Tidd says a July or August groundbreaking is well within reason because of VIP’s design-build method, which condenses the planning process. This allows VIP to begin construction faster than the traditional method, in which a building’s design and construction phases are handled by separate companies, sandwiched around a bidding process, she says.

 

Syracuse Label wants to have the new structure’s framing up by this winter so that the plumbing and HVAC elements can be worked on during the cold months, says Alaimo. She says the company is targeting an April 2016, move-in.

 

Syracuse Label was approved for multiple financial incentives by the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA). The company was awarded a 10-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program. The value of the PILOT — how much money it will save Syracuse Label — won’t  be known until construction is complete and the property value is assessed, according to Julie Cerio, director of Onondaga County’s Office of Economic Development, OCIDA’s parent organization.

 

The company was also awarded a credit on the state’s mortgage recording tax, valued between $40,000 and $50,000 depending on the amount of mortgage the company takes out, according to Alaimo. It was also granted up to $250,000 of sales tax relief for building materials.

 

The firm also owes OCIDA approximately $67,000, a fee valued at 1 percent of the total estimated project cost presented to OCIDA, according to Cerio.

 

Alaimo told CNYBJ that Syracuse Label would have been forced to stay put without the assistance.

 

The company doesn’t have any immediate plans to hire more employees, says Alaimo, adding that the opportunities afforded by the larger space may lead to growth down the line. She estimated the company’s 2014 revenue at about $18 million.

 

Estimated project costs reported by the company to OCIDA during the application process totaled more than $6.6 million. That includes $4,889,000 for building and construction, $269,000 for engineering, $1 million for machinery and equipment, and the $229,000 for buying the property, according to OCIDA documents. Other project costs were not disclosed in the documents.

 

Alaimo says Syracuse Label is receiving bids from banks looking to provide it with a line of credit to help cover the project costs. She did not name the banks.

 

Why move?

First and foremost, the purpose of the move is to increase space, says Alaimo. “Our current building is comprised of multiple buildings we’ve put together over the years, so it’s not as efficient as it can be,” she says. “As we would grow through the years, we would buy our neighbors and expand into the adjacent building.”

 

Syracuse Label’s current location, and home of 40 years, comprises between 35,000 and 38,000 square feet, Alaimo told CNYBJ. The new location’s production space alone will be nearly as large, at approximately 33,000 square feet. Another 18,000 square feet will be devoted to warehouse space, and roughly 9,000 to office space.

 

Having the extra room will improve the company’s efficiency — its use of space, its manufacturing process, the flow of materials in and out — and will keep the company competitive with bigger label companies, Alaimo contends.

 

The entire building will be climate-controlled, whereas the manufacturing space in the firm’s current location is not. This, along with the added space, will allow Syracuse Label to expand its use of shrink sleeves, a kind of form-fitting label material that can wrap around various containers. It’s a more recent product added to the company’s offerings, but Alaimo says its use has been limited because of space constraints and the material’s sensitivity to heat.

 

The company plans to reach out to National Grid and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to learn best practices of climate control.

 

Syracuse Label has 80 employees, all but two of whom are full-time, says Alaimo, who has been with the company for more than 30 years. She was named president in 2007, the same year the company became 100 percent employee owned.        

 

 

LYSANDER — PaperWorks Industries, Inc. is moving into a new space in Lysander that nearly triples its operating capacity.

 

Paperworks is a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania–based firm that produces specialized folding cartons.

 

The company signed a lease for more than 492,000 square feet of space in a warehouse located at 2900 McLane Drive in Lysander.

 

Paperworks has been operating in a 175,000-square-foot space at 8800 Sixty Road in Lysander, according to its website.

 

Dennis Hennessy, vice president of COR Brokerage, announced the lease agreement in a May 29 news release.

 

“They expanded their operation in Baldwinsville … because business is going well,” says Hennessy.

 

The lease took effect June 1, Hennessy told CNYBJ in a phone interview.

 

Both sides completed the lease arrangement in late April, he added.

 

“I was able to … get an owner who was willing to work hard to put a deal together and a tenant who was … in need of … all [its] Syracuse operations under one roof,” says Hennessy.

 

The deal involved between six and seven months of negotiations. Hicker flew in from Southern California, and the PaperWorks CFO traveled to Central New York from the Philadelphia area.

 

“They had a very cordial meeting,” says Hennessy. “It was an all-day meeting.”

 

In the news release, Hennessy called it “one of the largest industrial warehouse leases ever brokered in Central New York.”

 

Hennessy represented Orangeball, LLC, the entity that owns the property, he says. Mark Rupprecht, senior broker in the Syracuse office of CBRE, Inc., represented PaperWorks, he added.

 

CNYBJ requested comment from PaperWorks Industries Inc. but the company didn’t respond to an inquiry before press time.

 

PaperWorks’ long-term commitment, which extends through 2032, is a “tremendous win” for the Syracuse area, George Hicker, managing partner of Orangeball, said in the COR news release.

 

Hicker is also known for his days with the Syracuse University men’s basketball team between 1965 and 1968.

 

Besides his role in the ownership entity Orangeball, Hicker is the founder and president of Sherman Oaks, California–based Cardinal Industrial, according to its website. 

 

The company owns a portfolio of “mostly industrial warehouse assets located throughout the United States containing approximately 14 million [square feet], valued in excess of $600 [million],” the website says.

 

The Lysander location of PaperWorks is its “largest” in North America, according to the COR news release. The firm currently employs more than 250 Central New York residents.

 

The site was once the local home of the Bloomfield, Colorado–based Ball Corp., which is a provider of metal packaging for beverages, foods and household products. It also provides “other technologies and services to commercial and governmental customer,” its website says.

 

Ball has since sold the division that had operations in Lysander and ceased those operations, according to Hennessy.