ESD awards COR Development, Oneida County organizations grant funding

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COR Development Company, LLC will use a $3.6 million state grant for work on its Loguen Crossing project, a mixed-use commercial and residential-redevelopment project. That

The Bonadio Group, Orchard Park firm agree to merge

Banks & Credit Unions, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Regional News

The Bonadio Group, a Rochester–based accounting firm with offices in Syracuse and Utica, has reached an agreement to merge with Bevilacqua & Co. in the

NBT Bank hires director of digital banking

Banks & Credit Unions, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Regional News, Technology

NORWICH — NBT Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Joseph Stagliano announced that Nageshwara Ammiraju has joined NBT Bancorp as senior vice president and

Solar project provides living lab at Clarkson University

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Health Care, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

POTSDAM — A planned 2 megawatt solar array near Potsdam will do more than just provide nearly 10 percent of the power used at Clarkson University. It will also give students access to real-world data to use throughout their studies to better prepare them for the jobs awaiting them after graduation, the school says. On

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On Oct. 6, Clarkson announced it was partnering with Community Energy Solar of Radnor, Pa., which designed and will build the solar array on university property on Route 11 adjacent to Damon Field, Potsdam’s airport.

The 7,704 photovoltaic modules, situated on 12 acres, will generate about 2.8 million kilowatt hours per year, which is enough to power about 300 homes. It is also the equivalent of the power produced by burning 2,000 tons of coal or 4,500 barrels of oil. Making the switch to the sustainable power will cut the university’s carbon-dioxide emissions by 2,100 tons annually.

This ties in with the university’s promise to eliminate net greenhouse-gas emissions from certain campus operations and to promote the research and educational efforts to better equip society to re-stabilize the Earth’s climate. Those are promises Clarkson made when it signed on to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, says Dr. Susan Powers, a professor in sustainable energy systems at Clarkson’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment.

“We have to be at the forefront of what we think the future is all about,” she says. Just as importantly, the university also has to teach its students with that future in mind. That’s why she’s so excited by the solar array, currently being installed and set to go online in November.

Community Energy will own and operate the array, selling the energy to Clarkson at approximately the same price Clarkson is currently paying for its power. Community Energy will also share classroom-friendly data with the university, Powers adds.

“We’re really excited about having the info and data,” she says. The solar array essentially provides a living laboratory on campus and will provide information that can be used in many courses of study. Classes from calculus to energy-related classes will be able to use the data in a variety of ways, Powers says.

Even better, the information is “real world” data, which will add another element to learning. “Real data is messy,” Powers says. “It’s missing values. It’s very, very different than textbook data.” And Clarkson students will have to learn how to work around those gaps, just as they would out in the “real world,” she says. “It adds to the relevance of what they’re studying.”

Over the past decade, Community Energy has partnered with about 50 colleges and universities to supply them with wind and solar energy, Community Energy Solar Vice President of Developmental Operations Thomas Tuffey said in a release announcing the Clarkson project. Support for the project came from the state’s NY-Sun initiative administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). NY-Sun is a $1 billion initiative to advance solar energy in New York and move the state closer toward having a sustainable, self-sufficient solar industry. Funding for the Clarkson project was part of $54 million awarded under NY-Sun announced in July. The 79 projects funded will add 64 megawatts to the state’s solar capacity.

The solar array joins a number of sustainable practices at Clarkson including an integrated greenhouse to grow vegetables in cold climates, an anaerobic digester that coverts food waste to energy, and green building policies. Clarkson also offers two sustainability minors — sustainable-energy systems engineering and sustainable solutions for the developing world.

Clarkson’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment sponsors workshops, seminars, and a small grants program as well as undergraduate and graduate-level research experiences on renewable energy, clean water, and air-quality projects.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com

Five Star Urgent Care adds wait-time feature to website

Health Care, Subscriber Only, Technology

Five Star Urgent Care, a provider of walk-in, urgent-care services, has launched a new website that enables patients to view current wait times for any of its six medical facilities directly on the home page. Five Star updates the wait times in real time, which it says enables patients to make more informed decisions regarding

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Five Star updates the wait times in real time, which it says enables patients to make more informed decisions regarding their health.

The urgent-care practice announced the new website feature in an Oct. 2 news release.

Five Star says it has “optimized” the new website (www.fivestaruc.com) for desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets so customers may access the wait times while they are at home or on the go, according to the release.

People don’t like to wait, Dr. John Radford, founder of Five Star Urgent Care, says in an interview.

“So we wanted to be transparent and let people know how long wait times would be,” he adds.

Some emergency rooms nationwide have started a similar practice, hoping to redirect traffic from emergency rooms for people minor ailments, according to Radford.

Five Star is aiming to give patients a “heads up” and choice if they’re traveling in an area within driving distance of two sites so the patient can decide which location would have the shortest wait for a visit.

“Our average in and out time is between 30 and 40 minutes, so there’s never really much of a wait time, but there are different peaks and spikes,” says Radford.

The wait-time feature is part of a revamped website for Five Star Urgent Care. Buffalo–based 19 Ideas, a marketing and communications agency, created and manages the Five Star site.

“So, this is like version two of our first website and we just integrated this new feature into it,” says Radford.

Five Star had been discussing and planning for the new site for about a year, he adds.

When asked if Five Star bases the wait times on the number of people in the waiting room or their ailments, Radford replied, “A little of both.”

“It’s primarily based on volume, but we also know that we could have three very simple things there [that] would take a short time to go through, and we may have one patient that would take longer than the time to [handle] the three,” he says.

Five Star adjusts the wait times at individual office locations based on algorithms that it assembled, assigning different time values, depending on the person’s ailment.

For example, Five Star will assign a different time value to a patient seeking treatment for a sore throat than to an individual who fell and needs an X-ray and a suture.

“The [employees] … right at the front desk … are on the front lines putting the times in and updating it … roughly between every 15 and 20 minutes,” says Radford.

Radford declined to disclose how much the new feature cost the company, saying it was part of the overall cost of the website upgrade.

Five Star on Sept. 4 opened a location in Fayetteville, representing its third office in the Syracuse area and sixth overall.

Earlier in the year, it opened a location at 3504 W. Genesee St. in the Fairmount area of Camillus.

Five Star first entered the Syracuse market in May 2013 when it opened a new facility on Route 11 in Cicero.

It also operates offices in Ithaca, Big Flats, and Jamestown.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

EPA gives Onondaga County technical assistance, funding for stormwater project

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

SYRACUSE — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing technical assistance and funding to Onondaga County in planning stormwater and wastewater projects. The EPA is offering a total of $335,000 in assistance to Onondaga County and four other communities in Vermont, New Hampshire, California, and Missouri, the agency said in a news release. It

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Quanterion is ending a banner year on a high note

Subscriber Only, Technology

MARCY — It’s turning out to be a great 2014 for Quanterion Solutions, Inc. The nearly 15-year-old technology company started the year by landing several new contracts and projects that boosted employment, says Preston MacDiarmid, president of Quanterion Solutions. Now the company will end the year on a high note, thanks in part to a

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MARCY — It’s turning out to be a great 2014 for Quanterion Solutions, Inc.

The nearly 15-year-old technology company started the year by landing several new contracts and projects that boosted employment, says Preston MacDiarmid, president of Quanterion Solutions.

Now the company will end the year on a high note, thanks in part to a new $25.4 million, five-year contract for the operation of the Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center (DTRIAC) at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

“We’ve hired 22 people already for the job, which increases our staff to about 65,” MacDiarmid says. The majority of those positions are located in Albuquerque, N.M. and the Washington, D.C. area, he says, but the company is also looking to fill six open positions at the company’s headquarters in Marcy.

The full pipeline of contracts and projects is testament to the company’s successful partnership with the areas of government with which it works, he says.

“I think we’re a model of how that’s done,” MacDiarmid says. Founded in 2000, Quanterion has been steadily increasing its workload since its inception as it continues to handle contracts successfully.

Quanterion serves the defense, commercial, health care, energy, and homeland-defense markets.

In January, Quanterion learned it would be part of a new Department of Defense (DoD) Center of Excellence, the Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC) under an Air Force contract that consolidates six legacy DoD centers with expertise in different critical technologies. Quanterion, which provides quantitative engineering services for critical decision-making, is leading the center’s activities in reliability/quality and materials/manufacturing/testing as well as many software-related activities.

The company was also awarded a U.S. Navy Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract in January to develop its Automated Software Solution for Extraction and Transformation System Simplification (ASSETS²) concept. This project will provide a means to construct and populate a user-definable database that can be tailored to extract data/information from a number of sources, automatically detect and repair anomalies, and transform it to conduct a wide variety to analysis tasks.

Quanterion was awarded two DoD Multiple Award Contracts (MACs), the Homeland Defense Technical Area Tasks (HD TATs) and the Defense Systems Technical Area Tasks (DS TATs). Work addresses homeland defense and security, critical infrastructure protection, biometrics, medical, cultural studies, alternative energy, reliability, quality, maintainability, materials, and manufacturing.

In July, the Air Force exercised a two-year option period for Quanterion’s prime contract to operate the DoD Cyber Security and Information Systems Information Analysis Center (CSIAC) addressing cyber security, software engineering, modeling and simulation, and knowledge management. Under this contract, Quanterion will leverage its partnership in the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) in demonstrating the feasibility of extending its “AgentFly” autonomous airspace control system to real-world, over-the-air multiple platform airspace sense-and-avoid deconfliction. This technology will be demonstrated at Air Force Research Laboratory facilities including its Stockbridge Controllable Contested Environment facility.

The DTRIAC contract, announced in September, runs through August 2019 and includes conducting analytical activities, preserving and expanding the knowledge base, providing research related to mission areas, conducting outreach, and maintaining the information technology readiness and innovation potential. “It’s a huge win for us,” MacDiarmid says.

Quanterion’s revenue is up more than 20 percent year to date and could increase even more if the company lands more contracts. MacDiarmid declined to disclose revenue totals.

To help boost revenue for the future, MacDiarmid says he hopes to increase the company’s business with commercial customers across the state with its IT, cyber security, and asset management services.

Quanterion (www.quanterion.com) currently operates from 5,500 square feet in Kunsela Hall at the SUNY Poly (SUNY Polytechnic Institute) campus in Marcy and also leases 1,500 square feet in the Griffiss Institute in Rome. The company also has five employees on location at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome. Its technical capabilities include reliability, maintainability, quality, and knowledge management; software development and engineering; materials engineering, information technology; and document-management services.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com

Launch NY hires Hammett to lead its fundraising efforts

Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Subscriber Only, Technology

BUFFALO — Launch NY, a nonprofit venture-development organization focused on upstate New York, has appointed Maureen Hammett as director of development and administration. Hammett has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, according to a Sept. 12 Launch NY news release that announced her hiring. She started in her new position on

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BUFFALO — Launch NY, a nonprofit venture-development organization focused on upstate New York, has appointed Maureen Hammett as director of development and administration.

Hammett has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, according to a Sept. 12 Launch NY news release that announced her hiring. She started in her new position on Aug. 18.

Hammett most recently spent eight years in various leadership roles for RuffaloCODY, a privately held company providing software and services/consulting to the not-for-profit world. In her role as executive vice president for the fundraising management division of the company, she managed a team of sales executives responsible for a significant portion of the company’s overall revenue.

Prior to her tenure with RuffaloCODY, Hammett worked more than 13 years at the University at Buffalo (UB), including nine years in various leadership roles in university development. She was on board during UB’s successfully completed Generation to Generation $250 million comprehensive campaign, the release stated.

Launch NY, which has received $8 million in public and philanthropic funding, says it works to identify, support, and invest in high-growth, high-impact companies and catalyze the entrepreneurial culture in 27 counties across Upstate. In her new role, Hammett will work closely with Marnie LaVigne, who was recently appointed as the CEO of Launch NY.

Hammett’s expertise in fundraising and management will help to position Launch NY for the future, and build off recent momentum from LaVigne’s taking the helm of the organization, the news release contended.

Launch NY’s executive offices are situated in UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, located on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It also has entrepreneurs-in-residence working in the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca markets. Paul Brooks is Launch NY’s entrepreneur-in-residence for the Syracuse area.

Hammett has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary education and a master’s in student personnel administration from Buffalo State College.

Lockheed signs manufacturing pact with waste-to-energy firm

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

OWEGO — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) on Oct. 9 inked an agreement with Concord Blue Energy, Inc. making it the “exclusive manufacturing provider” of the firm’s reformer technology. The technology converts waste to energy using advanced conversion technology, Lockheed said in a news release distributed Oct. 10. Concord Blue says it specializes in transforming

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OWEGO — Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) on Oct. 9 inked an agreement with Concord Blue Energy, Inc. making it the “exclusive manufacturing provider” of the firm’s reformer technology.

The technology converts waste to energy using advanced conversion technology, Lockheed said in a news release distributed Oct. 10.

Concord Blue says it specializes in transforming nearly any form of waste into a variety of clean, renewable fuels and energy.

Concord Blue USA, Inc. is headquartered in Los Angeles. The firm also operates international offices in India, Germany, and Dubai.

The gasification reformer includes a tower, Mauricio (Mo) Vargas, Lockheed Martin’s program manager for bioenergy, says in an Oct. 14 interview.

“We will be the people to build many of the parts and pieces that are inside the tower,” says Vargas.

The Lockheed Martin site in Owego will be home to the first gasification reformer, a 250-kilowatt Concord Blue facility, constructed under the agreement, says Vargas.

When asked if the Owego site will manufacture additional reformers, Vargas indicated the firm hasn’t yet made a decision on that.

“It could be in Owego. It could be in Baltimore,” he added.

For the initial project, Lockheed Martin is hoping to partner with a firm in the Buffalo area for the manufacturing work, but Vargas declined to disclose the company’s name.

“The reason … [the agreement] was signed in Owego was because the first project we’re going to build is [for] the Owego facility,” says Vargas.

Dan Heller, vice president of new ventures for Lockheed Martin’s mission systems and training business, and Christopher (Charlie) Thannhaeuser, chairman and CEO of Concord Blue, signed the manufacturing agreement.

Working relationship
Lockheed Martin learned about Concord Blue while interviewing companies in its search for a partner in handling biomass, municipal solid waste, and other by-products.

Lockheed wanted a partner to avoid disposing the waste in landfills, says Vargas.

“After about a year-and-a-half to two-year process, Concord Blue ended up being the company that we selected to partner with,” he added.

The Owego site of Lockheed Martin includes a bioenergy plant that the firm uses for heating and cooling purposes.

Lockheed Martin and Concord Blue Energy in 2013 forged an agreement to offer an advanced waste-conversion system to address waste disposal, energy security, and climate-control issues.

Vargas described the 2013 document as the “teaming agreement,” which set the parameters and the focus of the firms’ working relationship.

“What we signed last week [on Oct. 9] was the actual licensing for the manufacturing,” explains Vargas.

When asked about potential customers, Vargas indicated “a lot” of Fortune 50 industrial customers are interested in a product to help them manage their sustainability efforts, along with several nations, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, China, India, Brazil, Spain, and Germany.

Advanced waste conversion is an “emerging” technology that uses gasification processes to convert waste products to electricity, heat, and synthetic fuels.

It addresses the current burden on landfills, conventional incineration, and fossil fuels, along with the desire for green energy, Lockheed said.

Concord Blue’s waste-to-energy process employs a patented technology called steam thermolysis to convert waste material using heat transfer instead of incineration, “efficiently” producing syngas without combustion.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a security and aerospace company that employs about 113,000 people globally. The firm focuses on the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services.

In Central New York, Lockheed Martin operates sites in Owego and Salina.

The corporation generated net sales of $45.4 billion in 2013, Lockheed Martin said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

ABA Survey: Internet is still consumers’ top banking method, but mobile and branches gain popularity

Banks & Credit Unions, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Subscriber Only, Technology

While the Internet is still America’s most popular banking method, mobile banking has steadily gained momentum and is now preferred by 10 percent of consumers — up from 8 percent in 2013. That’s according to a recent survey by the American Bankers Association (ABA). The annual survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted for

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The annual survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted for ABA by Ipsos Public Affairs, an independent market-research firm, from Aug. 7-12. This is the sixth year in a row that customers have said the Internet is their favorite way of conducting their banking business, albeit by a slimmer margin than last year, the ABA noted.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said it’s the method they use most often to manage their bank accounts, down from 39 percent in 2013.

The second most popular way to bank — visiting a branch office — increased to 21 percent, while those preferring to use ATMs rose to 14 percent, according to the survey.

Nessa Feddis, ABA’s senior vice president and deputy chief counsel for consumer protection and payments, noted in a news release that this growth reflects banks’ recent investment in technological upgrades to enhance efficiency and customer service in these areas.

“Advances in technology have enabled banks to expand customer choices and make it easier for consumers to manage their account anywhere, any time,” Feddis said in the release. “Consumers can deposit their check through a teller or interactive kiosk at a local branch, at an ATM or through an app on their mobile device.

Most people use a mix of these methods.”

When asked “Which method do you use most often to manage your bank account(s)?” customers responded as follows:

Internet banking (laptop or PC) – 31% (39% in 2013)
Branches – 21% (18% in 2013)
ATMs – 14% (11% in 2013)
Mobile (cell phone, Blackberry, PDA, iPad, etc.) – 10% (8% in 2013)
Telephone – 7% (7% in 2013)
Mail – 6% (7% in 2013)
Don’t know – 11% (10% in 2013)

“It’s clear that branches are still popular with many bank customers,” said Feddis. “When people are conducting a complex transaction like opening an account or applying for a home or business loan, they often prefer to do it in person. We’re seeing a branch renaissance in some areas, with many banks transforming their branches to become more efficient and customer-friendly.”

Online banking first became the most preferred banking method in the U.S. in 2009 with 25 percent of customers naming it as their favorite. Previously, visiting a branch was the most popular method, followed by ATMs.

The American Bankers Association says it represents the nation’s $14 trillion banking industry, including small, regional, and large banks that together employ more than 2 million people.

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