The past year in Central New York business news featured a spate of expansion projects and mergers and acquisitions. The Business Journal also brought you news of business consolidations, moves, key new executive hires, and a whole lot more. Below is a month-by-month recap of the year that was in Central New York business news, as we reported it.

JANUARY

In January, we told you about the latest expansion for Eric Mower and Associates (EMA). The Syracuse–based firm combined with Cincinnati–based advertising agency Strata-G Communications. The move brought EMA more than 35 people and $35 million in capitalized billings. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. EMA also has offices in Atlanta, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Charlotte, N.C. The company employs 215 people and generated estimated capitalized billings of $210 million for 2011.

The first month of 2012 also brought news of a new three-year contract for Community Bank President and CEO Mark Tryniski. The deal pays a base salary of $620,000 and took effect Jan. 1. It expires Dec. 31, 2014. Tryniski’s previous employment agreement ran from March 18, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011 and paid a base salary of $454,000.

Tryniski is also eligible for incentive pay. His total pay in 2010 was more than $1.3 million, including bonuses and stock-based compensation, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

We told you as well in January about the sale of East Syracuse Chevrolet. Sidney Greenberg sold the car business to Gino Barbuto, an employee of East Syracuse Chevrolet for 25 years. Barbuto had been an operating partner, owning 15 percent of the dealership, since 2010. He had been its general manager since 2009 and had been discussing an ownership change with Greenberg for about five years.

 

FEBRUARY

February brought news of an acquisition for Tompkins Financial Corp. (NYSE Amex: TMP). The Ithaca–based community banking company closed its deal for VIST Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: VIST) of Wyomissing, Pa. on Aug. 1.

The $86 million deal brought Tompkins a presence in southeast Pennsylvania. The acquisition gave Tompkins Financial $5 billion in total assets, $3.8 billion in deposits, $2.9 billion in loans, and 67 branches in Pennsylvania and the Central, Western, and Hudson Valley regions of New York. The company also owns insurance and financial advising subsidiaries.

During the month, we first reported on job cuts at Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANEN). The company has reduced its workforce of 1,000 employees by 19 percent since July 2011, saving about $6.6 million on salaries and benefits. Anaren has locations in the Syracuse area, New Hampshire, Colorado, and China. The firm develops and manufactures components and subsystems for applications in sectors including satellite communications, defense, and wireless communications.

We also learned in February that Aspen Athletic Clubs would open a location in downtown Syracuse. The downtown club, Aspen’s third, opened in Onondaga Tower, the former HSBC Tower, at 125 E. Jefferson St. The 6,000-square-foot space includes cardiovascular equipment such as treadmills and elliptical machines, free weights, strength-training resistance machines, and a 10-person spinning room.

 

MARCH

In March, we learned Varian (NYSE: VAR) agreed to purchase privately owned InfiMed, a developer of medical-imaging hardware and software, for $15 million, plus payments based on the sales of InfiMed products over the next two years. The transaction included InfiMed’s headquarters at 121 Metropolitan Park Drive in Salina.

Varian manufactures medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. It supplies tubes and digital detectors for medical, scientific, and industrial X-ray imaging.

InfiMed employed about 60 people at the time of the announcement.

We also reported on the purchase of the Learbury Centre at 329 N. Salina St. by Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare (SBH). The purchase gave SBH, which provides treatment and rehabilitation services for people with drug and alcohol addictions, a new home for its Syracuse outpatient clinic. In 2013, the nonprofit organization plans to relocate its administrative headquarters to the newly acquired building.

Finally in March, we told you about the acquisition of Watertown–based Sovie & Bowie CPAs, P.C. by Bowers & Co. CPAs, PLLC of Syracuse. Bowers was looking to increase its presence in the North Country.

 

APRIL

In April, The Business Journal reported on expansion plans at MicroGen Systems, Inc., winner of the $200,000 grand prize in 2012’s Creative Core Emerging Business Competition. The company, based in Ithaca, planned to add four to five new employees in 2012 to its staff of five. MicroGen is commercializing a chip-sized power generator that can transform subtle vibrations into energy. The product will be used initially in commercial and industrial monitoring. The company closed later in the year on an initial round of $2.6 million in financing.

We also told you during April about a new regional strategy to double exports in the Syracuse metro area developed by CenterState CEO in a partnership with the Brookings Institution. Plans call for increasing export activity among the region’s top exporters, focusing on small and mid-size companies, and expanding service exports.

We reported on a new expansion at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse as well. The $140 million project will add more than 181,000 square feet at the hospital. It will add new operating rooms, intensive-care units, private patient rooms, and more.

 

MAY

In May, we told you about the relocation of Burdick Chevrolet to the Driver’s Village campus. The dealership moved from its former home in Salina to the complex in Cicero. Roger Burdick, president of Driver’s Village, acquired his Chevy dealership from Jeffrey Crouse when it was known as Bresee Chevrolet in March 2011. Burdick Chevrolet shares space at Driver’s Village with GMC and Buick dealerships. Driver’s Village renovated the space for about $2 million to meet new General Motors brand image standards.

We also reported in May on the closing of First Niagara Financial Group’s acquisition of HSBC’s upstate New York branch network. The deal closed May 18 and branches across Upstate reopened May 21 as First Niagara locations. First Niagara leaders said in the wake of the closing that it could look to open more branches in Central New York, where the bank did not achieve as much branch density as it did in some other markets.

We told you about growth at Bankers Healthcare Group in May. The private-equity corporation originates, funds, and places loans to licensed health-care professionals. The company operates in 43 states and serves 50,000 clients. The firm has reached $1 billion in loans since it launched in 2001. Although headquartered in Florida, the company’s CEO is located in Syracuse and a number of the firm’s operations take place here.

 

JUNE

In June, The Business Journal reported on the sale of the Palmerton Group, a DeWitt–based environmental consulting firm, to Norwood, Mass.–based GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. GZA is an environmental and geotechnical consulting firm. It planned to operate the Palmerton Group as a wholly owned subsidiary that would retain its own name and offices. The Palmerton Group’s growing workload came in its oil and gas practice areas, as well as its other specialized areas, like sediment management, according to the company. It had 18 employees at the time of the acquisition and GZA planned to retain all of them.

A second acquisition we covered in June was Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s (NYSE: BHLB) $132 million deal for DeWitt–based Beacon Federal Bancorp. The deal closed in October and Berkshire eliminated 11 of the 130 jobs at Beacon Federal.

Berkshire Hills, based in Pittsfield, Mass., now has assets of $5.5 billion and 73 branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. Berkshire Hills, parent of Berkshire Bank, first entered the Central New York market in 2011 with its acquisition of Rome Savings Bank.

Finally in June, we told you about the formation of the CenterState Chamber Alliance. Syracuse–based CenterState CEO and the Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce in Utica formed the group, which is aimed at sharing events, programs, advocacy efforts, and best practices. The Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce joined the alliance later in the year.

 

JULY

The second half of the year started with local fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 decision to keep nearly all of the 2010 federal health-care reform law intact. Central New York’s medical and business community reacted to that decision in our July 6 issue.

“Most of the provisions of the law take place over time,” said Dr. Paul Kronenberg, president and CEO of the 506-bed Crouse Hospital in Syracuse. “We’re not going to really completely understand this bill and its unintended and intended consequences until we have a better understanding of how these things will become operational.”

Experts anticipated the ruling’s effects trickling down to companies with 50 or more full-time employees. Those firms needed to start laying the groundwork for offering health insurance by 2014 or risk paying a penalty under the law’s employer mandate, according to Hermes Fernandez, a health-law attorney at the Albany office of the Syracuse–based law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC.

“I think the largest piece now is, how do employers get out in front, how do they get lined up with the mandate, and how do they get their coverage done?” he said. “How do they make those decisions to provide coverage or pay the tax penalties?”

 

AUGUST

A familiar face returned to Syracuse in August, as Nick Dereszynski came back from Seattle to lead Brown & Brown Empire State. The insurance agency headquartered at 500 Plum St. in Syracuse reintroduced Dereszynski as its president Aug. 2. He had been its chief from 2005 to 2011 before relocating to Washington State to become regional vice president for Brown & Brown Empire State’s Florida–based parent, Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE: BRO).

Dereszynski stepped back into the Syracuse agency’s leading role while also retaining the title of regional vice president at its parent. The dual positions will give him better access to Brown & Brown leadership, he said.

The comeback would coincide with hiring, Dereszynski vowed. Brown & Brown Empire State employed 95 people in three offices in Syracuse, Endicott, and Clifton Park, but its returning leader pledged to recruit an unspecified number of what he called high-quality candidates. He also declined to rule out acquiring other firms in the future.

The Business Journal also reported on Syracuse–based Sutton Real Estate acquiring Midtown Plaza in Oswego. Sutton Real Estate will manage and lease the property for the new owner, SRE-Midtown Acquisitions, LLC. The 68,000-square-foot retail center is in the heart of Oswego, according to Sutton.

The building includes two floors of retail and office space including a Rite Aid Pharmacy, Joanne Fabric, The Green Planet Grocery, New York State Off Track Betting, and Oswego County Opportunities.

Sutton is involved in other projects in Oswego, including rehabilitation of the former Seaway Supply Building into apartments. The firm also manages the Stevedore Building for another development group. The firm has found Oswego a good place to work, Sutton Real Estate President Louis Fournier says. Support from city and county economic-development officials is a big reason, he adds.

 

 

 

 

SEPTEMBER

Restructuring at Skaneateles Falls–based Welch Allyn headlined the region’s business stories in September. The medical-device manufacturer said Sept. 10 that it planned to cut its global workforce by 10 percent over three years. At the time, it employed 2,750 people in 26 different countries.

The privately owned company’s 350,000-square-foot headquarters at 4341 State St. Road in Skaneateles Falls will dodge most of the job reductions, Welch Allyn President and CEO Steve Meyer told The Central New York Business Journal for our Sept. 14 edition. The headquarters, home to 1,300 employees, was in line to lose 45 positions. None of them would be manufacturing jobs, he said.

A 2.3 percent federal tax on the sale price of medical devices in the United States helped spur the changes, according to Welch Allyn. Weakness in the European economy also played a part, it said.

Welch Allyn would release details about its restructuring in Europe later in the year. The company will locate both a new Europe and Middle East regional headquarters and an operations center near Amsterdam, Netherlands, it said Dec. 10. Some business functions will move there from its facility in Navan, Ireland. Welch Allyn GmbH & Co. KG operations currently in Germany are also slated to move to Tijuana, Mexico.

 

OCTOBER

October brought news that Norwich–based NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB) planned to acquire Alliance Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ALNC) of Syracuse in a $233.4 million deal. The banks expect the transaction to close early in 2013.

Alliance executives felt compelled to move toward an acquisition because of new regulations coming after the financial crisis, its chairman, president, and CEO, Jack Webb, said in our Oct. 12 issue. The rules would drive staff hiring that wouldn’t generate more revenue, he continued before explaining that the sale to NBT will create a broader base for sharing regulatory costs. The sale will also allow the bank to compete on more loans, particularly commercial loans, he added.

The deal gave NBT a way to enter the Syracuse market, something it had been searching for, according to the bank’s president and CEO, Martin Dietrich.

Details about the acquisition’s staffing impact would come out early in December. About 100 jobs will be cut from Alliance’s Syracuse headquarters and its operations center in Oneida once the acquisition is complete. Alliance currently has 358 employees.

In our Oct. 19 issue, we reported on 40 Below, a Syracuse–based young professionals group, launching Syracuse Coworks. It’s a co-working space that provides low-cost, professional office space at the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse. The 1,500-square-foot space, located at the Tech Garden, has enough room for up to 25 tenants. Membership levels range from a $15 rate for drop-ins to $225 per month for full tenant members. Amenities available at different membership levels include wireless Internet access, printing services, and access to conference rooms.

 

NOVEMBER

Tessy Plastics Corp. is already working to expand a facility it built in 2010, we told you in our Nov. 2 issue. The plastic component and packaging manufacturer plans to spend between $5.4 million and $8 million to add nearly 100,000 square feet of warehouse space to a 90,000-square-foot building on its headquarters campus at 488 Route 5 in Elbridge. Construction could finish as early as next June.

The structure set for expansion is Tessy’s “south” building. It is one of three on the Elbridge campus, along with “east” and “west” plants of about 200,000 square feet each. Tessy also operates a 270,000-square-foot warehouse and assembly location in the town of Van Buren.

It expects to hire 30 new workers once the addition is complete. The company employed about 820 workers in Central New York before the expansion. About 100 of those workers were temporary. Central New York revenue totaled $180 million at Tessy in 2011. The company generated about $220 million between New York locations and sites in Lynchburg, Va. and Shanghai, China. It expected to grow sales by 10 percent in 2012.

In our Nov. 23 issue, we reported on ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT) adding 75,000 square feet of new manufacturing and research and development space at its Seneca Falls site as the company’s business in the oil and gas sector expands.

The Seneca Falls location is the headquarters for ITT’s industrial process business, which provides engineered valves, monitoring and control equipment, and aftermarket services and parts in a range of industries. The business also includes ITT’s Goulds Pumps brand, a line of industrial pumps and the focus of the expansion in Seneca Falls, where Goulds is based. ITT acquired Goulds Pumps in 1997.

The existing facilities in Seneca Falls simply weren’t designed to manufacture the larger pumps ITT makes for the oil and gas industry, ITT officials say. The expansion of manufacturing space will provide needed room for the business.

 

DECEMBER

Another plastic manufacturer’s expansion topped the news at the start of December. Currier Plastics of Auburn shared details about its 55,000-square-foot addition, already under way for several weeks.

Construction, which will almost double the company’s headquarters at 101 Columbus St. to 120,000 square feet, had been delayed since late 2011 as Currier Plastics sought state aid. The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council recommended $1 million in Excelsior tax credits and a $750,000 capital grant tied to the project in 2011, but the state only awarded tax credits.

Currier Plastics then looked for ways to close the $750,000 funding gap. Empire State Development eventually gave the project an Economic Transformation Grant of that size in May, allowing work to enlarge the building to start late this fall.

The 55,000-square-foot expansion is part of a $21 million project that includes new equipment to be purchased over five years. Work on the larger facility could wrap up by the end of February.

Aspen Athletic Clubs stretched its footprint for the third time this year with a Dec. 1 acquisition of Fitness Forum Health Club in DeWitt. The move gives Aspen its fifth location in 24,000 square feet at 6800 E. Genesee St. — its first club to the east of Syracuse. It also takes Fitness Forum out of the health-club field, leaving the company to focus on its 28-clinic physical-therapy business.

It is the first time Aspen has grown through an acquisition. The company launched its two other new locations in 2012 from scratch. It started a 30,000-square-foot club at 3440 W. Genesee St. in Camillus in September, a few months after opening a 6,000-square-foot location at 125 E. Jefferson St. in downtown Syracuse.

 

Contact The Business Journal at news@cnybj.com