Construction employment declined over the past year in 157 of 337 metropolitan areas, nationally, but the Binghamton area bucked the trend, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

Construction employment did stay steady in 60 regions and increased in 120 regions, including Binghamton and Utica–Rome.

The Binghamton area increased from 3,800 construction jobs in April 2011 to 4,000 jobs in April 2012 and the Utica–Rome area rose from 2,900 industry jobs in April 2011 to 3,000 jobs in April 2012. 

The Syracuse area declined from 11,000 construction jobs in April 2011 to 10,500 jobs a year later. New York State construction employment fell from 296,200 jobs in April 2011 to 291,600 jobs this April.

Construction employment continues to suffer from weak demand due to a decline in public-sector investments, the AGC contends.

“As public investments in infrastructure and other forms of construction continue to decline, construction employment is taking a hit in many parts of the country,” Ken Simonson, the AGC’s chief economist, said in a news release. “Even in places where the construction employment is increasing, the figures would have been better if the public sector wasn’t holding things back.”

The Chicago–Joliet–Naperville area of Illinois lost the most construction jobs, 6,500, or a 6 percent decline. The Indianapolis region gained the most jobs, adding 6,100 positions, or 16 percent.   

SYRACUSE — Construction has started on Dineen Hall, the new, $92 million home for the Syracuse University (SU) College of Law.

The 200,000-square-foot, five-story building is going up on the site of a parking lot on the SU main campus’ western edge, immediately to the west of the College of Law’s current buildings.

Dineen Hall is set to open in 2014.

It will include a central atrium on the main level, featuring natural lighting. The atrium will link the core elements of legal study including a library, a 330-seat ceremonial courtroom and auditorium, and collaborative areas and celebratory space, according to the university.

The building will also include a green roof that will feature a seasonal outdoor terrace. 

SU alumnus Richard Gluckman of the Gluckman Mayner architectural firm in New York City is the lead architect on the project. Hueber-Breuer Construction Co. of Syracuse is the construction manager.

SU broke ground on the project May 10.

The university built an addition to the current law school facilities in 1998, which provided much-needed classroom space. But it didn’t address the overcrowded library or the need for more faculty offices for the law school, which currently has 643 students and 65 faculty members.

Even though much legal research and many documents are available online these days, some scholarly works are available only in print and the library is out of shelf space, says Marc Malfitano, a College of Law alumnus, chairman of the school’s advisory board, and an adjunct professor.

The new building will also add more smaller-size classrooms, which will help the school offer smaller classes to promote more interaction between students and professors, Malfitano says. 

In addition, the current buildings have almost no spaces for students to work on group projects or study, the university says. Law students often spend their entire days within the law buildings and do most of their work there, Malfitano notes.

The law school’s current buildings total about 180,000 square feet, but only 98,000 square feet of that space is useable. The new building will include 135,000 square feet of useable space, Malfitano says.

The law school is aiming for gold-level certification of Dineen Hall in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, he adds.

But the building is really meant to help the school improve its programming and respond to how its students study and learn.

“This is not building bricks and mortar for bricks’ and mortars’ sake,” Malfitano says. “It really is how we address the mission of the College of Law to teach our students and to be able to do so in a dynamic environment. The students spend a lot of time there.”

The law school’s current buildings will be reused as the new home for SU’s David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. The current buildings include E. I. White Hall, Grant Hall, the Barclay Library addition, and Winifred MacNaughton Hall.

The Dineen family provided a naming gift of $15 million for the new law school building in 2010, in honor of College of Law
graduates Robert Emmet Dineen and Carolyn Bareham Dineen.

Robert Dineen graduated in 1924 and Carolyn Dineen in 1932. 

Carolyn Dineen, a Rochester native, was one of just two women in her class at the law school. She worked at the Syracuse–based law firm of Costello, Cooney & Fearon, PLLC and met Robert when they were representing co-defendants in a lawsuit.

Robert Dineen, a Syracuse native, worked at the Syracuse law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC and eventually became a partner. He later served as superintendent of insurance for the state of New York from 1943 to 1950 and then joined Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Fifteen years later, he became the company’s president and CEO.  

DeWITT — Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) has launched a new advertising product in Central New York that seeks to help the company meet some of the media landscape’s major challenges.

Interactive TV (iTV) uses new technology to allow advertisers to interact with viewers through their televisions. During an iTV commercial, an overlay pops up on a viewer’s screen that could allow the viewer to receive an offer, answer poll questions, or get more detailed information about an advertiser’s product or service by pressing buttons on their remotes.

It’s an attempt in part to help the company compete in a changing media landscape, according to Time Warner. Time-shifting that results from digital video recorders and the increasing amount of content consumers are faced with present new challenges for media outlets.

In 75 percent of homes in the U.S., a consumer is on multiple devices at any given time, the company says.

Creating an interactive-ad experience allows for a deeper level of connection and engagement with consumers, says Warren Lapa, vice president for digital and business development at Time Warner Cable.

“These capabilities are unique to cable-television advertising,” he contends. “It gives us a distinct competitive advantage.”

Advertisers, like consumers, are bombarded with media choices, Lapa notes. ITV can help Time Warner Cable and its advertisers stand out, he believes.

Businesses can use the service in a number of ways. Polling questions could help companies research their customers, for example, Lapa says. The polling feature typically generates a response rate of 0.5 percent, he adds.

A car company could ask consumers whether they’re more interested in fuel economy or interior features, Lapa says. A political candidate could ask viewers what issues matter most to them.

The service could also redirect consumers to longer-form advertising with more detailed information about a product, Lapa says. The service could even allow an advertiser to send a consumer a catalog or other follow-up brochure through the mail if a viewer is interested.

That helps television advertising move beyond creating brand awareness, Lapa notes. At that point, the medium is helping advertisers connect with a consumer who’s indicated an active interest in a product.

The service is available in 30 markets across Time Warner Cable’s footprint and reaches about 7.5 million homes. It launched in Central New York at the beginning of 2012. 

It’s available in Utica and Binghamton, but the main focus is the Syracuse area at the moment, says Jim Tollar, general manager for Time Warner Cable Media in Central New York. The company has two advertisers using the service now.

Time Warner Cable will probably take on no more than five iTV clients total, Tollar says. Part of its effectiveness stems from the fact that it’s something different, he says.

If every ad has an interactive overlay, Tollar notes, it loses some of its appeal.

In addition to helping advertisers stand out from the pack, iTV gives them insight into their ad campaigns. By measuring levels of engagement with the overlays, Time Warner can give advertisers an idea of what the most effective channels are for their ads, what times of day work best for them, what types of programs generate the best response, and more, Tollar says.

“It’s using the entire market, essentially, as a research group,” he says. “We’re doing some real-time monitoring of how effective the campaign is.”

Lapa notes that ad campaigns can even be adjusted midstream based on some of those observations.

Time Warner Cable generated revenue of $19.7 billion in 2011. Net income attributable to common shareholders totaled 

$1.7 billion.

SYRACUSE — The first year of the StartFast Venture Accelerator program began May 14 with nine teams from around the country.

The three-month program will focus on helping the startups develop and validate a prototype product and secure enough funding for them to move forward with their work. Organizers chose the nine teams from a group of more than 300 applicants around the world.

Two members of the team from Mozzo Analytics relocated from Philadelphia to Syracuse to work with StartFast. A third member, Michael D’Eredita, is a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and a fourth lives in Oneida.

The chance to connect with a deep network of mentors and investors will make StartFast worthwhile, D’Eredita says.

“All those things will help accelerate progress,” he says. “It’s proving out so far. The people we’ve met and the discussions we’ve had are helping us accelerate the way we hoped.”

Mozzo Analytics developed a system that extracts links from a user’s Gmail account and then offers an organized summary of the links searchable by people, topic, and time. The system features a powerful engine that allows the information to self-organize, D’Eredita says.

Users don’t have to set any parameters or teach the engine anything, he explains. They simply use their email as they normally would and the system pulls and organizes the links itself.

Company leaders say their system can do the same thing for attachments and eventually hope to serve corporations and other organizations as well as individuals.

PadProof’s founders, Aaron Drenberg and Timothy Beckford, originally hail from Orlando, Fla. They’ve developed an iPad app, which is available now, that allows professional photographers to share photos with clients. The clients can view and purchase the photos directly from the device.

They say the perspectives on strategic direction and targeting customers they’ll gain at StartFast will be valuable. Beckford says they came across StartFast while searching for accelerator programs online.

He says he and Drenberg were impressed with StartFast’s managing directors, Chuck Stormon and Nasir Ali. A program like this is exactly what the company needs right now to take its next steps, Drenberg says.

StartFast is part of the Global Accelerator Network. The network grew from the TechStars program that began in Boulder, Colo. in 2007. TechStars has since expanded to Boston, Seattle, and New York City and includes a separate program for companies working on cloud computing and infrastructure.

The network includes 45 accelerators around the world. StartFast is focused on software and Internet firms and those developing mobile apps.

The accelerator is housed in 14,000 square feet at the Onondaga Tower, the former HSBC building, on East Jefferson Street in downtown Syracuse. The program occupies the building’s entire third floor.

Each company chosen for the program receives $18,000 in seed funding. StartFast investors receive a 6 percent stake in exchange. The companies also get access to a number of in-kind contributions from national sponsors like Google and Rackspace through the Global Accelerator Network.

The Seed Capital Fund of CNY (SCF) is providing 40 percent of StartFast’s $2 million in funding. The rest is coming from private investors. The initial funding round will allow StartFast to run for four years. 

Other teams in the program include the following:

– BitePal of Ithaca is a restaurant deal service that works through cell phones.

– Cayo-Tech of Tel Mond, Israel has developed a mobile application that can notify a user’s family and friends with information needed in an emergency.

– RevoPT of Ithaca designs Web and mobile applications to make physical therapy more personalized and effective through home exercise programs.

– Tivity of New York City is a social network for people looking to find, schedule, and share active lifestyle activities.

– Streamspec of Syracuse and New York City is an image-based Internet advertising company.

– CanVita of Denver and New York City provides visual and evolving résumés for the social Web.

– YouGift of New York City is a platform for sending greetings and gift cards via social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Teams receive regular coaching with mentors from around the country and from Stormon and Ali.

CLAY  —  Business at Seneca Chiropractic & Family Wellness has been growing at breakneck speed since the practice moved into a new headquarters building in the town of Clay at the end of last year.

Patient volume is up about 20 percent, according to Theodore Baldini, a chiropractic doctor who co-owns Seneca Chiropractic. And revenue has jumped 10 percent, he adds.

“A lot of it is referrals,” Baldini says. “When we moved in, the people that were already here, it created a buzz from them.”

Seneca Chiropractic didn’t move very far — 150 feet or so. Its new home, a freshly constructed 2,500-square-foot facility, sits on the same plot of land at 7960 Oswego Road as its previous headquarters. 

That previous headquarters was a 1,300-square-foot former Cape Cod house. It had been Seneca Chiropractic’s home since Baldini founded it in 2000 along with David Isabella, who is also a chiropractic doctor.

The two men still own and operate the practice, and they own the land on which it sits on Oswego Road. They decided to build a new headquarters because Seneca Chiropractic was growing, according to Baldini.

The practice’s revenue typically increased by between 5 percent and 8 percent annually, he says. However, he declined to share a revenue total.

Baldini and Isabella considered adding on to the old Cape Cod, Baldini says. They decided it was more cost-effective to build a new structure instead.

Construction started in June 2011 and was complete in time for Seneca Chiropractic to move into the new facility at the beginning of December. After the practice moved, workers demolished the Cape Cod and put in a new parking lot.

The work cost $445,000, Baldini says. Seneca Chiropractic used its own cash reserves and a loan from HSBC Bank USA, N.A. to finance construction.

The new facility, designed by Niagara County–based GreenTree Builders, Inc., has a health-lecture room, a conference room, and five patient rooms, including one dedicated to massage therapy. Seneca Chiropractic only had two patient rooms at its old headquarters. 

And the new headquarters building could be outfitted to hold more patient rooms if demand continues to increase, Baldini says.

“We have the ability to run more,” he says. “We were originally going to make this conference room into two rooms.”

Seneca Chiropractic also has the option of adding on to the back of the building. Baldini and Isabella own land behind the building, and they could expand its footprint up to 4,000 square feet, Baldini says.

Despite the rapid growth, Seneca Chiropractic currently has no plans to increase its staffing levels, according to Baldini. The practice employs four people in addition to its two owners. Three of those employees work at its headquarters.

The chiropractic firm also operates offices in Camillus and the village of Manlius. It leases 1,400 square feet in Camillus and 1,000 square feet in Manlius.

Isabella travels as needed to the Camillus and Clay locations. A third chiropractic doctor, David Stevens, works primarily in Manlius.

The new headquarters isn’t the sole reason behind Seneca Chiropractic’s growth, Baldini says. He also credits a recent focus on wellness.

“As opposed to how we used to just be acute back and neck pain, we’ve shifted toward a wellness paradigm including nutrition and weight loss,” he says. “With the expanded types of services, we’re seeing people who want to be healthier so they don’t have to go on arthritis and cholesterol medicine.”

The broader focus started when Seneca Chiropractic was still in its old building, Baldini says. But it gained muscle with the new location and its health-lecture room. For example, the practice used that room to host a lecture on how athletes should eat before a competition, according to Baldini. 

Contractor

Seneca Chiropractic dedicated its new headquarters to the general contractor in charge of building it, Andy Partis. He was the sole proprietor of AP Builders, which he ran from Cortland County, Baldini says.

Partis suffered a brain aneurism shortly after finishing the Seneca Chiropractic job, according to Baldini. Partis died a few days later at the age of 41, Baldini says.

“He was a great guy,” Baldini says. “He cared about our project. He went out of his way, made sure that we got exactly what we wanted.” 

Small-business owners in the Northeast are optimistic on their prospects for growing revenue but less hopeful about the outlook for the U.S. economy, according to a survey released by TD Bank May 22.

Just under three-quarters of small-business owners in the Northeast, 74 percent, said they were expecting to meet or exceed their revenue projections this spring, the survey found. That would make the spring better for companies than the first portion of the year, when 60 percent of small firms reported meeting or exceeding their revenue projections.

Optimism about the U.S. economy was significantly lower, however. A mere 26 percent of survey respondents said they were optimistic about the nation’s economy.

“Small-business owners are resilient, so although their confidence in the U.S. economy may be lacking, many still feel they are in a position to boost their revenue stream,” Phil Daniels, TD Bank market president for upstate New York and Vermont, said in an e-mail. “Economic confidence hasn’t deterred their confidence in running a successful business.”

Employment was one of the survey’s brighter spots, as 95 percent of those responding planned to maintain or increase their staffing levels over the next quarter. Additionally, 27 percent wanted to hire one or more employees.

Less than one-third of small-business owners intended to increase their capital investments — 29 percent. Of those who do plan to ratchet up capital investments, 6 percent plan to boost them by 15 percent or more over the next quarter.

Large numbers of owners aren’t cutting back on capital investments, though. Another 59 percent of small-business owners expected to keep their capital-investment level steady in the upcoming quarter.

“Of course, we would like to see higher numbers regarding capital investments,” Daniels said. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see a boost in numbers if we asked this question again in July. Our research and feedback from our customers has led us to believe that well-capitalized small businesses are likely to spend and invest in technology, workforce development, and improvements to their existing facilities in 2012.”

Most business owners weren’t enamored with the prospect of moving to new commercial space in the next year. Among survey respondents, 86 percent said they are somewhat unlikely to move or very unlikely to move.

A more affordable lease was the top reason small-business owners said they would move, with 27 percent of owners giving that response. And 25 percent said they would move for a larger commercial space. 

Other reasons for moving included a more desirable business location, which 21 percent of owners cited, and an opportunity to buy space, which 16 percent of business owners named. Only 7 percent of owners said they would move to a smaller space, while 4 percent said they would move to be closer to home.

In a final survey indicator, small-business owners indicated that their mood has not worsened over the last year. A majority of survey respondents, 65 percent, claimed they are as happy or happier today than they were a year ago.

ORC International conducted the survey for TD Bank. ORC, which is based in Princeton, N.J., polled 500 business owners by telephone in Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia in April 2012. Surveyed owners represented companies with annual sales of $5 million or less.

TD Bank customers in other regions of the country have expressed sentiments similar to those in the Northeast survey, according to Daniels.

“We conducted the same survey in our Mid-Atlantic and South regions earlier this year, and the results and expectations were very similar,” he said. “Overall, we’ve seen strong growth in our small-business loan portfolios this year throughout our Maine to Florida footprint.”

TD Bank, headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. and Portland, Maine, has more than 8 million customers and offers retail, small-business, and commercial-banking products. It has over 1,280 locations in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and metropolitan Washington, D.C. areas, as well as the Carolinas and Florida. TD Bank had $122 billion in total deposits, including more than $20 billion in New York State, primarily in the Albany and New York City metro areas, according to June 30, 2011 FDIC statistics. The bank is a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto (NYSE: TD). 

Doyle Security Systems, Inc. isn’t abandoning the Syracuse area, even though two recent acquisitions mean it will no longer be using its Central New York location to serve clients in the Albany region.

In fact, the company wants to grow in Syracuse through acquisitions or hiring, according to Kevin Stone, Doyle’s executive vice president and COO.

Doyle Security Systems, which is based near Rochester in the town of Hen-rietta, acquired two Albany–area firms on May 4 in a pair of stock sales. The firms are JMS Alarms, which was headquartered across the Hudson River from Albany in the city of Rensselaer, and LPE Security & Fire Alarm Systems, which had been based outside Saratoga Springs.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of either deal. Doyle Security Systems used Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group Inc. of Long Grove, Ill. and Profitability Consultants Inc. from outside of Buffalo as consultants in the transactions, Stone says.

The two acquisitions add a total of 10 employees to Doyle Security Systems’ work force, which had previously numbered about 100 people, according to Stone. It also gives the firm a physical location in the Albany area, where it previously did not have one, he says.

Doyle Security Systems will now base its Capital Region operations in 2,500 square feet of leased space at 9 Washington St. in Rensselaer, Stone says. The firm will use that space, which had been JMS Alarms’ headquarters, to consolidate the operations of JMS Alarms and LPE, he adds.

The physical location in Rensselaer means Doyle Security Systems will not have to serve its Albany–area customers from its Central New York office, according to Stone. The company had been covering the Capital Region from its office in the Syracuse area.

That office is located in 2,500 square feet of leased space in Suite 1 at 24 Corporate Circle in DeWitt. It has nine employees.

Serving the Albany area is going to be a bigger task after the acquisition. Doyle Security Systems added thousands of customers in the Capital Region when it acquired JMS Alarms and LPE Security.

“We had a couple hundred accounts down there already,” Stone says. “And we acquired approximately 2,000 accounts.”

Doyle Security Systems will keep the former owner of LPE, Edward Stano, as its regional manager for the Albany area. JMS Alarms’ former owner, Michael Stewart, is assisting with his company’s transition and also has the option of working with Doyle Security Systems in the future.

“He might stick around as a consultant,” Stone says. “He’s leaning toward retirement, but that’s up to him.”

Central New York plans

Doyle Security Systems wants to expand in all of its current markets, according to Stone. They include Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Pa., — and Syracuse.

“We’re aggressively looking to grow in all of the markets that we’re in,” Stone says. “First and foremost, we’ll continue to look for acquisitions. And Syracuse is on the top of our list.”

The security firm will also consider growing organically by directly hiring more employees, according to Stone, who did not share specific hiring projections. It currently has more than 2,000 clients in the Syracuse region, he adds.

Company background

Doyle Security Systems is headquartered in an 18,000-square-foot building it owns in Henrietta. It has a total of 31,000 clients.

In 2011, the firm generated just over $12 million in revenue, Stone says. It averages 8 percent annual revenue growth, but the Albany acquisitions should help push growth up to 10 percent in 2012, he adds.

The company provides residential and commercial security alarms and closed-circuit television. It also provides medical monitoring services. 

The security side of the business is becoming more interactive for customers thanks to new technologies, according to Stone.

“Everybody has iPads and iPhones and BlackBerries,” he says. “We’re finding ways to integrate those technologies so that you can monitor your alarm system from your hand, control your thermostat, and control your lighting.

“Closed-circuit television is also becoming very popular,” Stone continues. “Residentially, we’re installing a lot of cameras in the home that people can look at on their smartphones.”

Medical monitoring is a source of rapid growth, Stone says. Doyle Security Systems’ medical-monitoring division, launched a little more than five years ago, already generates about 15 percent of its annual revenue, he adds.

The medical-monitoring side of the business includes personal medical alarms and medication dispensers. A personal medical alarm allows an older adult who lives independently to call for help by pushing a button. A medication dispenser is a piece of equipment that disperses medicine at preset intervals and can contact a Doyle Security Systems employee if the medication is not taken in a timely manner.

“That is much cheaper than the alternative, which is to send a nurse to distribute medication on a regular basis,” Stone says.
“Because we’re in the medical monitoring business, we have a 24-hour call center, and we’re looking for products that we can put out in the field and monitor them for a monthly fee.”

Doyle Security Systems was founded in 1919. John Doyle has owned the company since the mid-1980s and is also its president and CEO.

The firm also has branches in the Buffalo and Erie, Pa. regions, in addition to its locations in the Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany areas.