Hartford Business Journal

3 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | AUGUST 9, 2021 BIZ BRIEFS HBJ Flash Poll Each week Hartford Business Journal polls its 10,000-plus HBJ Today subscribers on a hot topic. Here's this week's results. What is your current work situation? FULLY REMOTE .........................................................................................................28% HYBRID ........................................................................................................................ 31% FULLY IN OFFICE ........................................................................................................ 40% 446 total votes Robert Trivella Senior Vice President Senior Commercial Loan Officer Expert guidance from experienced business minds. "Putnam Bank… a division of Centreville Bank." Those words do more than describe a relationship between two financial institutions. They support the goals you envision for your business. Our commercial lenders have decades of experience helping businesses small and large with the financing and guidance they need to pursue their dreams. Talk to us about yours, and see how we can help them become reality. putnambank.com/commercialbanking | Rob Trivella at 860.753.8520 That's part of what it means to be a division of Centreville Bank. EQUAL HOUSING LENDER | NMLS#402947 | MEMBER FDIC Centreville-38222 PB_commercial_HBJ_10x325_Robert Trivella_f.indd 1 Centreville-38222 PB_commercial_HBJ_10x325_Robert Trivella_f.indd 1 3/23/21 9:50 AM 3/23/21 9:50 AM HBJ FILE PHOTO of the Hartford-based company, said the deal was recently finalized. The purchase, which was originally announced in 2019, faced delays due to outstanding tax liens on the property and complications from the pandemic. The official city property record lists James Lusa as the buyer of the property at 20-28 Sargeant St., but Kothari said Express Kitchens is the building's true owner. He said his goal is to stabilize the property, which currently has a 30% vacancy rate. Express Kitchens currently occupies between 20% and 30% of the building and uses it as storage, he said. The rest of the property is occupied by nonprofits, including Our Piece of the Pie. CTrail's Hartford Line returns to full service For the first time since March 2020, CTrail on July 26 added back seven daily round trips on its Hartford Line route. CTrail sharply curtailed service during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Connecticut residents were urged to stay home and work remotely if possible. Now, 16 months later, most occupancy and travel restrictions have been lifted, and commuters are gradually returning to rail transport options. The Hartford Line runs between New Haven and Springfield, making stops in Windsor Locks, Windsor, Hartford, Berlin, Meriden and Wallingford. Univ. of St. Joseph relocating downtown Hartford pharmacy school to W. Hartford campus The University of St. Joseph said its board of trustees has approved a plan to relocate its graduate pharmacy program out of the XL Center in downtown Hartford to its main West Hartford campus. The move will occur when the school's lease at the XL Center expires in Aug. 2022, the university said. USJ officials said the move comes as the school is expanding its emphasis on interprofessional education, including USJ's nursing, nutrition, physician assistant studies, health science, exercise science, counseling, public health, and social work programs at its West Hartford campus. New Haven's Sally's Apizza coming to Greater Hartford One of New Haven's most popular pizza joints, Sally's Apizza, is expected to open a new location in Wethersfield. This will be its first location in the Hartford region. Peter Gillespie, Wethersfield's director of planning and economic development, said that a building permit application has been filed for a restaurant space in the ground level of the Borden, a mixed-use residential complex at 1178 Silas Deane Highway. Since 1938, Sally's has run its business out of one location in New Haven at 237 Wooster St. It also is expanding to a new location in Stamford at 66 Summer St., which is expected to open in the upcoming months. Vermont company acquires family-owned Willimantic Waste Paper Co. Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems Inc., a solid waste, recycling, and resource management company, has acquired Willimantic Waste Paper Co. Inc., according to the companies. Casella Waste spokesman, Joseph Fusco, declined to disclose the purchase price of the deal, however the company says it expects to generate approximately $62 million of annualized revenues from the acquisition. Fusco said the Rutland, Vermont- headquartered company has no plans to relocate Willimantic Waste Paper Co., and that about 170 Willimantic Waste employees will be joining the Casella team. Willimantic Waste has been a family-owned and operated company for more than 60 years. It now services more than 30,000 residential and commercial customers in Windham, Hartford, Tolland and New London counties. PURA establishes new energy storage program The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has rolled out the terms of a nine-year electricity storage program designed to reduce the cost of buying and installing a storage system for customers of Eversource Energy and United Illuminating Co. PURA officials have focused on increased storage capacity as a means to improve the resiliency of Connecticut's power grid, which had been called into question due to outages stemming from particularly destructive weather events such as Tropical Storm Isaias in Aug. 2020. The program is expected to include a benefit to residential customers of around $250 per kilowatt-hour, with a maximum per-project incentive of $7,500. Commercial and industrial customers would be eligible for upfront incentives, with a maximum of 50% of a project's cost. Hartford opens third round of small business emergency grants Hartford business owners struggling to stay afloat after the economic tumult of the last year have another chance to apply for emergency funding as the city has opened up a third round of its small business assistance grant initiative. Hartford officials said they're partnering with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Capital for Change and several other business and technical assistance organizations to provide $930,000 in emergency relief. The city will contribute $750,000, while the Hartford Foundation will put forward the remaining $180,000. This time around, the business aid program will provide grants of up to $7,500 to eligible applicants as funds allow. The money can be spent on inventory, new workers or capital improvements that enhance safety, among other uses, according to organizers. The application for funding is available through Capital for Change's website, www. capitalforchange.org, and will remain open until Aug. 25. CT's min. wage hits $13 Connecticut residents making the minimum wage got a pay raise on Aug. 1, when the state's hourly minimum wage increased from $12 to $13. The bump is part of the state's gradual plan passed in 2019 that Continued on page 4

• Cover