NewHavenBIZ

4 n e w h a v e n B I Z | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m A r o u n d t h e R e g i o n Avelo Airlines to hire 100 at Tweed New Haven Airport Ahead of a new slate of flights to Florida planned to start in November, Avelo Airlines has announced it is hiring 100 people for its New Haven operations at Tweed Airport. e airline started accepting applications in August for jobs including pilots, flight attendants, airport customer service, operations-related roles and manager and supervisor positions. Avelo recently announced it would begin service on Nov. 3 to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa Bay at the promotional price of $59 each way. Airport and airline officials said Avelo's new flights and Tweed's role as Avelo's East Coast hub would eventually create 1,000 jobs. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED An Avelo Airlines plane takes off. Italian food debuts on College Street's restaurant row Regional Italian food has arrived on Col- lege Street with the opening of Villa Lulu, a new restaurant by the group that runs Pacifico and Tarry Lodge. e eatery opened in August and features Italian specialties, a curated wine list and upscale cocktails. Sample dishes include ricotta pistachio pesto, Italian salumi and sun-dried tomato arancini with spicy Calabria aioli. e restaurant opened next-door to Pacifico as part of e Shops at Yale, the university's retail portfolio in downtown New Haven. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Italian restaurant Villa Lulu has opened on College Street. State's last two Disney Stores set to close Consumers have until mid-September to visit a Disney Store in Connecticut aer the company announced it will be closing their doors for good at the Danbury Fair Mall and Westfarms mall in Farmington. ose are the only Disney stores le in the state. e two locations will close on or before Sept. 15, according to the store's website. In March, the company announced plans to focus its business on e-commerce and significantly reduce its brick-and-mortar footprint, which began with the closure of about 60 stores across the country. PHOTO | WESTFARMS MALL The Disney Store in Westfarms mall. AstraZeneca scraps Alexion drug trial for ALS after data disappoints Drug giant AstraZeneca is pulling the plug on a late-stage clinical trial of Alexion's drug Ultomiris in patients diagnosed with the deadly neuromuscular disease amyo- trophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. An independent monitoring committee recommended stopping the trial aer an interim review found Ultomiris lacked efficacy against the disease, the UK-based drug giant said in August. e setback came a month aer New Haven-born Alexion officially became As- traZeneca's Boston-based rare disease unit following a $39 billion buyout. Alexion employs roughly 500 people at its 100 College St. research facility in down- town New Haven. Stockholders OK merger of Webster Bank and Sterling Bancorp Stockholders approved the merger of Waterbury-based Webster Bank and New York's Sterling Bancorp in August. Sterling is based in Pearl River, N.Y., just west of Westchester County. Webster has said it will keep its name but relocate its headquarters to Stamford as part of the merger, valued at $10.3 billion. e Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved the deal, but it still needs the approval of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. Webster Financial Corp. has $33.8 billion in assets, and oversees 130 branches and 253 ATMs. Sterling Bancorp's principal subsidiary, Sterling National Bank, had $29.1 billion in assets and 1,491 employees as of the second quarter of this year. Sikorsky notches $117M Army contract for Black Hawk maintenance Sikorsky Aircra Corp. recently won a $116.5 million contract from the U.S. Army to maintain and overhaul the main rotor blade for its Black Hawk helicopters. e Stratford-based subsidiary of Lock- heed Martin was the only bidder on the firm-fixed-price contract, the Department of Defense announced in August. Bids were solicited via the internet. e defense department said work loca- tions and funding will be determined with each order. e estimated completion date is Aug. 15, 2026. NY hedge fund opening office in southern CT A New York-based investment manage- ment firm is planning to open a new office in southern Connecticut, company officials announced. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors detailed plans for a multistate expansion effort, which includes the opening of offices in southern Connecticut and New Jersey. e company did not specify where in the southern portion of the state it plans to set up operations or how many workers might be based there. Schonfeld said it is also building out its corporate headquarters in New York, expanding its offices in Dallas, San Francis- co and Long Island and setting up a second headquarters in Miami. CT realty firm acquires Fla. brokerage Shelton-based William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance recently added to its team with the acquisition of a brokerage in Florida. William Raveis, a family-owned com- pany, acquired Key Solutions Real Estate, which is based in Sarasota. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. e acquisition marks William Raveis' further expansion into the Florida market, as it also has a presence in Naples and Palm Beach. Key Solutions has 44 professional sales associates, and its two offices have re- opened under the William Raveis Real Estate brand. Middletown firm deploys telehealth to ease transition from nursing homes Middletown-based MediTelecare, which provides behavioral telehealth and tele-technology services to residents of long-term care facilities, recently an- nounced a new product to ease the transi- tion from a facility to home. e new program uses MediTelecare's MediTely app, launched earlier this year. e app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and is de- signed for older adults who may be using virtual health services for the first time. "Care coordinators" are available through the app 24/7 to assist patients in accessing telehealth services via any mobile device. B R I E F S Webster President & CEO John R. Ciulla PHOTO | COURTESY SIKORSKY A Black Hawk helicopter.

• Cover