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4 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a y 2 0 2 3 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m Community mourns passing of grocer Stew Leonard Sr., 93 Stew Leonard Sr. is being remem- bered as a successful businessman who turned a small Norwalk dairy store into a $600 million regional grocery chain. Leonard, a Westport resident, died in April at age 93 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York aer a brief illness. Leonard began his career working for his family's Clover Farms Dairy in Norwalk, but pivoted in the 1960s to focus on building a retail store as home delivery of dairy products fell out of fashion. e first Stew Leonard's store opened in 1969. Stew Leonard's now operates sev- en large grocery stores and employs 2,500 people, with annual sales of $600 million, according to the company. Connecticut locations include Danbury, Newington and Norwalk, in addition to four stores in New York. PHOTO | COURTESY STEW LEONARD'S VIA TWITTER N.Y. manufacturer announces plans to move HQ, 100-plus jobs to Hamden A manufacturer of modular buildings currently based in Brooklyn, N.Y., an- nounced in April that it would relocate all of its operations to Hamden, along with 100 jobs to start. FullStack Modular, which currently occupies 100,000 square feet and em- ploys 250 people at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has started transferring people and manufacturing operations to 30 Edmund St. in Hamden, according to founder and President Roger Krulak. FullStack will occupy 50,000 square feet in Hamden with plans to employ 100 people. e company plans to invest $8 million to $12 million in new production facilities in the state, officials said. Founded in 2016, FullStack manufac- tures modular structures that require no concrete core. Target customers include multifamily developers, hotels and stu- dent and affordable housing projects. Counter Weight Brewing brings its beers to Western Mass. Cheshire-based Counter Weight Brewing has partnered with Commer- cial Distributing Inc. to bring its beers A r o u n d t h e R e g i o n to Western Massachusetts, the compa- ny announced in April. e cra brewery began selling its products in April in the Bay State's Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire counties. e beers are sold in four-packs in stores and on tap at bars and restaurants, Counter Weight said in social media posts. Founded in Hamden in 2017, Count- er Weight was brewing 11,500 barrels of beer annually by 2019 and moved to Cheshire in 2022. e business' new 29,000-square-foot Cheshire facility, which includes a taproom and beer hall, is located at 9 Diana Court, just south of I-691 and the border with Southington. PHOTO | LIESE KLEIN Counter Weight Brewing's Cheshire facility. Yale New Haven Health pitches takeover of 3 Prospect hospitals Citing its record of financial turn- arounds and high-quality care, Yale New Haven Health officials made their case for taking over three hospitals run by for-profit operator Prospect Medical Holdings at an April hearing. Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Me- morial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital would join Yale New Haven Health's system if the deal gets approval through the state's Certificate of Need process, which evaluates the impact of hospital consolidation. e precarious finances of Prospect's hospitals will benefit from an acquisi- tion, and clinical services will be both streamlined and enhanced, YNHH CEO Chris O'Connor said. PHOTO | GARY LEWIS Chris O'Connor Yale's law school tops U.S. News and World Report rankings again, despite controversy New Haven's Yale University was named the Best Law School by U.S. News and World Report's annual graduate school rankings, which were released in April. Yale's law school beat Columbia's and Harvard's, which tied for the No. 4 spot. Yale has 636 full-time law students. Yale topped the list again in 2022-23, despite announcing it would withdraw from the rankings systems last year. Facing criticism from Yale and other schools, U. S. News and World Report said it would revise the methodology it uses to rank law schools. ree universities in Connecticut had business programs in the Top 200. e School of Management at Yale University ranked No. 8, e School of Business at University of Connecticut ranked No. 93 and e School of Busi- ness at Quinnipiac University ranked No. 124. CONTRIBUTED | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Yale Law School is housed in the Sterling Law Building, erected in 1931. Bed Bath & Beyond files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April. Bed Bath & Beyond, along with several subsidiaries, filed petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to implement "an orderly wind down of its businesses while conducting a limited marketing process to solicit interest in one or more sales of some or all of its assets," according to an announcement. e company said that 360 Bed Bath & Beyond and 120 buybuy BABY stores and websites would remain open. New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Be- yond said it has received about $240 million in financing from Sixth Street Specialty Lending Inc., which will be used to support operations during the Chapter 11 process, following court approval. e company has filed motions with the court seeking authority to market Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY as part of an auction. In February, Bed Bath & Beyond closed 150 of its 900 stores in the U.S., including four in Connecticut: Enfield, Southington, Wethersfield and Fair- field. Six other Connecticut locations remained open. As of April, the company's website listed three remain- ing stores in Connecticut: Simsbury, Brookfield and Guilford. Two leading CT law firms merge New Haven-based law firm Carmo- dy Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP has merged with Guilford litigation and trial firm Donahue, Durham & Noonan P.C., the firms announced, growing the combined firm's law- yer-base to 83. e move, which went into effect May 2, will see Donahue, Durham & Noonan P.C.'s four partners, four as- sociates and eight other staff members become part of Carmody, along with the firm's Guilford office at Concept Park, 741 Boston Post Road. Following the move, Carmody will have 83 lawyers and 70 staff members. Leadership at Carmody said Do- nahue, Durham & Noonan P.C.'s experience in healthcare law, medical malpractice defense, pharmaceutical litigation, general commercial litiga- tion, employment litigation, education law and personal injury law comple- ment the company's existing practice. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED From left to right: DDN Partners Brock T. Dubin; Michael G. Durham; Patrick M. Noonan; and Carmody Managing Partner Rick Street. Avangrid pursues green energy projects on tribal land Orange-based utility company Avangrid in April announced it would explore opportunities to develop up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of green energy proj- ects in the Navajo Nation, within the borders of New Mexico and Arizona. Avangrid has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), a utility owned and operated by the tribe. Under the partnership, Avangrid and the NTUA will collaborate and study the feasibility of developing wind and solar projects. e effort is expected to create new jobs, boost economic development and bring reli- able, affordable and renewable energy to the Navajo Nation's businesses and residents, according to an announce- ment. e NTUA was first established in 1959 to address the absence of utilities on the 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation. B R I E F S PHOTO | FLICKR/MIKE MOZART A Bed Bath and Beyond store.

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