Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • February 9, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Stay ConneCted For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com. HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Green Guide Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe By the numBerS $92.9M The difference between the latest FY 2015 budget deficit estimates from the Office of Fiscal Analysis and Comptroller Kevin Lembo. 57% The drop in New England's wholesale power prices in December, largely due to warmer weather. 900 The number of wins achieved by UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma on Feb. 3. 2.2% The average dip in Connecticut home prices in 2014, according to Corelogic. $36M Connecticut's share of a federal and multi-state settlement with Standard & Poor's stemming from the firm's questionable ratings of mortgage-backed securities. top 5 moSt read on HartfordBusiness.com ■ UConn grad to appear on Tuesday's 'Shark Tank' ■ Stilts buyers dealing for 100 Pearl at $36M+ ■ Famed tattoo artist to open Foxwoods studio ■ NU's rebrand takes effect ■ Jepsen calls for investigation into CL&P closures top Story NY investors eye $36M+ purchase of Hart- ford's 100 Pearl St. office tower The same New York investors who seven months ago obtained downtown Hartford's Stilts Building are back with a pending deal to buy the gleaming, sapphire-blue tower two blocks away at 100 Pearl St. The group's acquisition of a third downtown Hartford property is also in the works, the buyer says. Brooklyn's Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC is working to close its pur- chase by month's end of the Class A 17-story, glass-sheathed tower from The Silverman Group of New Jersey for a price "north of $36 million,'' or roughly $128 a foot, said Ben Schlossberg, Shelbourne's managing member. The price tag likely reflects that the 281,000-square-foot Class A tower at the northeast corner of Pearl and Trumbull streets is nearly fully leased since Silverman bought it partially full in 2012 for a reported $18 million. After- wards, Silverman spent another $2.3 million on renovations and upgrades. The building debuted in 1989 and for a time was headquarters for former Mechanics Savings Bank, now part of Webster Bank. Schlossberg said last week his group is in "negotiations on at least one other substantial transaction in downtown Hartford.'' He declined to identify the property. A number of other Hartford commercial properties are either up for sale or expected to shortly appear on the sales block, including a portfolio of six office buildings in Constitution Plaza, the foreclosed Goodwin Square office tower and adjoining vacant Goodwin Hotel property. "Over the last three or four years, we've been buying Class A properties in secondary markets like Hartford,'' Schlossberg said. "We've been looking for opportunities in areas that we think are turning the corner and making big efforts to rejuvenate their downtowns. Hartford is a major candidate for us.'' Shelbourne is particularly impressed by the cooperation between city and state officials and agencies to promote downtown Hartford, he said. If it closes, the purchase of 100 Pearl would mark the fourth downtown office tower to change hands within the past year. Last July, Shelbourne quietly bought out investors for $45 million, or $109 a foot, for a 95 percent equity stake in the 410,000-square-foot Stilts sky- scraper at 20 Church St. Government & politiCS Tenet officially ends CT hospital acquisition talks For-profit hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. won't be entering Con- necticut after all. Tenet and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy released a joint statement last week saying both sides have failed to come to an agreement that would allow the Texas-based healthcare company to acquire five Connecticut hospitals. Both sides say they have ended negotiation talks and will not try to revive the deals. "… we regret to announce that we have decided to end our discussions," Malloy and Tenet CEO Trevor Fetter wrote in a joint statement. "We believe it is best for the hospitals, their employees and the communities they serve to move forward exploring other options." The dissolution of talks comes after Tenet and the Malloy Administration prom- ised in January to try to revive the deals, which included Tenet buying Waterbury, St. Mary's, Bristol, Manchester Memorial, and Rockville General hospitals. Tenet spent two years trying to make its Connecticut acquisitions, but abrupt- ly pulled out of its planned purchase of Waterbury Hospital in December after state regulators placed 68 conditions on the deal that barred layoffs and price increases for at least five years, and mandated the appointment of an indepen- dent monitor and the filing of strategic spending and hiring plans. FinanCe SS&C to acquire Calif. software maker for $2.7B Windsor's SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. said last week that it has agreed to pay $2.7 billion to acquire a California company that makes software for investment management firms. SS&C will pay $44.25 per share for publicly traded Advent Software Inc., which is headquartered in San Francisco. SS&C said it will fund the deal with $3 billion in debt financing and cash as well as $400 million of equity. Advent has more than 4,300 customers, 1,200 employees, and earned $397 million in revenue last year. The Advent deal follows a series of acquisitions SS&C has completed over the past several years. Most recently, it acquired a subsidiary of DST Systems for $95 million. law S&P settlement to pay CT $36M Connecticut will collect $36 million of a billion-dollar, federal and multi-state settlement with Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC stemming from the Wall Street rating firm's questionable ratings of risky securities tied to subprime mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, authorities say. State Attorney General George Jepsen announced last week the settlement between S&P and Connecticut — which was the first state to sue S&P in 2010 — the U.S. Justice Department and 17 other states. The settlement requires S&P to pay $1.375 billion, divided equally between states and the Department of Justice. Jepsen said Connecticut's share will go into the General Fund. enerGy December power prices dropped 57% The average price of wholesale electricity throughout New England dropped 57 percent in December, largely due to milder weather that dampened demand for natural gas in the region, according to grid administrator ISO New England. In December 2013, colder weather increased customers' demand for natural gas to heat their homes, constricting natural gas supplies to the region and forcing New England's power plants to rely on more expensive fuels to generate electricity. The average price of wholesale power that month was $98.53 per megawatt hour. In December 2014, however, the weather wasn't as cold, leaving more natu- ral gas for the power plants. As a result, the average price of wholesale power was $42.47 per megawatt hour, a significant decrease from a year earlier. health Care Calif. addiction center opens second CT clinic Los Angeles-based BioCorRx Inc. said it is opening a new West Hartford clinic. The 970 Farmington Ave. clinic is the company's second Connecticut loca- tion. It also has an outpost in Norwalk. The company's Connecticut clinics operate under a distribution deal with JPL LLC, which owns the right to BioCorRx's Start Fresh Program. The program includes an implant that delivers an opioid antagonist called Naltrexone to substance abuse patients, combined with one-on-one coaching with a counselor. BioCorRx said it's targeting Connecticut because the state has a relatively high level of substance abuse. Citing Centers for Disease Control data, the company said 900 Connecticut residents die annually from alcohol abuse. nonproFitS Hartford Y CEO James Morton leaving for Boston post For the second time in five years, the YMCA of Greater Hartford has lost its CEO to the Boston Y. James Morton, who has presided as chief executive officer of the YMCA of Greater Hartford the past four years, is leaving to run the YMCA of Greater Bos- ton, the Y says. He starts his new job as CEO of the YMCA of Greater Boston on April 6. Morton, 59, was hired from the YMCA of Greater Springfield Inc. in November 2010 to replace former CEO Kevin Washington, who left in July that year to run the YMCA of Greater Boston. Washington left the Boston Y last November, to run the mothership, the YMCA of the USA, in Chicago. Before the Springfield YMCA, Morton was executive director of the Massa- chusetts Career Development Institute Inc. Week in review P H O T O | H B J F i l e

• Cover