Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • March 30, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Top STory Plainfield biomass plant acquired California's Greenleaf Power said it has agreed to acquire the operator of a 37.5 megawatt biomass plant in Plainfield from Leidos Renewable Energy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Leidos acquired the then-unfinished plant out of foreclosure in Oct. 2013 and began operating it in Jan. 2014 under the name Plainfield Renewable Energy. It sells the electricity to Connecticut Light & Power under a 15-year contract. It's the sixth biomass facility the private-equity-backed Greenleaf has ac- quired. It owns four in California and one in Quebec, Canada. Greenleaf expects the Plainfield deal to close later this year. real eSTaTe Goodwin tower finally set for May auction Downtown Hartford's 30-story Goodwin Square office tower and its adjoining vacant luxury hotel are on the auction block, with a $5.5 million starting bid. The three-day auction begins May 11, the listing broker says. Auction.com's homepage lists auction details for the 330,901-square-foot building at 225 Asylum St. Florida realty servicer LNR foreclosed on the building in July 2012 on behalf of equity investors. Senior broker and principal Jay R. Wamester of Colliers International has the sale listing. Goodwin Square was the last major office tower built in downtown when it opened in 1989. The previous owner, Northland Investment Corp. of Massachusetts, defaulted on its $33 million mortgage for the 327,979-square-foot building that has been a prominent sight on Hartford's skyline since 1990. Northland paid $41 million for the building eight years ago. According to the Auction.com listing, the tower's amenities include a 302-space, eight-story above-ground parking garage, and an 18-car outdoor lot next door. The 124-room former Goodwin Hotel has been vacant since it closed in late 2009. ManufacTuing Colt hires two senior VPs West Hartford gun maker Colt Defense said it has hired two senior vice presidents. Paul Spitale will head commercial programs and Kenneth Juergens will lead government-military programs. Spitale was most recently vice president of national accounts at LG Electron- ics and was a Sony senior vice president for more than 25 years. Juergens was previously a group vice president at DynCorp International and a general manager for Oshkosh Defense. He is also a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. econoMy OFA: Deficit is $191M The nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis is projecting a fiscal year 2015 defi- cit of $191 million, it said. That's up nearly $41 million since OFA's February projection. And it's well above the Office of Policy Management's own $132.8 million projection, released late last week. That projection was up 117 percent from OPM's prior-month calculation. OFA said the higher deficit is largely due to lower revenue from federal grants related to Medicaid, as well as lower taxes and refunds and higher IT costs from a nearly 22 percent increase in Medicaid enrollment. CT personal income grew 3 percent in 2014 Connecticut residents' personal income ticked up by 3 percent in 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said last week. Personal income in Connecticut grew from $218.13 billion to $224.67 billion year over year. That growth rate ranked the state 39th in the country. Personal income is defined as the sum of net earnings, such as wages and sala- ries, property income, and government benefits like Social Security and Medicare. At $62,467, Connecticut's per capita personal income remains the highest in the country, BEA said. CT lost jobs in Feb. Connecticut's economy snapped its five-month winning streak in February, losing 3,700 jobs, the Department of Labor said. The unemployment rate also ticked up from 6.3 percent in January to 6.4 percent. It's down from 7 percent over the year. Labor officials said record cold temperatures contributed to the February decline. The last time the state lost jobs was in Aug. 2014. And the last time the un- employment rate increased was May 2012. DOL also revised its initial January estimate of 6,400 jobs gained upward by 1,100. Banking & finance Knights of Columbus targets faith-based investors The New Haven-based Knights of Columbus said its $22 billion investment advisory business, which manages the fraternal service organization's insurance assets, has launched several products targeted at Catholic institutional investors. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisers launched six mutual funds earlier this month and seeded them with $200 million. The funds are managed in compliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the organization said. "The Catholic community has traditionally been served by investment man- agers with a broad, rather than a Catholic, focus," Supreme Knight and CEO Carl Anderson said in a statement. "We believe a Catholic firm committed to Catholic values can offer a more compelling solution for Catholic entities." educaTion CT Forum founder Sugarman to lead education nonprofit Richard Sugarman, founding president of the Connecticut Forum, said he has been hired as the first executive director of a new scholarship fund set to begin distributing $3.8 million to Hartford stu- dents next year. Sugarman starts this week at Hartford Promise, which was founded in 2012 and seeded with $3.8 million from Travelers, Hartford Hospital and money manager George Weiss. Any student who lives in the city, has attended public schools since ninth grade, has a 93 percent attendance record and a 3.0 grade point average is eligible for up to $20,000 over four years for tuition, fees and expenses at a Connecticut college or university. The first scholarships will be awarded in 2016. "Hartford Promise offers a transformative opportunity to make the dream of higher education a reality for every Hartford student," Sugarman said. Hartford Promise has also received donations from Newman's Own Founda- tion and IT executive Bob Petrocelli. HealTH care & inSurance St. Francis to pay $45K to settle ADA complaint St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center will pay a hearing-impaired patient $45,000 and revise its policies and procedures to settle the patient's complaint alleging that the hospital didn't provide equipment or services to ensure ad- equate communication between himself and hospital staff, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced last week. The patient filed the complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which triggered a compliance review by the U.S. Department of Health and Hu- man Services' civil rights division. St. Francis, based in Hartford, has agreed to revise its policies, procedures and training as necessary and assess the need for auxiliary aids and services for hearing-impaired patients and their companions. A St. Francis spokeswoman said the hospital has implemented mandatory staff training, a centralized system for recording requests for interpretation ser- vices, new signage, and sign-language and interpreter assistance. By THe nuMBerS $250,000 The total amount of Entrepreneur Innovation Awards the state- backed CTNext program has granted to Connecticut startups since February 2014. 5 The number of months in prison former CT Congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley was sentenced to last week for her role in a scheme to mask John Rowland's involvement as her political adviser. $2 billion The total value of Connecticut exports that have been supported by the federal Export-Import bank over the past three years. 27% The increase in Connecticut's projected fiscal 2015 deficit — which currently stands at $191 million — from February to March, according to the Office of Fiscal Analysis. Top 5 MoST read on HartfordBusiness.com ■ 207-year-old CT furniture store to close ■ Malloy taps former Cigna exec. as insurance commish ■ OPM: CT deficit more than doubles ■ CT Forum founder Sugarman to lead Hartford Promise ■ DEEP pumped 1M gallons of boat sewage in 2014 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 Week in review The Plainfield biomass plant has had three different owners in the past 18 months. Richard Sugarman P H O T O | C O n T r i b u T e d

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