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www.HartfordBusiness.com August 31, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 3 City-workers' CU builds on grass-roots marketing By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com T he July debut of Hartford Municipal Employees Federal Credit Union's new- est branch in Terry Square, in the city's North End, likely was the neighborhood's social-business event of the summer. The mayor showed up, along with other high-profile city, state and community lead- ers. So did Jorge Perez, just weeks into his job as the state's banking commissioner. "He wanted to know all about what we're doing here in our credit union,'' said Marco Signorello, a Hartford native who has been Hartford Municipal's CEO the past 15 years. The credit-union branch opening wasn't typical: It represented one of the rare times when a smaller financial institution steps in to fill the neighborhood void left by the pull- out of a much larger rival. Last January, Bank of America announced the closing of its Terry Square branch, at 2775 N. Main St., along with several others in the Hartford region, victims of depositors' slowing use of brick-and-mortar branch sites in favor of mounting online- and mobile-banking options. B of A's pullout from one of Hartford's poor- est, predominately African-American neigh- borhoods turned out to be perfect timing for HMEFCU, Signorello says. The reason: It's tiny, two-person branch inside the city's new Public Safety Complex on High Street, on most pay- days was overflowing with depositors. Its main office is 443 Franklin Ave. "That branch helped us decide to open anoth- er one a mile and a half away,'' the CEO says. "We figured this could be a win-win situation.'' So far it has. Terry Square retains a finan- cial institution in its backyard and HMEFCU has expanded its membership rolls. "Last month (July) alone, we opened almost 60 new accounts,'' a "very good'' volume by credit union standards, Signorello said. Better serving its members while expand- ing its customer base is how, Signorello says, Hartford Municipal has multiplied from a single downtown office and a few hundred members in 1950 to five offices and member- ship of more than 7,500 today. When Signorello, a South End native who graduated South Catholic High and began his banking career as a People's United Bank teller, arrived as CEO in 1999, the credit union had just 2,000 members and $5.1 million in assets. With $41 million in assets today, HMEFCU is far from the biggest credit union in Connecticut. But Signorello and his aides are determined to make it among the Hartford region's most visible. Nine out of 10 loans on its books are auto or personal loans. More recently, it has joined the increasingly popular and lucra- tive market for tax-friendly health savings Subscribe it's in print Subscribe today and get access to the information that Central Connecticut business people and decision makers use every day. To subscribe call 845-267-3008 or go to www.HartfordBusiness.com You'll find it in print • NEED TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? • RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITION? • FIND HARTFORD'S LATEST BUSINESS NEWS AND ECONOMIC TRENDS? G r e at e r H a r t f o r d ' s B u s i n e s s n e w s w w w. H a r t f o rd B u s i n e s s . c o m for more B2B news visit March 31, 2014 Volume 22, number 19 $3.00 subscribe online June 5, 2014 Only 10 weeks until C T B E x p o . c o m Index ■ Reporter's Notebook: PG. 5 ■ Week in Review: PG. 6 ■ The List: PG. 10 ■ Deal Watch: PG. 11 ■ Nonprofit Notebook: PG. 19 ■ Opinion & Commentary: PG. 20 Faces oF Business Main Street Mainstay Manchester's Bray Jewelers has survived for almost 100 years. Read about the family business' secrets to success and what makes customers keep coming back. PG. 3 Focus: economic DeveloPment Social Entrepreneurship Hartford business accelerator aims to nurture socially conscious businesses. PG. 8 Music copyright lawsuits cost restaurants unexpected thousands By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com A few years ago, nine songs were played inside Shelton's Vazzy's Cucina restaurant that ended up costing owners John Vazzano and Vincent L. Noce $18,000. That's because an agent of licensing giant Broadcast Music Inc., which represents the artists who owned the tracks, attested to being present when the tunes were played and sued Vazzano and Noce for copyright infringement, claiming the restaurant's music qualified as a public per- formance. Under federal copyright law, that meant the restaurant had to pay for the rights to play the songs, BMI said. Vazzano said he thinks a private party actually played the tunes. Broadcast Music Inc. • Founded in 1939 • Represents more than 600,000 songwriters and publishers with more than 8.5 million songs. • Distributed 85 cents of every dollar in licensing revenue in royalties — that amounted to $814 million in fiscal 2013. By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com B y late May, the Corporation For Independent Living (CIL) expects to have in its hands title to the derelict Capewell Horse- nails factory in Hartford's South End in a bid to convert the idle eyesore into 72 apartments and an adjacent parcel into 24 affordable townhomes. If it does, it will open another fruit- ful chapter for a South End nonprofit that has leveraged — and exported — its talent as a group-home developer to shelter a diverse swath of central Connecticut's population. It, too, will be one of the final swan songs before the yearend retirement of its first and only chief executive. Since its launch in 1979 to finance, build, lease out — then ultimately give away — supportive shelter for thou- sands of the state's physically and mentally disabled, CIL has invested $458 million to construct or convert 2,205 dwelling units into shelter for 7,200 residents in Connecticut and Massachusetts. For at least a dozen years, CIL has applied that same skill set to its expand- ing for-profit realty development opera- tions that include Capewell, and a neigh- boring nonprofit-office-space cluster. In February, CIL announced it bought and will resume work on the $3.34 mil- lion Depot Crossing mixed-use project John Vazzano, owner of Vazzy's Cucina in Shelton, was upset when his restaurant had to pay $18,000 to settle a music copyright lawsuit. P h O t O | P a b l O R O b l e s Continued on page 16 Continued on page 15 Martin "Marty'' Legault, president and CEO, Corporation For Independent Living (CIL) With Legault, developer CIL soars as landlord Sued for a ong Continued Hartford Municipal Employees Federal Credit Union CEO Marco Signorello has built membership nearly four fold since arriving 16 years ago. HMEFCU Chief Operating Officer Darlene White, above, and branch coordinator Lisa Maheu. H B J P H O T O S | G R E G O R Y S E A Y