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6 Hartford Business Journal • September 14, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com TOP STORY CTfastrak claims millionth passenger Though there were no prizes or falling balloons, the state's rapid transit bus system last week claimed its millionth rider. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Department of Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker announced the milestone for CTfastrak at a press confer- ence in Hartford. The $570 million bus system, which benefits from a dedicated lane be- tween New Britain and Hartford, launched March 28. Officials said the weekday ridership averages 14,000 one-way passenger trips, while Saturdays and Sundays average 9,000 trips and 5,000 trips, respectively. Automated equipment in each bus started counting passengers on April 6, when the buses began collecting fares, following a nine-day promotional period of free rides. A trip is counted every time a rider boards a CTfastrak bus. If one person boards a CTfastrak bus two times in one day, it counts as two trips, officials said. ADVERTISING, MEDIA & MARKETING WFSB-WTNH decision looms in Meredith's $2.4 billion merger A proposed $2.4 billion merger of television station operators Meredith and Media General could lead to the swap or sale of a Hartford station, the compa- nies said last week. Media General has 71 stations, while Meredith has 17. Combined the two would be the third largest television affiliate owner in the United States, they said. In the Hartford-New Haven market, the companies have overlapping stations — Meredith's CBS-affiliated station, WFSB Channel 3, and Media General's ABC-affiliated station, WTNH. They said they will have to swap or sell one of those stations to address regu- latory concerns, but a decision had not been made as of press time. The companies also have overlapping markets in Springfield, Mass., and four other areas. The companies said they could create more than $800 million in cost syner- gies in the first two years. Yard Goats add third founding sponsor Hartford's new Double-A minor league baseball team, the Yard Goats, have landed a third founding sponsor. Stamford's Frontier Communications, which has expanded its Connecticut telecom offerings through its $2 billion acquisition of AT&T's landline assets last year, will pay an undisclosed sum for the right to display its signage inside and outside the $56 million stadium under construction in the Downtown North neighborhood. The company's name will also be on the Frontier Communications Stadium Club. Frontier will also provide free Wi-Fi for fans at home games. Frontier joins founding sponsors Travelers and The Hartford Financial Ser- vices Group. In addition, Dunkin' Donuts owns the naming rights to the stadium. The New Britain Rock Cats, who will become the Yard Goats when they start the 2016 season in Hartford's new stadium, played their final game last week in Maine. BIOSCIENCE Yale-UConn bioscience initiative gets $10M from CT Innovations The Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF) is investing $10 million in a new program that hopes to speed commercialization of bioscience research. The Program in Innovative Therapeutics for Connecticut's Health (PITCH) will vet UConn and Yale researchers' ideas for commercial viability, with the goal of forming new companies. The program was first pitched to BioInnovation Fund overseer Connecticut In- novations earlier this year as a way to help scientists overcome the so-called "valley of death" in which their research can't get funding for commercialization. PITCH is headed by Yale professor Craig Crews. PITCH's advisory board, which will vet bioscience research, includes a mix of scientists and venture capitalists, including current and past executives of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Bayer Healthcare, Roche Sequencing Solutions and other organizations. MANUFACTURING Former UTC chief pops up at Goldman Sachs The former chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corp. has resurfaced with a new gig at New York investment banking giant Goldman Sachs. Louis R. Chênevert, 58, who retired from UTC unexpectedly in November, will be an exclusive advisor to Goldman Sachs' merchant banking division, where he will seek investment and finance opportunities in the aerospace and industrial sectors, Goldman Sachs announced last week. Goldman Sachs' merchant banking division invests in corporate and real es- tate equity and debt, as well as infrastructure. It has raised more than $140 billion in capital over the past 30 years. Since Chênevert's departure, UTC's new CEO Gregory J. Hayes has made major changes at the company, which manufactures aerospace engines, eleva- tors, security systems and other products. UTC agreed in July to sell helicopter subsidiary Sikorsky to Lockheed Martin for $9 billion. The company also recently moved its corporate office from Hartford to Farm- ington, after announcing in March that it wanted to save more than $100 million in office expenses. GOVERNMENT, POLITICS & LAW DOL recovered $6.1M in unpaid wages last year The state Department of Labor said it recovered $6.1 million in unpaid wages in fiscal year 2014, down from $6.6 million the year before. DOL investigated 2,337 complaints during the year that ended June 30. The largest portion of the total was $1.6 million that was owed to 514 work- ers who were paid an incorrect amount when working at public-project con- struction sites. A nearly equal amount recovered was related to unpaid wages affecting 1,649 employees, the agency said. REAL ESTATE CT's July home sales surge, prices soft Connecticut home sales in July posted their best one-month gain in nearly a decade, a Boston business publisher says. However, prices softened. There were 3,415 single-family homes sold statewide in July, up 8.2 percent from a year earlier — the most in a single month since August 2007, The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record, said. Through the first seven months of this year, 15,775 houses have sold — an 11.9 percent increase from the 14,050 sold from January through July 2014. The median home sales price in July was $271,000, down 1.4 percent from the year-earlier median of $275,000. Year to date the median sales price is $250,000, down 1.9 percent from $255,000 through July last year. CT's foreclosure inventory fluctuates The percentage of mortgaged Connecticut homes in foreclosure ticked up in July, but was down from a year prior, according to CoreLogic. The foreclosure inventory stood at 1.9 percent in July, up from 1.7 percent in June and 1.8 percent in May. But the inventory continues to fall overall — down from 2.6 percent a year ago, when Connecticut inventory was the sixth highest. There were 4,882 foreclosures completed over the past year, which repre- sents a slowdown from the prior period, when there were 5,478. BY THE NUMBERS $271,000 The median sales price of a Connecticut home in July, down from $275,000 a year prior, according to The Warren Group. $1M The value of a first-place slot tournament prize that Foxwoods paid out last week to a Rhode Island man. 19th UConn's ranking among fellow public universities in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking. 8.5% The average insurance premiums increase approved for ConnectiCare health plans next year. 7,669 The number of occupational illnesses reported in Connecticut in 2013, up 7 percent from 2012, according to a recent state report. TOP 5 MOST READ on HartfordBusiness.com ■ WFSB-WTNH decision looms in Meredith's $2.4 billion merger ■ Survey: RNs wanted ■ Dominion sells $300M stake to SunEdison ■ NLRB hearing set in symphony contract negotiation ■ CT touts training-school acreage to growers 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 CTfastrak has 10 stations including one on Flatbush Avenue in West Hartford (shown above). Connecticut recorded its highest level of July home sales in nearly a decade. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D