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6 Hartford Business Journal • October 23, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Gregory Seay | gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Real Estate, Economic Development/Construction, Banking & Finance and Manufacturing DEAL WATCH Part of E. Granby industrial park draws $3.9M sale A 65,691-square-foot portion of East Granby's Air- port Business Center sold recently for $3.9 million. Gen IV LLC of Tor- rington bought 25-27 and 29 Kripes Road, on 8.34 acres, from Airport Business Center III LP as an investment, accord- ing to sole broker Sentry Commercial. Moving- supply vendor Associated Products Inc. is among tenants in one of the buildings, 48,000-square-foot, 29 Kripes Road. The landlord developed Airport Business Center, beginning in 1984, as a five-building industrial park, Sentry said. Kathy's Urgent Care expanding Connecticut-based Kathy's Urgent Care plans three new area care clinics in downtown Hartford, Berlin and Farmington by next spring, its founder said. Dr. Thomas A. Brown is founder-principal of Kathy's, which opened its first location in Wethersfield three years ago. It also has a second location in Rocky Hill. A third office is due to open by March in a 3,620-square-foot site at 353 Scott Swamp Road (Route 6) in Farmington, Brown said. In Hartford, Brown said he has inked a lease with landlord Boxer Properties for the 6,700-square-foot former CVS drug store space on the ground floor of 750 Main St., at the corner of State Street, across from the Old State House. The CVS lease is still active and Kathy's must wait until it expires later this year before it can begin inte- rior renovations of the space, Brown said. In Berlin, Kathy's has secured a lease for retail space next door to Ocean State Job Lot, in the Webster Square Shopping Center, 207 Webster Square Road, he said. East Hartford price cut The asking price on a 10,500-square-foot East Hartford industrial building has been cut 21 percent, to $295,000. The original price was $375,000 for the 55-year-old, single-story building on 0.63 acres at 87 Thomas St. that has been on the market since spring, according to list- ing broker Sentry Commercial. Good Sports renews Good Sports Inc. has renewed a pair of Manchester leases totaling nearly 40,000 square feet of manufactur- ing/warehouse space for its motorcycle apparel and accessories operations. Good Sports re-signed leases on 9,900 square feet and 30,000 square feet at 227 and 349 Prog- ress Drive, respectively, said Sentry Commercial, which represented Good Sports in lease talks. CB Richard Ellis rep- resented landlord New Beverly Realty LLP in the 227 Progress Drive lease, and landlord Sapphire Properties LLC in the 349 Progress Drive lease. MANUFACTURING Ripley Tools carves out a plan for growth T he global push to rewire and electrify an increasingly digital planet has been a strong driver of sales and product devel- opment for one Cromwell manufacturer with a steady grip on what it sees as opportunities. Ripley Tools, founded 85 years ago and still housed at 46 Nooks Hill Road, is investing $1.5 million to install more modern machine tools and expand its production floor to satisfy growing global demand for its specialty handtools, said President and CEO Christian Festa. Far from a house- hold brand like Stanley's hand and power tools, Ripley's vast line — its catalog lists several thousand items — of handheld cable cutters, trimmers and splicers are fixtures in the toolbelts of cable- television and telephone- and power-line installers and telecom and electric-utility infrastructure contractors worldwide, Festa said. Its tools are used to cut and trim copper- and aluminum-wire and fiber-optic cable lines. Festa declined to reveal sales for the company owned by Capital- Works LLC, a Cleveland, Ohio, equity firm but said they are rising 15 percent a year, and that the company is profitable. Digital-telecommunications and energy infrastructure is devel- oping rapidly in China and Europe, with introduction of new fiber- optic networks, plus new wind- and solar-powered electricity grids, Ripley officials said. Meantime, the U.S. and other more developed markets are replac- ing older, copper-wire cables in homes and offices with high-capac- ity fiber-optic cable that provide faster, more reliable data speeds. That means potentially more demand for Ripley's tools. However, Festa and Craig Tooker, Ripley's chief operating officer, said theirs is a highly competitive sector, where overseas copycats eagerly reverse-engineer tools from Ripley and its rivals. One of Ripley's biggest domestic competitors is Chester-based Cable Prep, formerly Ben Hughes Communications Products. To stay ahead, Ripley reins in overhead while constantly develop- ing new products and refining existing ones, Tooker said. It invests $500,00 to $1 million annually on product development. This year alone, Ripley innovated 15 new tools, half of which bear patents. It recently spent $350,000 on a cutting machine to speed prototype development. Product quality and reliability, Tooker said, are hallmarks for producers of what is essentially a commodity item. "They are made for guys installing the same cable day after day, and they need it to last,'' he said. Since acquiring Ripley in 2014 from an equity owner with ties to descendants of legendary oilman John D. Rockefeller, CapitalWorks has invested in Ripley's capital and human resources, Festa said. Inside its 32,000-square-foot factory, 75 workers get "real-time'' daily production schedules and other vital data from flat-screen monitors visible on the shop floor. Ripley employees, Tooker said, devised and implemented proprietary software to track the flow of raw materials into finished tools and components. Ripley, too, is keeping its production and nonunion employees in Con- necticut, for now, he said. To lift morale, the company occasionally show- ers employees with pizza, or cookouts in which managers grill hotdogs and burgers. It also provides tuition reimbursement to eligible workers. Every other week, Ripley employees work four days, with Fridays off. The short week is partly aimed at recruiting/retaining workers. Ultimately, Festa said, controlling costs and innovation are how Ripley can abide Connecticut and its reputation for being high cost and highly regulated. "That's how we can survive in Connecticut,'' Festa said, " … by selecting the niche by targeting the specialized contractor and installer market.'' BANKING & FINANCE Bank of America's CT market share lead narrows The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released its annual statewide market share data showing Bank of America is still the largest lender by deposits in the state, but its lead has shrunk. Here's a breakdown of the data. Bank 2017 Deposits ($000) 2017 Market Share 2016 Market Share % Change Bank of America $30,375,653 22.79% 23.20% -2% Webster Bank $17,754,903 13.32% 12.78% 4% People's United Bank $17,179,250 12.89% 12.74% 1% Wells Fargo Bank $8,756,665 6.57% 6.95% -5% TD Bank $6,936,523 5.20% 5.28% -2% Citibank $6,299,000 4.73% 5.26% -10% JPMorgan Chase Bank $5,894,986 4.42% 4.28% 3% KeyBank $4,219,978 3.17% N/A* N/A United Bank $3,678,632 2.76% 2.45% 13% Liberty Bank $3,575,777 2.68% 2.70% -1% 2017 Deposits 2016 Deposits % Change CT Totals $133,294,530 $129,216,977 3.16% *KeyBank entered the Connecticut market in 2016 after acquiring First Niagara Bank. SOURCE: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORP. Ripley Tools CEO Christian Festa (left) and Chief Operating Officer Craig Tooker. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED 25-27 and 29 Kripes Road. 87 Thomas St., East Hartford. 349 Progress Drive, Manchester.