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www.HartfordBusiness.com • June 11, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 5 Calif. bikeshare vendor pedals into Hartford A Silicon Valley bikeshare vendor has chosen Hartford for a pilot program, city officials say. Mayor Luke Bronin announced that Lime, of San Mateo, Calif., has placed 300 of its bicycles in various city locations. The service operates at no cost to the city, Bronin said. "Bringing this bikeshare pilot program to Hartford is part of our overall effort to make Hartford a more accessible, bike- friendly city — and also a greener, more sustainable city," he said. Darrin Rees, a city resident and Lime's Hartford operations manager, said riders download the Lime app, pick up a bike, ride at a rate of $1 for every 30 minutes, and lock and leave the bike anywhere for someone else to pick up. All LimeBikes are GPS and 3-G enabled, allowing riders to find nearby bikes using the app, Rees said. Windsor Locks bookseller warehouse to close; 54 jobs lost A national bookseller is closing its Windsor Locks-based processing center, which will lead to 54 layoffs, according to a state Department of Labor filing. Yankee Clipper Books, a subsidiary of Washington-based Thrift Books Global LLC, informed the state's labor department it is laying off all 54 employees at 295 Ella Grasso Turnpike in Windsor Locks. The 83,200-square- foot center in the Crown Industrial Park will be closed by July 1, the filing says. The Windsor Locks operations will soon be moved to a processing center in Baltimore, company officials said. The closure is due to a change in Thrift Books' distribution model, a company official said in the labor department filing, which is required when an employer is undertaking a mass layoff or plant closing. CBIA, CONNSTEP to join forces Two of Connecticut's leading business advocates are teaming up in downtown Hartford. The Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the state's top business lobby, is partnering with Rocky Hill business consulting firm CONNSTEP in a move officials say will allow them to better serve manufacturers under one roof. CBIA announced its new affiliation with CONNSTEP, a manufacturing consulting firm that will relocate its 27 employees to CBIA's downtown headquarters at 350 Church St. CONNSTEP has 13 full-time employees and 14 other workers who typically serve clients on the road, officials said. Effective July 1, CONNSTEP will retain its brand and Bonnie Del Conte will remain its president and CEO. CBIA President and CEO Joe Brennan says the collaboration will create a "one-stop shopping experience" for the state's manufacturing community. With sizable expansions recently announced by Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky and submarine maker Electric Boat, Brennan said CBIA's new partnership comes at a time of "tremendous growth" for manufacturing in Connecticut. Frontier's CT losses spike Norwalk's Frontier Communications, which operates a statewide telephone network and provides internet and cable service, says its Connecticut operations fell deeper into the red last year due to lower revenue and higher expenses. The Connecticut operations, called Southern New England Telephone (SNET) — purchased from AT&T in 2014 for $2 billion — lost $516.9 million last year, Frontier disclosed to state regulators in a recent filing. That's more than Frontier lost in 2015 and 2016 combined — about $248 million. The company has struggled with the steady loss of landline customers, an industry-wide trend. It reported 470,836 "access lines" in Connecticut last year, down from 522,000 the year before. That number was more than 1 million in 2011. Frontier's Connecticut revenue fell 6.2 percent last year, from $901.9 million to $845.6 million. Expenses shot up, mainly due to a goodwill impairment charge of nearly $463 million. United Bank eyes 3rd Fairfield County site United Bank of Hartford is asking state bank regulators for approval to open what would be its third Fairfield County location. Meanwhile, United, after some setbacks, has quietly opened its first downtown Hartford branch, on the ground floor CityPlace II, space formerly housing a McDonald's fast-food eatery. The branch is a half-block east of United's headquarters in Goodwin Square. If approved, United's newest full- service branch will open in Westport at 374 Post Road East during the fourth quarter to serve the community lender's retail and commercial customers in that market, the company said. PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. 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