Fairfield County Business Journal 021615

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

BUSINESS JOURNAL February 16, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 7

11 | TRAVEL

12 | FC BUZZ westfaironline.com

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

CBRE data master to step down KAY LICATA – ‘A PIONEER’ – RETIRES AFTER 25 YEARS

BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com IN THE WAKE OF THE IBM RETREAT from central Westchester County in 1990, GMAC came into possession of a number of buildings on Westchester Avenue. Edward S. Gordon Co., which would eventually, as Insignia, merge with CBRE with regional offices in Stamford and New York City, was hired to manage the portfolio from an office at 925 Westchester Ave. So began a 25-year relationship between CBRE and a trilingual graduate of the University of Casablanca — Kay Licata — brought aboard to corral

and analyze what turned out to be at times chaotic data spread across the Interstate 287 corridor between White Plains and Harrison. As she prepares to leave the company, her job title is director, research services, CBRE Inc. She spoke recently from the company’s Stamford office. “This was pre-Internet,” Licata said, reflecting on her first task. “We made a lot of phone calls. We visited a lot of buildings. And we built a database. We had a large portfolio. We were working very hard and the only thing we had to do was take care of this asset for GMAC. We competed with the real estate market and we did » CBRE, page 4

Kay Licata at the Stamford office of CBRE. Photo by Bill Fallon

Greasing the gears

DECD FINANCING TILTS TO JOBS, SUSTAINABILITY BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com

CONNECTICUT THROUGH A NUMBER OF EFFORTS that include Small Business Express

and a pair of programs targeting manufacturing is focused on creating and retaining jobs. While private-sector lending can be dictated by the bottom line, the state Department of Economic and Community Development and Catherine Smith, its commissioner, by design seek longer-term results from business financing, namely, “How are they going to recover, sustain themselves, grow and create jobs?” The Fairfield County Business Journal put a series of questions relating to finance to Smith via email as the second part of a two-part finance series. Connect Innovations, which assists the state’s technology sector with financ-

ing, was the subject of part 1, “CI spurs tech companies at liftoff and beyond,” FCBJ, Jan. 26. FCBJ: Small-business financing — whether for working capital, equity investment or purchases — took a hit in the recession. How has today’s financing landscape been altered? SMITH: “At the time it was created, the Small Business Express program (known as EXP) addressed a real market need — the private sector had dramatically tightened lending in the wake of the Great Recession — and that was hindering many small-business people who were trying to recover from the recession and grow. EXP was designed to help our Main Street companies get back to business. “While access to capital has become better, the effects of the recession are still felt by many businesses, especially the smaller ones, » DECD, page 6

DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith. Photo by Bill Fallon


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