FAIRFIELD COUNT Y
BUSINESS JOURNAL
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR LOCAL BUSINESS NEWS • westfaironline.com ALEXANDER SOULE
Vol 48, No. 25 • June 18, 2012
FCBJ TODAY
draws politicians’ ire
Distress test: banks actively shop discounted commercial loan portfolios … 2
BY PATRICK GALLAGHER and ALEXANDER SOULE
pgallagher@westfairinc.com, casoule@westfairinc.com
E
A Webloyalty vet launches a “Groupon for good” variation …5 Against the threat of sequestration and other cuts, Northrop Grumman saddles up in Norwalk ... 7 On eve of Obamacare decision, health inflation slowing … 8 In the field: Connecticut among top 10 for growth in 2011… 10 The List: Largest hotels … 16 Pineapples and four-star restaurants … 20 Also … “It induced reliance by businesses who told employees to show up on Monday morning … How do you put a price tag on (that)?” 3
MEDIA PARTNER
Kicking the can down the road Transportation stalemate
Fairfield County – the store holds the largest selection of buttons, ribbons, leathers and more in the area. It is the only high-quality fabric store of this magnitude outside New York City. “I try to bring the New York City experience, but at a lower price,” Shapiro explains. When Shapiro opens up about the store’s operations, you can tell the business is in good hands. He speaks passionately and articulately about what makes the store run. His responsibilities are extensive – he is the store’s main buyer, who purchases fab-
ven as Connecticut overhauls its Department of Transportation to better compete for discretionary federal funding, the state in June found itself fighting to secure regular funding it had already counted on in its existing budget. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Connecticut stands to lose $520 million and thousands of jobs over two years if the U.S. House of Representatives does not pass a surface transportation bill by the end of this month. Blumenthal addressed the bill during a June visit to Deloitte’s Wilton offices. Later that same day, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy held his own teleconference with the mayor of Los Angeles to press Congress to reach an agreement on the transportation reauthorization bill. “It’s a fact that across the country, there’s a huge backlog of new transportation or repair projects that must be done,” Malloy said. “The Highway Trust Fund is running out of money, but for nearly three years states like Connecticut and cities like Los Angeles have operated under a cloud of short-term extensions that have not addressed the solvency of the fund.” Connecticut DOT lists 13 big projects under way at present in Connecticut, perhaps the most significant being plans for a highspeed rail running north from New Haven
For the love of fabric, page 6
Kicking the can, page 6
A head start for tech startups Page 6
Patricia Longueuil
For the love of fabric BY FIONA STAVROU
W
hen you walk into Larry Shapiro’s Banksville Designer Fabrics in Norwalk, your eye is immediately drawn to the array of vibrantly colored fabrics lining the walls. There are endless rows of silk, cotton, linens and woolens – everything from bold prints to intricate laces and soft seersucker. For anyone who has ever dreamt of designing his or her own clothing or home décor, Banksville Designer Fabrics should be a first stop. But it isn’t only fabric that has customers flocking to Norwalk from all over
Chelsea Piers sees gold • 17