FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL
YOUR only SOURCE FOR regional BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com
November 5, 2012 | VOL. 48, No. 45
Patrick Gallagher
FCBJ TODAY Is a lack of affordable workforce housing costing businesses recruits? … 2
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billion as Connecticut utilities, transit providers and government agencies labored to restore order and restart business. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Oct. 30 approved a federal
hroughout the war boom that has fueled Black Hawk sales, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has kept its eyes on the future with its high-speed X2 prototype and a Marine Corps helicopter that when built will be the biggest in the world. As it turns out, Sikorsky’s biggest question for the near future may be the appeal of a reconfigured commercial helicopter platform that’s more than 30 years old. After years of delay, the Federal Aviation Administration approved “type certification” for the Sikorsky S-76D, the newest model of the helicopter that debuted in 1979, and which Sikorsky has since delivered more than 800 of. The S-76D will provide the United Technologies Corp. subsidiary a new opportunity to demonstrate its value to the commercial sector, with the company’s struggles to land business on that front stretching back well before the recession. That has not been the case for all helicopter
Devastation, page 6
Spirit, page 6
Investors hone in on sustainability ... 5 HR exec guides FuelCell back into green zone ... 7 Creating an ecosystem for startup growth… 8
In the field: WWE lobbies for spot in Malloy’s Next Five … 10
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy surveyed the damage brought by Tropical Storm Sandy in Stamford last week, along with Sens. Joe Lieberman and Richard Blumenthal.
State dodges ‘absolute devastation’ Still no timetable for power restoration
Former Xerox CEO on getting “drafted into the war” … 12 Ad spending fuels Conn. campaigns as Nov. 6 nears ... 19
BY PATRICK GALLAGHER AND ALEXANDER SOULE
From Barbie to Barteca, Ria Rueda thrives in new role … 20
pgallagher@westfairinc.com
Companies seek to optimize web presence ... 21
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conomists projected the damage wrought by Tropical Storm Sandy would result in total losses of between $30 billion and $50
Giving the Gold Coast a Motor City mentality … 22 Also … Time to give Simpson-Bowles its due ... 4 CEOs to Congress: now or never … 4
MEDIA PARTNER
BY ALEXANDER SOULE
casoule@westfairinc.com
A horse of a different color: paint sales fuel growth for Darien co. ... 3
Invenio sets sights on YouTube, Idol and bedroom musicians... 9
Spirit of 76?
Foreign correspondent BY ALEXANDER SOULE
casoule@westfairinc.com
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ank of England – but not the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” central bank that manages the United Kindgom’s monetary policy – is establishing a loan production office in Norwalk. In doing so, the tiny entity from the Ozarks is stitching a new chapter with a time-tested system for underwriting loans that may get a
fresh look by lenders in the era of Dodd-Frank financial oversight. A century in business with a focus on agricultural finance, today the England, Ark.-based Bank of England is quietly expanding nationally via its ENG Lending affiliate, which offers “correspondent lenders” the opportunity to set up loan production offices outside the purview of most state regulators. The records of the Connecticut Department of Banking, however, are crammed with cita-
tions against correspondent lenders for not maintaining surety bonds covering the loans they underwrite, and Bank of England has sought permission to establish the Norwalk office, as well as others throughout the state. On its home turf in Arkansas, Bank of England has only a half-dozen branches with barely $240 million in loans on the books as of September – not even matching the size of Bank of New Canaan. But ENG Lending has allowed Foreign, page 6
Professional hockey thrives in Bridgeport •14