Fairfield County Business Journal 120715

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY

BUSINESS JOURNAL December 7, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 49

6 | CHAMBER HAT TRICK

26 | GOOD THINGS HAPPENING

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

Green top to bottom and blue all over BY BILL FALLON Bfallon@westfairinc.com

M

ystery solved. Sabine H. Schoenberg is the person behind the rubbernecking and rapidly applied brakes on Old Church Road in Greenwich. You never saw a blue house quite so blue, even in some pastel-mad beach community, though for this house it’s just its skivvies, soon to disappear under siding and roofing. The 100-percent, basement-totopmost-crest sheathing saves on energy consumption while helping to make fresh the home’s interior air, an uptrending concern in homebuying. Schoenberg has been a designer, real estate developer and Realtor since 1988. She runs two Greenwich-based websites: the Fairfield County real estate-

The blue-wrapped house on Old Church Road in Greenwich. Photo by Bill Fallon

based PrimeSitesCT.com and ThisNewHouse.com, which offers videos on themes that include better lighting, cleaner air, better use of space and use of newto-the-market materials. It is, she narrates, “the place to find new products and trends in building to nurture your body and your spirit.” ThisNewHouse is currently focused on the blue house on Old Church Road. Schoenberg sees several trends represented in the blue house. First, she said, is its location. “It’s closer to town. It’s in the right place as far as the market pulse is concerned.” She said the market drivers today are downsizing baby boomers and millennials, who together » BLUE, page 2

Injunction secures Internet access for nonpro�its THINKING OF THE WEB AS A VIRTUAL UTILITY

BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com JONATHAN HANDLER IS THE LEAD trial attorney in the Boston office of Day Pitney LLP, with a Greenwich shingle and 300 attorneys practicing under its name in offices between Massachusetts

and Florida. In October, he and a handful of Day Pitney attorneys sought – and in November received – an injunction against telecommunications company Sprint, based in Kansas, that has ramifications for the delivery of discount Internet service for schools and other nonprofits

across the U.S. On Nov. 6, a Massachusetts state court agreed with the Day Pitney position representing six nonprofit plaintiffs. Sprint, which had sought to discontinue its WiMAX Internet service to a group of nonprofits, must now for at least 90 days continue to provide broadband service. Handler said the nature of the case was “specific performance” wherein the goal is not to win money — the usual end of contract disputes — but to continue providing the service. The injunction means, for now, that will be the case and Sprint will maintain Internet access for the estimated

300,000 people who use the nonprofits’ services. “We are hopeful that either a resolution can be negotiated or the court will continue to see things our way and ultimately we’ll get the relief we’re seeking,” Handler said. “I would say we’re cautiously optimistic.” Efforts to reach Sprint for comment were unsuccessful. In a web-based Kansas City Business Journal news report, a Sprint representative said the company had been trying to move its WiMAX users to its higher quality LTE network since last year. Sprint said it notified the six nonprofits about the changeover. In the

report, Sprint said none of them agreed to cooperate and work with Sprint, choosing instead for a legal strategy. The plaintiffs are Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon, which in turn represent the six nonprofits, which in turn interact with clients that include 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofits in the U.S. The nonprofits, which run from regional to national in scope, are the North American Catholic E du c at i on a l P ro g r a m m i n g Foundation Inc. in Rhode Island; Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation Inc.; Denver Area » WEB ACCESS, page 19


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