YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com
May 13, 2013 | VOL. 49, No. 19 BILL FALLON
INSIDE
SellIng neW york
Ad campaign attracts praise and scorn AREA GROWTH INDUSTRIES • 23
BY SAM BARRON sbarron@westfairinc.com
Coming attractions
FACES AND PLACES • 21
Page 2
@
Andrea Bloome in her new Peekskill space.
A
television ad campaign mounted by Empire State Development Corp. that touts New York as businessfriendly does, in fact, have some feeling good. The numbers are positive. The can-do energy is palpable. Actor Robert DeNiro is convincing. Its message is one often voiced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his election campaign and since taking office in 2011: New York is back and open for business. Both the message of the marketing campaign and its reported $140 million price tag, however, have their critics, such as Orange County businessman Edward Arace, who sees form over substance. “The point is to get (business) site selectors to take a second look at New York,” said Arace, principal of A&R Global Consulting in Warwick. “Once they take a second look at New York and compare costs to other locations, when they do that, despite Selling, page 6
hospitals end merger talks BY JOhN GOldeN jgolden@westfairinc.com
NeGoTIATIoNS oVer A corporate consolidation between Westchester Medical Center (WMC) and Sound Shore Health System (SSHS) that was expected to financially strengthen and keep open Sound Shore’s two community hospitals have ended after nearly six months. The recent announcement that merger talks had reached a dead end came solely from Westchester Medical Center officials in Valhalla. That was in contrast to the joint announcement last December that the hospitals had begun exclusive talks to explore forging a “formal corporate relationship” to create what WMC President
and CEO Michael Israel called “a stronger, more vibrant health care organization.” “Health care in Westchester just got stronger,” Sound Shore Health System President and CEO John Spicer said after the December agreement was announced. WMC officials in their brief May 7 statement described the focus of the negotiations as “a possible acquisition” by WMC of the Sound Shore and Mount Vernon health care facilities. “WMC was prepared to dedicate enormous resources to the effort to keep these clinical sites open and upgrade them to better serve New Rochelle, Mount Vernon and the surrounding communities,” said WMC spokesman David Billig. Hospitals, page 6
Tamara Rabil at her Wild Angel Films office in Armonk
FILM DEBUT • 35