year that was in Central New York business, The

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 28, 2007 by Tampone, Kevin, Martino, Kristina

The Central New York Business Journal reported on a wide range of business developments by large, medium, and small companies across the region in 2007. Here are the highlights.

January

Early January brought news that two of the city's accounting Finns were merging with larger companies. Local accounting firm TFG CPAs joined Beard Miller Company (bmc), a firm with offices across the Mid-Atlantic region, in what the corn-panics described as a "merger" The accounting firms completed the deal Jan. 1. They declined to release financial details of the transaction. TFG and its three offices in Syracuse, Auburn, and New Hartford now operate as bmc sites. All 55 TFG employees were retained and all 12 TFG partners became partners in bme.

The Rochester-based Bonadio Group, an accounting and business-consulting firm employing more than 200 people in five upstate locations, also entered the Syracuse market in January. The company joined with local accounting firm Loguidice and Kamide, CPAs, PLLC on Jan. 2. The firms describe the deal as a "merger" and declined to provide financial details. The Loguidice and Kamide firm remained in its offices at 580 S. Salina St. Loguidice and Kamide partners Michael Loguidice and Thomas Kamide joined Bonadio as partners. Bonadio retained the local firm's 12-person staff to bring its employee total to 220.

In our Jan. 12 issue, we reported on the rapid growth of organic products. U.S. sales of organic food grew 16.2 percent to $13.8 billion in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association's 2006 Manufacturer Survey. The Organic Trade Association is a Greenfield, Maine based trade group with nearly 1,500 members that promotes the organic industry. To be sure, organic food still has a long way to go to rival non-organic food for market share. Organic crops account for less than 1 percent of the total farmland in New York State, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 2002 Census of Agriculture. The USDA conducts its Census of Agriculture every five years.

We reported that a New York City based fine acquired local insurance agency Fear & Fear, Inc in our Jan. 19 issue. Company founders Kevin and Gloria Fear sold the agency on Jan. 2 to NII Brokerage, LLC of New York City. The husband and wife pair, who started the auto-, home-, and rental-insurance agency in 1980, retired. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The Business Journal estimates that NII paid about $4.5 million to acquire Fear & Fear.

"It's time for the younger people to take over," Kevin Fear, 70, said at the time of the deal. The couple decided several years ago that it was time to think about retiring, but had to find the right buyer before they could do so, he said,

On Jan. 26, we reported that Albert Lindley Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton was fighting for its life after a state commission's recommendation to close the facility went into effect at the beginning of the year. Dennis Casey. executive director of Lee Memorial, said the hospital had three options to try to stay open after the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century (commonly called the Berger Commission) called for closing the hospital and converting it into an outpatient/urgent-care center. The emergency room, intensive care, surgery, and inpatient care would be eliminated under the Berger Commission plan. The commission prescribed closures, reconfigurations, or mergers for 57 hospitals across New York State to provide what it says is more high-quality, affordable, and accessible care. These recommendations became law Jan. 1 and are to be implemented by June 2008.

February

RMSCO, Inc. acquired Quincy. Mass.-based Medical Claims Service (MCS) - a move that expanded the firm geographically and boosted its revenue by nearly 25 percent, we reported in our Feb. 2 issue. MCS now operates as a subsidiary of RMSCO. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Salina-based RMSCO is a third-party administrator for companies that self-insure their employee benefits, including health coverage, life insurance, and workers'-compensation insurance. The finn has clients throughout the United States, but a majority of them are in New York. MCS provides third-party administrator services for medical, dental, prescription-drug, vision-care, and short-term disability clients in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and West Virginia. The firm serves more than 28,000 members and employs 65.

In our Feb. 9 issue, we discussed a new strategy at the Syracuse Technology Garden to attract more tenants. At the time, 52 percent of the Technology Garden's space was leased, and finding viable businesses to fill the rest of the space had been a challenge. A prime reason was that many of the companies seeking its resources were not yet mature enough for tenancy, said Paul Brooks, executive director. The 31,000-square-foot Tech Garden, run by the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, opened in the fall of 2004. It has a total of 24,000 square feet of office space. Prior to opening the facility, Chamber officials said it would take two to three years to fill the space.