Business

(Pictured are the Smiths, from left, Michelle, Alex, Tom and Matt.)

Tom Smith has a simple goal: To be known as -- "The Sub King of Batavia."

Smith, with help of his brother, Matt, and wife, Michelle, opened New York Subs and Deli at 234 Ellicott St., Batavia, on Friday.

It's a shop that Smith has been planning for 20 years.

He said he always felt he couldn't get a good sub outside of Rochester, and he thought, "I can do that, too."

"There's an art form to a good sandwich and I've mastered the art form," Smith said.

There's at least one convert in Batavia -- a local resident stopped into the shop this afternoon to report back that he and his wife were duly impressed with the subs they had just eaten for lunch.

"I'll definitely be back," the customer said.

Smith said he spent a lot of time traveling to Rochester, buying subs, bringing them home and deconstructing them -- measuring out every ingredient.

Besides getting the amount of ingredients right, the other secret to a great sub is fresh bread, meat, cheese and vegetables.

"I figured out what they were doing and how to make some improvements," Smith said.

There's been some great activity taking place on Shop Batavia recently:

• Turnbull Heating and Air Conditioning has signed on as a premium business.
• Making Memories of Travel WNY provides nearly daily updates about specials and events.
• About Morgs Sawz & Stoves is offering a free ton of pellets with purchase (a $244 value).
• Dumbleton Used Auto Parts Inc.'s Online Store is offering 5 percent off any purchase of $25 or more.
• Bill Fox & Son Construction & Remodeling has a new listing, as does Foxprowl Collectables.
• McAuley's Bargain Bin is offering a FREE gift with a purchase of $5 or more.

And the list could go on.

If you check the home page of Shop Batavia daily, you'll find new specials and new information about great local businesses.

Remember, when you shop locally, more of your dollars stay in the local community to help our community grow and thrive.

Press release:

United Memorial Medical Center Laboratory has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™ for accreditation by demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission’s national standards for health care quality and safety in laboratories. The accreditation award recognizes United Memorial’s dedication to continuous compliance with The Joint Commission’s state-of-the-art standards.

The UMMC Laboratory underwent a rigorous unannounced on-site survey in the Fall of 2011. A team of Joint Commission expert surveyors evaluated the lab for compliance with standards of care that directly affect the quality and safety of diagnostic services and patient care.

"In achieving Joint Commission accreditation, United Memorial has demonstrated its commitment to the highest level of care for its patients," says Jennifer Rhamy, M.B.A., M.A., M.T. (ASCP) SBB, HP, executive director, Laboratory Accreditation Program, The Joint Commission.

"With Joint Commission accreditation, we are making a significant investment in quality on a day-to-day basis from the top down. Joint Commission accreditation provides us a framework to take our organization to the next level and helps create a culture of excellence,” said Mark C. Schoell, president and CEO of United Memorial.

“For our organization, achieving Joint Commission accreditation is a major step toward maintaining excellence and continually improving the care we provide.”

The Joint Commission has been evaluating and accrediting laboratory services since 1979. Today, The Joint Commission accredits almost 2,000 organizations providing laboratory services. This represents almost 3,000 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment certificate laboratories, including independent reference labs and in vitro fertilization labs, and those connected with other health care organizations such as hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and long-term care facilities.

The Joint Commission’s laboratory standards emphasize the results a laboratory should achieve instead of emphasizing the technical methods of performing testing, and were developed with input from professional laboratory organizations.

Joint Commission standards address processes that follow laboratory specimens -- from the doctor’s order into the laboratory, from specimen collection then back to the patient through result reporting -- focusing on the provision of high quality, safe laboratory services integrated with patient care.

These standards highlight the essential nature of laboratory services on the actual care and service delivery processes that contribute to and support the overall health care delivery system.

For years, Bill Dominiak has been known the world over as a master craftsman.

Dominiak makes pool cues, the kind top professionals buy and use to win tournaments.

Now, right here in Genesee County, anybody can buy a Dominiak designed and built product, but you won't need a felt-covered table to use it.

You just need a knife and something to cut.

Dominiak and business partner Tom Walter launched New York Butcher Block about six months ago and their local retail outlet is Batavia Restaurant Supply.

Blocks are $65 and up, and butcher tables are $275 and up, with table tops and countertops in the works.

The blocks are all natural, including the finish, which contains natural oils and beeswax.

"When you're in business, you're always looking for new revenue streams," Dominiak said.

For pool cues, Dominiak's Stafford-based company buys only the best hardwoods available in Western New York. The people who buy professional pool cues have very high standards and not all of the great wood is good enough to make it into a pool cue.

"Pool cue manufacturers are very fussy about the grade of wood they use and this gives us a chance to do something else with (the rest of the wood)," Dominiak said.

For years, Dominiak said, the wood not used in cues would just be given away.  Now he's found a way to turn the wood into money.

The county is scheduled to receive a $7,200 grant to help fund training for potential food-processing workers, as part of the Finger Lakes Food Processing Cluster Initiative.

The grant will likely assist Genesee Community College in developing food-training classes, said Scott Gage, director of the Job Development Center, and comes at a good time, with companies like Alpina opening factories in Batavia, along with existing businesses such as Yancey's Fancy in Corfu.

"Workers need to learn manufacturing techniques, process control, and health and safety issues," Gage said. "We’re seeing this as a tool to help us with these new businesses moving into the town."

Steve Hyde, CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center, said there is an effort going forward from government agencies, schools and food-processing companies themselves to create a better trained work force for these types of businesses.

He said developing such tech-based job-training programs (and food processing is now a tech-based job) is hugely important for the region.

"We are better aligning education with industry needs," Hyde said. "If you really start being able to deliver (a better trained work force), boy, you are at a key strategic advantage (for attracting new businesses to the area)."

Press release:

State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has written to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, requesting his continued support in the form of a $9 million investment in the STAMP project for each of the next two years to bring the project to Shovel-Ready-Lite status.

“Support is now needed in the form of a funding commitment to complete the process needed to bring this site to Shovel-Ready-Lite status. Over the next several years, this is anticipated to require funding of $20 million. The 2011-12 SFY Budget has already committed $2 million to this project,” Senator Ranzenhofer said.

“A commitment for an additional $9 million per year over the next two fiscal years to assure timely Shovel-Ready-Lite status will allow immediate marketing of the STAMP site to national and international tech companies to expedite the successful build out of this project.”

The STAMP project has the potential to create up to 10,000 high-paying jobs at full development, in addition to jobs created during construction and development of the site, and up to $2.5 billion in private investment. In the letter to Governor Cuomo, Senator Ranzenhofer also noted the possible economic benefits to residents beyond the Buffalo and Rochester regions.

“This project, with its offer of advanced manufacturing, is the only one of its kind in Western New York. In fact, we believe that it is the only remaining available Mega-site in New York State. It provides the legitimate promise of a significant private investment and thousands of desperately needed high-paying jobs for the residents of the Buffalo and Rochester areas as well as all the residents of the region including Erie, Monroe, Niagara, Genesee, Orleans, Livingston and Wyoming counties.”

Senator Ranzenhofer forwarded copies of the letter to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver, Genesee County Legislature Chair Mary Pat Hancock, Empire State Development Corporation President and CEO Kenneth Adams and Genesee County Economic Development Center President and CEO Steve Hyde.

The Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) is a 1,243 acre mega-site modeled after the Albany area’s Luther Forest development. Located in the Town of Alabama, the site is strategically ideal due to its access to three high-level electric transmission circuits, close proximity to the Empire pipeline – a 24-inch natural gas line– and only five miles distance from the New York State Thruway.

(Shown from left are: Owner Tim Tucker, project manager Jimi Soccio, administrative assistant Leanne Moore, sales rep Mike Kelly, sales manager Chris Ball, and head technician Geoff Harloff.)

The dispute between Time-Warner Cable and the Buffalo Sabres has left many local hockey fans out in the cold, but it's not like Sabres fans are without an option to watch their favorite team.

According to Tim Tucker, owner of IR Systems, a local DirecTV distributor, Sabres fans have been calling DirecTV in droves in order to switch service.

That's great, Tucker said, but because many of these customers are calling DirecTV directly, they're spending more than the would if they called the locally owned and operated IR Systems.

"We can help local customers save money," Tucker said. "We also have 12 dedicated local employees whom customers tell me all the time provide great, personal customer service."

Among the advantages IR System offers:

• Lower monthly prices;
• Face-to-face customer service;
• Flexibility to offer lower monthly price plans with in-house service plans and a lifetime warranty on equipment;
• Experienced professional installation team;
• Free in-home analysis of your best entertainment system set up;
• Installation service within 48 hours, sometimes within 24 hours.

"Most DirecTV customers love the service, but when I've come across customers who've had a bad experience, it's either because of billing issues or a faulty installation," Tucker said. "With our face-to-face customer service and guaranteed, lifetime warranty on our installation, these issues cease to be a problem."

IR System's superior customer service record has enabled the locally owned company to earn a "Preferred Partner" designation from DirecTV.

The DirecTV service provided by IR Systems is the full package of programming from the nation's #1 satellite company, including all of the sports channels (Sabres and the full lineup of available NHL games, NFL Sunday Ticket, MLB baseball, NBA and college basketball, college football, national and international soccer, among other sports offerings), as well as all the movie, news and information channels that come with DirecTV service, along with premimum services and pay-per-view (various fee options exist for the different packages available).

"We're really eager to show local customers what we provide," Tucker said. "Wind, rain or snow won't stop us from giving customers the best possible service."

To contact IR Systems, call (800) 319-2129.

NOTE: This is a Sponsored Post, paid for by IR Systems.

More than 100 brides visited Terry Hills today for a bridal show that featured 33 local vendors, such as Valle Jewelers, Stella's Bridal Boutique, Charle's Men Shop and Sweet Ecstasy Bakery.

It's the second year for the show and Lisa Fickel, marketing manager for Terry Hills, said the number of vendors is three more than a year ago, but the show can't get much bigger (maybe one or two more vendors next year) and she thinks that's a good thing.

"Rochester and Buffalo already had their shows and brides say lines are 12, 14 people deep and a lot of times they can't even get a business card from a vendor," Fickel said.

The show is helping expose local brides to the advantages of shopping locally for their gowns, cakes and accessories, Fickel said.

"People are very surprised to find we have all of this locally," Fickel said. "A lot of brides automatically think they need to go to Buffalo or Rochester for a quality wedding dress or a quality photographer," Fickel said. "They have been amazed to find they can find it all right here."

For a complete list of vendors who participated this year, click here.

When Dennis Taber heard from a friend in another town how well he was doing with a gold, silver and coin exchange business, he decided it sounded like something he should do.

His friend actually invested in Taber's business and helped him open American Trust Gold and Coin Exchange at 239 Ellicott St., Batavia.

"He said it was a lucrative idea and I decided to take a chance on it," said Taber, who has worked for 30 years as an antiques dealer.

The lifelong Batavia resident said he deals in gold and silver, coins and any antiques he thinks he can make a buck on.

We've heard for some time that while PepsiCo is paying for grading for a possible construction of a food processing plant in Batavia, the same work is "being done in three other locations."

One of those locations is in Avon, and as WHAM13's Sean Carroll discovered yesterday, no site work is taking place in Avon at all.

At the same time, however, the economic development directer in Livingston County says the site is much closer to being "shovel ready" than the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. His park, he said, doesn't need a USDA grant for sewer and water because it already has all the infrastructure in place.

"If they chose this site, and we made it very clear, literally they could plug in and all the utilities are in the ground and there's no infrastructure needed here or at the sewage treatment plant," Rountree explained

While Genesee County clearly has the lead in the race to land the project, Livingstone County isn't giving up.

The support of a U.S. Senator and the fact that dirt is actually being moved at the Batavia site appears to indicate Project Wave’s final destination may only be a formality at this point in the process. Yet Rountree and his team are staying optimistic after an aggressive pitch that included top representatives from Barilla.

Either way, regional dairy farmers will be pleased with either outcome.

"I think for the dairy industry in this area specifically it spells a good feeling about long-term stability," Coyne explained. "To have end-product manufacturing this close, it just adds to the confidence that we can invest in our own farms long-term and be able to be in business."

The other two supposedly competitive sites are in Pennsylvania. A contractor familiar with the project told me some time ago that those sites are graded and have infrastructure in place, but we currently have no way to confirm that assertion.

Press release:

Today, Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide several hundred thousand dollars in federal funds for sewer and water infrastructure work to prepare a Genesee County site to host a massive food processing plant.

Build out of the new plant will occur in two phases and could bring hundreds of jobs to Genesee County over the next several years. The Genesee County Economic Development Center is currently preparing a site to host a 363,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, capable of hosting 300 to 400 jobs just three years after it is completed.

The GCEDC is currently finalizing a contract with a food producer for the site, and is seeking federal funding to cover part of the costs of infrastructure improvements to ensure that the site is compatible with the needs of the food company. Today, Schumer called on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to provide $300,000 to $500,000 in USDA funds for several projects that will ensure the site is ready to serve as a major job creator in Western New York.

“This massive plant could be a game-changer for Genesee County and Western New York,” Schumer said. “We can’t let inadequate sewer systems and wastewater lines, stand in the way of jobs. The USDA should realize the massive potential this project has and provide the seed funding that will help grow jobs and economic prosperity in the county.

"The funds are there to spur development and USDA would be hard-pressed to find a better return on their investment than this new plant. Secretary Vilsack should do the right thing and help us make these infrastructure improvements as quickly as possible to ensure that we don’t miss out on a chance to bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to Upstate New York.”

To ensure the site is ready to host the manufacturing plant, GCEDC must complete $1.8 million in infrastructure upgrades to the site. These upgrades include the construction of a second access road into the park, the addition of a new turning lane and road re-striping at the site’s main entrance as well as up to $500,000 for wastewater and sewer pump station upgrades. The GCEDC is seeking $300,000 to $500,000 in USDA rural development funds to complete these upgrades.

With Schumer’s encouragement and support, GCEDC plans to apply for funding through the USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant Program. The application is due to USDA in April and funding would be awarded in June. Schumer noted that in 2010, Genesee County applied for and won over $200,000 under this program to build out sewer infrastructure to land the Alpina Yogurt Plant, which will serve as another major job creator for the county.

Schumer is pushing the USDA to help Genesee County build on this success by providing funding that will help the county ensure that the site is prepared to host a major food manufacturer in the months ahead.

In his letter, Schumer wrote, “Simply stated, securing USDA funding to complete these new upgrades will bring this $247 million project and its associated 300 jobs to Batavia, NY. As such, and with my full support and encouragement, GCEDC is submitting an application for Rural Development funding by the April 2012 application deadline.

“Funding this upgrade will create an enormous return on investment. Already New York’s rural and agricultural regions are quickly becoming centers of tremendous job growth due to the rise in yogurt and other food processing. This new food processor will join the ranks of the 900-employee Chobani Greek Yogurt manufacturing facility in New Berlin, NY, the 240-employee Fage plant in Jamestown, NY, and the 50-employee Alpina yogurt facility in Batavia, NY.”

CLARIFICATION: Rachael J. Tabelski, with GCEDC, said the USDA grant is intended to fund sewer improvements. Needed upgrades at the site include a secondary roadway and aquifer water.

Previously:

• Likely buyer for 'Project Wave' plant is PepsiCo
• Expert: Batavia poised to become yogurt capital of Northeast

Top executives from Alpina Products were in Batavia on Monday touring the site of their future Greek yogurt plant in the Genesee Agri-Business Park, and they heard from Jim Billington, project manager, that construction is right on schedule.

A mild winter has certainly helped, Billington said.

"We've been pouring concrete every day, and according to some of the locals, that's quite unusual," Billington said. "We've been trying to take advantage of that."

CEO Julian Jaramillo (top photo, left) was all smiles during the tour and nodded enthusiastically when Managing Director Carlos Ramirez (top photo, right) said they consider it a good sign that Project Wave is under construction (The Batavian has previously reported Project Wave appears to be the work of PepsiCo).

"It says we made a good decision in coming here," Ramirez said.

He added that with the milk supply, the transportation, the labor pool and now the chance to be in a location with a complimentary business will only benefit Alpina and could lead other yogurt makers to come to the same conclusion.

"I think developing a yogurt cluster is a really good idea – the Silicon Valley of yogurt," Ramirez said.

With Jaramillo and Ramierz was Alpina' Colombia General Manager Ivan Lopez, who was seeing the location for the first time.

"It’s going to be great," Lopez said. "We have a huge operation in Colombia and when I see this, we can see the future in United States. I think we can do good things here, just like in Colombia."

The 40,000-square-foot plant should open in early spring and initially employ 50 people, with the first shipment of product going out in June.

Ramirez said Alpina remains excited about the opportunity to sell Greek yogurt in the United States.

"It’s one of the few categories where America is an emerging marketing," Ramirez said. "It's grown like crazy over the past three or four years and we think there is still room to grow."

For previous Alpina coverage, click here.

Press release:

Java Farm Supply is expanding its operations to the City of Batavia by subleasing the entire two-plus-acre property located at 45 Center St., formerly known as United Rental. Java Farm Supply will be hiring up to 15 sales and service employees for this new tractor dealer location. Renovations to the property will begin immediately in preparation for a late February opening.

“I have been working to secure this lease for a while,” said Tony Mancuso, of Mancuso Commercial Realty. “We are really happy to be filling another vacant downtown building and creating jobs. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Java Farm Supply represents more than 20 different brands of new and used farm equipment from advanced agriculture machines and compact tractors to lawn and garden equipment.

“Opening the Batavia location is a leap of faith for us,” said John Bookmiller, owner/partner. “Our business has grown steadily but, it is still a big commitment for our family-run operation.”

Mancuso Commercial Realty coordinated the transaction with help from the Genesee County Economic Development Center and the Batavia Development Corporation. City Manager Jason Molino also helped the process by highlighting the favorable zoning and daily drive-by traffic counts at the corner of Ellicott and Center streets. The summer farmers’ market across the street from the site was also a factor in closing the deal.

"The GCEDC is excited to have assisted Java Equipment on securing a site for their expansion into Genesee County", said Chris Suozzi, VP Business Development for GCEDC.  "It's a perfect use of the former United Rentals building in the City of Batavia."

Java Farm Supply has been in business since 1951 in North Java, Wyoming County, and currently employs 25 people representing two locations. The first company expansion was the opening of a sales office in Yorkshire, Cattaraugus County. The City of Batavia will host Java Farm Supply’s third sales office as well as the company’s second equipment servicing location.

Both the Batavia Development Corporation and the GCEDC are likely to support the project through financing and/or tax exemptions.

Interested job seekers should visit www.javafarmsupply.com to download an employment application.

The following projects were approved for tax abatements by the Genesee County Economic Development Center Board:

Premier Credit of North America: Total capital investment, $150,000; Sales tax exemption on equipment purchases, $12,000; Anticipated new jobs, 50; Premier will be leasing 8,500 square feet and up to 13,500 square feet at 1 Mill St., Batavia (the former Pioneer Credit location). Premier will be hiring 50 full-time employees with a target start date of March 1; Premier originally sought locations in Hamburg, Springville, East Aurora, Orchard Park and West Seneca, but not Batavia; GCEDC won the bid with the sales tax exemption, according to the GCEDC-produced project summary.

Tri County Welding: Total capital investment, $111,000; Sales tax exemption, $4,440, Mortgage tax exemption, $938, PILOT, $24,945; Jobs retained, five, new jobs, two and a half; Tri County is expanding its facility to support an increase in business. The expansion includes a 35 x 85 foot addition during the first quarter of 2012.

Als Enterprises (Batavia Pediatrics): Total capital investment, $150,000; Sales tax exemption, $6,000; Retained jobs, eight, new jobs, two; Batavia Pediatrics is planning on renovating its office space of 6,700 square feet, including 1,000 square feet of space not currently being used. The sales tax exemption will apply to new equipment purchases.

The following project received a loan from GCEDC's revolving loan fund:

Batavia Enclosures, Inc: Batavia Enclosures is moving from the Batavia Industrial Center (Harvester Center) to 6 Treadeasy Ave., Batavia (the former Prime Materials Manufacturing location). GCEDC is providing a $50,000 loan from the revolving loan fund, payable over seven years at a fix rate of 80 percent of prime, with a floor of 3 percent. The loan will be used to assist with purchase of the building. Batavia Enclosures intends to create three new full-time positions (a punch press operator, programmer and press brake operator).

When I stopped in to Bourbon & Burger Co. this afternoon, co-owner Derek Geib said, "You want to try a clear whiskey? It's the smoothest whiskey you'll ever drink."

He poured me a shot and I took a sip -- it was good. On my first taste, I thought, there's nothing to it, it's water. But the finish retained that satisfying whiskey burn, followed by a lingering vanilla sweetness. A nice complex flavor that is smooth, but still with some bite.

The whiskey is called Kansas Clean, and it's distilled in Kansas and not sold much outside of America's middle state.

After Geib heard about Kansas Clean through a friend, he contacted the distiller's CEO and she helped find a distributor in New York who could get it bottled and shipped to Bourbon & Burger -- making Bourbon & Burger the first, and so far the only, bar in New York to serve Kansas Clean.

Brian and Beth Kemp have moved their successful apparel business to Downtown Batavia, and are sure glad they did.

"We liked the location and needed more space," said Brian Kemp, whose T-Shirts Etc. started in the Harvester Center more than 14 years ago. "We thought it would be good to be more central, right downtown. The atmosphere is awesome and we're more visible."

In just two weeks since the move, Kemp said, he's already seen an increase in T-shirt sales and picked up a few new customers.

T-Shirts Etc. offers custom printing on clothing, embroidered items, decals, banners, canvas prints of photographs, plus a variety of promotional products.

The front of the store is retail space selling T-shirts and sweatshirts with a hometown flair, from Batavia Blue Devils T-shirts to sweatshirts with the city seal on the front.

It's also a place where Brian and Beth have hung dozens of their own paintings.

The old location on the corner of East Main Street and Harvester Avenue seemed to get overlooked by a lot of people, he said, but now more people are stopping in the store on a daily basis.

The new location is 110 Main St., which sat vacant for a couple of years after Main Street Coffee closed.

Kemp said they're happy to finally be part of the BID (Business Improvement District) and look forward to participating in popular events such as Summer in the City and the fall Wine Walk.

The Genesee County Economic Development Center can generate a lot of money for itself, Legislator Ray Cianfrini said Wednesday, so he would like the county legislative body to start looking at how much this Industrial Development Agency gets from the county budget.

"I just think we should look very close at their budget and revenue," Cianfrini said. "I’m sensitive to the fact that we had to cut a lot of things out of the budget for nonprofits that do not generate revenues and they’re hurt by the fact that we cut them."

His comments followed a Ways and Means Committee meeting in which a resolution was approved authorizing the county to accept, on GCEDC's behalf, a $750,000 state grant to help bring a mushroom farm to the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

While Cianfrini was less direct about his concerns during the meeting, afterward, he said, yes, he does question bonuses being paid to GCEDC's executives while the county is providing $234,000 in supplemental funding to the agency.

"I personally received a lot of phone calls from constituents," Cianfrini said. "This riles them and they’re angry over the bonuses. I think that maybe that I, as a legislator, and we as legislative board, should be looking at GCEDC a little more closely and say, 'if you have the money to pay the bonuses, should we be funding you at the current level?' "

The bonus issue has been controversial for a year now, sparked by a state audit report that questioned the method of bonus disbursement, and it reignited a month ago when $120,000 in new bonuses were announced.

At the same time, the county has been forced to cut some programs, such as Meals on Wheels.

Cianfrini used the mushroom farm grant as an example of how GCEDC and its nonprofit Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp. generate significant profits.

With the $750,000, GCEDC will be able to sell the land for the mushroom farm and make a profit, make a loan and get the principle repaid plus interest, and collect a $16,000 fee for the operations expense of putting the deal together.

"This is a great moneymaker for the LDC," Cianfrini said. "And what do they put into it? Nothing. What are they going to get out of it? A lot.

"I just wanted people to understand how this works," Cianfrini added. "The state puts up the money. We dispurse it. They get to loan it out. They get income, they get revenue, they get operating expenses."

Cianfrini said the GCEDC executives are well compensated for what they do, but he's opposed to bonuses.

"If they continue to pay bonuses, then I’ll look at their funding and see if it's legtimate," Cianfrini said.

Press release from Genesee County Economic Development Center:

Premiere Credit of North America, LLC, a leading national accounts receivable management company headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., is expanding its operations and opening a call center located on Mill Street in the City of Batavia. Premiere Credit has signed a lease for 8,500 square feet, with the option of taking the total 13,500 square feet of space. Premiere Credit expects to employ 50 people at the Mill Street location and plans to be up and running by March 1 or sooner if possible.

“Premiere Credit is a dynamic and growing company. We are excited to open a call center in this location and look forward to welcoming 50 residents of the City of Batavia and the surrounding area to our team,” said Rob Meck, Premiere Credit president and CEO.

“This is not only a win for Batavia, but a national win; outsourcing of call center jobs has been going on for years, keeping these positions in the United States is ideal,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center. “It genuinely shows the quality of Premiere Credit as a leader in corporate responsibility. We welcome them to our community."

“We are thrilled Premiere leadership was able to recognize the talent, value and willingness of Batavia to support their business growth," said Jason Molino, city manager. “Mancuso’s ability to sell our community and Harris’ patience to land a call center tenant does not go unnoticed either.”

Premiere Credit contracted with CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) to find a suitable location to open its new call center. The request for proposal, seeking locations in Western New York, led to interaction with Chris Suozzi, VP of business development at GCEDC, who worked with CBRE to bring Premiere Credit to the Mill Street location.

After visiting many different sites throughout Western New York, Premiere Credit decided that Batavia was the best location.

“Given the variables of the project this was the ideal setting,” Suozzi said.

Suozzi and Tony Mancuso of Mancuso Commercial Reality have been working together since 2009 to fill this location.

“The Mill Street location, owned by Harris Mill Street Properties, has been vacant since July of 2009,” Mancuso said. “I was thrilled at the opportunity to show the building and believed it is the perfect fit."

Suozzi and Mancuso engaged Julie Pacatte, economic developer of the Batavia Development Corporation (BDC), and Louis Lopez, Business Services representative of the Department of Labor, to further assist with the project.

“The collaboration of GCEDC, BDC, Genesee Career Center, Mancuso Commercial Realty and Harris Properties sends a strong unified message that significant support is available for business in the City of Batavia,” stated Ray Chaya, BDC board president.

After a summer filled with bad publicity, Darien Lake Theme Park's owners, Herschend Family Entertainment, has announced changes in its top management at the park.

A veteran of the company, Bob Montgomery, has been named vice present and general manager of the park.

Chris Thorpe, who led the park staff through the accidental death of a patron and the closure for unrelated mechanical reasons of the park's signature ride, is now the assistant general manager and will report to Montgomery.

Rochester resident Steve Hallowell, a former director of marketing for Kodak, has been named director of marketing for Darien Lake.

For previous coverage of events at Darien Lake, click here.

Press release:

Darien Lake Theme & Water Park Resort (Darien Lake) has named Bob Montgomery as the park's new vice president and general manager. Montgomery has been employed by Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE), the management company of Darien Lake, for over a decade. Prior to HFE, Montgomery worked as vice president of operations and development at LEGOLAND, director of operations at Toronto's C.N. Tower and director of attractions at Canada's Wonderland, the top two attractions in Canada.

Darien Lake also appoints marketing veteran and Rochester, New York, native Steve Hallowell as director of marketing. He has 25 years of marketing experience and a long tenure at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, most recently serving as director of consumer experience marketing.

"The combination of entertainment and accommodations offered at Darien Lake are unique in the industry, and I am excited about this opportunity," said Montgomery. Prior to moving to Darien Lake, Montgomery worked at Wild Adventures, also an HFE property, as vice president and general manager. "The community has a lot of enthusiasm for Darien Lake, and I look forward to leading this great vacation destination, especially as we introduce three new family rides this year."

In his new role, Montgomery oversees all aspects of the park. Chris Thorpe now serves as assistant general manager at the park, reporting directly to Montgomery. Thorpe is responsible for employee development and relations.

Steve Hallowell leads the marketing department with a unique local perspective. "I look forward to working with the marketing team and the Buffalo and Rochester communities to attract even more guests to our park and accommodations," said Hallowell. "As a father of two teenage boys who love to visit the park with their friends, this job definitely promotes me to cool dad."