BUCKS COUNTY, PA

Local Commercial Real Estate Developers Go Green

O'Neill Properties recently held a groundbreaking in Bensalem on the $250 million Horizon Corporate Center, which is being called the largest green development project in the suburban Philadelphia office market. The center's six office buildings are being built based on U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. This means using mostly recyclable materials and incorporating features that will help conserve energy and reduce water consumption. O'Neill Properties is not alone though, according to land use and commercial real estate experts. The green movement is gaining momentum as companies interested in leasing property want a green space and builders are realizing it is not as expensive as they once thought. BPG Properties Ltd. recently named a senior vice president of sustainability to actively manage its green initiatives. Meanwhile, Liberty Property Trust has over 24 LEED-certified buildings across the country and will be able to take credit for the tallest LEED-certified building once the Comcast Center is completed.

BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ

Bridge Commission Celebrates Two Improvement Projects

The Burlington County Bridge Commission celebrated the beginning of a new economic development project and the ending of a finished one, all in one week. The Gateway Project was kicked off at the foot of the Burlington-Bristol Bridge and will include $480,000 of improvements: new concrete pavers, traffic islands, block walls, lighting and landscaping; as well as the widening of Veterans Drive to allow more room for tractor-trailers. A few days later, the bridge commission held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the newly renovated streetscape project in Palmyra. The commission provided funds to install new sidewalks, brick pavers, period lighting and landscaping along Broad Street from Market Street to Route 73.

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ

Camden Waterfront Incubator Grows Local Startups

Camden is home to the Waterfront Technology Center, a small-business incubator supported by Rutgers and Drexel universities, as well as state and federal governments. The facility provides space for struggling startup companies in the hope that they will expand nearby, creating more inner-city jobs. The incubator currently has about 170 workers in the building, making it approximately 60 percent occupied. Opened two years ago on Federal Street, it was built with $16.5 million in public money and is owned by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. One tenant, who is the president of export management company, Global Trading Partners, cited the reasonable cost of rent, utilities, Internet access and other office expenses - running about 50 percent to 75 percent less than market value. Three million dollars has currently been committed by the state and Rutgers-Camden, toward the creation of a $4.5 million project to turn the top floors into wet labs for research. The ultimate, long-range goal is to build a total of six towers that would be home to a high-tech cluster of businesses with high-paying jobs.

Regional Bank HQ Moves to Camden

Lititz, Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. has moved its headquarters for the Greater Philadelphia region to Camden. This move will bring 50 jobs to a new $18 million office building on the waterfront. The company received $620,000 in state incentives to move to Camden. It serves Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey; and in Berks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton Counties in Pennsylvania. It currently has 51 branches, $8.3 billion in assets, and plans to open its first retail branch in Camden in the first quarter of next year.

CHESTER COUNTY, PA

Berwyn Company Recognized by HR Industry Magazine

Human Resource Executive magazine recently named a local company's product as one of the Top HR Products of the year. Berwyn 's SkillSurvey was recognized for its SkillSurvey Pre-Hire 360, which is an online tool that gathers 360-degree feedback to request information from a job candidate's professional references. It uses email contact information, provided by the candidate, to send a form to designated references allowing them to confirm information already provided by the candidate. It then allows the reference to submit answers, using a 1 to 5 scale, about the candidate's skills, behaviors and competencies. HR Executive noted the tool's Web-based system as being easy to use and intuitive, as well as more conducive to candid comments.

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA

Sunoco Moving to County

Sunoco will relocate 400 of its staff members to newly leased space in Tinicum Township. A part of the Airport Business Complex, the facility is 105,000 square feet and will house engineers and support staff, including contractors from three refineries in the Northeastern part of the country.

County Efforts to Win Major League Soccer Keep Rolling

Progress has been made on Delaware County's efforts to bring Major League Soccer to the county and the region. County Council Chairman Andy Reilly recently announced a deal has been made with an investment group that would funnel $30 million into a Major League Soccer stadium on the Chester waterfront. The potential stadium would be located on 12 acres immediately west of the Commodore Barry Bridge and would include 20,000 seats. It would require about 1,000 workers contributing about 1 million man-hours to build it, and would ultimately provide 360 new full-time jobs. The $30 million investment would come as part of a newly created Delaware County Sports Authority, and the funding would be provided from a portion of Harrah's gaming revenue. Those involved see the stadium as one part of an overall economic development plan to improve and expand upon the waterfront. Next steps include the creation of a memorandum of intent for the agreement and then agreement from both houses of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to fund another significant portion of the stadium's construction. Finally, Gov. Ed Rendell will have to sign off on that amount.

MERCER COUNTY, NJ

New Jersey Technology Commercialization Forum

Select is sponsoring the New Jersey Technology Commercialization Conference on November 30 at the Princeton Plasma Physics Labs. The conference is focused on raising awareness among key commercialization leaders in the region to share and support current technology transfer and commercialization efforts, highlight successes and position the region for increased funding from state and federal government. The agenda for the conference includes a keynote address, 3 panel discussions, and a luncheon speaker. For more information, including a complete agenda, list of speakers, registration information and directions, please visit: http://www.njtc.org/events/comm07/index.html

Local Resident Receives Nobel Prize in Economics

A Princeton economist, along with two other Americans, was awarded a Nobel prize in economics. Eric S. Maskin, an amateur clarinetist, professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a visiting lecturer in the economics department at Princeton University, will split the prize with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger B. Myerson. The three men were recognized for their work in explaining how incentives and private information affect decision-making in economic transactions. Hurwicz developed this “mechanism design theory” while Maskin and Myerson refined it at a later time. Past faculty members of the Institute for Advanced Study have included Einstein, who remained at the institute until his death in 1955, and scientists and scholars such as Kurt Gödel, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John von Neumann and George Kennan.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA

City Ave Sign Lights the Way to Recent Improvements

The City Avenue Special Services District (CASSD) recently celebrated the unofficial renaming of the border between Philadelphia and Lower Merion Township to City Ave. As part of the celebration, those involved gathered to watch a newly installed “CityAve” sign light up and let drivers know they are entering a business improvement district. Launched in 1999, the CASSD is one of 23 similar nonprofit organizations in Pennsylvania and more than 1,200 in North America. It was formed to make the area more pedestrian friendly through the addition of street lights, landscaping and patrolling by community service representatives. The district recently welcomed the addition of a new Target department store, two quick-service restaurants, and branches of Commerce and PNC banks. Local businesses along with St. Joseph 's University and property developer Brickstone Cos. have added pedestrian lighting. According to officials, CASSD is the first organization of its type in the nation that crossed municipal boundaries, gaining support from both the Philadelphia and Lower Merion governments.

NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DE

Bank of America Funds Local Charities

Bank of America made several donations in the county recently including a $2 million building that it handed over to Wilmington 's Ministry of Caring. The charity was happy to announce the gift at a celebration marking its 30th anniversary of serving the area's most destitute. The Ministry uses the building for its Guardian Angel Day Care, which it has operated for the past decade. It provides child care services to low-income parents, most with entry-level jobs, and currently has 86 children enrolled and a waiting list.

Bank of America's charitable foundation also recently announced that it will give $200,000 each to the Boys & Girls Club of Delaware and Westside Health, and $5,000 each to five “local heroes” to contribute to their charity of choice. Those chosen will support: St. Francis Foundation, Latin American Community Center, The Ministry of Caring, Special Olympics Delaware, and Delaware Nature Society. Finally, Bank of America also provided five student leaders with an eight-week paid internship.

Local Leaders Discuss Knowledge-Based Partnerships

The University of Delaware held a conference focused on "Creating Knowledge-Based Partnerships: Challenges and Opportunities". The purpose of the full-day conference was to engage university, goverment, and business leaders in the challenges and opportunities for partnership. It included an impressive list of speakers and panelists, including Delaware's Governor Ruth Ann Minner; Ernie Dianastasis, Managing Director, CAI; Chairman, Delaware Business Roundtable and First State Innovation; and Patrick T. Harker, President of the University of Delaware. All three listed also submitted editorial pieces to the Wilmington News Journal to highlight the issues associated with the conference. Select Greater Philadelphia was one of the conference sponsors.

Local Glass Company Shatters Recent Sales Records

Analtech, Inc., a Newark manufacturer of glass plates used in forensics and medical laboratories, recently reported its highest sales in 27 years. The 20-person company reported a sales increase of 10 percent to $2.4 million in fiscal 2007. Founded in 1961 by former DuPont employees, Analtech is a private company that manufactures about 500 types of chromatography plates used in labs across the United States and in about 40 countries. It has attributed the recent increase to a jump in overseas sales and continued growth in the U.S. market.

PHILADELPHIA COUNTY, PA

A New Captain of Port Expansion

Governor Rendell has assigned John H. Estey, his former chief of staff, to head a massive expansion of Philadelphia 's seaport. Officially, Rendell made Estey the unpaid chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA), which is the state agency that serves as landlord to the state-owned docks and has responsibility for promoting the local maritime industry. Rendell stressed the importance of expanding Philadelphia 's port facilities and its positive impact on the local economy. PRPA is home to one of the largest freshwater ports in the world and is the number one perishables port on the East Coast.


Car Sharing Program Takes the Expressway to Success

It might be impossible to live and/or work in the city of Philadelphia and not see a Philly CarShare vehicle. In March 2002, the company's five founders met to discuss the idea and over five years later have a $10 million company. Even better, perhaps, is the effect of a car sharing organization on the environment. Of their 450 cars, half are hybrids and studies show that each shared car takes six to 10 private vehicles off the road. Philly CarShare recently signed up its 30,000th member, making it one of the most successful, fastest-growing programs of its kind in this country. The nonprofit organization has had great success partially due to the relationships it has built with the local government, local employers and transportation services like SEPTA.

SALEM COUNTY, NJ

Second Company Prepares to Build Facility in Gateway Business Park

Garden State Freezers and Cold Storage Inc., the largest meat importer in the United States, presented the Salem County Improvement Authority with a check for nearly $1 million to purchase ground at the Gateway Business Park. It marks the second company to build at Gateway, joining J.E. Berkowitz, L.P. a family-owned custom glass manufacturer. Garden State Freezers' president, Fred Sorbello, noted that he chose the site because of its close proximity to Interstate 295, and the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The company will employ 75 people who will work in executive management, transportation and in the warehouse. Phase I of the company's construction will include 128,000 square feet and the final building will be 400,000 square feet and cost about $19.5 million.

For more information of each of the 11 counties in the Greater Philadelphia region. Go to: http://www.selectgreaterphila.com/data/county_data.cfm