Business

Editor’s note: Northeastern Pennsylvania wasn’t immune to the economic slowdown of 2009 or to the disruptions in iconic corporations like General Motors. But unlike in past recessions, the region fared better than many other parts of the United States, at least in broad measures of economic health such as unemployment, foreclosures and property values.

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Hasay Chevrolet in Shickshinny is among the nearly 1,100 dealerships General Motors Corp. is cutting loose.

Don Carey/tmes leader file photo

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Spencer Chesman, owner of igourmet.com, liked the turnout at a first-ever warehouse sale. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Oct. 5 but expects to emerge next year.

pete g. wilcox/times leader file photo

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Here, from January through last week, are some of the most interesting developments compiled from Times Leader archives.

JANUARY

• Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. of Chicago, the maker of Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops, announces that it has purchased land and a building in the Hazleton-area Humboldt Industrial Park for $12.24 million which it intends to use as its Northeast and Atlantic seaboard distribution point. The move will create approximately 35 jobs.

FEBRUARY

• The Independent Can Co. will close its Hanover Industrial Estates plant in March, sending 25 employees to the unemployment line. “This is solely economics,” said General Manager Jim McDonald, who for 35 years has worked for Independent and Bertels Can Co., the local company Independent purchased in 2007. Bertels had its start in Kingston in 1922 making metal lunch boxes and hats for miners. Over the years it made cans for Planters Peanuts, snack food companies and holiday popcorn tins.

• As a brash newcomer to his father’s car lot, Greg Santo found mid-1980s Volvo models competent, boxy and unexciting. But now the “ask for me, not my dad” dealer is making a bigger commitment to the Swedish car with a reputation built on passenger safety. Effective March 1, Santo Lincoln-Mercury Volvo will take over the franchise held since 1975 by MotorWorld Auto Group in Plains Township and its predecessor the Ertley dealerships. MARCH

• The first retail tenant of the downtown theater complex closed its doors. Quiznos sub shop struggled in the continuing recession, said co-owner Seth Brandreth. “It’s not how we planned to do it,” he said from his remaining store in the Midway Shopping Center, Wyoming.

• In nearby Wilkes-Barre Township, the Ground Round on Mundy Street shut down, and its owner John Bevevino said 50 employees are out of work. The economy played a part in the closing, but the bigger impact came from Harrisburg. “It was Gov. Rendell’s smoking law,” Bevevino said.

• Fairchild Semiconductor will close its manufacturing plant in the Crestwood Industrial Park next year and the shutdown will eliminate more than 200 jobs. The plant has been a park tenant since 1960 and home to a number of companies. Fairchild, the maker of wafers -- the basic component in computer chips -- primarily for the automotive market, is the second company this week to announce layoffs. HPG International, a plastics manufacturer, laid off 170 Tuesday when it closed.

APRIL

• Home Depot will join its competitor Lowe’s in the CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park and bring at least 350 jobs to the area with the aid of state funds. The home improvement retailer will move into a 465,600 square-foot distribution center in the fast growing park’s West section by the end of next year. Lowe’s opened its 1.5 million square-foot distribution center in the park’s East section in late 2008.

• Trucksville-based Solid Cactus will retain its name, but has been acquired by publicly traded Web.Com Inc., a buyer with a huge customer base to market its e-commerce and Web site development services. Co-founders Scott Sanfilippo and Joe Palko will remain with the company they spun off in 2001 from another Internet venture, The Ferret Store.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Web.com reported sales of $122.5 million for the previous 12 months. It trades under the symbol WWWW on NASDAQ. The deal that closed Monday allows Solid Cactus to keep its 125 employees.

MAY

• Wyoming Valley Health Care System is sold to a for-profit health care company. The $271 million deal makes WVHCS a subsidiary of Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn. The change in ownership will make the 410-bed Wilkes-Barre General Hospital the 10th Pennsylvania hospital operated by CHS. Also included in the deal are First Hospital Wyoming Valley, CHOICES, Community Counseling Services, Heritage House, Wyoming Valley Manor, the Visiting Nurse Association, United Health and Hospital Services and other affiliates. With about 3,000 employees, WVHCS is the largest employer in Luzerne County. As part of the deal, the new owner will invest more than $135 million in capital improvements within WVHCS over seven years.

• Hasay Chevrolet in Shickshinny is among the nearly 1,100 dealerships General Motors Corp. is cutting loose. The day before Chrysler LLC put out a list of 789 dealers it intends to eliminate, including Pompey Dodge in Kingston and Ertley Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Moosic.

• Wilkes-Barre area businessman Chris Hackett, owner of One Source Staffing Solutions, purchased the assets of HPG International for $1.8 million on Friday, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware. A new company, i2M, Innovation 2 Manufacturing, will operate out of the facility on Oak Hill Road in the Crestwood Industrial Park that shut down in March, putting 170 people out of work.

• The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry’s precarious finances are eased with the restructuring of millions of dollars in loans with Luzerne County. The deal worked out last week gives the chamber until the end of 2010 to pay back $2 million in loans to the Luzerne County Office of Community Development. Chamber CEO Todd Vonderheid says the staff of 32 is down to 15, other costs and programs have been cut as well. Bankruptcy was even contemplated as a last resort.

JUNE

• The region’s largest new vehicle dealership could shrink and car buyers could have farther to travel to showrooms if General Motors follows through on a threat to pull its brands out of MotorWorld. The dealership that now sells 14 lines of cars and trucks received a letter from GM saying that its franchises for Buick, Pontiac, GMC and Cadillac would not be renewed after Oct. 30, 2010, MotorWorld President Gerry O’Donnell said.

• Business owners believe the $24 million River Common park along the Susquehanna River will help flood their establishments with customers. Rob Finlay, president of Humford Equities, which owns several retail and office buildings surrounding Public Square, has leased 15 spaces totaling 50,000 square feet the past two years. He said tenants were enticed by multiple improvements. “New street lights, a 752-car garage in the new transportation center, a new band shell on Public Square, the River Common. All of that mattered.”

JULY

• Luzerne County’s three private institutions of higher learning lost between 22.7 percent and 24.7 percent of their endowment values over the past fiscal year, according to data provided by the schools. The tumble in investment markets wreaked havoc on the portfolios of King’s College and Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre and Misericordia University in Dallas Township. From July 1, 2008, through May 31, 2009, the schools reported the worst depreciation of endowment accounts in at least a decade.

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency prohibits Louis A. DeNaples from playing any role in the conduct of the affairs of First National Community Bank for at least 10 years. Banking law permits the regulator to impose the penalty in the event an individual enters an agreement in connection with the prosecution of a crime. DeNaples had been charged with lying about his relationship to organized crime figures in his testimony to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board when applying for his license for the Mount Airy Casino Resort. Prosecutors withdrew perjury charges after DeNaples agreed to transfer his ownership to a trust for his daughter, Lisa DeNaples.

• The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport will lose its remaining direct daily flight to Atlanta in August with the elimination of the Delta Connection service. The airport has had service to Atlanta, a Delta hub, for 17 years and at one time had as many as five daily flights.

• Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins star Dennis Bonvie opens Blue Chip Gourmet, a combination coffee shop, ice cream shop and restaurant in the University Corners complex.

AUGUST

• According to the terms of an agreement filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, prominent developer Robert K. Mericle will plead guilty to a single count of withholding information on a crime for his role in the Luzerne County juvenile justice scandal. Mericle also agrees to donate $2.15 million to fund programs that benefit the welfare of children.

• MotorWorld adds Dodge to its list of brands that includes Chrysler and Jeep. All three are products of Chrysler LLC, which pulled the franchise from Pompey Dodge in June.

• Benco Dental prepares to move into its new headquarters and distribution center later this year. The company will consolidate its local operations into a 272,800-square-foot building it purchased for $30 million in the CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park East. The local company, founded in 1930, has outgrown its combined 164,000 square feet in two buildings in Wilkes-Barre. The new location will have closer parking for the approximately 380 employees, two floors of office space and a conveyor system measuring more than 1.25 miles throughout the building to route shipments directly to delivery trucks.

SEPTEMBER

• E-commerce powerhouse Pepperjam becomes the second local Internet firm to be sold. King of Prussia-based GSI Commerce Inc., which provides online marketing resources for major names, has acquired the company founded in 1999 by Kristopher B. Jones. Pepperjam becomes a subsidiary of publicly traded GSI and will remain in Wilkes-Barre. It will retain its staff of 48 employees, down from a peak of more than 100. Jones will remain president. GSI stock trades under the symbol GSIC on NASDAQ.

• American Airlines will add two additional daily flights to Chicago from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, beginning in June, airport director Barry Centini says. It’s hoped the additions will help stem a 7 percent decline in passengers.

• The weight of bankruptcy is officially removed from his retail chain’s shoulders, and Al Boscov thanks the government leaders and loyal customers who did the heavy lifting with their financial support. The reorganization plan approved in a Delaware court room allows the birth of a new Boscov’s by providing for the transfer of substantially all of the old company’s assets to a trust that will make distributions to claims holders. The message Boscov hopes his 7,600 employees and the tens of thousands of customers will take from the resolution is, “We’re not only here for the short time, but we’re here for the long time.” The company operates 39 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Delaware, including downtown Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and Hazle Township.

• Just a week after John Shoemaker announced he was retiring and closing both of his Hallmark stores, Chris Matus, owner of Matus Enterprises, announces he has signed a five-year-lease to reopen the national card and gift store at the Gateway Shopping Center in Edwardsville by November. A similar announcement soon follows regarding the store in the Midway Shopping Center, Wyoming. Matus, under the name The Heritage Shops, owns and operates 15 Hallmark stores in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

OCTOBER

• Sunshine Market in Plains Township announces it will close later this year, leaving its 148 employees without jobs. But other businesses at the site, including a branch of Luzerne Bank, will remain open.

• The 122-year-old Penn Millers Insurance Co. announces a public stock offering up to 6,095,000 shares of common stock at $10 per share. Shares are slated to be traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “PMIC.”

• The consolidation of Hilton Worldwide’s East Coast operations will cost 176 jobs at the company’s Humboldt Industrial Park call center. The center will close in December after operating for 12 years in the park, company spokesman Mark Ricci said.

• Internet specialty foods retailer igourmet.com filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Oct. 5, after sales slowed and the company was not able to access the credit it needed to operate, company founder Spencer Chesman said. Chesman emphasized that igourmet, one of the leaders in its category, continues to operate normally and expects to emerge from Chapter 11 in a few months as a stronger company. Igourmet had 47 regular, full-time employees at its peak in early 2008; that is now down to 15. Holiday sales make up a large portion of the company’s business and Chesman expects to hire 200 temporary workers to handle the rush at igourmet’s leased 66,000-square-foot warehouse on Delaware Avenue.

NOVEMBER

• About 225 employees at Garland Commercial Industries, Freeland’s largest employer, are told that Garland’s parent company has decided to close the manufacturing plant on July 1, 2010. Wisconsin-based The Manitowoc Co., which purchased Garland last year, made the decision based on consolidation plans and the poor economy. The Freeland plant opened in 1974 on South Street and expanded in the 1980s.

• Continuing a lobbying and public relations campaign against proposed changes in student loans that could take away some of its business, Sallie Mae holds a rally at its facility in the Hanover Industrial Estates at which employees delivered 31,603 signatures on petitions. The event mirrors others held around the nation.

• The parking area west of the main entrance of the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs casino is being eyed as the site for a 300-room hotel and conference center. A preliminary land development plan includes an architectural drawing of a nine-story hotel and accompanying 25,000 square feet of convention space and meeting rooms. At 300 rooms, it would be the largest in Luzerne County. The nearby Woodlands Inn & Resort on state Route 315 has 179 rooms. A traffic impact analysis and parking study done for the proposed hotel and conference center includes the introduction of table games.

• WBRE-TV, Channel 28, signs a multi-year deal with WOLF-TV to produce the Fox 56 News at 10, beginning Jan. 1. The deal also calls for the program to expand to one hour. WNEP-TV, Channel 16, the ABC affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania, has handled the duties of producing and staffing the 10 p.m. news on Fox since 1991. It is the oldest relationship of its kind in the country.

• Tyler Memorial Hospital and Mercy Health Partners form a partnership that will take effect Jan. 1. Mercy Health Partners will assume the obligations, resources and personnel of Tyler, making the new entity, Mercy Tyler, a member hospital of Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners. The deal averts the potential closing of Tyler, Wyoming County’s only hospital.

• Thomas Tranguch, who runs T & F Tire Supply Inc. on Market Street in Kingston, is featured prominently in a national advertising campaign for the American Express Plum Card. Tranguch is quoted in full-page ads running in The New York Times and also is on radio and online commercials for the small business card.

DECEMBER

• October employment data for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area show a growing jobless rate, but one that is below the national figure. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, approaching a high last reached 17 years ago, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. A year ago in October the area’s rate was 6.8 percent. The national rate in October was 10.2 percent. In the 12-month period since October 2008, the area shed 8,300 jobs. One bright spot was education and health services jobs, which grew by 1,300 to a record high 53,700.

• Real estate analysis firm First American CoreLogic predicts that home prices in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market will edge up 1.1 percent next year. That’s slightly better than the national forecast. The company also reports that mortgage foreclosure and delinquency rates, while rising, remain below national levels.

• About 120 employees at the Office Depot distribution center in the Crestwood Industrial Park will lose their jobs when the facility closes in February. The company has operated the center since 2000. Company spokeswoman Melissa Perlman said the distribution center and warehouse in Newville, near Harrisburg, will have positions available for displaced employees if they’re interested.