Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals 032717

Page 1

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD COUNTY

BUSINESS JOURNALS

MARCH 27, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 13

6 | SHINING LIGHT ON LOCAL ARTS

16 | STATE TO RULE ON CENTER

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

Threat of eminent domain has New Rochelle, landowner at odds over site’s worth BY BILL HELTZEL bheltzel@westfairinc.com

C

ity Yard is in urgent need of replacement and the City of New Rochelle says it has found the ideal location for the Public Works facility. But to get it, it will have to use the eminent domain process against an owner who is preparing for a fight. On March 21, the City Council unanimously approved a recommendation, without questions or comments, to hold an April 11 public hearing on taking 54

Nardozzi Place. That’s the home of Auto Sunroof of Larchmont, a family-owned car customization shop that has operated there since 1985. The site — across the street from Home Depot, near Ashley HomeStore and Costco — is a popular, traffic-congested weekend destination. CEO Paul Spadaccini is not opposed to selling his property. In fact, he put it on the market two years ago. His business has downsized from 60 employees to 15 and he is looking for another location farther north. » Nardozzi, page 8

Auto Sunroof CEO Paul Spadaccini and his son, Dino. Photo by Bill Heltzel

Big changes underway at Bridgeport’s business council BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

Michael E. “Mickey” Herbert

“TRANSFORMATIVE” IS THE OPERATIVE word for the board of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council these days, and president/ CEO Michael E. “Mickey” Herbert is determined to give them what they want. “I want to be clear that it’s not that there was enormous dissatisfaction with Paul,” Herbert said at the BRBC’s offices at 10 Middle St.,

referring to Paul Timpanelli, the man he replaced atop the organization in November. “But they still felt that there was room for significant change.” Although Herbert wouldn’t say it, the fact that Timpanelli had led the BRBC for 28 years before retiring last year had led some in the Bridgeport business community to feel that the organization was growing stale. One of Herbert’s priorities is to build up the BRBC’s membership — it currently stands at about 750, which he said was “a couple of hundred less than what it was a few years ago” — and he’s been successful in enticing such Bridgeport players as developer Kuchma Corp. to return after several years’ absence. “I’ve always felt it’s important for an organization to have lead-

ership that’s on top of the most pressing issues it faces,” said developer Phil Kuchma, who had been a BRBC board member for a number of years and served as its chairman in 2000-2001. “But I’d lost a bit of enthusiasm over the past five or six years. I thought the leadership wasn’t as strong as it should be, and that the organization wasn’t as relevant as it could be.” After dropping out for about three years, Kuchma said he was enticed back not so much by Herbert’s persuasive skills as by the mere fact that Herbert had taken over. “My mind was made up once he became the leader,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for him as an entrepreneur, as an executive at bigger companies. And I believe that he has the right » Bridgeport, page 8


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.