Niagara USA Chamber

M&T Bank Corp. remains the region’s leader in a government-guaranteed loan program aimed at small businesses, but First Niagara Financial Group has grabbed the No. 2 spot.

M&T made 206 loans in the Buffalo and Rochester market under the Small Business Administration’s core 7(a) loan program from last October – which was the start of the federal fiscal year – through June. Buffalo-based M&T’s loans added up to $38.8 million.

Under the SBA’s 7(a) program, the government provides guarantees for up to 85 percent of the principal amount of a loan. The program’s statistics offer a window into which institutions are most active in it, as well as the amount of demand generated by small businesses.

Overall, 28 institutions in Buffalo and Rochester have originated 503 7(a) loans worth $101.2 million since last October, the SBA said. The number of loans increased 10 percent from the same period a year ago, and the combined dollar value was up 42.5 percent.

“I think it’s the confidence of the businesses overall and that the economy is looking better,” said Franklin J. Sciortino, director of the SBA’s Western New York district office. As those businesses feel more confident, he said, they are more willing to take steps to grow their businesses and apply for loans to support those plans.

M&T retained its position as the clear No. 1 lender in the Buffalo-Rochester market under the program during the current federal fiscal year. But Buffalo-based First Niagara moved past Five Star Bank into the No. 2 spot. First Niagara over the past nine months approved 77 loans for $10.6 million.

“The branch network has really focused on small-business lending,” said Janell Andersen, First Niagara’s SBA relationship manager.

The 7(a) program often is an avenue for applicants that are start-ups, have undergone an ownership change or are relying on projections, she said.

As for First Niagara moving up to the No. 2 spot, Andersen said: “We’re competitive, and we’re definitely serving the community where we do business.”

Five Star, whose parent company is Warsaw-based Financial Institutions, has approved 69 7(a) loans in the past nine months, for $9.8 million. Hamburg-based Evans Bancorp was fourth on the list, with 28 loans for $7.6 million, followed by KeyBank’s 25 loans for $3.6 million. M&T remained the dominant player in the program. The bank accounted for 41 percent of all the 7(a) loans in the Buffalo and Rochester markets from last October through June, and dollarwise, it accounted for 38 percent of the total.

While the SBA results for Buffalo and Rochester have improved, the National Federation of Independent Business said small-business optimism as measured by its own index “remained in tepid territory” last month. The federation said job creation plans increased slightly in June, but “expectations for improved business conditions remained negative.”

Source:
Glynn, M. ( 2013 July 30). M&T remains top provider of SBA loans. Buffalo News. Retrieved from http://www.buffalonews.com.

Hung Le has been traveling throughout Asia this summer with the new president of Niagara University, Rev. James Maher, introducing Maher to his counterparts at universities in Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Now Le, the newly appointed vice president of international affairs at Niagara, is settling into his office at the Lewiston campus, ready to begin rolling out a prominent initiative. NU’s Board of Trustees recently approved the creation of an Office of International Relations, which Le will oversee.

Le is the man responsible for increasing international enrollment at Niagara University, and he’ll be doing so at a time of high competition, as colleges across the United States look overseas to boost lagging enrollment.

That means Niagara has to perform well if the initiative is going to work.

Le says Niagara must establish a brand, since most Asian families and institutions struggle to distinguish between U.S. colleges and universities. But he says it’s harder than running a traditional marketing campaign.

The most effective international recruiting tool for a small campus like Niagara is the current students who are there, he says. Those are the ones who project their experience to their friends and families back home, whether it be through social media, phone calls or e-mails, or verbally when the students go back home.

So NU will institute a stronger focus on the individual progress of its international students, making sure they are in the right academic programs and helping them acclimate socially. Le contends that Niagara’s small size will allow its focus to be more personal.

“The best way to brand ourselves is word of mouth,” he says. “International students who come to the United States are very shy and timid, and I think we have a good team in place to calm those anxieties.”

Le has long experience in the realm of international admissions, having served as director of Vietnam initiatives while n assistant dean at St. John’s University from 2002 to 2007.

During that time, he helped craft a memorandum of understanding with several Vietnamese universities and began exchange programs with them.

Le is following a similar path at Niagara, having already identified several Asian schools as partners. Those partners can be invaluable, because the state-run Asian schools have specific enrollment quotas, and when those are met, potential students have to find somewhere else to go.

“There is high demand and the population is ever-increasing,” Le says. “That’s one of the places where NU can make an impact.”

Le’s most recent experience, as a partner and general manager at L&L Consulting Ltd. out of Hanoi will also be relevant. Many Asian families reach out to similar agencies to find the right fit for their children in the U.S., he says.

“We want to identify credible agents who can help recruit on our behalf,” Le says.

Le says Niagara will work on which of its programs is most appealing to Asian students and make those programs the center of its marketing. He also says the college will focus efforts on dense urban areas such as Taiwan and Seoul, where there is very little of the space or vegetation that a campus near the Niagara Gorge can boast.

“That’s a lot of green in one space,” Le says. “We can offer them a more healthy lifestyle.”

Le reached the campus last week, just before Maher. Maher has said he is similarly focused on strengthening Niagara’s core strengths, maintaining its enrollment and academic standards while remaining financially viable. The new president is expected on campus Thursday.

Source:
Miner, D. (2013 July 29). New VP plots international strategy for Niagara University. Business First. Retrieved from http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo

N.Y. Power Authority aids project at Sheehan

A $21 million project to open a workforce-development center in the former Sheehan Memorial Hospital in Buffalo is getting $500,000 in funding through the New York Power Authority.

The agency also awarded $300,000 to Ascension Industries, a North Tonawanda manufacturer of industrial, filtration and separation equipment, for its $2.7 million initiative that will make equipment that can convert post-recycled municipal waste into electricity.

Both awards are from the authority’s program to distribute the proceeds from the sale of unallocated Western New York hydropower to support local businesses and initiatives.

The allocations approved Tuesday by the Power Authority board were part of the second round of projects that have received backing from the Western New York Power Proceeds Allocation Board.

The award for the Sheehan project was less than 20 percent of the $3.45 million that its developers, 425 Michigan Avenue LLC, a division of McGuire Development Co., had been seeking. The job-training center will focus on preparing unemployed residents of the city’s East Side for professions in health care.

The center will include classrooms, a care facility simulator and an information technology laboratory.

McGuire Development acquired the Sheehan site last year for $2 million, with plans to redevelop the 87-acre property as a hub for medical, science and workforce training. Time Warner Cable also announced last month that it will locate a call center at the former hospital property that will create 152 jobs.

Ascension executives have said their project, which is expected to add 15 jobs to its 131-person workforce, will pair the local firm with the Ottawa-based developer of a new waste-to-energy technology. Ascension will make skid-mounted equipment that will be able to convert waste into electricity.

Funding for the projects comes from a pool of $23.2 million that has been set aside for economic-development projects within 30 miles of the Niagara Power Project.

The funds were raised through Niagara hydropower that was sold in the open market because it had not been allocated to a local company.

Source:
Robinson, D. (2013 July 24). Workforce center gets $500,000 from N.Y. Power Authority. Buffalo News. Retrieved from http://www.buffalonews.com/