When John Lewis interviews younger job applicants these days, he fields questions he did not typically hear a decade ago. Applicants are asking more pointed questions about the future of Doceo, the regional office equipment and IT services company that he leads as president and CEO. “There’s no question that, when we are talking to […]
A tiny-home startup in Lancaster County is poised for the big time. A publicly traded shell company has agreed to buy Tiny Estates LLC and two related companies, Endeavor Tiny Homes LLC and Tiny Communities Fund LLC. The companies are led by CEO Abby Shank, a former KPMG auditor-turned-entrepreneur who started a tiny-home community outside Elizabethtown in 2018. Shank, who went on to […]
State regulators have tweaked regulations that modify the professional licensing process for people with criminal backgrounds, following stiff pushback from critics of the original proposal. The rules implement a 2020 state law making it easier for people with criminal convictions to become accountants, barbers, nurses and real estate agents, among the many other professions that require a […]
After closing more than 200 branches in 2023, PNC Bank said yesterday it is aiming to spend $1 billion over the next four years to renovate 1,200 branches nationwide and open 100 new ones in some of the country’s fastest-growing cities Banks are cutting branches. But they also have been opening them in markets where they see […]
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is planting the seeds for construction of a high-tech greenhouse in downtown York as part of a potentially broader investment in the White Rose city. The potential greenhouse project builds on the university’s Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability, which was seeded in early 2022 by a $1 million donation from grocery […]
State officials have narrowed the list of projects they are considering for a new funding program designed to prep industrial sites for development. The program, announced last fall by the Shapiro administration, drew more than 100 applicants seeking a total of more than $236 million. Officials are now focusing on a short list of 32 […]
Fulton Financial has named an interim CFO following the resignation last week of Mark McCollom, who had been the bank’s finance chief since 2018. A regulatory filing and press release issued Friday did not disclose the reason for McCollom’s departure. Lancaster-based Fulton has named Beth Ann Chivinski as interim CFO while it conducts a formal search process to fill the […]
The Hershey Co. plans to shed jobs this year as it battles higher cocoa prices and sluggish sales. The cuts will amount to less than 5% of the company’s roughly 20,000 workers worldwide, according to a Hershey spokesperson. “We do not expect significant disruption or impact to our employee base,” the spokesperson said, declining to […]
Shortly after being named to lead Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts last fall, Mary Oliveira hit the ground listening. She wanted to learn from the experience of staff members who had weathered the Covid-19 shutdown and then kept the nonprofit center operating following the departure last March of its former leader, Ted Black. […]
Lancaster-area officials, nonprofit executives and business leaders gathered yesterday to mark the next step in a nearly four-year journey to redevelop the former UPMC Lancaster campus along College Avenue. Nonprofit developer HDC MidAtlantic broke ground Feb. 7 on the first phase of redevelopment — a $23 million, 64-unit affordable-apartment building at 213 College Ave., the site of a vacant […]
As part of his budget proposal for the state’s next fiscal year, Gov. Josh Shapiro is offering a remedy to the shortage of ready-for-business industrial spaces in Pennsylvania. It is a $500 million, bond-funded expansion of PA SITES, a program the governor rolled out last year on a pilot basis with $10 million in funding. […]
A bumpy financial road is prompting local banks to tap the brakes on lending. Banks are still making loans. However, they may not be as aggressive in courting new business. Nor are companies eager to add debt, with interest rates still elevated and the economic outlook uncertain. A quarterly survey of bank loan officers by the […]
Absence makes the list grow longer. It has been more than a year since state officials dished out funding under the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, aka RACP, a state program that backs high-profile projects around the state. Now, for the first time under Gov. Josh Shapiro, the state is preparing to award funding once again […]
In a bid to reduce debt and cut expenses, Hanover-based Utz Brands is unloading some of its snack brands and plants, including a facility in the Lititz area. In a deal valued at $182.5 million, the snack maker is selling plants in Manheim Township and Littletown, N.C. as well as the lease for a plant in Las […]
Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out a vision for jumpstarting economic development in Pennsylvania during an address yesterday at OraSure Technologies, a medical diagnostics company in Bethlehem The 52-page strategy includes a mix of new funding, a focus on key industries and a series of other steps designed to make Pennsylvania more competitive in retaining and attracting workers and […]
A Lebanon County judge has sided with a North Annville Township decision shooting down developers hoping to plant a roughly 858-acre solar farm in the rural municipality west of Lebanon city. The ruling, handed down last week, upholds a 2022 vote by North Annville supervisors to deny a conditional use permit to Lebanon Solar I LLC, […]
Inflation punched something of a hole in the donut market last year. Consumers were still buying the sweet treats – and Duck Donuts opened a record 33 stores in 2023, according to Betsy Hamm, CEO of Duck Donuts, the growing franchisor based in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County. But, she said, “Where we’re seeing that decline is […]
Educators love it because they would no longer depend on legislative approval for annual state funding. Families buffeted by inflation — and reluctant to take on debt — will appreciate its promise of college tuition as low as $1,000 per semester. But critics wonder how much it will actually cost. “It” is the blueprint for […]