Fairfield County Business Journal articles from March 1992

Fairfield County Business Journal archives from March 1992

Second foreclosure for Norwalk building. (Society for Savings' building in South Norwalk, CT)
March 2, 1992... The high-rise office tower at 50 Washington St. in South Norwalk, prominent on the city's skyline with a revolving electronic time and message sign on its crown, is facing foreclosure for the second time in two years. Lincoln National Life...

Westchester company weighs Stamford move. (JWP)(includes related article on Society for Savings and Gateway Bank)
March 2, 1992... JWP Inc., a technical services firm, considers several downtown sites for new headquarters JWP, an international technical services company based in Purchase, N.Y., is shopping for 100,000 to 150,000 square feet of new headquarters space in...

Nanny agency emphasizes screening. (Kids Care Consultants Inc.) (New Business) (Company Profile)
March 2, 1992... As mothers of preschoolers, Marina Pietronuto, 31, and Julie Ann McEnery, 33, know the frustrations involved in finding quality child-care. "It's like a revolving door," lamented Pietronuto, whose three children have seen nannies come and go....

Shoppers 'amazed' at what they find on sale at Norwalk discount retailer. (Amazing Store Inc.) (Company Profile)
March 2, 1992... The recession has not affected the business of one Norwalk retailer. As a matter of fact, the economic downturn that has staggered Fairfield County has actually been good for his business. In the last year, Steven Lander, better known as Mr....

Lender seizes control of Merrittview complex. (Bank of Nova Scotia's PTM Realty Inc. forecloses Grey-Mark Norwalk Associates's office building)
March 9, 1992... Another major commercial office building in Norwalk has changed ownership, a victim of a beleaguered market that shows little sign of immediate recovery. Grey-Mark Norwalk Associates, a New York City limited partnership, relinquished title of...

Drug maker's success attracts potential buyers. (stock market listing of Armstrong Pharmaceuticals Inc.)
March 9, 1992... Armstrong Pharmaceuticals Inc., the New Canaan drug-inhaler manufacturer and takeover candidate, joined the stock market's big leagues recently with its listing on the National Market System of the National Dealers Association of Securities...

Diet retailer goes belly-up, seeks to reorganize. (Fresh N' Fit Inc.)
March 16, 1992... A Peekskill, N.Y.-based diet food retailer and distributor appears to have grown too fast in an unsteady economy, leaving behind a long trail of debt. Fresh 'n' Fit Inc. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White...

Probe of Stew Leonard's focuses on 'skimming': 1991 raid by IRS agents sought evidence of systematic tax evasion, officials say. (Internal Revenue Service)
March 16, 1992... Federal agents are investigating an alleged "skimming" operation at Stew Leonard's, according to sources familiar with the tax probe of the famed Norwalk grocery store. It has been known since last summer that the Internal Revenue Service,...

Crystal Ice Co. (but not Crystal Ice) faces foreclosure on $1 million note. (Fairfield County Savings Bank seeks ownership of ice company's land and buildings)
March 16, 1992... What's in a name? The owner of Crystal Ice hopes his clients and creditors won't mistake his company for another one with a similar name that has been targeted for foreclosure. Fairfield County Savings Bank has filed a $1 million foreclosure...

First Constitution Bank closing five Fairfield County branches.
March 16, 1992... First Constitution Financial Corp. of New Haven said the board of directors of its subsidiary, First Constitution Bank, consented to the issuance of a cease and desist order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The company has retained...

Accounting firms target of federal lawsuits in wake of S&L failures. (Deloitte and Touche; KPMG Peat Marwick; savings and loan associations)
March 16, 1992... The federal government has filed suits totaling $250 million against two major accounting firms in New York and Connecticut, claiming negligence in their audits of savings and loans which eventually failed. Deloitte & Touche, based in Wilton,...

IRS Criminal Investigation Division keeps low profile, carries big stick. (US Internal Revenue Service)
March 16, 1992... Being told you're the subject of an Internal Revenue Service audit is enough to quicken the breath of most people. But when it's the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS looking into your finances, hyperventilation could set in. As the...

Sales of foreclosed properties form growing part of William Pitt's business. (William Pitt Real Estate) (Focus: Real Estate & Environment) (Industry Overview)
March 16, 1992... As the recession continues to roll through Fairfield County, foreclosed homes stream into the residential real estate marketplace. People who lose their jobs and can't meet their mortgage obligations are forced to surrender title to banks, who...

Real estate investors face another slow year. (Focus: Real Estate & Environment) (Industry Overview)
March 16, 1992... Liquidity, the paramount concern for the real estate industry today, will gradually be restored in the coming year; nonetheless the mood will remain somber until 1993 for investors, predicts Landauer Associates, the international real estate...

First-time homebuyers join market; others decide to wait things out. (Focus: Real Estate & Environment)
March 16, 1992... The post-World War II baby boom generation keeps getting older. At the same time, the percentage of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34, the age group that includes most first-time homebuyers, keeps shrinking, from 31.1 percent in 1980 to 28...

Danbury Square Plaza developer files bankruptcy; city officials deny forcing Chapter 11. (Danbury Square Associates L.P.)
March 23, 1992... The president of a Westchester-based partnership blames the City of Danbury for contributing to the bankruptcy of Danbury Square Plaza, a recently built, 190,000-square-foot retail complex adjacent to the Danbury Fair Mall. Danbury Square...

Charges pile up against Stamford wrestling promoter. (World Wrestling Federation)
March 23, 1992... The World Wrestling Federation seems tied up in a "full-nelson" lately as allegations of drug use by its wrestling heroes and charges of sexual harassment by management hit the newsstands. The controversies have brought an element of...

From high-flying promoter to indicted conspirator: the Kurt Wittek story.
March 30, 1992... Kurt Wittek, whose meteoric rise as a Norwalk real estate developer in the mid-1980s was equalled only by his rapid disappearance from the scene, has been charged with money laundering and other offenses in connection with a scandal-ridden North...

Owner of Lafayette Square near settlement. (Lafayette Square Associates)
March 30, 1992... A recent foreclosure action by Travelers Insurance Co. against Lafayette Square, a three-building, 175,000-square-foot office complex in downtown Bridgeport, is close to being settled, according to both sides in the dispute. Lafayette Square...