Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the August 15, 2001 edition of U.S.
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Life in the Fast Lane
Nassau Street, Princeton’s “Financial Alley,”
is in flux. Morgan Stanley has completed its move into the storefront
of Gordon Gund’s picturesque headquarters at 14 Nassau Street, and
Merrill Lynch has suddenly decided to leave its long-term space at
194 Nassau Street.
Before Olde Discount Stockbrokers moved out last summer, Morgan
Stanley
had been calling to get space in the Gund building. It’s a headturner,
a Flemish Revival structure that looks as if it came straight from
Delft. Erected in 1896 to house Princeton Bank and Trust, it
definitely
qualifies as a “grandfathered” exception to Princeton
Borough’s
1989 ordinance designed to keep banks and brokerage houses from
proliferating
downtown. Back then, so many banks and stockbrokers were squeezing
out retail stores that Nassau Street earned that moniker
“Financial
Alley.”
“Morgan Stanley is certainly a good client and a prestigious
organization,”
says Noreen Coutin, director of administration at Gund Investment
Corp. Along with the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Gund has 15
employees
at this location, and the building also houses the Witherspoon Art
and Bookstore. A new air conditioning system has been installed, and
Morgan Stanley is already interested in expanding upstairs to the
second or third floors, where architect Jerry Ford, of Ford Farewell
Mills & Gatsch, has redesigned space formerly occupied by architect
Andrew Sheldon. Says Coutin: “We really feel the building is one
of the landmarks on Nassau Street.”
There was never a question of Merrill’s putting its retail brokers
into the new “back office” campus in Hopewell, but last year
Merrill was saying its Nassau Street office would not follow the other
retail branches to Princeton Commons at 7 Roszel Road. So the decision
to vacate Nassau Street on September 10 is a surprise to everyone,
particularly since Merrill signed a long-term lease there late last
year.
“I can’t believe that they would give up a hard-found street
location
in a town that they identify as their corporate headquarters,”
says David Newton, vice president of Palmer Square Management.
Hard found indeed. Even with all the bank mergers, the
“grandfathered” addresses that will allow for financial
occupants
are still numbered. Among the few variances that have been granted
from the ordinance is U.S. Trust at 51 Hulfish Street (the less
fashionable
end of Palmer Square). Quick & Reilly reportedly obtained building
permits at 20 Nassau before anyone realized it was not a gift shop
but a stock brokerage.
Other brokers have unsuccessfully tried to set up shop on Nassau
Street
but ran afoul of the 1989 ordinance. Salomon Smith Barney, for
instance,
was turned away from the first floor of the Gershen-owned 182 Nassau.
Salomon reportedly would be interested in the Merrill Lynch space,
but whether Merrill would be willing to sublet its prime space to
an archrival is anybody’s guess.
Newton believes Borough Council could be a little more creative
regarding
the downtown. “This ordinance is now an anachronism and is just
another way for the borough to control the process of leasing,”
he says. “The town could be helping the landlords rather than
impeding them.”
Newton has his own vacancy problems, which he prefers to consider
as “opportunities.” He is losing tenants for two big spaces.
Waverly Home, with 6,000 feet in two stories on Palmer Square, is
going out of business after Christmas, and Gap Kids has moved out
of Hulfish Street.
“It represents an opportunity to strengthen our tenant mix,”
he says. “In Princeton people see one or two vacancies and think
the depression is round the corner. The truth is, vacancy equals
transition.
I don’t see the economy as worsening or any real reason to worry.”
Morgan Stanley, 14 Nassau Street, Princeton 08540.Chris Frischman, financial advisor in charge. 609-688-3602; fax609-688-3610.Home page: www.ms.comMerrill Lynch, 194 Nassau Street, Princeton 08542.Michael J. Pron, resident manager. 609-924-7600; fax, 609-683-7365.Home page: www.merrill-lynch.ml.com After the move to thefourth floor of 7 Roszel Road on September 10, new telephone numberswill 609-243-7900; fax, 609-243-7817.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesMerrill Lynch & Co., 103 Morgan Lane, Plainsboro08536. Anthony Pico, director of accounting services. 609-282-4330;fax, 609-282-4391.As part of Merrill Lynch’s migration to its new corporate campus,the payroll accounting and regulatory reporting functions of MerrillLynch have moved from Morgan Lane to Hopewell.Top Of PageAirport ExpandsThe first new airport runway in New Jersey inever-so-manyyears opened on Monday, August 13, at Princeton Airport. “Thestate can’t find when the last new runway was in New Jersey,”says airport president Naomi Nierenberg. “We are all verypleased.”She emphasizes that the new longer, wider runway makes the 90-year-oldairport safer for current traffic and does not change the characterof the facility.The new $6.1 million runway — 400 feet longer and 15-feet wider— brings the airport up to Federal Aviation Administrationstandards,and the old runway will help to alleviate congestion by serving asa full-length taxiway. Utility wires along Route 206 will be buriedby October, and the airport will also improve its lighting systemand navigational aids.Ken Nierenberg, airport manager, says the new runway will have betterdrainage, heavier weight capacity, better clear area protection, aprecision approach-path indicator, and pilot-operated lights.The runway bill includes $1.7 million for buying 54 acres of land,effectively doubling the size of the airport. Costs also included$3.3 million for construction, design, and administration, $500,000for a master plan and an environmental study, $400,000 for puttingthe utility wires underground, and $200,000 for permits. Of thismoney,90 percent came from the federal Aviation Trust Fund, derived fromtaxes on fuel and airline tickets to improve airport safety. Theprojectalso benefited from state block grants through the New Jersey Divisionof Aeronautics.Construction was scheduled to be finished in spring of 2000 but therewere problems with the contractor. “Nothing has gone as said,”says Naomi Nierenberg.Princeton Airport, Route 206, Princeton 08540.Naomi Nierenberg, president. 609-921-3100; fax, 609-921-1291.Www.princetonairport.comTop Of PageShareholdersVs. ITXCLast week a Pennsylvania law firm focusing on classaction lawsuits said it filed a suit against College Road-based ITXCCorp. on behalf of those who purchased ITXC stock from its 1999initialpublic offering through December 6, 2000. In addition to ITXC, thesuit names the underwriters Lehman Brothers, FleetBoston RobertsonStephens, and Merrill Lynch. Representing the plaintiffs are MarcA. Topaz and Stuart L. Berman of Schiffrin & Barroway LLP in BalaCynwyd (www.sbclasslaw.com).Nationwide, shareholder suits against dotcom firms began toproliferateover the last six months. Most have been filed in New York’s SouthernDistrict Court, and few, if any, have been decided.Just in time, perhaps, Theodore Weitz has joined ITXC as vicepresident,general counsel. A 1968 graduate of Pace, with a law degree fromColumbia,he has served as legal counsel with Tachion Networks, IntelCorporation,Dialogic Corporation, Lucent Technologies Inc., and AT&T. In additionto securities law, he is also responsible for global legal activitiessuch as contracts and transactions, employment, mergers andacquisitions,intellectual property, and litigation.”A series of lawsuits have been filed against virtually everycompany that went public when the market was hot, claiming thatbrokers,when distributing stock, have either overcharged commissions orengagedin allegedly improper allocation practices,” explains Weitz. Thiscase is typical, he says, in that the law firm issued a press releasein an attempt to get good “class representatives” to signup.The Schiffrin & Barroway press release encourages stockholders toapply for the “lead plaintiff” position, claims that theunderwritersreceived “excessive and undisclosed commissions,” and thatthey made arrangements with their customers to “purchaseadditionalITXC shares in the aftermarket at pre-determined prices.” Thispractice, known as “laddering,” can drive up stock prices.Further, the complaint faults the prospectus for not sufficientlyrevealing this information.Attorneys at Schiffrin & Barroway declined an interview. The15-year-old,50-attorney firm focuses exclusively on class action lawsuits filedon a contingency basis, and one of its successful cases involved Searscredit cards.As this story went to press, similar announcements regarding suitsagainst ITXC were released by Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates of LittleRock, Arkansas (www.classlawyer.com), and by Wolf Haldenstein AdlerFreeman & Herz. This 60-attorney firm has a multi-focus practice infive locations (www.whafh.com).As an international Internet telephony services carrier, ITXC routestelephone calls over the Internet, and trade sources say it is nowthe seventh largest U.S.-based telephone company selling internationalminutes. When it went public at $12 on Nasdaq in late September, 1999,the stock shot up and by February, 2000, was arguably overvalued at$118. Hard on the heels of the initial public offering the companyfollowed Wall Street advice and went back to the market for asecondaryoffering in March, 2000, when the stock was $85. That very month,tech stocks started to decline. By June it was $40 and is under $4now (U.S. 1, August 8).”We don’t have anything to respond to until we are served witha complaint,” says Weitz. “The focus does not seem to be theconduct of the company but rather the practice of theunderwriter.”— Barbara FoxITXC Corp. (Internet Telephony Exchange Carrier)(ITXC),750 College Road East, Princeton 08540. Tom Evslin, CEO. 609-419-1500;fax, 609-419-1511. Home page: www.itxc.comTop Of PageDown-sizingKana Communications (KANA), 305 College Road East,Princeton 08540. Home page: www.kana.comKana Communications has merged with Broadbase Software,Inc. (BBSW), a provider of Intelligent Customer Interaction solutions,and though some people are working from home offices, the CollegeRoad office has apparently closed. The merged firm shortened its nameto just plain Kana and trades under the KANA symbol. The former 609number does not answer, but customer calls are being taken at a callcenter in Natick, Massachusetts at 800-737-8738, extension 1. Thecorporate headquarters is in Menlo Park, California, at 650-614-8300.No additional new information was available by press time.This Princeton office had had two dozen employees in 4,300 feet andwas founded in 1995 by P.V. Kannan and Shanthi Kannan as BusinessEvolution Inc. It started out with groupware products such asInteract.Prosoftware for private interactive meetings on a single server. Thoughtargeted for business meetings, the software has also been used fortracking satellites.In 1999 Kannan sold his business to Kana Communications, an E-commercesoftware provider that trades on Nasdaq and had a market value ofnearly $5 billion. He received a reported $140 million in stock forhis 65-person firm. Nassau Capital, one of Princeton University’sinvestment companies, was an investor in Business Evolution.Both Kana and Business Evolution were in the business of turningonlinebrowsers into buyers — customer relationship management or CRM.Top Of PageStart-Ups:Shvartsman’s SharkThe word “Akula” means shark, and the proprietorof this business, Rex Shvartsman, has bought a corporate van andpaintedthe logo of a fierce shark on the side. Though his current work islargely in the senior citizen community, he has a competitive spiritand expansion plans for his computer sales and networking business.He recently moved to a larger office in a storefront on ApplegarthRoad.Shvartsman, the son of a Ukrainian engineer who had designed missilesilos, moved to this county in 1976 when he was four. He studied atMiddlesex County College, Rutgers, and DPT Business School inPhiladelphia,learning various computer design programs and getting certificationsfrom Novell and Microsoft. He worked for a Manhattan advertisingcompany,Siegel Gale, but wanted to avoid the commute. Now he is very involvedwith the senior communities in Monroe Township and does consultingfor computer clubs.”I supply them with PCs and tech support and lecture asneeded,”he says. “My services are almost free, but it works both ways.It `gets me out there’ and they remember me when they want to buya PC. I custom build my own PCs.”A senior citizen’s first computer is often a hand-me-down fromgrandchildren.”When they run out of hard drive space, they call me and I sellthem more space,” he says. “We want to move into working withsmall businesses, mom and pop companies, professional offices, andnonprofits. We can give them a dedicated network designed for theirspecific needs.”Says Shvartsman: “Like our clients, we are a small company, tryingto carve out a niche.”Akula Systems, 357 Applegarth Road, Suite 7,Cranbury08512. Rex Shvartsman. 609-395-1661.Top Of PageExpansionsNACL Inc., 115 Sylvia Street, Ewing Commerce Park,Ewing 08628. Ed Brewer, associate director. 609-434-0044; fax,609-434-0033.The six-person pharmaceutical consulting firm moved in June from 301College Road to 9,000 square feet at Ewing Commerce Park. Phone andfax are new.PharmaNet, 504 Carnegie Center, Princeton08540-6242.Jeffrey McMullen, senior vice president. 609-951-6800; fax,609-514-0390.Home page: www.pharmanet-cro.netThe contract clinical research firm has acquired a firm in Essington,Pennsylvania.Sovereign Trust Company, 619 Alexander Road,Princeton08540. Cynthia A. Baker, vice president. 609-987-1791; fax,609-987-1752.Home page: www.sovereignbank.comSovereign Trust Company moved from 134 Franklin Corner Road, theformerheadquarters of Trenton Savings Bank, to Sovereign Bank’s mainPrincetonlocation at 619 Alexander Road.Waddell & Reed Financial Services, 133 FranklinCorner Road, the Atrium at Lawrence, Lawrenceville 08648. Victor W.Pulizzano ChFC, division manager. 609-896-3800; fax, 609-896-3345.The financial services firm has taken 2,235 square feet in the S.T.Peterson building at 4250 Route 1, and expects to move on September1. It sells mutual funds, variable annuities, life and healthinsurance.Top Of PageName ChangesPRG Systems Inc., 410 Wall Street, Research Park,Princeton 08540. Uma S. Pandey, chairman and president. 609-683-4474;fax, 609-683-4587. Home page: www.prgsi.comFormerly known as ERP Advantage and then as Caplacom, this applicationservice provider has a new name: PRG Inc. With its headquarters in2,000 square feet at Research Park, it offers strategy, softwaredevelopment,integration, and hosting services from offices in Rochester, New York;the Caribbean (Jamaica); and India.Pandey, the founder, has working partnerships with infrastructureproviders such as IBM and Siebel. “We are creating a market forbest-of-class, web-based applications and services,” he says.”Our proprietary ASP management technology enables theseE-servicesto be hosted anywhere.”Powertec Group of Enertec, 186 Tamarack Circle,Skillman 08558. George Chirco, vice president of sales and marketing.609-430-4600; fax, 609-279-0333.George Chirco has sold his 15-year-old company to a Pennsylvania firm,Enertec, and is now vice president of sales and marketing at thePowertecGroup of Enertec.Powertec offers Web-based automated metering and testing systems forelectric utility substations and also has automation tools for nuclearfacilities. Its IP-Server is a network-aware cluster of communicationports that can poll data from intelligent electronic devices. Powertecwill retain its website and will keep its name as the Powertec Groupof Enertec.With Richard Whiffen as president, Enertec is based in Hatfield andhas an engineering office near Charlotte, North Carolina. The24-year-old,privately held company has tools for power distribution markets andContinuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS).On Target Staffing, 731 Alexander Road, Suite 101,Princeton 08540. Roy James, owner. 609-514-0920; fax, 609-987-9020.Guy James moved his recruiting office, Impact Personnel, fromIndependenceWay to Alexander Road in April. He closed the business, but itcontinuesunder the name On Target Staffing and is directed by Roy James, Guy’sbrother.Top Of PageOut of BusinessDWC Web Corp., 51 Everett Drive, West Windsor08550.Darryl Copeland, CEO. 609-275-6150.Not all those who suffer from Dotcom Decline were targeting the20-somethingcrowd. DWC Web Corp. based its hopes on the senior market — beingan Internet service provider, portal, and community for those aged55 to 75. Even though the company acquired a loyal subscriber baseit failed to get the continued investment that it needed, and itclosedits website, www.next50.com, on August 3.A biomedical engineer from Duke, Class of ’81, Copeland has a master’sin computer science from New Jersey Institute of Technology, an MBAfrom Wharton, and was CEO for a senior housing company before openingthis business just one year ago (U.S. 1, August 16, 2000). Thefive-personfirm’s marketing plan involved donating computers to residentialcommunities.Top Of PageDeathsDr. Leonard Volenski, 64, on July 30. A practicingclinicalpsychologist, he had been a priest and research fellow with PrincetonTheological Seminary.Charlie Mae Nealy, 80, on August 8. She had been the headhousekeeper at the Nassau Inn.Yvonnie “Bonnie” Williams, 51, on August 9. For32 years she was administrative assistant to the president at DemagDelaval.Debra S. Reilly, 46, on August 10. She had been assistantmanager at Kids “R” Us in Mercer Mall.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
