Business

Members of an animal rights group held a brief demonstration outside Walmart's Thruway Plaza store in Cheektowaga this morning.

The activists are calling on the retailer to stop confining pigs to tiny crates where they are unable to move.  The group is calling on the company to require its pork suppliers to phase out the practice.

Mercy For Animals National Campaign Coordinator Phil Letten says at two separate Walmart pork suppliers, the group documented pregnant pigs confined to "filthy, metal gestation crates" and pigs with open wounds and pressure sores.

It appears a new developer will be needed for the former AM&A's Building on Main Street in downtown Buffalo. 

A couple of weeks ago, developer Rocco Termini said he would end his plans to redevelop the site because Governor Andrew Cuomo failed to sign a bill that would have raised the amount on tax credits used by developers to restore buildings.  

But now, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown says there are some other developers eyeing the site. 

"AM&A's obviously has been a white elephant.  It has been vacant more than a decade in downtown Buffalo," said Brown.

The Sabres organization and the City of Buffalo will begin preparing for Webster Block development.

That is one of the topics of conversation in this week's Press Pass conversation with WBFO & AM-970's Jay Moran and Business First reporter Jim Fink.

Jay and Jim also discuss new concerns that surrounded the Buffalo Creek Casino.

Cheektowaga's Super Flea, the popular weekend destination of bargain hunters, will soon make way for a Walmart Supercenter.

In written release, Walmart announced that it intends to build on the Walden Avenue site and relinquish its current location near Harlem Road. 

Buffalo-based New Era Cap Company is losing millions of dollars to counterfeiters each year, which could cost local workers their jobs.

At the company's Delaware Avenue headquarters downtown Friday, Senator Charles Schumer announced a plan that he says will help trace the source of counterfeit caps, urge the U.S. Trade Representative to put more pressure on foreign governments, and step-up enforcement online.  

Cash registers are ringing again at "998 Broadway."  The catchy sounding address made famous locally by the old Sattler's Department Store is now the site of the City's newest ALDI.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown helped cut the ribbon on the new store across from the Broadway Market Thursday morning.

The Mayor said "it's another great day of momentum in Buffalo."   

One of the nation's most famous grocery chains is coming to the Buffalo area. 

The Kenmore Village Improvement Society said Trader Joe's will open a store in a major retail corridor by the end of 2013. 

The group has been lobbying for a Trader Joe's for several years.  Society President Melissa Foster confirms the news.  Foster said it's a big win for the community to finally land the chain.

Western New York is home to more than 200 growing startup companies catering to specific medical and life science needs.

While these small businesses offer unique products and services, they don’t always have a market for their goods or the personnel to aggressively seek out buyers.

A new initiative will try to give at least 40 of these companies the extra sales muscle to move $25 million worth of local products in the next three years.

'Hand in glove'

Plans to transform the Tishman Building into a mixed use building at Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo moved another step forward.  

Wednesday Mayor Byron Brown announced a new easement agreement with The Hamister Group.  The $40-million project will transform the Tishman building into a Hilton Garden Inn hotel, apartments and new corporate offices for Hamister. 

There is a new head of the state agency developing Buffalo's waterfront. Governor Andrew Cuomo has nominated civic leader Robert Gioia to the board of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation and recommended he be chairman.

Gioia is the president of the John R. Oishei Foundation, chairman of the Great Lakes Health System, and a former chairman of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.

Western New York Public Broadcasting Association has entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell WNED-AM 970 toCrawford Broadcasting Company.

“Since WNED purchased WBFO-FM 88.7 in March, we’ve been able to consolidate the frequencies for our news and information service,” said Donald K. Boswell, WNED president and CEO. “We want to make the best use of our resources and don’t feel that it’s necessary to simulcast on both AM 970 and WBFO-FM 88.7 any longer.”