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Business Roundup
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 7, 2007
FALL RIVER — Workers at Quaker Fabric Corp. are invited to three meetings at Durfee High School on Monday to learn about state and city unemployment and job training benefits if they are laid off from the textile factory. Quaker Fabric said Monday that it is unable to pay its loans and if the debt cannot be restructured, the company will begin a liquidation and sale of its assets. About 900 people work at the 62-year-old company, which makes upholstery fabrics and yarns. They are on a two-week summer break that is scheduled to end July 15. The two-hour sessions will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. for plant A/B workers; 1 to 3 p.m., for plant Q workers and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. for Plant C and J workers.
PORTSMOUTH —Target’s proposal for a store remains in limbo, as time begins to expire on the town’s temporary block of big-box retailers and the Town Council prepares to consider a permanent moratorium on large commercial buildings. Target’s application for a special-use permit from the Zoning Board was filed just hours before the Town Council last month enacted a two-month moratorium on buildings of 55,000 square feet and larger, a move designed as a stopgap to the proposed Target store at West Main Road and Union Street. The town’s solicitor, Kevin P. Gavin, and Building Inspector George Mederios are reportedly still conferring on whether Target’s application is “substantially complete” and thus exempt from the moratorium and eligible for review by the Zoning Board. Target believes its application was timely and met the standards, said Robert M. Silva, the company’s local lawyer. If the town rules that the moratorium blocks the proposal, Target would have to challenge the issue in court — a decision that company leaders are still considering, Silva said. Target has proposed a 146,500-square-foot store on more than three acres of vacant commercial land.
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Besides a new $30.3-million municipal and school budget for the new fiscal year, the town has a new way of collecting taxes for it, with separate rates for residential and commercial property. Under the setup approved by the Town Council, residential property owners will pay $12.56 in taxes for every $1,000 of their real estate’s assessed value. For business owners, the rate will be $15.37. The two-tiered tax rate system was enacted because in the past few revaluations, residential property values have increased much more than commercial values, and supporters said that put too much of the cost of town government on homeowners. The old rate was $15.03 per $1,000. The new rate decreases for residential property because of the revaluation that takes effect this year, meaning the lower rate will be applied to houses with new, higher values. John Gregory, president of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, said the two-tier system was “disappointing” and unfair to business owners. A second, higher property tax rate for them was unfair, he said, because business owners are also paying state taxes on their corporate income, sales tax on their transactions and tangible taxes on the equipment they have and their inventory. Overall, the budget represents a 3.8-percent increase in spending that will need a 5.25-percent increase in property tax revenues to pay for it.
EAST PROVIDENCE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, is still acquiring money for a dredging project at Bullocks Point Cove in Barrington and East Providence, but plans to begin the project this fall. This year, the federal government approved financing for four coastal projects, allowing the corps to plan the project that will remove 60,000 cubic yards of sediment — primarily silt and clay — from the cove’s Federal Navigation Project. Project manager Bill Kavanaugh said the exact cost is unknown because private contractors are submitting bids, but he estimates the dredging will cost roughly $1 million to $1.5 million. In March, about $600,000 was available, according to U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. As of now, the project has secured $1.2 million and additional money will be acquired from Congress. With the dredging, the depths will be restored to the two channels — one 8 feet deep and the other 6 feet deep — and two basins. The sediment will then be put into a Confined Aquatic Disposal (CAD) cell, a pit that is dug underneath the channel bottom. The sediment will placed in the cell and will eventually be capped off with other materials.
MANSFIELD, Mass. — Samsonite Corp. has agreed to be bought by CVC Capital Partners Ltd. for about $1.1 billion, giving the 97-year-old luggage maker its fifth owner in 21 years. Investors will get $1.49 for each Samsonite share, the company said. Samsonite, a unit of Beatrice Foods Co. in the 1980s, is being sold by buyout firms, including Bain Capital LLC, which own 85 percent of the company. The stock lost almost all its value in 2003 before rebounding on an increase in travel. The company started in Denver in 1910 as Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Co. It makes luggage and bags under the American Tourister, Samsonite and Lambertson Truex brands.
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