Firms

The Philadelphia Housing Authority will pay back the government $8 million in expenditures on outside lawyers that were deemed "not necessary and reasonable" by federal auditors. The repayment represents more than one-fourth of what PHA spent on outside law firms from April 2007 through August 2010 under former Executive Director Carl R. Greene. At the same time, HUD has agreed to return control of the authority to a local board of commissioners, ending two years of federal oversight.

Three of Lower Gwynedd's largest industries made presentations to the township Board of Supervisors Tuesday night opposing an ordinance that would tighten zoning restrictions in commercial and industrial districts. Lawyers for Rohm & Haas, McNeil Pharmaceuticals and Hansen Properties argued that the proposed ordinance was too restrictive and would impair their ability to operate their businesses. The ordinance, which was proposed by Lower Gwynedd zoning officer Joseph Zadlo in November, calls for increased yard setback requirements and more stringent lighting regulations and prohibits businesses from using hazardous chemicals on their property.

Several local firms and dozens of national companies have moved into the stock market, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Wall Street to snap up shares of their own stocks. Some firms are buying back their own shares to take advantage of what they deemed to be bargain prices. Some are buying as a way to bolster confidence in their long-term business prospects. And others are moving into the market defensively, putting more shares into friendly hands and supporting the prices, lest corporate raiders scoop up their suddenly cheaper shares.

An Atlantic City construction company allegedly used as a "sanctuary" for criminal activities by members of the Scarfo crime family could be seized by New Jersey authorities. Scarf Inc., run by Philip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, the alleged No. 2 man in the organization led by Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, was named in indictments made public yesterday, along with Scarfo, Leonetti and 16 other reputed crime figures. A New Jersey grand jury said Scarf Inc. was used as a "sanctuary for meetings pertaining to the operation, conduct and control" of illegal activities.

Two old-line Philadelphia printers, Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Co. and Graphic Arts Inc., said Thursday they have merged their operations and now operate out of the Smith-Edwards-Dunlap plant in Port Richmond. The combined operation has 130 workers and there are no major layoffs planned, said Jonathan Shapiro, president of the merged company. He said combining the companies allowed the printers to benefit from economies of scale and stay in Philadelphia. Each company will continue to sell and market its products under its name.

Forty-four percent of corporate executives surveyed by Atlas Van Lines believe the economy will improve in 2012, the moving company said Wednesday. Of 360 executives completing the first-quarter survey, 26 percent said their firms plan to relocate more workers this year than last, while 86 percent of companies will spend as much or more on relocation in 2012 than in 2011. After progressively declining over the past two years, 65 percent of firms are offering relocated employees full reimbursement, far more often than lump sum or partial reimbursement, the Atlas survey showed.

Jack Leonard thinks small, a philosophy that has made a small fortune for him in real estate. His Haddonfield firm, Roney, Vermaat & Leonard, lacks the advertising budget of the Century 21 franchise offices and the thousands of sales agents that Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group boasts coast-to-coast. He doesn't have it, and he doesn't want it. It is by design that this nine-year-old company has only one office. Daydreams here are not about expansion. Why should they be, asked Leonard, noting so far this year his realty's 20 agents have brought home $21 million in sales.

The accounting profession is under siege, its cash flow battered by economic downturn, its image tarnished by the Laventhol & Horwath collapse. The legal profession is in turmoil, with demand for legal services, particularly in real estate and corporate work, on the wane. Amid such turbulence, some professional firms are busting up. Others have gone belly up. But a handful have chosen a third route: counseling. To save their firms, or keep them from getting into trouble in the first place, they are turning to a new kind of consultant, the consulting psychologist.

Resource America Inc., of Philadelphia, has agreed to combine one of its asset management units, Apidos Capital Management L.L.C., with CVC Cordatus Group to form CVC Credit Partners, which will have $7.5 billion in loans and other credit-related assets under management, the two companies said Wednesday. For its contribution of Apidos, which had $5.5 billion in assets under management on Sept. 30, Resource America will receive $25 million in cash and a 33 percent ownership interested in CVC Credit partners.

For a nonprofit company like Biosciences Information Service (Biosis), it might seem a bit extravagant to invest almost $500 for a booth at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's two-day Operation Native Talent conference. The 60-year-old Philadelphia firm, which employs about 350, is the world's largest abstracting and indexing service for the life sciences, but one of the smallest companies taking part in the annual jobs' fair. The conference, held yesterday and today at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza hotel, brings together more than 6,000 college seniors and recent graduates with about 90 would-be employers.

Companies have to go where their customers are, and forecasts of economic growth consistently show that more of those future customers will not be in the United States. All members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index are American companies. But make no mistake, most are global companies generating much, and in some cases most, of their sales from outside the United States. S&P Dow Jones Indices calculated that about 46 percent of S&P 500 company sales were derived from non-U.S.

S. Miller Harris, 91, longtime chief executive officer of Eagle Shirtmakers, a Philadelphia firm his great-grandfather founded in 1867, died of pneumonia Sunday, June 9, at home in Spinnerstown, Bucks County. Mr. Harris joined the shirt business, designing and manufacturing Eagle Shirts, in 1946. The firm was established by Jacob Miller. It operated a store at 800 Market St. as well as a factory at 26th and Reed Streets. The company later moved to Quakertown. Mr. Harris was known for pioneering the Ivy League look, which featured shirts made from multicolored oxford cloth and neat, button-down collars.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - A proposal to build a massive rival to the Panama Canal across the middle of Nicaragua was overwhelmingly backed by lawmakers Thursday, capping a lightning-fast approval process that has provoked deep skepticism among shipping experts and concern among environmentalists. The National Assembly dominated by President Daniel Ortega's leftist Sandinista Front voted to grant a 50-year concession - to study, then possibly build and run a canal linking Nicaragua's Caribbean and Pacific coasts - to a Chinese company whose only previous experience appears to be in telecommunications.

A West Philadelphia man hurt by falling concrete in 2011 won a six-figure settlement Wednesday from the owner of the building that collapsed last week, killing six people. Mark Gamble said he was injured by a chunk of masonry that fell from a building at 2100 Market St., just a block from last week's fatal collapse at 22d and Market Streets. Both buildings were owned by STB Investments Corp., whose principal is Richard Basciano. The longtime property manager for all of STB's properties, both in Philadelphia and New York City, acknowledged in legal documents in the Gamble case that he had no certification or training in maintaining properties.

After learning about Sandra Day O'Connor's more than two decades serving as the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice, Nya Fields knew she was about to meet someone important. "I was honored to be here because she was important to the court system," said Fields, a sixth grader at Spring Garden School. "I didn't realize she would be as funny as she was. " O'Connor came to Philadelphia on Wednesday to receive the Virginia Barton Wallace Award, given annually by White and Williams to an inspiring woman in honor of the firm's first female partner.

Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. has served as district attorney and considered running for governor. Next month, he will become a partner at the Bryn Mawr law firm Rogers & Associates. Castor said he had had no plans to leave the firm of Elliot Greenleaf, which he has been with since 2008. But lawyer Lance Rogers approached him with an offer to join a smaller firm and help increase its client base, he said. "I was very happy where I was, but this is an opportunity to do something new and exciting," Castor said Thursday.

Arnold D. Foley, 83, of Cheltenham, longtime owner of Bundy Typewriter Co., a Philadelphia business since 1919, died Thursday, June 6, of lymphoma at his home. In 1955, Mr. Foley started work as a credit manager for Bundy, which at the time was owned by his uncle Augustus Bundy. The company at 10th and Chestnut Streets was where generations of families went to purchase their first typewriters, according to the Foley family. "Back then, people could buy a typewriter with $9 down and take it home and pay it off monthly," said his son, David.

A Brooklyn-based film production company confirmed Tuesday that it has bought the shuttered Sony manufacturing plant in Pitman for $3 million. Broadway Stages Ltd. intends to lease the nearly 500,000-square-foot complex - which was a CD-manufacturing hub before it closed in 2011 - to a new manufacturing tenant, said Tony Argento, a principal at the company. The Sony Music Entertainment Inc. facility used to be one of the biggest employers in Gloucester County with 2,000 workers at its peak.

Big pharmaceutical companies strike licensing deals with small companies in hopes of finding new, highly profitable medicine without the cost of buying a whole company. Small companies get funding other ways, such as venture capital firms, but the money from licensing arrangements can mean the difference between continuing operations and closing shop. Sometimes these deals work, sometimes not. Last week presented four examples, three starting and one ending (badly), involving the drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, all of which have significant Philadelphia-area operations.

Stephen H. Nissenbaum, 69, a former Bala Cynwyd business owner who doted on his family, died Monday, June 3, at Paoli Hospital of complications from Parkinson's disease. Mr. Nissenbaum, a Wynnewood native, had battled the disease for a decade, his family said. He owned and operated Quaker State Mortgage, a commercial mortgage firm in Bala Cynwyd, from 1985 until 2008, when his condition required nursing care. A 1961 alumnus of Harriton High School in Rosemont, Mr. Nissenbaum graduated in 1965 from the University of Pennsylvania.