Home foreclosure judgements soared 80 percent in Westchester County during the first quarter as local residents felt the fallout from a slowing economy and weakening housing market.

There were 243 foreclosure judgements across the county during the quarter, up from 135 a year ago and 76 in 2005, according to statistics released by the Westchester County Clerk’s office.

“We want Westchester residents to be able to live comfortably in our county, but the first quarter of 2008, which ended on March 31st, brought with it another significant increase in foreclosure filings,” County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni said. “Westchester residents need our help.”

The statistics also showed that 759 foreclosure actions were initiated by financial institutions in Westchester during the quarter, up 43 percent from a year earlier. These action filings do not necessarily mean that residents will lose their homes. Some homeowners end up avoiding foreclosure by entering into a repayment plan, securing a modified loan, refinancing with another lender or selling the home on their own.

If a foreclosure judgement is granted, the home or building is sold at a foreclosure auction and the proceeds of sale are used to pay off the loan.

The numbers show that foreclosure actions and judgements were highest in Yonkers and Mount Vernon among the county’s four largest cities.

Numbers for those four cities were as follows during the quarter:

•Mount Vernon: 102 foreclosure actions, up from 75 a year earlier; 57 foreclosure judgements, up from 27 a year earlier.
•Yonkers: 212 foreclosure actions, up from 136 a year earlier; 55 foreclosure judgements, up from 36 a year earlier.
•New Rochelle: 50 foreclosure actions, up from 37 a year earlier; 13 foreclosure judgements, up from 7 a year earlier.
•White Plains: 54 foreclosure actions, up from 35 a year earlier; 10 foreclosure judgements, up from 4 a year earlier.

Idoni advised residents who have received warning letters from their bank or lender, or who have fallen behind on their payments, to seek help immediately.

The New York State Senate Westchester delegation is sponsoring “Operation Protect Your Home” on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. at Roosevelt High School, 631 Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. There will be various educational seminars throughout the day and opportunities to meet with mortgage counselors.

Residents can also contact Westchester Residential Opportunities, a non-profit housing agency with offices in White Plains and Mount Vernon, at 914-428-4507 or visit the website at www.wroinc.org.

A survey released this week found Westchester County’s job market will be sluggish during the second quarter of this year — a prediction that probably won’t surprise anyone, given the widespread speculation that the national economy is in a recession.

Only 20 percent of the companies interviewed by Manpower said they plan to hire more employees, while 23 percent expect to reduce their payrolls. Fifty percent plan to keep the same level of staffing. Seven percent said they were not sure.

Karen Edelman, a spokesperson for Manpower, said the projections are much weaker than those for the first quarter. In that survey, 30 percent of companies said they planned to grow and only 7 percent said they would drop workers.

A year ago, 43 percent planned to expand and only 23 were looking to make cuts, she said.

Among the sectors that appear poised for growth in the second quarter are finance, insurance, real estate and public administration, the survey found.

Of the 14,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 26 percent reported plans to increase their workforces. Nine percent said they plan reductions and 60 percent said they expect no change. Five percent were unsure.

Collins Enterprises LLC of Stamford, Conn., is expected to open Hudson Park North, a high-end apartment complex on the Hudson River in Yonkers, in early April.

More than 100 people have signed up to lease one of the 294 apartments, where rent ranges from $1,800 for a one-bedroom to $2,300 for two bedrooms, the developer announced.

Hudson Park North features two towers of 14 and 12 stories, connected by a four-story building.

Hudson Park South, a 266-unit luxury apartment project adjoining its partner, is nearly 100 percent leased.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer is urging Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. to keep its corporate headquarters in Somers rather than relocate to nearby Danbury, Conn.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, recently called Eric Foss, the chief executive officer of Pepsi Bottling Group, to ask that the company continue to work with the Empire State Development Corp. on an incentive package that would keep the company in Westchester. Foss indicated that he would continue to talk with local and state economic development leaders and was open to staying in Somers, according to a statement from Schumer’s office.

“The Pepsi Bottling Group and the town of Somers have been a match made in heaven, providing the Westchester area with good-paying jobs while allowing Pepsi to take advantage of its high-skilled workforce and close proximity to New York City,� Schumer said in a written statement. “In my phone call with the CEO, I pressed him to keep the Pepsi Bottling Group in the Town of Somers and offered any assistance to make sure this happens.�

State and local officials became worried about the potential economic impact of losing the major employer after the company announced in October that it was considering a possible move from One Pepsi Way, where it leases 360,000 square feet and employs about 1,100 people. The company’s lease expires at the end of 2010.

Pepsi Bottling, the world’s largest distributor of Pepsi products, reported revenues of $13.6 billion last year. It employs about 70,000 workers at operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Greece. Jeff Dahncke, a spokesman for Pepsi Bottling, said that the company is considering various options for the location of its headquarters, but doesn’t have a formal schedule for making a decision.

Chocolate lovers and Valentine’s Day shoppers take note — the Chocolate World Expo is coming to the Palisades Center in Nyack on Feb. 10 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The expo, which will cost $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and children, will feature chocolates, wines, cheeses and related foods from more than three dozen local and regional vendors, including Monsey-based Le Chocolat, Heidi & Arthur Chocolatiers of Valley Cottage, Lanie Lou’s Brownies of Blauvelt, Lucky Chocolates of Saugerties, Pine Bush-based Baldwin Vineyards, the Black & White Cookie Company of Binghamton, Saratoga Peanut Butter Company of Saratoga Springs and Cabot Creamery of Vermont.

The event is a fundraiser for Camp Venture, a care provider for people with developmental disabilities in Rockland County. The majority of the funds raised at the expo will go toward building a year-round therapeutic riding center for more than 1,500 children and adults with developmental disabilities. Five percent of the net proceeds will also go toward tolerance education through the Spring Valley-based Holocaust Museum & Study Center and 5 percent will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland.

The credit crunch and the weakening of the overall job market caused demand for information technology workers in Westchester County to drop in the fourth quarter of last year, according to researchers at Pace University.

The researchers said their PSII job index, which tracks job openings, dropped to 99 from a third-quarter reading of 123.

But the researchers said openings for computer support specialists increased 16 percent, reversing a sharp decline in the third quarter. Openings for network administrators increased 2 percent and openings in a category called “other specialists� rose 3 percent.

The report called the IT job market “fairly stable� and said researchers are optimistic about future growth.

“Given that the state of the labor market in the New York area is better than the employment arena as a whole, and that the chance of a recession is minimal, we expect the labor market for IT specialists to grow in 2008,� the report said.

Two technology skills are in particularly strong demand in the New York metro area. One is virtualization, a technology that lets a number of operating systems run on one computer. Demand for workers with that skill grew 70 percent last year and 183 percent since November 2005, the researchers said.

Specialists with skills in a programming technique that makes Internet Web pages more interactive grew by 50 percent last year, the report said.

Pace has campuses in Pleasantville, White Plains and Manhattan.

Prudential Rand Realty has agreed to buy Peterkin & Fitzgerald Real Estate Ltd., a Pearl River-based agency founded in 2004.

Terms of the deal, announced today, weren’t disclosed.

Prudential Rand said its search for a manager to head its Pearl River office led to the decision to purchase Peterkin & Fitzgerald.

Broker-owners, Greg Peterkin and Mary Fitzgerald, will join Prudential Rand’s Pearl River office as branch manager and training manager, respectively.

As part of the transaction, Peterkin & Fitzgerald will close its office at 44 Franklin Ave., relocating its 25-member sales staff to Prudential Rand’s office at 19 E. Central Ave.

Prudential Rand is Rockland County’s largest real-estate firm, based on sales, according to Prudential Rand. It has 20 offices and employs more than 700 salespeople in the Hudson Valley.

Average weekly wages paid by companies in Westchester County in the fourth quarter of 2006 rose 2.9 percent over the comparable quarter a year earlier, to $1,211, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. In Rockland County, average weekly wages for the period were $906, a 4 percent increase year over year. Statistics for Putnam County were not computed.

For 67 years, Pleasantville Jewelers has been a place where customers buy gems for weddings, anniversaries or special occasions.

But in February, the store at 3 Wheeler Ave. is expected to close.

Michael Weinberg, the fourth owner of the store in its long history, said that the jeweler is still making money. But he is exiting the business to return to a marketing career. Corporate marketing had been his focus before he bought the jewelry store three years ago from Ben Nessim, who had owned it for 27 years.

“It was nice owning your own business,â€? Weinberg said. “But I miss marketing so much, working with big companies and coming up with promotions….I really wanted to get back to it. You really have to follow your dream.â€?

Leaving the jewelry business was not an easy decision, he added.

“The hardest part will be missing the people from the town,� Weinberg said. “Everyone has been so nice. Pleasantville is such a great town.�

Weinberg said it is possible that he may sell the store.

“It is up in the air,� he said. “Hopefully, someone will buy it and it will stay a jewelry store. It would be great to carry on the tradition. We just don’t know yet.�

Weinberg said the the store is offering deep discounts as it looks to clear its remaining inventory.

“We have a ton of things to sell,� Weinberg said. “There is at least $500,000 in jewelry, diamonds, gold and all that. We have a good 30 days to make it go all away.�

Bruce Ritell of Sleepy Hollow joined other shoppers in looking over the merchandise earlier this week.

“In the past, we have bought some nice pieces of jewelry here, mainly for my wife,� Ritell said. “We have done a lot of repairs here. I am sorry to see them go.�

In response to recalls of foreign-made products and the decline of U.S. manufacturing, a trio of Rocklanders have established a Web site called America’s Business to Consumers (www.usab2c.com) that features only U.S.-made goods.

Offerings run the gamut from apparel to Zippo lighters — “from A to Z,� according to one of the site’s founders, George Hanos, who retired from drug-maker Pfizer Inc. in 2004.

Hanos, 54, along with two sisters-in-law, Denetra Anayannis of Pomona and Nanuet-resident Sophia Anayannis, who edits a community blog and chat room on the site, wanted to make a difference.

“We asked ourselves, ‘What could one person really do … to stop the flow of knowledgeable jobs overseas?’â€? Hanos said.

Many of the manufacturers featured on the site are mom-and-pop operations, he said.

USAB2C.com acts as a portal Web site, having products shipped directly to consumers from the manufacturers.

Items include wooden toys from Maple Landmark Inc., based in Middlebury, Vt., and Holgate Toys of Bradford, Pa., which have none of lead-paint concerns of toys made in China, Hanos said.

The site has been up-and-running since the beginning of November in anticipation of the Christmas selling season, he said.

How’d sales do?

“For a start-up,� Hanos said. “it worked out pretty good.�

Residents in Sleepy Hollow, Briarcliff Manor and the town of Ossining are a step closer to having an additional choice for cable-television service after the boards of each municipality agreed to grant Verizon a video franchise, Verizon said today.

Each community’s board of trustees approved the deals last week, bringing to 92 the number of communities in the state that have approved video franchises for the Manhattan-based regional phone company.

“Consumers here will be able to choose their cable provider as easily as they choose their phone company,â€? said Monica Azare, Verizon senior vice president for New York and Connecticut, about the villages’ and town’s decisions to offer Verizon’s FiOS service in addition to Cablevision’s cable TV service.

The Rockland Business Association reports it has teamed with the Manufacturers Alliance of New York to expand opportunities for Rockland manufacturers and give them a voice in Albany.

The Alliance is a statewide coalition of more than 500 manufacturers seeking to advance business issues in the state capital.

The pact allows Rockland manufacturers that are current or prospective RBA members to participate in the Alliance’s annual statewide survey, which provides insight into issues facing Empire State manufacturers.

“This partnership provides access to programs and initiatives that will benefit all involved,� said RBA President and Chief Executive Officer Al Samuels.

The Alliance will also make its wage-and-salary survey available to Rockland manufacturers, the RBA said, providing valuable information to companies’ human-resources departments.

The consumer price index for the metro New York area rose 3.1 percent over the 12 months ending in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Core inflation, which includes all items except food and energy, was up 2 percent for that period.

Gasoline of all types was up 21.2 percent over the year, the largest percentage increase for a single item. Food and beverages were up 3.9 percent.

But consumers saw decreases as well. Apparel was down 2.1 percent, and household furnishings and operations were down 3.2 percent.

A several-million-dollar makeover that’s been in the planning for four years is almost complete at the Rye Ridge Shopping Center. The popular Rye Brook plaza-style shopping center has new storefronts and awnings, lighting, landscaping and improvements to the parking area.

Erin Hinchey, leasing agent for Ridge Realty LLC, the owner of the shopping center, said the renovation is also attracting new tenants, including:

• The Look, a retailer of couture and special-occasion dresses and gowns;
• Landsberg Jewelers, a New York City-base retail fine jeweler;
• Salon PF, an upscale salon;
• Shelly Belly / My Lilly Pad, which sells maternity, layette and children’s clothes, accessories and gifts;
• JW Tumbles, a children’s gym franchise;
• Little Scoops, a 1950s theme ice cream parlor for children’s birthday parties;
• The Bar Method Pilates and Yoga, a method of combining the two exercises with a focus on the ballet bar.

Other new tenants include a sports memorabilia and ice cream store called Last Licks and an upscale women’s clothing boutique called Contact.

Hinchey said the center was built in 1960 and last updated 15 years ago. The goal of the redo is upgrading the center to make it appealing to upscale retailers. The new hair salon, for instance, offers cuts for $75 and the dress shop sells evening gowns. “We just kicked it up a notch,� Hinchey said.

The Rye Ridge Shopping Center, which has 220,000 square feet, is home to such retailers as D’Agostino’s supermarket, Starbucks, Cerbones Bakery and the Rye Ridge Deli. There are 36 tenants in the main plaza area and another nine in an annex, which has a Blockbuster and a CVS.

One casualty will be the movie theater, Rye Ridge Cinema, which will close at the end of the year, Hinchey said. The owners would love to replace the Clearview theater with an “art house� style movie theater, but it’s hard to find such a tenant, Hinchey said. Several retailers have already expressed an interest in the cinema’s slot.

New York University Stern School of Business is celebrating the first anniversary of offering its Langone part-time MBA degree program in Westchester.

In recognition, NYU today unveiled renovated classrooms on the Purchase College campus that offer students the same high-tech gadgetry that those attending NYU’s Washington Square campus in Manhattan are familiar with.

Those include electronic taping and archiving of classes that allow students such as Ravi Mundhe to catch classes he might otherwise miss.

For Mundhe, 35 and a married father of two who lives in White Plains, that means he can watch from home lectures taped earlier that same evening shortly after he’s put his kids to bed.

It’s a “superb way� for working parents to maximize what little time they have,� said Mundhe, who customizes software for the Danbury, Conn. offices of Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, a German pharmaceutical company.

Though Mundhe could have opted for an online degree program, he said he likes the human interaction that traditional programs still offer. Having the Stern school offer its classes in Purchase means he’s able to take advantage of that without commuting to New York City.

“I couldn’t imagine trying to go down to the Manhattan campus two or three times a week for a couple of years,� he said.

Stern has enrolled 152 students in the program since its start in Purchase last year, said Dean Thomas F. Cooley, and expects to enroll more as awareness of the program grows.

Cooley said Stern’s decision to return to the Westchester market after an absence of several years was a very strategic one.

The program was redesigned and rethought, he said. “When we decided to go back to Westchester, there was a question of what exactly we wanted to do there and … of putting our best foot forward and doing everything right from the beginning.â€?

The new classroom upgrades exemplify that commitment, he said.

“So now we’re really in a position to project our best image and to be fully linked to the (Manhattan) campus.”

A cooling real estate market in the Lower Hudson Valley is cooling business at local title companies as well.

Title companies investigate the deeds of properties to ensure the titles can pass cleanly from seller to buyer. They also sell insurance to cover buyers when unexpected claims emerge after the purchase.

Median house prices were lower in the three-county area in the second quarter, year over year, and sales data was mixed. Some local title companies say their sales have been affected.

Statewide Abstract Corp. in White Plains has seen the number of deals on its residential side fall 12 percent year to date, President Kenneth Meccia said. Residential real estate makes up three-quarters of Statewide’s business in the tri-state area, with commercial business making up the rest.

Title companies that are less diversified are struggling, Meccia said. He sees more consolidation in the area, and said he is talking with a few businesses he may acquire.

The commercial side is still strong, Meccia said. In fact, Statewide opened its first branch office in Manhattan about six months ago, chiefly to be closer to clients in the city, he said.

Jeffrey McCall, president of McCall Abstract Corp. in New City, said commercial refinancing business is helping his company as well. Business mortgages tend to be written for shorter terms than residential mortgages, and relatively low interest rates are keeping refinancing popular, he said.
Still, his business is down 20 to 25 percent year over year, he said. The residential real estate market is dogged in part by property tax increases that have outstripped growth in home incomes, he said.

“It’s pretty tough times,� McCall said. “You’ve got a tremendous amount of listings out there.�

One problem facing local title companies is competition from banks that write mortgages and are offering title services as well, he said.
Given the big runup in real estate in the region since the late 1990s, it’s not surprising that a soft market feels harder now, said Thomas DeCaro, president of Benchmark Title Agency of White Plains.

“When you’re racing along for that period of time, the slowdown seems more dramatic,� he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be much of a fall market in real estate.�

Westchester’s employment outlook is expected to be one of the weakest in the nation, with employers planning to hire at a stagnant pace during the fourth quarter, according to the Manpower Inc. Employment Outlook Survey released yesterday.

From October to December, 17 percent of companies surveyed expect to hire more employees, 17 percent plan to reduce their staffs, 56 percent expect to maintain current levels and 10 percent were uncertain.

“Employer confidence about hiring is much weaker as compared to one year ago,� Karen Eidelman, manager of the White Plains office of Manpower, said in a written statement. “For the fourth quarter of 2006, 27 percent of companies surveyed planned to boost staff levels and 3 percent expected to reduce payrolls.�

This year, employers in durable goods manufacturing and public administration plan to reduce staffing, while those in wholesale/retail trade and services have mixed intentions, the survey said.

Nationally, 27 percent of employers surveyed said they will see an increase in hiring and 9 percent expect a decrease. The survey is on www.us.manpower.

This news is probably no surprise to anyone who owns a business in New York: The Empire State is the second-most expensive for business, according to a new report from the Milken Institute, an economic think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. Only Hawaii was ranked higher in Milken’s Cost-of-Doing-Business Index, which measures the costs of wages, taxes, electricity and real estate for industrial and office space. Alaska, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut, rounded out the top five most expensive states. The least expensive state for business was South Dakota. New York had the highest office space costs in the nation, while Iowa had the lowest.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, has written a letter expressing her concerns about Allstate Corp.’s ongoing move to lessen its presence in the homeowners insurance market in Westchester County and the surrounding region. “It is my understanding that your decision was based on a ‘hurricane risk management strategy’ that your company implemented last year,� Clinton wrote in the letter dated Friday. “However, it is still not clear how the perceived risk justified your sudden decision to deny coverage to your customers in New York. Moreover, other insurers in the same areas and presumably exposed to the same risks, have not taken the extreme steps you have.�

Allstate, the largest insurer in downstate New York with 26 percent of the market, announced in 2006 that it would no longer write new homeowners’ coverage in Westchester, Long Island or New York City as part of a broader move to lower its hurricane risks in coastal states. It also said last year that it would not renew some homeowners’ policies in those areas as they expire, with total attrition of policies not to exceed a state-mandated limit of 4 percent a year.

Clinton’s letter was addressed to Thomas J. Wilson, chief executive officer of Allstate.

Workshop in Business Opportunities (www.wibo.org), based in Manhattan, has opened a branch at the iPark office complex at 28 Wells St. in Yonkers. A private not-for-profit organization, WIBO provides entrepreneurs and small business owners with 16-week workshops on marketing and sales, financial analysis, raising capital, financial management, human resource management, legal and ethical issues and personal finance.