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In an effort to make sure that downtown Buffalo’s Canal Side development has a strong cultural presence, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. has taken a major step forward in bringing that to fruition.

ECHDC directors, Tuesday morning, approved hiring Lord Cultural Resources of Toronto to develop a Canal Side Visitor Experience Master Plan to specifically focus on bringing that aspect to the transformative downtown project. Lord Cultural will be paid no more than $255,000 and its report is due back by April 2011. The report will serve as the blueprint for how and where to bring cultural groups into Canal Side.

More than 50 cultural groups have expressed an interest in locating or having a presence inside the 20-acre Canal Side footprint, that runs along Main Street between the New York State Thruway and HSBC Arena. Culturals are expected to play a key role in bringing a critical mass of visitors to Canal Side.

“There was always a sense that this is a destination,” said Mindy Rich, an ECHDC director. “This could be a portal. We want to make Canal Side not just an attraction, but a destination.”

Jordan Levy, ECHDC chairman, said the agency has been approached by a wide range of cultural groups about having a presence at Canal Side. One group, the Ira G. Ross Aerospace Museum, which is currently in HSBC Arena, is already negotiating with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority about leasing significant portions of the DLW Terminal’s second floor for its exhibition space.

“We getting queries from a diverse group from those backing a weather museum to some who want to build a Cheerios museum and everything in between,” Levy said Same day payday loans.

Cheerios are one of the cereals made at the General Mills plant, just south of the Canal Side footprint.

“The report will help us figure out all the diversity, so we can make some good selections,” Levy said.

At the same time, an outdoor art committee, chaired by Louis Grachos, Albright-Knox Art Gallery executive director, has been formed to consider how and where outdoor pieces of artwork will be displayed within the Canal Side footprint.

Besides the Lord Cultural contract, the ECHDC directors also agreed to go after a $3 million federal grant to help finance planning for a connecting bridge between downtown Buffalo and the Outer Harbor. Two sites are under consideration — one at the foot of Main Street behind HSBC Arena and the other off of Erie Street.

Both carry a potential $100 million development cost and would rely heavily on state and federal funding.

The new federal grant, under the TIGER II program, has an Aug. 23 application deadline. The grants are expected to be awarded later this fall.

“We’re trying to get deeper into the design stage,” said Tom Dee, ECHDC president. “The grant will take us further along.”

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Lawrence Maxwell, the largest individual shareholder of CenterState Banks Inc., resigned from the board of directors of the company and from the board of its lead subsidiary bank, CenterState Bank of Florida N.A.

Maxwell’s decision to resign was based on other business issues and personal time constraints, and there were no disagreements with Maxwell, the board and management, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Maxwell said he intends to continue as a customer and supportive shareholder of CenterState, the filing said.

Maxwell, the chairman of Century Realty Funds Inc., a residential and commercial real estate company, had been a director of CenterState since 2002.

As of March 3, he controlled 1.6 million shares of CenterState (NASDAQ: CSFL) stock, or 6.21 percent of the total common stock, according to the company’s proxy filing in March.

CenterState, headquartered in Davenport, is a multi-bank holding company that operates through four wholly owned subsidiary banks with 43 locations in 12 central Florida counties.

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University and public officials are beginning a study of transportation needs for the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College.

The Travel Demand Management Study is jointly funded by the two universities, the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and the Mid-Region Council of Governments. It aims to identify ways to increase transportation efficiency, reducing problems such as traffic congestion, parking issues, travel costs and related environmental impacts.

The MRCOG will hold the first public meeting on July 14 to inform people about the study and hear public comment on the issues, said Rio Metro Board Chair Isaac Benton in a news release.

“We must start by identifying the main transportation issues affecting these two institutions,” Benton said. “This meeting will be the first opportunity the public has to discuss what we need to start looking at. At the end of the study we will have recommendations on specific ways we can make travel to and from UNM and CNM more convenient, affordable, and compatible with nearby neighborhoods low rates payday advance.”

The study’s first phase will focus on a detailed evaluation of existing travel markets and projections for year 2015. That information will be used to identify potential solutions, which will then be analyzed in more detail in the study’s second phase, said MRCOG Interim Executive Director Dewey Cave.

“This initial public meeting focuses on the types of information and analysis that will be conducted as part of the first phase,” Cave said. “It also looks at how this effort will provide all stakeholders with a better understanding of the major factors influencing travel to and from this area.”

The meeting runs from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and again from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the UNM Student Union Building in Lobo Room A.

For more information, call the MRCOG at (505) 247-1750, or visit www.mrcog-nm.gov.

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SPANISH LAKE — Construction under way on a $112 million building to replace the National Personnel Records Center in Overland ensures the retention of 800 jobs for the area, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said Wednesday.

Federal officials and developers updated Dooley on the project, at 1829 Dunn Road, where work began in November. When completed in 2011, the three-story building will hold the records of 57 million people who served in the American military from the late 1890s until a decade ago, when the service branches moved to electronic records.

It will replace the mammoth records center at 9700 Page Avenue, which became vulnerable when the Pentagon announced its realignment of military installations in 2005. That building was built in 1956.

"This was not supposed to stay in St. Louis," Dooley said. "This is a win-win, not only for the county, but for the whole metropolitan area."

The new site is just east of Hazelwood East Middle School and north of Interstate 270. It also will house records of former civilian employees, now kept at 111 Winnebago Street in St. Louis.

The Molasky Group, a Las Vegas developer, will own the 547,000-square-foot building and lease it to the federal General Services Administration for about $9.2 million annually, or $185 million over 20 years.

Mary Ruwwe, a regional official for the federal agency, defended the lease as the only way to get the project done. She said the government usually wanted to build and own a project of this sort.

"We are doing it this way because it’s a funding mechanism that works," Ruwwe said no fax cash advances. "We knew we couldn’t get funding to renew the old building, and this (construction) project might not get congressional appropriation for years."

Chuck Moody, Molasky’s senior vice president, said the lease payments would cover upkeep and maintenance, which he estimated at about $2.8 million annually.

Ruwwe said the government needed a better environment for preserving the records. The government gets 1.5 million requests each year for copies of military records from service personnel, their families, historians and the simply curious.

The project, a joint venture of Tarlton Corp. of St. Louis and Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta, will employ as many as 800 construction workers, officials said. As of Wednesday, workers were digging for the foundation and grading parts of the 29-acre site.

The National Archives Records Administration, which maintains the military records, is to begin moving in April 2011 and be fully operational in November 2011. Bryan McGraw, an archives official, said the new building would use less than half the floor space of the current one for storage because of higher stacks and better retrieval systems.

Ruwwe said the government would probably demolish the records-storage building on Page and keep the office addition for other agencies. A fire in 1973 damaged or destroyed about 16 million records, including those for many Army veterans of World War II.

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The dollar slipped against other major currencies Wednesday after Greece announced measures to reduce its deficit by four percentage points this year.

What prices are doing: The dollar fell 0.6% against the euro to $1.3694, and dropped 0.8% against the pound to $1.5131. The greenback edged 0.4% lower against the yen to ¥88.47.

The dollar was first higher Tuesday but then lost steam and ended lower, as the euro rose on hopes that debt-choked Greece would make decisions about its deficit.

What’s moving the market: Greece announced plans to make steep cuts in civil servant salaries and raise taxes to save the debt-challenged country more than $6.5 billion this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal’s online edition.

Greek officials expect the cuts to lower Greece’s budget deficit to 8.7% of the country’s gross domestic product from its current level of 12.7%, according to the report.

Investors also digested some U free credit report and score.S. economic data ahead of Friday’s all-important February jobs release. Traders took in labor market reports from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas and payroll data firm Automatic Data Processing, which showed job losses continue to slow.

The employment component of the Institute of Supply Management’s report on the service sector also rose to its highest level since April 2008 as the service sector expanded.

What analysts are saying: "The dollar is trading lower today as Greece’s austerity package lifts demand for European currencies," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading, in a research note.

But the rally in the euro may be limited because there is still a lot of back and forth on whether Germany and other strong European countries will offer aid to Greece, she added. 

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Options traders are growing less bullish on the yen after efforts by Japanese officials to boost the world’s second-biggest economy and a U.S. jobs report led to the currency’s biggest weekly decline in a decade.

Japan’s currency plunged 2.5 percent against the dollar and 1.3 percent versus the euro on Dec. 4 after America’s Labor Department said employers cut the fewest jobs since the recession began. The yen sank 4.5 percent versus the greenback for the week, the most since February 1999 and retreating from a 14-year high. Traders sold yen and bought dollars on speculation interest rates in the U.S. will increase before June.

“The improving U.S. jobs market suggests the Federal Reserve won’t stand pat on interest rates longer than the Bank of Japan,” said Kazutoshi Yasuda, general manager of the markets department in Tokyo at FX Prime Corp., a unit of Itochu Corp. Increased U.S. borrowing costs would lead traders to favor using yen to finance higher-yielding investments, leading to more losses for the Japanese currency, he said.

Options showed declining bets that the yen will rise. The odds for a gain to 84.5 yen per dollar by the end of March from 90.56 last week fell to 38 percent from 80 percent on Nov. 30, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Chances of a decline to 92 versus the dollar by Dec. 31 reached 63 percent. Options grant buyers the right to purchase or sell an asset at a predetermined price.

Weekly Tumble

The yen tumbled 3.6 percent versus the euro to 134.54 last week, the sharpest slide since the week ended April 3. The yen’s biggest drop during the week came after the U.S. Labor Department said payrolls dropped by 11,000 last month, the smallest decrease since the recession began in December 2007.

“What the job numbers do is firm up expectations that the Fed interest-rate hike is coming,” said Camilla Sutton, a strategist in Toronto at Bank of Nova Scotia, the nation’s third-largest lender. “That should be a strong-dollar story.”

Federal-funds futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade show a 43.3 percent probability that the U.S. central bank will lift its target rate for overnight bank borrowing to 0.5 percent by June from a range of zero to 0.25 percent now, up from 12.6 percent a month ago.

UBS AG expects the Fed to set its key rate at the top end of its 0.25 percent range in April and follow with a quarter- point increase in June. The jobs report and last week’s gains “suggest the greenback is finally turning,” Mansoor Mohi-uddin, the Zurich-based bank’s global head of currency strategy, wrote in a note to clients.

Best Performer

The yen was the best performer against the dollar among the 16 most-traded currencies the past four years, Bloomberg data show. It surged to 84.83 on Nov. 27, the strongest since July 1995, from 124.13 in June 2007. The yen tends to advance amid financial turmoil because Japan’s trade surplus reduces reliance on foreign capital.

Record low U.S. interest rates have kept the dollar under pressure at the expense of the yen, making the greenback the favorite for so-called carry trades, where investors raise funds in countries with low borrowing costs and use the proceeds to invest in countries with higher returns.

Benchmark rates of as low as zero in the U.S. and 0.1 percent in Japan compare with 3.75 in Australia and 2.5 percent in New Zealand.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for three- month loans in the U.S. currency has been below the equivalent yen rate since Aug. 24. In the decade before then, the dollar rate averaged 2.94 percentage points more than the yen rate.

‘Extreme’ Positioning

Contracts betting the yen would climb against the dollar rose to 51,710 on Nov. 27, the most since May 2008, according to data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington based on contracts at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. As recently as June, there more contracts betting on a decline in the yen than a gain.

Such “extreme” positioning may suggest that the decline in the yen represents traders unwinding “long” positions rather than an outright bet on the currency’s depreciation, Marc Chandler, the global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, said in a note to clients on Dec. 4.

The median estimate of more than 30 strategists surveyed by Bloomberg is for the yen to end March at 92 to the dollar and 136 to the euro.

‘Urgent Steps’

Fujio Mitarai, head of Japan’s largest business lobby, called on the government to take “urgent steps” on Nov. 27 to curb gains in the yen, which make Japanese exports less competitive and threaten corporate profits. The same day, Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said in Tokyo the nation will “do what is necessary” and he may contact U.S. and European officials to act.

Exports make up about 12 percent of Japan’s economy, compared with 6 percent in the U.S. The nation’s gross domestic product is forecast to shrink 5.7 percent this year, according to the median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That compares with a contraction of 2.4 percent in the U.S.

The Bank of Japan announced an emergency 10 trillion yen ($113 billion) credit program on Dec. 1 to combat falling prices and the stronger yen. The spread between dollar- and yen-based Libor narrowed to 2.72 basis points on Dec. 4 from as much as 7.25 basis points on Sept. 8.

Stimulus Plan

“The BOJ’s action worked,” said Masato Mori, senior manager of the business and marketing department at NTT SmartTrade Inc. a unit of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. “Stopping the yen’s advance will require additional spending from the government.”

A stimulus plan worth as much as 4 trillion yen ($45.4 billion) may be agreed upon today, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said last week. The government planned to announce the measures on Dec. 4 before disagreements between Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan and coalition partners, who want a larger package, caused a delay.

Bonds to be issued in the fiscal year starting April 1 may reach 146.2 trillion yen compared with a revised 132.3 trillion yen this year, according to Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc.

“There is probably enough in the policy action in Japan by the government and the BOJ to argue for further upside on cross- yen currencies near term,” said Greg Gibbs, a foreign-exchange strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Sydney.

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Business managers interviewed by Federal Reserve researchers conducting their eight-times-a-year review of the New England economy “cite mixed results amid signs of improvement, although activity generally remains below year-earlier levels,” the analysts wrote in the report, which was released Wednesday.

“Some respondents are beginning to hire and/or reverse pay cuts or freezes, or planning to in 2010,” the researchers wrote in the summary often referred to as the “beige book.”

“Prices are generally said to be stable,” they wrote. “Contacts in a number of sectors express uncertainty about whether recent improvements will last, but most — outside of commercial real estate — expect recovery to take hold in 2010.”

By sector:

• A number of retailers told the researchers “consumers are much more cautious than in previous years.” And executives in the category worried about the impact of unemployment on consumer spending.

Several retail concacts told the researchers they are maintaining lower inventory levels than a year ago.

Capital spending in the sector is “guarded,” the Fed team wrote, though there is some spending planned on renovations and IT.

“Seasonal hiring is mixed,” the report states. “Wages remain mostly steady, although one respondent reports wage cuts were successfully taken in order to prevent a cut in headcount. Selling prices are reportedly stable.”

• In manufacturing, the report states, “biopharmaceuticals companies indicate that their revenues continue to increase. Some equipment makers report that sales have picked up from their depressed levels in the first half of the year, while others say their business remains in a slump.”

The researchers wrote: “Respondents across a variety of industries note that sales to retailers, restaurants, and personal services establishments remain depressed.”

Materials costs and selling prices remained largely unchanged.

“Some firms that cut wages and salaries earlier in 2009 have recently restored pay to pre-cut levels or plan to do so in 2010,” the researchers wrote. “Most contacts say that they have held their domestic headcounts relatively steady in recent months, but biopharmaceutical firms continue to expand employment.”

They add: “Some seeking to fill specialized technical positions indicate they are disappointed with the quality of the applicant pool.”

“For the most part, capital spending remains subdued,” the report states. “Many note that they have adequate cash to fund both needed and discretionary investments.”

For the sector, it concludes: “Most manufacturers and related services providers are anticipating modest to moderate revenue increases over the coming six to 12 months.”

• Software and Information Technology Services could see some new hiring in 2010.

“Those firms that implemented wage freezes this year anticipate lifting them in 2010, with raises expected to be in the 3-percent to 5-percent range,” the report states.

It states: “Expectations range from gradual upticks over the course of 2010 to high levels of growth from the start of the year.

• “New England staffing contacts report upticks in activity through the end of the third quarter and

into the fourth,” the report states. “While year-over-year revenues are still down — from 10 percent to 60 percent — revenues are improving on a sequential basis, with increases reported in billing hours and number of assignments.”

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An Indian Ocean airline is planning the first regular flights for more than 800 passengers after buying a budget version of the Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner, with economy seating throughout.

Reunion-based Air Austral confirmed an order for two superjumbos at the Dubai Air Show and said it would operate them between Paris and the French overseas department from 2014.

The deal will put the A380 into service as the industry’s largest people carrier and comes 80 years after the first wood and canvas plane touched down on the Indian Ocean island after making the 9,300 kilometer (5,800 mile) trip from Paris in 10 days.

The A380 entered service in 2007 and is designed to seat 525 people in ordinary three-class seating or 853 people when its two floors of cabins are filled with economy seats — giving it 8 times more capacity than Airbus’s smallest model, the A318.

So far, buyers of the plane have focused on luring premium passengers with facilities from beds and showers in first class to a stand-up bar, with total seating of around 500 people.

Air Austral said its low-cost version would seat 840 people.

“We are convinced that airplanes with good priced tickets will help explode traffic figures,” founder and president Gerard Etheve told Reuters after announcing the deal on Tuesday.

The economy end of the airline market has performed relatively better during the financial crisis, but revenues everywhere have been battered by recession this year no credit check payday loans.

The budget version of the A380 aims at tapping growth in China, India and demand from airlines flying aging Boeing 747s on high-density routes in markets like Japan, where rival Boeing dominates air travel.

Boeing’s 747-400D, a version of the jumbo jet built for the Japanese domestic market, carries up to 660 people in one class.

Etheve said the airline he founded in 1975 had paid less than the $660 million list price for two Airbus A380s.

The aircraft was tested for the ability to evacuate over 800 people in cabin emergency tests before entering service.

Air Austral’s planes will be powered by engines from the Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

The A380 deal, reported by Reuters earlier this week, includes options for a further two A380s to either serve future Caribbean routes or more flights to La Reunion.

(Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

(Reporting by John Irish, Writing by Tim Hepher, editing by Will Waterman and Jon Loades-Carter)

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The Federal Open Market Committee in its statement November 4 left unchanged the language that its ultra-low rates would be kept for "an extended period". By not even signaling an end to the current era of easy money, the central bank runs the risk of further inflating asset and commodity prices and sinking the dollar.

The Fed’s mandate is to keep inflation and employment stable. It’s hard to see how avoiding bubbles — and the crashes that accompany them — shouldn’t be central to its mission.

By the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, the Fed must maintain long-run growth, minimize inflation and maintain price stability. As the events of 2007-09 demonstrated, in order to achieve these goals it helps to avoid bubbles, the bursting of which makes prices unstable and causes unemployment.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan used to claim that it was impossible to recognize a bubble in progress, but that does not preclude the Fed’s responsibility to prevent them from developing.

Currently, stock prices are up 50% from their lows, oil prices are above $80 a barrel and the gold price has surged to close to $1,100 an ounce. Global monetary conditions have been exceptionally accommodative for over a year, with Chinese M2 money supply up 29.3% in the year to September, for example.

All of which suggests the substantial probability of a bubble developing, whether or not it can be detected in progress. The bursting of such a bubble, at a time of large global budget deficits, could prove highly destructive to economic growth and employment.

So the Fed’s lack of action — either in word or deed — seems incautious. It may believe that raising interest rates would abort the incipient U.S. economic recovery and that removing quantitative easing could cause a liquidity crisis given the huge U.S. budget deficit.

However, removing the language promising to keep interest rates low for an "extended period" could have no real economic effect, but would warn the markets that the Fed is aware of the potential bubble. Sometimes two words can make all the difference. 

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The economy in the U.S. probably grew in the third quarter at the fastest pace in two years as government stimulus helped bring an end to the worst recession since the 1930s, economists said before reports this week.

The world’s largest economy grew at a 3.2 percent pace from July through September after shrinking the previous four quarters, according to the median estimate of 65 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Other reports may show sales of new homes and orders for long-lasting goods increased.

Americans flocked to auto showrooms and real-estate offices last quarter to take advantage of government programs such as “cash-for-clunkers” and tax credits for first-time homebuyers. Growing demand caused stockpiles to keep falling, which will prompt companies to rev up assembly lines and help sustain the recovery into 2010 even as unemployment climbs.

“The recovery is off to a decent but unspectacular start,” said Joe Brusuelas, a director at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “While another large drawdown in inventories will be a drag on third-quarter growth, it sets the stage for a longer and stronger upturn in manufacturing.”

The Commerce Department’s report on gross domestic product is due Oct. 29. The four consecutive decreases through the second quarter marks the longest stretch of declines since quarterly records began in 1947. The economy shrank 3.8 percent in the 12 months to June, the worst performance in seven decades.

Stocks Climb

Stocks have rallied as earnings at companies from Caterpillar Inc. to Morgan Stanley topped estimates. Profits exceeded expectations at about 80 percent of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that have released results, according to Bloomberg data. That marks the highest proportion in data going back to 1993. The S&P 500 closed at a one-year high on Oct. 19.

Consumer spending last quarter probably jumped at a 3.1 percent annual rate from the previous three months, the biggest gain since the first quarter of 2007, the GDP report is also projected to show.

September readings on household purchases, due from the Commerce Department on Oct. 30, may show the quarter ended on a soft note after the Obama administration’s car incentive expired the month before. Spending probably fell 0.5 percent last month as car sales slowed after jumping 1.3 percent in August, the biggest gain since 2001.

The so-called cash-for-clunkers program offered buyers discounts of as much as $4,500 to trade in older cars and trucks for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The plan boosted sales by about 700,000 vehicles, according to a Transportation Department estimate.

Homebuyer Credit

The administration’s $787 billion stimulus package, signed into law in February, included an $8,000 tax credit for first- time homebuyers that expires at the end of November.

New-home sales last month increased 2.6 percent to an annual pace of 440,000, the highest level since August 2008 and reflecting the boost from the credit, according to economists surveyed. The Commerce Department’s report is due Oct. 28.

Lawmakers in Washington are debating an extension of the credit through June, and are discussing expanding it to all buyers under an income cap.

A report from S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index due Oct. 27 may show home values in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas declined in the year ended August at the slowest pace since January 2008, according to the survey median.

More Orders

Orders for durable goods rose 1 percent in September, economists project the Commerce Department will report Oct. 28. A gain would be the fourth in the last six months and indicates companies are starting to invest in new equipment.

Business spending and housing “stand ready to provide the oomph necessary to generate continued optimism until consumer activity stabilizes,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

Optimism among U.S. consumers in October is forecast to rise even as unemployment probably also increased, economists said. The Conference Board’s confidence index, due Oct. 27, climbed to 53.5 from 53.1, according to the survey median.

The economy will likely grow at a 2.4 percent annual rate from October through December, according to a Bloomberg survey earlier this month. GDP will also expand 2.4 percent next year and 2.8 percent in 2011, the survey showed, compared with an average of 3.4 percent growth over the past six decades.

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