Former Bills/Sabres turn business owners; local execs talk what to watch in '25

When Jon Corto envisioned what he'd need to do for career success, he likely never envisioned 100-hour work weeks and 1 a.m. compressor repair runs.

But while shaping a life after football, that's where the former Bills safety and special teams player and his wife, Jen, found themselves. The Orchard Park native saw reality racing toward him in 2011, when injuries made it apparent his time with the Bills was ending.

"Being from an entrepreneurial family, I knew I wanted to start a business," Corto said. "We saw what was out there in some of the high schools. There weren't a lot of healthier options. So that stuck out."

Jon has spent the last decade-plus making his business, Buffalo Strive, Markets and Vending , stand out as a break-room services option. He's among numerous former Bills and Sabres who have taken to sharpening their business skills in Western New York after their playing days wind down.

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Interest rates to staffing: What local execs are watching in 2025

A new year has started and a new administration will soon take over in Washington, D.C.

We asked a handful of local business leaders — Trina Burruss of the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County , Raymond Ganoe of Evergreen Health , Timothy Glass of New York State Department of Labor , Amy Hemenway of Harter Secrest & Emery LLP ; Anne McCaffrey of People Inc. ; Alisa Officer of Unapologetic Coffee ; William Paladino of Ellicott Development Company ; Jayesh Patel of Rudra Management; and Tom Quinn of the Western New York Impact Investment Fund — one simple question: What are you watching in 2025?

Here's what they had to say. | Read more

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Former Seneca Mall site sold for $22M

After decades of sitting largely vacant, the former Seneca Mall site has new owners.

Pyramid Management Group, through an LLC, recently sold355 Orchard Park Road, West Seneca, through two separate transactions for a combined roughly $22 million. The 55-acre property was listed for sale as a single parcel this summer.

These two deals wrap up a decades-long saga of?complaints and calls to action?about the mall site among West Seneca and regional residents and officials. Lian Bunny highlighted the property earlier in 2024?as part of our ongoing Buffalo Unlocked series.

Click here to read more.

In other real estate news, the Seneca Gaming Corporation has purchased a building in the Cobblestone District; a nursing school based in Florida is eyeing the purchase of a vacant Catholic community center here; an apartment complex in Hamburg sold for $33.5 million; and we've got November's high-end deals, all 235 of them.

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130+ restaurants opened in WNY in 2024; 50+ closed

The restaurant and hospitality industry boomed in Western New York this year, with more than 130 openings reported throughout the year. While there were several national chains and franchises that contributed to the total, the overwhelming majority came from independent owners and operators, some opening multiple locations. Tracey Drury rounded them all up for you as the year wound down. | Read more

She also took a look at how many restaurants closed throughout Western New York. The answer: nearly 50, and those closings included several very familiar local names. | Read more

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What a 25% tariff on Canadian imports could mean here

A growing concern for companies with international operations is how a 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada could impact bottom lines.

For Buffalo businesses, manufacturers and logistics companies, proximity to the Canadian border has been a selling point — but a 25% tariff could dim that upside.

“It would slow down trade to a large extent, and it would impact our warehousing and logistics operations,” said? John Manzella ,?Amherst author and speaker on international business and economic trends. “Some manufacturers have put more orders in on imports to have more inventory on hand before the potential tariffs.” | Read more

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These 3 local CEOs are hitting it out of the ballpark

Keeping your employees and shareholders happy at the same time isn't an easy job — and not every CEO succeeds at it.

In 2023, Business First explored CEO approval ratings from workplace-review site Glassdoor and year-to-date stock returns to figure out who was pulling off that trick. Two CEOs rose to the top then. We repeated the process for 2024, and three CEOs made the cut — Timothy Sopko of Taylor Devices, David Nasca of Evans Bancorp and Kim Liddell of Lake Shore Bancorp.? | Read more

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This Weekly Edition was compiled by Sara Paulson Meehan. Questions? Comments? Concerns??Send them to?[email protected].