I'd heard that Dryden Mayor Randy Sterling was on WHCU talking about economic development because Stafford Chevrolet had a very empty parking lot - but couldn't find the interview on WHCU's site and missed the Cortland Standard article on it. Fortunately, the Standard's "Consumer News" mailing (which has a lot more real news in it than the Ithaca Journal's equivalent) had the article.
Stafford's parking lot is empty - though the parts and repairs departments are still running - because of missed payments on their Ally Bank (formerly GMAC) loans supporting their inventory of cars. No one seemed to want to talk with the paper about it, but they dig into court filings to find $149,000 that Stafford didn't pay, plus two August car sales that didn't result in the required payment to GMAC. The broader story is in this paragraph:
In court documents, Stafford Chevrolet General Manager Michael Schara attributes the dealership's financial troubles to the death of an accountant, high advertising and payroll costs, and the bad economy.
In other bad news, I'd missed this piece on RPM Ecosystems filing for bankruptcy, though they're still operating. Ithaca Produce, though, seems to have closed. A Google search for Ithaca Produce brings up some court cases.
Posted by simon at September 16, 2010 6:44 PM in Village of Dryden , economy
Although they're not quite in Dryden, it's worth noting that Crispell's is closing, too, after umpteen years repairing cars and trucks. It's not a good time to be in the car biz--unless your name is Maguire.