Top local business stories of 2024: Frisco’s chicken, unwanted delivery and an ATM saga | Local Business

The one thing in common for all of the top business stories in 2024 is that they’re very local and very specific to the Lancaster County community. The impact for almost all of the top headlines carries the most weight within our borders. 

Using Parse.ly, a software tool our newsroom uses to measure digital readership, we tallied the most-read stories by subscribers. These are the stories that readers willing to pay for our reporting found most interesting or most important, as represented by number of visitors to those stories. This list was curated from archive stories written by Chad Umble, Lisa Scheid, Chris Reber and Kevin Stairiker.

Here are the top 15.

15. Here’s when The Village nightclub is reopening its doors (Published August 15)

After a nearly two-year hiatus, The Village set a reopening for Sept. 20, with new lighting, new paint and a new second stage at the 205 N. Christian St. club that returns with its well-known, beloved light-up dance floor as well as its historic focus on live music.

Rich Ruoff, a local music promoter and founder of the former Chameleon Club in Lancaster city, is The Village’s new general manager. Ruoff said the new version of The Village will be similar to the old Chameleon Club, which hosted a variety of live music acts two or three nights a week, including all-ages shows. The newly built second stage at The Village that will host smaller acts has been named The Lizard Lounge, just like a similar area at the former Chameleon Club which closed in 2020. 

14. Witnesses at contempt hearing say Lancaster-based ATM network is less than half purported size  (Published December 6)

A day after federal agents raided the downtown Lancaster offices of his businesses, Daryl Heller appeared in a local court to give what investors in his ATM network hoped would be answers to the now $138 million question, namely, “Where is the money?” But Heller didn’t give any answers to anything during the hearing after exercising his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. However, testimony from an employee of Heller’s business – Paramount Management Group – and an ATM expert provided some troubling information. They said that many of the ATMs Heller claimed are in the network either do not exist or are owned by others.

Of the 25,000 ATMs that Heller has said are in the network, at most Paramount Management only has around 10,000, according to Leigh Danca, Paramount’s vice president of information systems, who testified via video.

Brent Bauman, the owner of Republic Amusements which operates ATMs, testified from the stand that his review of some of the information that Paramount had been ordered by the court to supply about its ATMs showed Paramount claiming ownership of ones he knows are owned by his own company. Bauman had been retained by the investors group to try to understand the makeup of the network. He was studying the information Paramount shared as part of a previous court order to transfer ATMs to the investors by sharing information about them.

(You can read full coverage of the ongoing saga here.) 

13. Kunzler & Co. plant in Lancaster city up for sale (Published July 2)

The Kunzler & Co. meat-processing plant in Lancaster city will be sold and production of Kunzler brand hot dogs and meats shifted outside Lancaster County, the company’s owner announced in July.

Clemens Food Group, which acquired Kunzler in May, said it is seeking a buyer that would produce private-label hot dogs at the 652 Manor St. factory. Clemens said in a statement that it is pursuing the sale of the Lancaster city plant “with a keen focus on a sale that would preserve workforce opportunities for those in the Lancaster area with the remaining frank production.” It said it is premature to calculate the impact of the changes.

In December, the plant owner listed the buildings for sale at $3.9 million.

12. Fulton Financial CFO Mark McCollom resigns; Lancaster-based bank appoints interim chief (Published February 13)

Mark McCollom, who had been chief financial officer of Lancaster-based Fulton Financial since March 2018, resigned suddenly last week.

McCollom’s resignation, which the bank announced last Friday, was effective the day before. A Fulton press release did not offer a reason for the resignation and a bank spokesperson told LNP | LancasterOnline today that the press release contained all the details the bank is sharing about the change. McCollom did not return a message left Tuesday seeking comment.

Fulton said it is conducting a formal search for a new CFO. In the interim, Betsy Chivinksi, who joined Fulton nearly 30 years ago and has been its chief risk officer since 2016, has become CFO. Chivinski’s base salary was increased to $500,000. Replacing Chivinski as chief risk officer is Atul Malhora.

11. Lancaster real estate agent, businesswoman Marilyn Berger dies at 91: ‘She was 1 in a million’ (Published January 19)

Despite some recent health issues that kept her away from her Manheim Township office, 91-year-old Marilyn Berger was working last week to put together details of a real estate deal.

“As long as she had a phone in her hand, she was dialing,” said Anne Flawd, her longtime assistant.

Berger’s more than 50-year realty career in which her relentless good cheer and persistent salesmanship made her the doyenne of high-end commercial and residential Lancaster real estate came to an end when she died peacefully at home of natural causes, her daughter Marilyn Berger-Shank said.

“She worked up until she couldn’t work anymore,” said Berger-Shank, who worked with her mother as an agent for Marilyn Berger & Associates, a Keller Williams Elite real estate office at 1201 Lititz Pike in Manheim Township.

Anne Lusk, who partnered with Berger in real estate for nearly six years, said she and Berger were talking business last week at Berger’s Manheim Township home. “She is an iconic person and the queen of real estate and really paved the way for women and their success in real estate. She was a trailblazer,” said Lusk, of Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty.

10. High Sports complex closes just before sale to Rock Lititz (Published April 30)

Tuesday Rock Lititz announced it had purchased 38.369 acres in Warwick Township for an undisclosed price. The parcel is nearly all of the High Sports complex at 727 Furnace Hills Pike.

In announcing the purchase, Rock Lititz representatives said former property owner Samuel High, 90, will retain a 1-acre parcel that operates a car wash and spring water vending system, which will continue to be open to the public. Tokens for the batting cages and driving range, which ceased operations on Monday, will be honored at the car wash. 

The High Sports complex property is zoned commercial and industrial. County property records do not yet reflect the transaction with Rock Lititz.

9. Here’s what happened when a few Lancaster County restaurants tried adding service charges (Published April 28)

Guests will sometimes wait for an hour at Gracie’s on West Main in Upper Leacock Township just because they specifically want to be served by Deanna Coker. With a dedicated following of 30 or so regulars, she is, in the words of her bosses, a professional.

Yet, until recently, in a decade of working full-time as a restaurant server Coker never got a paid day off or had health insurance. Most restaurant employees don’t. When Gracie’s on West Main added a service fee, it boosted worker pay and added some benefits. Coker still relies on tips, but she has paid days off, money towards health care and a retirement savings plan to which the restaurant contributes.

The fees, also known as living wage fees, back-of-house fees or gratuities, are not common in the restaurant industry, but more places are trying them to attract and keep good employees, grapple with changing rules and help workers struggling with inflation. However, in some cases, customers have resisted or questioned the charges, leading restaurants to rethink their approach.

According to National Restaurant Association research, only about 16% of restaurants use any kind of surcharge/fee. About 54% of full-service restaurants add a service charge or automatic gratuity to a bill. Of that group, 88% of them are adding it for only large parties (typically of six or more people), according to Vanessa Sink, senior director of media relations for the National Restaurant Association.

8. New year brings renewed hope for Trader Joe’s in Lancaster County [Lancaster Watchdog] (Published January 7)

When we started 2024, it had been just over two years since a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s said that opening a store in Lancaster County was not in the grocer’s two-year plan.

With time expired on that clock, Lancaster Watchdog checked back in to see whether 2024 could be the year Trader Joe’s reveals plans for a new store here, an announcement that would fulfill the long-held dream of locals who love the quirky grocer. “We are actively looking at hundreds of neighborhoods across the country as we hope to open more new neighborhood stores each year. At this time, we do not have a location confirmed in Lancaster County,” Nakhia Rhode, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s told Lancaster Watchdog.

The noncommittal answer is typical for Trader Joe’s, which remains tight-lipped about its plans for its new stores as it completes extensive studies of potential sites. Yet, since the March 2022 opening of a Lower Allen Township store in Cumberland County, central Pennsylvania is at least on the radar for Trader Joe’s, which previously only had Pennsylvania stores in the Philadelphia area, Pittsburgh and State College.

7. What is happening with all the layoffs in Lancaster County? (Published November 20)

Workers have been in the driver’s seat when it came to jobs and wages since Lancaster County’s economy roared back from a pandemic shutdown beginning in 2021 through early this year. Unemployment was near record lows and employers were offering bonuses, flexible schedules, even shorter work weeks to fill positions. The increase in wages outpaced inflation.

The picture turned cloudy starting this spring when the workforce shrunk at a time when it typically increases. It was followed by more troubling news of mass layoffs this fall at a few employers here. Employees with layoffs included DAS Companies (100), DHL Supply Chain (190) and Kunzler (193).

So have the good times come to an end? Has the local economy turned toward general decline? Not exactly, said John Biemiller, vice president of EDC Lancaster County, the county’s main economic development organization.

“We think we are seeing workforce and facility adjustments that are specific to individual companies versus an overall downward trend in activity within the local economy,” he said about the recent wave of layoffs totalling nearly 500 workers since September. The layoffs come after losses of about 300 jobs this summer with the collapse of Retreat Behavioral Health.

6. Brubaker family transfers ownership of service business to employees (Published January 31)

The Brubaker family has transferred all ownership of its home service and commercial construction business, Brubaker Inc. in East Hempfield Township, to its 93 employees. CEO Aimee Deraco said Tuesday. She declined to disclose the value of the stock.

An employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, is an employee benefit plan that gives workers ownership interest in the company in the form of shares of stock. An ESOP is set up like a trust fund through which shares are distributed. Deraco said Brubaker is a traditional ESOP in which stocks are distributed yearly as the company pays down the loan that funded the purchase. The amount of stock distributed is based on an employee’s salary. When an employee retires, the value of their stock is paid out to them over a period of five years, Deraco said. The ESOP also provides for payment over time if they leave before they retire.

5. All Paramount Management Group employees laid off in fallout from investor lawsuit, $138M judgment (Published December 20)

A Lancaster-based ATM network that once had more than 100 employees and claimed $278 million in annual revenue is down to one worker who is facing the possibility of jail time and a bill of $138 million owed to disgruntled investors.

Most of Paramount’s employees worked remotely, but the company also had employees working from Paramount offices in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as in Lancaster city at 415 N. Prince St. The video call lasted less than 15 minutes and was ended abruptly when employees started asking questions, they said.

The remaining 100 or so employees of Paramount Management Group – the Daryl Heller owned ATM network – were called into a 25-minute video meeting Dec. 13 and told they were fired immediately. That fact is one of the things making it difficult for investors in Heller’s ATM network as they seek information, such as locations and serial numbers, about all of Paramount’s ATMs which are now legally theirs.

4. Fuel mix-up at Turkey Hill near Quarryville leaves Wakefield EMS, other motorists in need of repairs (Published July 12)

Scores of motorists got the wrong fuel July 2 at the Turkey Hill at 1010 Lancaster Pike in Drumore Township where a mix-up left some diesel pumps dispensing regular gas and some regular pumps dispensing diesel fuel.

Four of the 12 pumps at the station have pumps for both diesel and regular fuel. Motorists interviewed by LNP | LancasterOnline reported both getting diesel fuel from pumps labeled for regular gas and regular gas from a pump meant for diesel. A fuel mix-up either way can be catastrophic for an engine if the problem isn’t discovered early.

“It would destroy it. You’d have to replace it,” said Krystal Bucher, service manager for Platinum Mitsubishi in East Petersburg, which did a complete fuel cleanout and repair on a regular gas vehicle that got diesel at the Turkey Hill.

Diesel fuel is thicker and denser than regular gas and can clog an engine designed to handle regular gas, causing it to seize up. Regular gas ignites more easily than diesel fuel, so putting regular gasoline into an engine designed for diesel can lead to uncontrolled and mistimed detonations that can quickly cause engine damage.

After being asked about the issue by LNP | LancasterOnline, Nate Hillyer, a spokesperson for Turkey Hill owner EG America issued a statement acknowledging the problem.

3. The Pressroom Restaurant to close in downtown Lancaster (Published June 19)

The owners of The Pressroom closed the downtown Lancaster restaurant in June as their landlord worked to evict them for overdue rent. The restaurant at 26-28 W. King St. had been owned and operated for nearly two years by York-based O.N.E. Hospitality Group.

The Pressroom Restaurant property is owned by Zamagias, a Pittsburgh-based real estate firm with numerous real estate holdings in Lancaster city, including 101 N. Queen St. Zamagias filed a landlord/tenant complaint May 24 against Another One LLC, the O.N.E. Hospitality Group subsidiary that operates the Pressroom, alleging that lease payments hadn’t been made since March. The lawsuit did not indicate exactly how much was owed. About a week later, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office posted eviction notices on the doors of the restaurant.

2. Frisco’s closing all 4 Peruvian-style chicken restaurants in Lancaster County (Published July 12)

Frisco’s Chicken, which opened its first location in Lancaster city in fall 2020 and then quickly expanded with three more locations in Mount Joy, Willow Street and Lititz, announced in July that it was closing all its restaurants. The owners cited a steep increase in the cost of goods and a steep decrease in sales. 

A native of Peru, Gomez de la Torre moved at the age of 30 to the United States where he worked for a variety of hotel companies. He was a manager at the downtown Lancaster Holiday Inn when he lost his job in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Switching careers, Gomez De La Torre fulfilled a lifelong dream by opening a restaurant at 454 New Holland Ave. in Lancaster city that featured chicken that is marinated and then roasted in a charcoal-fired rotisserie.

However, just three weeks after the announcement, de la Torre said an unexpected outpouring of support would allow the location next to the Lancaster Science Factory at 454 New Holland Ave. to reopen.

1. Reading-based delivery service comes to Lancaster County — without asking any restaurants first (Published October 9)

American Bar & Grill bartender Danielle Kramer decided to investigate after receiving a call from a customer upset they were not receiving a delivery of food that had long been removed from the restaurant’s menu. The customer said the delivery was arranged through Berks County-based Local Dudes Delivery, and Kramer jumped on the Local Dudes’ website to discover to her surprise that the Lancaster-city based American Bar & Grill is listed as one of 55 restaurants in the Lancaster County area listed on the site as offering takeout.

At least a dozen owners or managers from local eateries confirmed that Dudes not only never established a relationship prior to hosting their menus on its site, but also that menus are outdated and the prices are higher.

Reading-based Zachary Kern appears to be owner of Local Dudes, which was also the focus of an article in the Denver, Colorado-based publication Westword this past July for practices similar to those of concern to Lancaster County restaurants. In the Westword story, Kern said he was not involved with the Denver operation, only focusing on Reading and Franklin, Tennessee.

While the Better Business Bureau website lists a file opening date of June 18 of this year, the company has its origins dating back years as a local operator for the national delivery service Delivery Dudes. According to Corey Hartman, a manager at the Pike Cafe in Reading, he has been legitimately partnered with the Dudes for years, dating back to the Delivery Dudes days. The Pike Cafe is featured prominently alongside a dozen other Reading-based businesses on the Local Dudes Delivery website landing page.

(Within 12 hours of LNP | LancasterOnline posting a story about a delivery service’s business practices upsetting some local restaurant owners, Local Dudes Delivery ended service here temporarily in order fix its listings.)