Two Chester County School District’s are Ranked Top 20 Nationally

Tredyffrin-Easttown and Unionville-Chadds Ford School Districts have been ranked 3rd and 15th respectively in this year’s list of the top 20 school districts in the U.S compiled by ranking and review site Niche.com.

The data used to determine the ranking is gathered from government and public data, the website’s own data, and over 4 million opinion-based survey responses from 287,606 current students, recent alumni and parents.

Tredyffrin-Easttown’s 6,487 students achieved third in the nation with an overall Academics Grade of A+ and a parent/student survey rating of 4.3 out of 5. The school district boasts an SAT average of 650 in Math and 640 in Reading and Writing.

Unionville-Chadds Ford’s 4,018 students came in at 15th spot with an A+ in Academic Grade and Resources & Facilities, 4.2 out of 5 from the parent/student survey and an average of 630 in Math and Reading and 640 in Writing on SAT scores.

CSM Holds Grand Opening of New Clinical Trial Supply Facility in Malvern

Over 100 people came to celebrate the opening of CSM’s second facility in the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern.

Among the many distinguished speakers were numerous elected officials and special guests, including State Senator Andrew Dinniman, Representative Duane Milne, and County Commissioners Terence Farrell and Michelle Kichline.

In addition to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the event also included tours of the newly renovated 22,500 square-foot cGMP facility and a partner tabletop exhibition. The speakers highlighted the new jobs created in the area by CSM and emphasized the importance of the life science industry to the community.

The new facility, which cost $1.5 million to update to cGMP standards, will support a variety of clinical trial projects for patients worldwide, and will aid clients in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with services that include packaging and labeling, temperature-controlled storage, global distribution, and high speed bottling.

CubeSmart Prices its Public Offering of $250 Million of 2025, 4% Senior Unsecured Notes

CubeSmart, L.P., the operating partnership of CubeSmart, has priced its underwritten public offering of $250 million of 4.000% senior unsecured notes due November 15, 2025.

The offering has been priced at 99.735% of the principal amount to yield 4.032% to maturity. The notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Malvern based CubeSmart, the self administered and managed real estate investment trust focused on self-storage facilities. The offering will close on October 26, subject to customary closing conditions.

This round of senior unsecured debt is expected to earn net proceeds of approximately $247.2 million and CubeSmart, L.P. plans to use the bulk of the funding to repay all the outstanding debt that it has accumulated by using the unsecured revolving portion of CubeSmart’s credit facility. The rest will be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

PrimePay and BizEquity Launch Accountant Office

West Chester’s PrimePay and BizEquity based in Wayne have launched Accountant Office, a software solution which offers real-time, automated valuations accessed via web portal.

Available in the U.S. exclusively through PrimePay, the nation’s leading independent payroll processor for small and medium-sized businesses, the software is customized for CPAs and business advisors in order to help them expand their consulting capabilities by offering valuation resources to small business clients.

Mostly due to time and cost constraints, over 98 percent of companies fail to perform annual value assessments. Valuation’s done by hand take at least three to four weeks, and can cost up to $10,000, the process done using Accountant Office takes as little as 15 minutes for a fraction of the cost.

“PrimePay believes in helping our clients and partners grow their businesses,” said CEO Bill Pellicano. “Accountant Office empowers the accounting community to find new clients and increase revenue.”

Frick’s Lock Named One Of State’s ‘Spookiest’ Places

If you are up for some pre-Halloween spookiness, then you don’t have to go far for some scares. Tucked away on an abandoned section of the Schuylkill Canal in Chester County, a little known ghost town has been named one of the Pennsylvania’s “spookiest” locations.

Recently featured by Only In Your State, Frick’s Lock is located just across the river from the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. The town is what is left over of a village established there in the early 1800s, supported by the commerce brought to the area by the Schuylkill Navigation Company’s locks and canal system. When railroads replaced the canal as the region’s prime mode of shipping, the town began slipping away to its current ghostly state.