Suburban residents raised hardly a peep of protest yesterday as the state Gaming Control Board held a hearing on a proposal to place 500 slot machines at the Valley Forge Convention Center.

Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA), a leading international provider of forensic investigation and litigation support services with offices in New York and London, has entered into a lease agreement to relocate their US Headquarters to the “iBuilding” at 170 Westminster Street in Downtown Providence during the summer of 2008.

Looking down at Providence’s financial district from the 12th floor of the Turks Head Building, FB Capital Partners Managing Director Gary Brandeis said his Philadelphia-based firm did plenty of research – and liked what they found – before investing more than $24 million in Rhode Island.

A Philadelphia-based firm finds the Renaissance City to its liking, investing here even as a jittery economy shakes confidence in the U.S. real-estate market. The firm, FB Capital Partners, has purchased two downtown buildings in the last seven months as it invests in state capitals and medium-sized cities in the Eastern United States.

Private equity for the masses? Philadelphia real estate investors Michael C. Forman and David Adelman filed Feb. 22 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $1.5 billion for a new fund, Franklin Square Investment Corp., to offer private equity to the masses.

When the bank says no "When banks tighten up, our business gets better," said Rocco Perate, chief executive officer of small-business-lender Preferred Capital L.L.C., which lent $25 million last year to firms that could not get cheaper bank loans.

$7M will be invested to reposition Crowne Plaza hotel. Philadelphia Business Journal - by Peter Van Allen Staff Writer

Local telecom start-up aims to compete with big boys By Linda Loyd Inquirer Staff Writer

Move over, Comcast, Verizon and Sprint. There's a new kid on the block, a telecom startup with a new technology to manage Internet, voice and data communications, network security and compliance, all in one place. Evolve IP, with offices in Center City and Wayne, has raised $15.6 million in private equity from well-known local and national private investors.

Evolve IP LLC, maker of a hosted application that helps businesses buy, manage and secure their communications systems, has closed a first institutional round of $15.6 million in equity financing.