Harleysville's ex-CEO moves to Royal Bancshares

Gregg J. Wagner, who abruptly left his job as chief executive officer at Harleysville National Corp. in September, has turned up as the chief financial officer of the smaller Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania Inc., according to a regulatory filing Friday by the Narberth bank.

Harleysville had given no reason for the departure of Wagner, whose term as CEO of the Montgomery County bank lasted just 18 months. He had succeeded Walter E. Daller Jr., who had been CEO since 1981 and remains chairman.

Harleysville, which had $3.2 billion in assets in December, compared with Royal Bank's $1.4 billion, still has not named a permanent successor to Wagner, who had agreed not to compete with Harleysville in Berks, Bucks, Chester or Montgomery Counties for six months.

Demetra M. Takes still has the title of interim chief executive, according to the proxy statement the bank filed last month.

Meanwhile, Royal, which hired Wagner a week ago, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, moved CFO Jeffrey T. Hanuscin to the position of treasurer. - Harold Brubaker

Thomas Properties Inc., a major developer in Center City, is no fan of Philadelphia taxes. In fact, the Los Angeles company mentioned them as a risk factor in its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 7 million shares.

Thomas Properties called Philadelphia's real estate transfer tax one of the highest in the United States, and said it "could be a very significant cost in the event of the sale of one of our Philadelphia properties."

One Commerce Square and Two Commerce Square are among the office buildings of which Thomas is the majority owner. Both properties have a total of 1.8 million square feet of rentable space, 97 percent of which is leased. Thomas also has a 50 percent interest in 2121 Market St., along with holdings in Conshohocken and King of Prussia.

Thomas also is developing the Murano residential condominium project in Center City, which will have 302 units, and a combined office, residential and retail property at 2100 JFK Blvd.

- Jonathan Berr

Ocean Power Technologies Inc., a Pennington, N.J., company that seeks to harness waves for electric generation, plans to sell 5 million shares to the public priced between $20 and $22, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 13-year-old company was $34.1 million in the red as of Jan. 31. Its PowerBuoy technology is still being developed.

The company points out in the filing that the PowerBuoy technology is environmentally benign, and that it has received backing from the U.S. Navy, Lockheed Martin Corp., the Spanish utility company Iberdrola S.A., and Total S.A., a French oil and gas company.

- Jonathan Berr