Gulfstream’s hangar planto benefit Westfield, Mass.

Aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace plans to build a maintenance hangar in western Massachusetts to accommodate its new G650 luxury business jet.

Gov. Deval Patrick says the move will keep the company’s 130 workers in Westfield and add 100 new full-time positions.

Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. is investing $20 million in the 100,000-square-foot hangar at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.

The project will receive local tax credits worth $4.2 million and a $3 million grant to make improvements such as road upgrades along the airport perimeter.

Gulfstream Aerospace is a subsidiary of Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics Corp.

Parade-float businessis going out of business

An Irwindale, Calif., company that creates flower-encrusted floats for the annual Tournament of Roses parade is going out of business after 25 years.

Charisma Floats co-owner Katie Rodriguez said Friday her organization is laying off its three full-time workers and 15 part-timers because it did not get any orders for the next New Year’s parade.

Two of the float maker’s mainstays, the city of West Covina and a nonprofit group, pulled out after failing to raise enough money to enter the event, in which elaborate floats costing more than $300,000 roll down the main street of Pasadena, Calif.

Bank failures for 2011 hits 76 with two more closings

Regulators on Friday closed a small bank in Minnesota and one in Missouri, increasing to 76 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Riverbank, based in Wyoming, Minn., with $417.4 million in assets and $379.3 million in deposits; and Sun Security Bank of Ellington, Mo., with $355.9 million in assets and $290.4 million in deposits.

Central Bank, based in Stillwater, Minn., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Riverbank. Great Southern Bank, based in Springfield, Mo., is assuming the assets and deposits of Sun Security Bank.

In addition, the FDIC and Central Bank agreed to share losses on $339.3 million of Riverbank’s loans and other assets. The agency and Great Southern Bank agreed to share losses on $351.9 million of Sun Security Bank’s assets.

Demand for new iPhone outpaces previous rollouts

AT&T Inc. says initial demand for the iPhone 4S has made it the most successful iPhone launch of the company has ever had.

The telecommunications giant said Friday that it received more than 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S within the first 12 hours that the Dallas company began taking orders for the popular Apple smartphone.

AT&T and rivals Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S on Friday.

Apple is making the latest iPhone available on Oct. 14.

GM holding off on adding second shift at Volt plant

General Motors says it’s delaying plans to add a second shift at the Michigan factory that makes its Chevrolet Volt electric cars.

The company says it has found ways to make one shift more efficient and produce the same number of cars as two shifts.

Spokesman Chris Lee says GM still will add 300 workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant — but not a second shift — by the end of this year to make more Volts.
GM won’t add a second shift until late 2012 as the plant starts building the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan.

GM says demand for the Volt is strong and it’s sticking with plans to build 60,000 next year. That includes the Opel Ampera, a version of the Volt to be sold in Europe.