First Niagara Financial Group (NASDAQ: FNFG) earned $58.5 million in the fourth quarter, up more than 27 percent from a year earlier.

Earnings per share in the period totaled 19 cents, up from 22 cents in the fourth quarter of 2010. For the full year in 2011, First Niagara earned $173.9 million, or 64 cents a share, compared with $140.4 million, or 70 cents a share, in 2010.

DeWITT — Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) reported that its fourth-quarter net income rose 19.5 percent to a record $19 million as it benefitted from assets it acquired.

Consumers in Binghamton, Syracuse, and Utica continued to take a dour view of the real-estate market in the fourth quarter of 2011, remaining in step with downcast assessments from across the state.

ITHACA — Cornell University will relaunch the design phase of its new humanities building now that the buildings and properties committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees unanimously approved the measure Jan. 19, according to the Cornell Chronicle. It’s the first new building at Cornell in more than 100 years.