Business Journal-Portland articles from January 1997

Business Journal-Portland archives from January 1997

Schnitzer readies mixed-use development for N. Macadam. (Schnitzer Investment Corp.'s office building development plans)
January 31, 1997... Preparing to launch the first phase of a major riverfront redevelopment project, Schnitzer Investment Corp. has pulled together plans for a mid-rise office building and 225 housing units just south of downtown Portland. The project is slated...

Crystal ball forecasts McMenamins' future. (McMenamins Pubs & Breweries)
January 31, 1997... The McMenamin brothers, those masters of microbrew commerce, have reinvented another venue in a drive to expand their 39-pub empire. McMenamins Pubs & Breweries has roused the ghosts of the Crystal Ballroom to push food and drink on a new...

GOP legislators to consider privatizing DEQ inspection. (Department of Environmental Quality)
January 31, 1997... Republican lawmakers may try to privatize DEQ's vehicle-testing operation rather than add 99 more state jobs needed for stepped-up tailpipe inspections. "The public is looking for ways to contain government growth," said Rep. Jane Lokan,...

Software exec hopes to steer Pacific Towncar out of ditch. (CFI ProServices Inc. chairman and CEO Matthew Chapman rescues broke Pacific Towncar Inc.)
January 31, 1997... Software executive Matthew Chapman has inadvertently found himself in the driver's seat of Pacific Towncar Inc., a transportation provider that bills itself as an alternative to taxicabs. Chapman, who is chairman and chief executive officer...

Portland workers caught in database dispute. (Informix Software Inc. versus Oracle Corp. over trade secrets)
January 31, 1997... A pair of Silicon Valley database development companies have locked horns in Multnomah County Circuit Court over aggressive hiring practices for one company's new Portland office. Informix Software Inc. has filed suit against Oracle Corp....

On-line aficionados form face-to-face chat groups: insights, warm handshakes appeal to local Internet buffs. (includes related article on Internet groups)
January 31, 1997... When the Oregon Multimedia Alliance held a meeting about Internet commerce last year, Paul Colligan took eight pages of notes. "It was amazing," he recalls. "It altered my thinking on the topic." Colligan can't get enough of the Internet....

Washington County eyes new business tax.
January 31, 1997... Businesses in Oregon's most prosperous county may be targeted for a new tax. Washington County Commissioner Kathy Christy said she'll propose a task force next month to study a new county business tax. "I've been discussing this with the...

Millennium Bug set to bite; locals ready their defenses: U.S. Banks and others are ferreting out the glitch to avoid mainframe meltdown.
January 31, 1997... Inside many of the world's mainframe computers, a time bomb is ticking. Set to go off at midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, this so-called "Millennium Bug" seems like the stuff that bad science-fiction movies are made of'. a seemingly tiny glitch in...

Bressie makes progress on Vietnam resort. (Portland businessman Y.C. Bressie Jr. signs pact with Vietnam officials on planned resort)
January 31, 1997... Portland businessman Y.C. "Skip" Bressie Jr. has signed an agreement with government officials in Vietnam that is a first step toward making his proposed seaside resort in Southeast Asia a reality. In the Nov. 8 Business Journal, Bressie and...

AMR negotiating buyout of Care Ambulance Service. (American Medical Response Northwest)
January 31, 1997... American Medical Response-Northwest is negotiating to buy Care Ambulance Service, which provides services in the Portland area, Grants Pass and parts of Washington. The deal isn't final, but sources at AMR and Care say the talks may conclude...

Chief information officer, the most thankless job in America.(Column)
January 31, 1997... In 1984, I thought I was interested in a new position being created by the company I worked for. It was called Director of Information Services. I remember my boss urging me not even to apply: "It's really politicized. Anyone who takes that job...

AT&T eager to provide local phone service in Oregon. (AT and T Corp.)(Column)
January 31, 1997... When the dogfight over local phone service heated up a few years ago, most of the news involved relative newcomers such as Electric Lightwave and MFS nipping at the heels of US West and GTE. But now the big dog - AT&T - is in the yard, and the...

Marie Callender's prowls metro area for restaurant sites. (Marie Callender Pie Shops Inc.)(Column)
January 31, 1997... Homestyle restaurant chain Marie Callender's has secured a site in Gresham for its first area location and is hunting for others, say officials with the California-based eatery. The Gresham transaction isn't quite a done deal - the court...

E-cash in infant stage, but still usable. (buyer-seller money transfers on the Internet)(Column)
January 31, 1997... In the past year, it seems there have been thousands of articles in the popular press trumpeting the arrival of electronic commerce using the Internet. Most of those articles predict that billions of dollars will be spent through the Net by the...

Relocating your business? Shop for locations on-line. (SelectTown web site)
January 31, 1997... Economic development directors who want to distinguish their communities from AnyTown USA now have a St. Louis-based Internet site to woo corporate relocators. The Web site SelecTown (www.selectown.com) features a national community and...

Finding investment research on the Web is a snap.
January 31, 1997... Access to information plays a significant role in the success of investments. And thanks to the Internet, individual investors now have more information than ever at their fingertips. Investors can always phone their brokers to request a...

Millennium Bug spawns another worry: liability. (liability insurance for Year 2000 crisis)(Column)
January 31, 1997... Many companies are sounding the alarm about the cyberspace catastrophe that could strike only three years from now: As the new millennium dawns, if a computer's digital time clock reads "00" to mean 1900, instead of the year 2000, an avalanche...

Dancing to success. (Marimba Inc. CEO Kim Polese)(Profile)
January 31, 1997... Kim Polese's Java made Silicon Valley history, and now Marimba Inc.'s artistic CEO has her eye on the Internet SAN JOSE - Kim Polese is a scientist, a dancer and a CEO. But one of the things for which she is best known is her way with words....

Lawless land of the Internet scares off newcomers. (Internet's security problems)
January 31, 1997... Between hackers, viruses and human error, companies are realizing the increasing need to protect the information they store and transmit with their computers. A recent survey jointly conducted by Ernst & Young and Information Week magazine...

Now Software to wean itself from Mac-dependent market. (Now Software Inc.'s reorganization plans)
January 31, 1997... Now Software is reorganizing to make itself less dependent on the dwindling Macintosh computer market. Now Software recently tried to build a beach head in the Windows market, but the company's efforts have met with lukewarm success so far....

Pacific Seafood becomes a big fish: acquisition strategy propels company from brink of disaster to region's top player in seafood distribution. (Pacific Seafood Group)(Small Business Savvy)
January 31, 1997... The West Coast seafood industry has long been the scene of comings and goings: independent fishermen and small retailers, laborers, processors as powerful as Mafia dons, labor unions and the fish themselves. In the late 1970s, Pacific Seafood...

Get by with a little help from your (state) friends. (private firms obtain loans from Oregon Department of Economic Development)(Column)
January 31, 1997... In 1990, Morrow Snowboards Inc. of Salem needed money. The company had 12 employees and was struggling to break into a bigger market for a newly prominent skiing device called the snow-board. Bankers were leery of the product and the market, so...

Reform Oregon's land-use laws: regulations governing on-site agricultural processing must be expanded.
January 31, 1997... Oregon's agricultural land use laws need to be reformed. As a proponent of land conservation, as well as an organic farmer, I do not make this point lightly. The changes will benefit individual farmers and the state's economy, and will help...

Lane County erases lean years with hefty growth. (Lane County, Oregon)
January 24, 1997... A diversifying economy brings the county back from the brink It's the early '80s in Lane County. The nation as a whole is in a recession, but to residents in the towns of Eugene and Springfield, it feels more like an all-out depression....

Nonprofit nomad. (Suzanne Feeney, director of Institute for Nonprofit Management at Portland State University)
January 24, 1997... No matter where her office is, Suzanne Feeney is at home working with the community For someone who's lived most of her life in Portland, Suzanne Feeney has spent a surprising amount of time on the move. The director of Portland State...

Cleaning up in environmental services. (Spencer Environmental Services)(Company Profile)
January 24, 1997... As industry matures, Spencer diversifies to claim market share Handling and transporting toxic chemicals and other hazardous waste certainly isn't a job for everyone. Nearly 20 years ago, where others saw only headaches and problems with...

Business groups lock horns in Salem. (big business lobbying for their pet economic projects at the Oregon Legislature)
January 17, 1997... Taxing issues face business lobby split by rival interests Business groups will be battling other business groups on some of the watershed issues facing the 1997 Legislature. From school support to road funding to income tax rebates to...

Bill would change city franchise fees into a state tax. (public utilities lobby for replacement of right-of-way fees in Portland, OR, with a statewide 'privilege tax')(Business Groups Lock Horns in Salem)
January 17, 1997... Utility lobbyists have proposed legislation that would eliminate the authority of Oregon cities to impose franchise fees for use of public rights of way. The fees would be replaced with a statewide "privilege tax" on utility customers, which...

The Hull family picks up more retail property.
January 17, 1997... The children of the late timber baron Homer Hull have taken another plunge into Oregon's retail real estate market, with a $25 million investment. In two deals that closed on Jan. 6, the Hull family bought Cascade Boulevard Retail Center in...

A failure at the ballot box, expanded bottle bill may win in the Legislature. (Oregon)
January 17, 1997... In a surprising twist, Republican lawmakers may recycle pieces of the expanded bottle-bill initiative that was trounced by voters in November. State Rep. Eldon Johnson, R-Central Point, the new chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said...

Coalition pushes 'patient protection.' (Oregon)
January 17, 1997... A health care coalition of business, consumer, government and medical interests is forming to comb through at least four patient protection proposals headed to the 1997 Legislature. The coalition is intended to create one package of reform...

DynaMetrix to commercialize pulp mill sensor.
January 17, 1997... A Hillsboro physicist and mathematician has created a new energy-saving sensor for the pulp and paper industry that is expected to make its debut at a Willamette Industries plant in South Carolina sometime this year. The sensor also...

Providence Good Health Plan, SelectCare to merge.
January 17, 1997... Providence Good Health Plan and SelectCare of Eugene have signed a letter of intent to merge their insurance operations. Neither Providence nor SelectCare officials would confirm the deal, but sources say that the insurers plan to announce it...

Bidders vie to revitalize bankrupt Pacific Towncar.
January 17, 1997... Pacific Towncar, which bills itself as an upscale alternative to taxicabs, may soon emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a new owner at the wheel. The company skidded into U.S. Bankruptcy Court in November. Some well-known local...

State Sen. Lim seeks trade with North Korea. (Oregon Senator John Lim)
January 17, 1997... With the United States and North Korea talking about warmer relations, State Sen. John Lim wants Oregon business to profit when and if the old enemies decide to become friends. Lim recently returned from a goodwill trip to North Korea and...

Critics say Measure 47 won't benefit industrial companies. (Oregon's property tax limitation draft bill)
January 17, 1997... High-tech manufacturers, utilities and other industries may not reap much of the bounty from Ballot Measure 47. The tax limitation drafted by activist Bill Sizemore will slash property taxes $1 billion over the next two years and cap...

Star Brewing's success tapped out in Portland, Phoenix. (fierce competition forces microbrewery to stop operations)
January 17, 1997... Star Brewing Inc.'s plans to move its business to Phoenix have gone flat, and it's last call for the Portland brewer. "Shut down. Out of business is the appropriate way to describe the current situation," said Conrad Myers, a director for...

Net results. (Jon Spoelstra, president of SRO Partners Inc.)
January 17, 1997... Sports marketer brings wealth of experience to arena football's Forest Dragons Jon Spoelstra says sports marketing is a game of inches. "More often than not, marketing victories are made up of many small gains," he says. "It's like picking...

Supplier key to game distributor's formula. (Nicky USA)(Company Profile)
January 17, 1997... Nicky USA becomes a leading distributor of rabbits, pheasants In 1990, Geoff Latham had the start of a successful import and export business. Then his suppliers caved in and he almost lost the business. "They were too optimistic about their...

Executives start to see down side of downsizing.
January 17, 1997... Employees' fear of downsizing can kill productive performance. In the midst of all the corporate changes we read about, there is an interesting change afoot. The savings anticipated through downsizing and re-engineering may be somewhat...

New federal law boosts MSAs. (medical savings accounts)(includes related articles on how MSAs work and sources of MSA information)(Focus on Insurance)
January 17, 1997... The hybrid health plans now can offer tax deduction Clackamas Insurance agent John Mahar wasted no time jumping on the medical savings account bandwagon. In December, just a few weeks before a new federal law went into effect that should...

Cashing out life policy now more attractive. (new federal law eliminates the payment of taxes on the sale of life insurance policies)(includes related articles on viatical payouts and viatical companies)(Focus on Insurance)
January 17, 1997... Terminally ill get new federal tax break, consumer protection Two viatical companies registered in Oregon for the right to buy life insurance policies of the terminally ill are poised to take advantage of a federal law enacted Jan. 1 that...

Let's try a Mahonia Hall conference. (state conference similar to White House Conference on Small Business for Oregon's small business enterprises)
January 17, 1997... The White House Conference on Small Business generated a nod and a shrug from many businesspeople a couple of years ago. But small business can thank the conference and the aggressive Oregon delegation for a number of new benefits. Small...

Tobacco giants' worst year ever? (new laws limiting the sale and marketing of tobacco products)
January 17, 1997... This year, FDA rules will be implemented and more lawsuits will head to court Tobacco companies have had some bad years. There was 1964, the year of the first U.S. Surgeon General report linking tobacco to cancer. There was 1971, when...

Retail. (1.5 million square feet of new retail space to be developed in 1997 in Portland, OR)(The CB Commercial 1997 Real Estate Forecast)(Industry Overview)
January 17, 1997... Portland's retail market mirrors its economy - it's vibrant and growing. 1996 was a very good year in all facets of retail real estate, and 1997 looks to be extremely active as well. Further, it is extremely important to understand what drives...

Apartments. (forecasts for housing development in Portland, OR, for 1997)(The CB Commercial 1997 Real Estate Forecast)(Industry Overview)
January 17, 1997... Active and buoyant describes the 1996 apartment market. Developers added 7,000 units to bring our inventory to 200,000 units in the four metropolitan counties. The starts were up 1,000 units from 1995, and nearly 3,000 units more than our...

Office. (forecasts for office-space development in Portland, OR, for 1997)(The CB Commercial 1997 Real Estate Forecast)(Industry Overview)
January 17, 1997... The Pacific Northwest is no longer the best kept secret of a good place to live and work. In fact, recent reports place Portland among the top 5 cities in the U.S. in terms of a healthy economy and strong office market. Consider these facts:...

Investments. (forecasts for real estate investments in Portland, OR, for 1997)(The CB Commercial 1997 Real Estate Forecast)(Industry Overview)
January 17, 1997... For office, retail, and industrial properties in Portland, 1996 was the year of the large deal with only five investment transactions accounting for $247 million in value. These five sales aggregated more than the value of all other Portland...

Physician groups swap insurance firms. (HMO Oregon; ODS Health Plan)
January 3, 1997... HMO Oregon and ODS Health Plan vie for contracts Physician groups in rural Oregon are trading insurance dance partners as they renew Medicaid contracts for 1997. Much like a game of musical chairs, the independent physician associations,...

Fish enchilada maker lands Fred Meyer, Wal-Mart. (Splash 'n Sea; Fred Meyer Inc.)
January 3, 1997... Splash 'n Sea, a local startup company touting fish enchiladas as the new wave in frozen heat-and-serve food, has hooked Fred Meyer Inc. and Wal-Mart Inc. as its first customers. Alan and Lisa Morasch, founders of Splash 'n Sea, expect to...

Oregon joins immunization registry states.
January 3, 1997... Oregon's new immunization registry for children is growing, with 32,000 vaccinations of 6,000 children already recorded within two months of its debut. Oregon is one of 11 states that have developed registries to track children's...

Out of Gordon Smith's shadow: Senate President Brady Adams brings fiscal conservatism to budget-cutting session.
January 3, 1997... Like many Oregonians, Brady Adams awoke early three days after the Nov. 5 election to find that absentee votes had clinched approval of a $1 billion property-tax cut. Adams hadn't been officially elected yet as the new Senate president, but...

Dream weaver: Portland Software CEO Charles Jennings draws from experience to realize his vision.
January 3, 1997... Charles Jennings has used principles he gleaned from the development of the retail video industry, the introduction of NutraSweet and the comic strip Pogo to launch one of the Internet's hottest software companies. Jennings would seem on the...

New kid on the block: Erik Sten brings youthful enthusiasm, impressive track record to City Council.
January 3, 1997... When 23-year-old Erik Sten first went to work for City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury in 1991, longtime staff assistant Terry Anderson says she remembers thinking that the cherub-cheeked young fellow would have "a lot to learn" about city...

Fred Meyer's new profile: Curt Lerew takes an aggressive stance to recapture the nonfood market. (Fred Meyer Inc. president and COO)
January 3, 1997... Curt Lerew takes an aggressive stance to recapture the nonfood market Curt Lerew, president and chief operating officer of Fred Meyer Inc., pushes everything from plumbing parts to pet supplies with something he learned at the ice cream...

The right chemistry: former biochemist Bob Gerding finds real estate formula by teaming with Mark Edlen.
January 3, 1997... When Bob Gerding bought the financially troubled ADP Plaza in 1990 and turned it into a money maker, he turned a few heads in the real estate field. When he sprang a deal three years later to develop a downtown office tower for Pacific Gas...

Redefining Kaiser's role: Michael Katcher leads Northwest division in changing health care environment. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest)
January 3, 1997... Not many folks have the mix of distinctions Michael Katcher carries. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Katcher went to high school in Queens with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. For Katcher's 50th birthday party four years ago, a friend who writes...

Congestion headaches: Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake works to keep residents focused on the long-term picture.
January 3, 1997... Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake is what you might call a street-smart statesman. He does his part to please the community. He'll listen to the Chamber of Commerce and make corporate calls to the dens of the city's business leaders. But as soon as...

Paul Allen buys Issaquah land as backup corporate campus.
January 3, 1997... SEATTLE - Software billionaire Paul Allen has paid $12.75 million in cash to buy 20 acres in Issaquah, giving him an alternative site if environmental problems derail his plans for a corporate campus in Renton. The property, part of the...

Call-center firms tap into Lane County's resource pool.
January 3, 1997... EUGENE - By the third telephone call, the words slip out effortlessly. They sound just right: friendly, conversational. "Hello, I'm Jake Pickering of Call Research, a national research firm. We're talking with people in your area today 'and...