Business Journal-Portland articles from May 1997

Business Journal-Portland archives from May 1997

Former Nike execs build agency representing women athletes. (Fred Schreyer and Mark Bisbing)
May 30, 1997... Pyramid's clients include Portland Power players A pair of former Nike Inc. executives turned sports agents have quietly emerged as a force in the world of women's professional basketball. Fred Schreyer and Mark Bisbing, co-founders of...

N.W. Natural inks labor deal, seeks partner. (Northwest Natural Gas Co.)
May 30, 1997... Northwest Natural Gas Co. has signed an unprecedented 7-year, no-layoff labor agreement covering more than 900 of its workers as the utility actively pursues negotiations to form an alliance with an electric energy provider. Both the labor...

Proposal envisions revitalized Old Town. (Old Town public market)
May 30, 1997... Mike Hashem has a vision for Old Town: a thriving public market near the waterfront, filled with vendors selling everything from arts and crafts to fruits and vegetables "When you go to Seattle, you always want to go to the Pike Place...

PacifiCorp sues Florida Bank. (Barnett Bank Inc.)
May 30, 1997... Smarting from two real estate loans that soured, Portland-based utility PacifiCorp has filed a $65 million lawsuit against a Florida bank. The suit for fraud and racketeering, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, pits the $4 billion...

Keeping river commerce flowing. (Merchants Exchange's executive director Elizabeth Wainwright)
May 30, 1997... Captain's daughter finds success in 'man world' on the waterfront Elizabeth Wainwright has the sea in her blood. Her grandfather and father were ship's captains and bar pilots in the San Franciso Bay area. Her brother and an uncle became...

The business of bartering. (Gilchrist & Associates)(Focus on Small Business)
May 30, 1997... Will work for office space: Small firms, independent contractors benefit by trading services Bonnie Gilchrist sought the synergies of a large marketing and communication firm, but wanted her own employee base to stay small. She'd worked...

Casting for a niche market. (Menagerie Works, ornamental artworks company)(Small Business Survey)
May 30, 1997... Menagerie Works grows with better marketing of ornamental artworks Using the ancient craft of sand casting as well as modern volume-based die-casting technology, Doug Cooper's ornamental artworks company has averaged an annual growth rate of...

Developers escalate Airport Way buildup. (industrial developers)
May 23, 1997... Some of the region's biggest developers, already slugging it out along Airport Way, plan to step up the competition further this year within that industrial corridor. Three of the market's major players have formulated plans to construct a...

Teaports steeps Russia export plan; ex-Stash execs line up distributors, seek CEO. (Stash Tea Co.; Steve Lee)
May 23, 1997... Stash Tea Co. and Tazo tea founder Steve Lee is brewing up a venture that aims to pour tea into the former Soviet states in a big way. Starting from an initial $20,000 investment in a carton of tea sent overseas a few years ago, Lee and former...

Truckers slash costs in face of deregulation.
May 23, 1997... Feeling the sting of a deregulated market, Oregon's trucking companies are looking for ways to cut costs, including unionized labor. Portland-based Arrow Transportation Co. recently asked the Teamsters Union to re-open contract negotiations,...

CitySearch exec: on-line market getting crowded; Michael Theodore says his service will 'fight fire with fire.'(Interview)
May 23, 1997... Michael Theodore says, his service will 'fight fire with fire' CitySearch means business. The Internet-based source of news and entertainment information plans to have a site for Portland up and running by this summer. It will offer a range...

Athena signs deal with Procter & Gamble; P & G pays for licensing rights to menstrual pad. (Athena Medical Corp.)
May 23, 1997... Procter & Gamble Co. has signed a $2 million deal with Athena Medical Corp. that gives it the sole licensing rights to the Portland company's menstrual pad product for a year. P & G also may put another $2 million into Athena if it chooses...

Semiconductor industry hiring exceeds predictions; local hiring boom will continue, report says.
May 23, 1997... Local hiring boom will continue, report says The semiconductor industry has hired 45 percent more workers over the past two years in Oregon and southwest Washington than originally projected, and the boom will only continue as the industry...

Mentor Graphics plans to bulk up consulting arm.
May 23, 1997... Electronic design software developer Mentor Graphics Corp. plans to add hundreds of jobs to its 10-year-old consulting arm in the next year. "We plan to double the number of employees in that area over the course of 1997," said Nancy Madison,...

Government overpays Medicare HMOs, study finds. (health maintenance organizations)
May 23, 1997... WASHINGTON - The federal government may be overpaying the managed-care industry as much as $2 billion a year for Medicare patients. Because of the accounting methods devised by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the agency in...

Database in the kitchen: Plainfield's Mayur uses software program to keep track of its customers. (Indian restaurant in Southwest Portland, OR)(Small Business Savvy)
May 23, 1997... Plainfield's Mayur is among the most popular restaurants in Portland. One reason is the delicious Indian food. Another is that owner Richard Plainfield has computerized his guestbook to help win repeat customers. The Southwest Portland...

Main Street U.S.A.: Gresham planners blueprint a new era centered on transit to create a vital urban center. (Gresham, OR)(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... When Max Talbot scans the largely vacant land west of Gresham's City Hall, he sees in his mind a pioneering blend of commercial and residential buildings that extend the city's downtown core. After heavy involvement in planning for the...

City, business collide on Central eastside; housing plan area's 'stepchild' status, some say. (Portland, OR)(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... Jim Stark, the owner of Stark Vacuum Cleaner Sales and Service on Northeast Grand Avenue, says he's tired of the city sweeping its troubles with the poor and homeless to the east side of Willamette River. "We're downtown, a core part of...

Hawthorne District turns toward the east; signs of revival for the mixed-use area start to sprout. (Portland, OR)(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... Give Portland a sunny day, and Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard from about 32nd to 39th avenues looks like a street fair. Pedestrians clog the sidewalks, while vehicles in quest of parking circle the street like birds in search of nest. Just as...

Class-A buildings adapt to technological needs.(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... Commercial real estate investors are adjusting to a new world of technological wizardry, demographic challenges and economic caution. The information highway is racing through the CRE industry, paving the way for a new age in market strategies....

Queen of commercial real estate. (1996 Office Broker of the Year Jan Bottcher)(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... Neither a schmoozer nor a partygoer, Jan Bottcher doesn't worry about being one of the boys Although realtor Jan Bottcher downplays her "only woman" role, she knows there are just a handful of women in Portland's commercial real estate...

To buy or not to buy: when leasing makes sense.(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... Business owners and managers can buy or lease just about anything in today's diversified marketplace. Office space, copiers, heavy machinery, cars and even employees can be leased. So when does it make sense to buy property, and when should...

Unloved bank buildings get new lease on life.(Focus on Real Estate)
May 23, 1997... A Pacific Northwest search for a microbrewery and restaurant location took Alison Horne and John Jankowski to Renton, Wash., where they discovered a branch bank building that had been tossed from bank to bank following several mergers. High...

Albertson's Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
May 23, 1997... NYSE: ABS 250 Parkcenter Blvd., P.O. Box 20, Boise, Idaho 83726 Albertson's Inc. is among the largest retail food-drug chains in the United States, operating 826 stores in 20 states. The company employs 88,000 people systemwide, about 2,600...