Business Journal-Portland articles from May 1998

Business Journal-Portland archives from May 1998

Beaverton benefits from credit card boon. (Beaverton, OR-based Bank Plus Credit Services)
May 1, 1998... Hoping to snare its share of former U.S. Bancorp employees, a Southern California finance company intends to hire 350 people for a new credit card operation in Beaverton. Publicly traded Bank Plus Corp., parent to the 33-branch Fidelity...

Atlas employees set free, closure looms. (Atlas Telecom Inc.)
May 1, 1998... Troubled Atlas Telecom Inc. has terminated most of its remaining 200 employees as it prepares to shut its doors. Company president and CEO Ray Zapp notified employees Monday afternoon of the termination. His e-mail notice said, "The company...

CB's Graham Colton returns to investment brokerage. (CB Commercial)
May 1, 1998... Graham Colton, the head of CB Commercial's local operations for 15 years, is stepping back within the company to form a commercial real estate investment team with top CB broker Chuck Fettig. Colton, the current president of Portland's...

Gerry Frank: town car firms giving Portland a bad name. (Oregon Tourism Commission chairman)
May 1, 1998... Gerry Frank is angry. The chairman of Oregon's Tourism Commission is sick of hearing complaints about the rude drivers, dirty vehicles and price-gouging that some tourists say they experience when they hop into a taxicab or town car at...

Portland holds promise for South Umpqua Bank.
May 1, 1998... Ray Davis, the feisty president of South Umpqua Bank, is ready to tackle growth, both in Portland and in his own backyard of Roseburg. On April 20, Davis said South Umpqua had offered to buy Roseburg competitor Douglas National Bank for stock...

Physicians group small in effort to remain free. (Primary Care Physicians Inc.)
May 1, 1998... Independent physicians such as Dr. Bill Miller have decided to do something about being elbowed aside at the insurance contracting table by large groups that simplify the process for insurers. "The physician really has no say in negotiating and...

Sequent shows earnings hike, jumps to 'buy.' (Sequent Computer Systems Inc. )
May 1, 1998... The latest round of earnings reports from local tech companies yielded few surprises. ThrustMaster Inc. said it would have a bad first quarter, and it did. OrCAD said a recent acquisition would put the company in the red for the first-quarter,...

Fred Meyers of industry drive independents out. (Fred Meyer Inc.)
May 1, 1998... As consolidation continues to shrink the number of competing grocers in Washington, the future of the remaining independents holds slow growth - or elimination from the food chain. Among the major food groups that seem certain to survive:...

Not just disasters any more: Northwest Medical expands its medical-services mission. (Northwest Medical Teams International Inc.)
May 1, 1998... The Northwest Medical Teams' warehouse in Tigard looks like the hybrid offspring between a United Nation s post office and a medical supply house. More than a dozen boxes stacked along the hall are marked "Syringes with needles," with another...

Local golf retailers swing with favorable trends.(Focus on Golf)
May 1, 1998... Owner hopes to find niche for Empowered Women Golf shop Karyn Smith said in a previous life she worked for a software company. She has since given into a passion and opened a golf shop for women. Smith read about Empowered Women's Golf shop...

Amtrak: Portland to Seattle kicks caboose.
May 8, 1998... Amtrak's Seattle-to-Portland route, long a haven of acrophobes and vacationers, is gradually luring more business travelers to the rails. Amtrak's competitiveness along I-5 could take another jump May 17. That's when the service adds a fourth...

Out of In Focus: 60 workers, one boss. (In Focus Systems Inc)
May 8, 1998... In Focus Systems Inc. has lost vice president Stuart Cohen, eliminated around 60 jobs and reduced executive compensation within the last month in response to competitive pressures and anemic financial performance. The moves underscore the...

Goodman, Schnitzer team up for 'Beim and James' block. (Downtown Development Group; Schnitzer Investment Corp)
May 8, 1998... The Downtown Development Group and Schnitzer Investment Corp. have purchased the "Beim and James" block located at the west end of the Morrison Bridge for $5 million. Located between Southwest First and Second avenues, and Washington and Stark...

Competition intensifies for online real estate services. (Realty Information Group LP)
May 8, 1998... Scott Napier's days are numbered. For the last decade, Napier has been the sole provider of independent commercial property data for greater Portland. His company, REALNET, is the only real choice for smaller firms in need of the most...

Ax poised over veggie plant, Gardenburger analysts say. (Gardenburger Inc plans to close Portland plant)
May 8, 1998... Gardenburger Inc. may close its local food processing plant, which employs a mix of about 200 full-time and temporary workers, and consolidate its production at the company's factory in Clearfield, Utah. Company officials confirmed that...

Mentor's turnaround buoyed by latest numbers. (Mentor Graphics Corp)
May 8, 1998... Mentor Graphics Corp.'s first-quarter numbers indicate that its turnaround, while far from complete, is progressing as planned. Despite some continuing problems, Mentor managed to pull off a reasonably good quarter, analysts said. The company's...

Change at top as uncertainty grips Marketing One.
May 8, 1998... With Portland's Marketing One apparently being readied for a sale, president and CEO Paul Patsis is moving on. Patsis will leave the annuity distributor this month to head a unit of Farmers Insurance Group. Meantime, Marketing One, which...

Copeland Lumber steps into future via computers. (Copeland Lumber Yards Inc.)
May 8, 1998... In the late 1800s, Joseph Copeland opened a hardware store in Volga City, Iowa, and later started similar operations in five other Iowa towns. The businesses served as a school of hard knocks for the Copelands, who learned how to buy, sell, keep...

Les Schwab hits road with Korean rubber.
May 15, 1998... More than a half million imported car tires are rolling across the Port of Portland's dock, thanks to Les Schwab Inc.'s shrewd exploitation of the Asian economic crisis. Prineville-based Les Schwab is in the process of unloading 560 ocean...

Creditors beginning to circle over Atlas. (Atlas Telecom)
May 15, 1998... A group of unsecured Atlas Telecom creditors are attempting to force the beleaguered telecommunications company into bankruptcy in order to ensure that Atlas uses proceeds from its ongoing liquidation to pay creditors. The four creditors, who...

Jeanie Coates finds new life in old world of advertising.
May 15, 1998... May 15, 1997, was a really bad day for Jeanie Coates. Coates is founder and president of the Coates Agency a local creative shop. That fateful day, she says, was the day of the "meltdown." Her $8 million advertising firm had lost 70 percent...

N. Macadam: OHSU's role expands, tram talk grows. (Oregon Health Sciences University)
May 15, 1998... As Schnitzer Investment Corp., ZRZ Realty, the city of Portland and the Oregon Health Sciences University met this week to reaffirm their commitment to the area's renaissance, these are the rumblings: * It appears that North Macadam...

Soloflex sues Bow Flex for copycat commercial.
May 15, 1998... Hillsboro's Soloflex Inc. has a beef with Bow Flex Inc. The 20-year-old home-fitness outfit has filed a lawsuit against Vancouver, Wash.-based Bow Flex and its vice president for marketing, Randy Potter. The suit alleges that Bow Flex has...

Carrier Services Inc. lands lucrative AAA contract. (Automobile Assn of America)
May 15, 1998... Carrier Services Inc. of Portland has inked a contract with Auto Club South to provide prepaid calling card services. The contract, which covers the Southern region office of the Automobile Association of America, is worth $3 million to $5...

The chill factor: one man's crusade to change the way we take our sake. (Japan America Beverage Co.)
May 15, 1998... One man's crusade to change the way we take our sake An Oregon entrepreneur is bringing American marketing savvy to a quintessential Japanese business: sake brewing. Griffith Frost has joined forces with Momokawa Brewing, a prominent sake...

Developer Gray, IRS make Atlas claims. (real estate developer John Gray; Atlas Telecom Inc)(includes related article on liquidation of Atlas Telecom's assets)
May 22, 1998... Atlas Telecom Inc., under pressure from a number of creditors, has put certain assets up for sale. The strongest claims on the money raised from such sales appear to be held by two major creditors - real estate developer John Gray and the...

Entrepreneur Bob Scanlan explores billboard jungle. (ScanlanKemperBard Cos's investment in Electronic Billboard Network Inc)
May 22, 1998... Bob Scanlan, the real estate advisor who tackled luxury homes on the Oregon Coast and an office project in St. Petersburg, Russia, may have found his meal ticket in advertising. Scanlan's local firm, Scanlan-KemperBard Cos., has bought more...

Mr. Watersweep is ready if Mt. St. Helens blows again. (Richard Schwary's garden hose attachment invention)
May 22, 1998... A cleaning gadget inspired by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens 18 years ago is now helping inventor Richard Schwary clean up in direct marketing sales. The 69-year-old Camas resident has made a lucrative deal with New Jersey-based Telebrands to...

Full-service Marriott planned for Tanasbourne. (Tanasbourne Corporate Center in Beaverton, Oregon)
May 22, 1998... Impac Hotel Group plans to build a full-service Marriott hotel on a recently acquired 4.16-acre parcel in Tanasbourne Corporate Center. The site is located between Beaverton and Hillsboro at 185th St. and Highway26. The proposed new six-story...

CP shareholders gulp a bit, but swallow merger. (Coffee People Inc's merger with Second Cup Ltd)
May 22, 1998... Shareholders of Coffee People Inc. seem to find the idea of a merger, making the Portland company part of the second-largest specialty coffee retailer in North America, tough to swallow. They repeatedly asked CP administrators and officials...

AVI BioPharma poised to buy Seattle company. (ImmunoTherapy Corp)
May 22, 1998... AVI BioPharma remains on target to purchase a Seattle-based vaccine company in June that will push it closer to having marketable products. AVI is awaiting approval of ImmunoTherapy Corp.'s estimated 100 shareholders. Company officials have...

More executives leave Capital Consultants.
May 22, 1998... Local money management firm Capital Consultants Inc. endured more departures May 15 when two investment managers left to raise an $80 million pot of gold. The action occurred as the 60-employee CCI filed a lawsuit against four other former...

Venture capitalist Shaw funds California start-up. (Ralph Shaw)
May 22, 1998... Portland venture capitalist Ralph Shaw is putting up the money for a new company with a promising video technology. In February, Sacramento business executive Dan Castles, teaming up with Shaw's bucks, founded Telestream Inc. in Grass Valle,...

Steve Karakas. (principal at Karakas, VanSickle, Ouellette Advertising and Public Relations)
May 22, 1998... Name: Steve Karakas Organization: Karakas VanSickle Ouellette (KVO) Inc. Advertising & Public Relations Title: principal Education: A.B., University of California, Berkeley; MBA, Portland State University Residence: Portland...