Business Journal-Portland articles from October 2000

Business Journal-Portland archives from October 2000

Hollywood's woes worsen sales dip.
October 27, 2000... For nearly two years, executives at Hollywood Entertainment Corp. blamed quarterly losses on ailing e-commerce unit Reel.com. In June the internet subsidiary fell to the cutting-room floor, but Hollywood continues to disappoint investors. ...

Finally, retail chains stumble into Gresham.
October 27, 2000... In the mid-1990s, retailers weren't too impressed with the burg of Gresham. City officials and would-be developers failed to attract big-name stores to the east side suburb, Oregon's fourth-largest city Census figures from 1990. posed...

State wants to brake assisted living growth.
October 27, 2000... With assisted living and residential care facilities sprouting up everywhere, state regulators and long-term care leaders are looking at new regulations that would restrict future construction. Industry leaders believe slowing ALF...

SEC's new disclosure rules cause much head scratching.
October 27, 2000... The federal Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules on fair disclosure took effect this week, but it will take several weeks for companies to figure out how to deal with new rules, said sources familiar with the issue. What the...

Little Man Vikram shows his father chess prowess.
October 27, 2000... Looking through the closet the other day, I came across my boyhood checkers set and chess set. I pulled them out and left them on the kitchen counter, recalling that my 8-year-old daughter wanted to learn how to play checkers. I placed...

Homeless-youth job program gets big-name donors' notice.
October 27, 2000... Every Thursday evening, the Job Club meeting convenes at the downtown YWCA. As the club sits around a large table, its members eat dinner and talk about work. One participant might offer a lead for a friend looking to work with animals....

Tri-Met listens to union about integrity issue.
October 27, 2000... Tri-Met is the latest agency to be pressured by the United Steelworkers of America to take steps that would block Oregon Steel Mills from doing business. Nearing a decision whether to purchase rail from one of two U.S. suppliers, Tri-Met...

Hall of Fame celebrates multicultural athletes.
October 27, 2000... * The Oregon Multicultural Sports Hall of Fame has announced its first class of inductees. Football players Mel Renfro and Woodrow Green will be joined by Portland State University basketball legend Freeman Williams and boxer Todd Spencer for...

Rogue Ales.
October 27, 2000... Rogue Ales has opened a "Micro Meeting Hall" in Northwest Portland. The Rogue Ales Public House, at 14th Avenue and Flanders Street, joins three other Rogue Micro Meeting establishments, two in Newport and one in Issaquah, Wash. The location...

Portland Development Commission.
October 27, 2000... The Portland Development Commission said its business loans program created 1,516 positions last year. The business loan program doled out nearly $10 million worth of assistance to 48 businesses. The Quality Jobs Initiative, which operates in...

Wells Fargo & Co.
October 27, 2000... Wells Fargo & Co. completed its acquisition of First Security Corp., creating the seventh-largest bank holding company in the nation with assets of $263 billion. The merger establishes Wells Fargo as Oregon's third-largest bank, with instate...

Assisted Living Concepts Inc.
October 27, 2000... Preliminary approval was granted yesterday in U.S. District Court to a $30 million cash settlement in the securities class-action lawsuit against Assisted Living Concepts Inc. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 30 to determine final approval....

Brian Berger Public Relations Inc.
October 27, 2000... Miami Heat forward Brian Grant, former Portland Trail Blazers player, has resigned with Portland-based Brian Berger Public Relations Inc. to handle his media relations, marketing and endorsements. Over the past two years, Berger has assisted...

Too many movie houses leads to stalled projects.
October 27, 2000... The sticky financial mess faced by the nation's movie exhibitors has yet to produce auditorium closures in Portland, but it is harming planned theater projects. The 16-screen Century Theatres cinema slated for Beaverton Mall is looking...

Local ad agency's infomercials are a big hit.
October 27, 2000... The cat may soon gobble the mouse. The computer mouse, that is. An infomercial produced by Portland-based Respond2 Inc. for CueCat, the handheld computer tool that scans UPC symbols from print and TV ads to link directly to a web site,...

Baseball's Beavers back in business.
October 27, 2000... Beavers baseball is back. In choosing a nickname for Portland's Triple-A team, Portland Family Entertainment vice president Mike Higgins acknowledged his No. 1 choice, the Portland Beavers, won going away. Indeed, PFE collected...

New patent laws have lawyers learning new ropes.
October 27, 2000... The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 could very well be called the Patent Attorneys Extra-Overtime Act, said local patent attorneys who are preparing to guide clients through a new set of rules that will take effect Nov. 29. ...

Columbia's third-quarter sales set new records.
October 27, 2000... Columbia Sportswear Co. said its third-quarter sales figures not only set records, but that its earnings-per-share numbers far exceeded analysts' predictions. On top of everything, the good news will Likely continue. Tim Boyle,...

Higher-ed board seeks $106M for engineering.
October 27, 2000... It's entirely possible that all sides competing for engineering education funds can claim victory. At the very least, no one can claim total defeat. The Oregon State Board of Higher Education approved a plan that, by requesting a total...

Waste Connections buys nine and aims eye West.
October 27, 2000... Continuing a three-year buying spree, Waste Connections Inc. bought nine garbage collection businesses with total annualized revenue of $30 million. Waste Connections, president and CEO Ron Mittlestaedt said his company has reached the...

Intel slumps on Wall Street, analysts still upbeat.
October 27, 2000... Let's see if we have this straight: Demand for semiconductors is booming, while semiconductor stocks are getting hammered on Wall Street. What's wrong with this picture? Industry leader Intel Corp. recently rolled out a splashy...

Frame-grabber gobbled up by optical tools giant.
October 27, 2000... Imagenation Corp., a privately held Beaverton company, has been purchased by CyberOptics Corp., a publicly held Minneapolis company that has been both a supplier and competitor of the local firm. The acquiring company paid $7 million in...

Analysts overwhelmed by Apple's new prospect.
October 27, 2000... When Apple Computer chief Steve Jobs earlier this year unveiled OS X, the first major overhaul of the Mac operating system since its introduction 16 years ago, he joked that the new crystalline interface looked good enough to lick. ...

Willamette Ind. closes plywood plant in Louisiana.
October 27, 2000... Citing poor market acceptance of plywood, Portland-based Willamette Industries Inc. announced it will close one of its plywood plants in the low-country burg of Ruston, La. Operations at the 246-employee plant will be phased out during...

HUD budget hike pleases real estate industry.
October 27, 2000... The real estate industry applauded the 16 percent budget hike Congress granted the Department of Housing and Urban Development, saying the increased funding for community development block grants and housing assistance vouchers will help more...

A Starbucks may open near you any day now.
October 27, 2000... Starbucks Coffee Co. opened a staggering 1,035 stores in the past 12 months, giving it a total of more than 3,500 units. The gourmet coffee merchant plans to open another 1,100 stores in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And analysts say the...

Scott Dawson.
October 27, 2000... PERSONAL INFORMATION Name: Scott Dawson Organization: Portland State University Title: Dean, School of Business Administration Education: B.S. mathematics, University of Oregon; M.B.A., University of Arizona; Ph.D.,...

Talk about reconstruction!
October 27, 2000... Startup IronSpire hopes to 'rewire' the construction biz IronSpire isn't a hardware, software or internet company. Instead, the promising startup's thrust is to combine a client's existing hardware and software infrastructure with the...

Rocket owner closes doors; revival possible.
October 27, 2000... The Portland and Seattle Rocket newspapers, sold in August in an 11th-hour effort to save the two papers, have ceased publication under new owner, David Roberts, a Chicago investor. Roberts, owner of the Illinois Entertainer, said the...

Keeping an eye on Wall Street is tough for CEOs.
October 27, 2000... I sometimes wonder how many technology CEOs are living on a steady diet of Dramamine and blood pressure pills. Or, maybe they've just become immune to stock market gyrations. My guess is it's a combination of both. I know that the...

Clark County gets a lot of Joes.
October 27, 2000... Clark County will receive its first Trader Joe's food market in the first quarter of 2001. The privately held, Southern California-based chain of specialty markets leased 10,000 square feet in Vancouver's Cascade Park Plaza, near the...

Replacing 'sprawl' with a different kind of growth.
October 27, 2000... On Oct. 19, filmmaker Jeff Gersh presented the big-screen version of his implication-laden documentary "Subdivide and Conquer: A Modern Western," at Cinema 21 in Northwest Portland. Gersh, along with co-producer Chelsea Congdon, set out five...

Deep Sea mirrors marine ecosystems, fosters sustainability.
October 27, 2000... Deep Sea Gallery is in the fish business. It sells everything from aggressive predator fish tank blends, to calmer jellyfish tanks with neon inhabitants pushing through black-lit waters. But Deep Sea is frying to accomplish more than just...

Deep Sea: a living art form.
October 27, 2000... Service in the U.S. Coast Guard persuaded a Vancouver, Wash., couple to embark on a saltwater expedition called Deep Sea Galley. David Morgavi and his wife, Renae, were unable to forget their ocean diving adventures after returning to...

Creating a clear strategy for an ad effort is essential.
October 27, 2000... I am currently saddled with the unenviable task of representing a client who needs an expensive new ad campaign. It involves numerous meetings with the ad agency to review, critique and refine ad nauseam. This recent process, together...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
October 27, 2000... ACCOUNTING Geffen Mesher & Co. added Julie Schmidt as staff accountant and Claire Wall as paraprofessional. ARCHITECTURE WGS promoted Debora Souza to principal. HEALTH CARE Oregon Dental Assoc. elected Charles Wingard,...

Welfare reform and the hungry.
October 27, 2000... While most people in our state are enjoying the fruits of economic growth, a survey released this week by the Oregon Food Bank Network paints a bleak picture of families living deep in poverty whose lack of basic resources such as cars and...

Wal-Mart offers a poor standard.
October 27, 2000... The news that Wal-Mart will soon become the country's largest company in terms of annual sales, reported last week by the New York Times, chilled me, as Carole King would say, to the marrow. The numbers will soon shake out to something around...

Biotechnology: a viable tool to help stop world hunger.
October 27, 2000... Most Amercian citizens have probably never seen someone starve to death or suffer the consequences of malnutrition. It's a testament to American productivity that most of us have been spared firsthand knowledge of hunger. But, obviously such...

Office space costing more than budget? Blame leasing lingo.
October 27, 2000... Now that you've leased your office space, do you feel you're paying more than the $17, $18 or $19 per square foot you thought you agreed to? You are. When you call your landlord to inquire about the additional costs, they told you...

Winners & Losers.
October 27, 2000... Vancouverites Vancouver's metro area--housing more than 200,000--sometimes seems like a black hole for news coverage. With a boost to one of the county's largest radio news stations, Pamplin-owned KVAN, that black hole may be getting...

Time to remove the sign?
October 27, 2000... Many Portland businesses are lured to Oregon by its suburb quality of life, which includes lush forests. But if you're trying to sell this state to peers, don't take them on the drive west on Hwy. 26. After passing L.A.-styled retail sprawl...

A word from the publisher...
October 27, 2000... Nothing is more emblematic of a society's advancement than the structures that comprise its metropolises. Never was that more apparent than when millions of European immigrants passing through New York's Ellis Island looked toward...

Wieden + Kennedy.
October 27, 2000... Northwest 13th Avenue and Everett Street OWNER: Wieden + Kennedy DEVELOPER AND CO-OWNER: Gerding/Edlen Development Co. ARCHITECT: Allied Works Architecture CONTRACTOR: R&H Construction COST: Would not disclose, but...

Pioneer Place II.
October 27, 2000... 340 S.W. Morrison St. OWNER: The Rouse Co. DEVELOPER: Pioneer Place Limited Partnership and Rouse-Portland Inc. (an affiliate of The Rouse Co.) ARCHITECT: ELS/Elbasani & Logan Architects CONTRACTOR: Howard S. Wright...

Portland office market crackling with possibility.
October 27, 2000... Most real estate devotees will tell you that metro Portland's office market is brimming with unbridled optimism. Some would even call that optimism extraordinary. Maybe even unprecedented. So far this year, the market has stood...

The Art Museum.
October 27, 2000... Project for the Millennium, 1219 S.W. Park Ave. PROJECT FOR THE MILLENNIUM: Building a Legacy Where Art Lives ARCHITECTS: Ann Beha Associates, Boston, Mass.; SERA Architects LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS: Topher Delaney Inc., San...

Airport Skybridge.
October 27, 2000... Portland International Airport ARCHITECT: Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership CONTRACTOR: Hoffman Construction STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING: KPFF Consulting Engineers FABRICATOR: Fought & Co. Inc. Completed in May of this year,...

Salmon St. Springs.
October 27, 2000... Southwest Salmon Street and Naito Parkway MAINTAINED BY: City of Portland Bureau of Water Works DEVELOPER: Portland Development Commission DESIGNER: Robert Perron Landscape Architects and Planners (Now known as Perron...

Residential market: multifamily will see growth.
October 27, 2000... Portland's residential real estate market has perked up a bit following a sluggish spring and summer, and appreciation will be something to watch in upcoming months. But the multifamily housing sector has enjoyed the most interesting...

Simon Benson.
October 27, 2000... Southwest Park Avenue at Montgomery Street, Portland State University ORIGINAL ARCHITECT: Unknown RESTORATION ARCHITECT: SERA Architects PC LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Meyer/Reed GENERAL CONTRACTOR: P&C Construction Co. NUMBER...

Beaverton Library.
October 27, 2000... 12375 S.W. 5th St., Beaverton LIBRARY OWNER: City of Beaverton ARCHITECT: Thomas Hacker & Associates of Portland GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Drake Construction Co. DIMENSIONS: Two floors; meeting rooms and an 150-seat auditorium on...

The Oregon Garden.
October 27, 2000... Silverton, in the heart of the Willamette Valley A world-class garden is blooming and thriving in the heart of the Willamette Valley. When construction is finally finished, The Oregon Garden will eventually fill 240 acres with flowers,...

Shrinking land supply helps industrial sector.
October 27, 2000... Most economic indicators have been pointing to a strong year for industrial real estate in metro Portland. It is also a defining moment for the market, which is facing shrinking land supply, higher land prices and increasing absorbency....

The Fox Tower.
October 27, 2000... 805 S.W. Broadway OWNER: TMT Development ARCHITECT: Thompson Vaivoda & Associates GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Hoffman Construction Co. ENGINEERING: A whopping nine engineers firms had a hand in the project. Set to open this...

Chinese Garden: bringing tranquility to Old Town.
October 27, 2000... Lan Su Yuan, Portland's Classical Chinese Garden located in Chinatown, is the embodiment of the Taoist notion of yin and yang, the union of complementary opposites. Evoking peace and tranquillity, the garden has emerged from three years of...

Early-stage companies changing face of real estate.
October 27, 2000... Early-stage companies are not only leading breakthroughs in software, hardware, new media and information storage, but are reinventing the rules for commercial real estate. Securing a lease with landlords has become a new game in the age...

Brewery Blocks: breaking the Burnside barrier.
October 27, 2000... Right now, it's just a heap of rubble and a load of figures: five city blocks, 1.7 million total square feet, 1,700 underground parking spaces, $250 million. But the Brewery Blocks mixed-use development could redefine our notion of urban life...

1900 Building.
October 27, 2000... LOCATION: 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave. OWNER: City of Portland DEVELOPER: Gerding/Edlen Development and PSU ARCHITECT: Yost Grube Hall Architecture CONTRACTOR: Hoffman Construction INTERIOR DESIGNER: Debbi Moody-Kebbon ...

Natural Capital Center: it's green all the way.
October 27, 2000... The Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center is a River District marketing center geared toward environmental restoration and the conservation economy. Reconstructed with a loose fit for retail and office space, the center is poised to...

John Henry House up for grabs.
October 27, 2000... Like countless homes throughout history, the John Henry House in Beaverton is in the path of what will be a new road. But the Henry House, unlike most homes that have found themselves in a similar predicament, might get a reprieve....

Lattice Semi-conductor.
October 27, 2000... LOCATION: 5555 N.E. Moore Court, Hillsboro OWNER: Lattice Semiconductor Inc. DEVELOPER: Lattice Semiconductor Inc. ARCHITECT: BML Architects CONTRACTOR: P&C Construction LANDSCAPE DESIGNER: Kurisu International. Kurisu...

Spruce Goose will spread its wings at new institute.
October 27, 2000... MCMINNVILLE--The 32-acre Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Institute is a result of a successful bid by Evergreen International Aviation Inc. in 1992 to become guardian of the mammoth HK-1 Spruce Goose.a Howard...

AIA going through renovation plan of its own.
October 27, 2000... Architecture or the American Institute of Architects--it's hard to tell which leads the other. They're inseparable; their goals affect our liveability in ways we are not aware of, and they're both undergoing massive changes as...

Take a trip underwater at new Steller Cove exhibit.
October 27, 2000... There is nothing more relaxing than watching a Steller sea lion underwater. These giant animals, which can look so ungainly on land, are transformed into sensuous creatures when in their own element. They swim leisurely, arching backward into...

'Metropolitan' is latest buzzword.
October 27, 2000... Architecture firms today are reinventing themselves in order to be able to provide their clients with a broader array of design services. The architecture firm for the 21st century is one in which clients will be able to retain services...

Architecture increasingly career choice for women.
October 27, 2000... The ranks of women are swelling within the field of architecture. Last year, about 13 percent of all registered architects were women, up from 10 percent in 1996, according to the American Institute of Architects. The real growth,...

INVEST IN CITIES, TRANSIT.
October 27, 2000... Two-thirds of the nation's suburban residents see rebuilding cities and investing in public transportation as the best ways to fight traffic congestion and sprawl, according to a poll commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The...

CREDIT GAP FOR WOMEN BUSINESSES.
October 27, 2000... Women own 38 percent of all of the small businesses in the United States but receive only 12 percent of all the credit provided to small firms, reports a new study conducted by the Milken Institute for the National Women's Business Council....

AFRICAN SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET $1M.
October 27, 2000... The Overseas Private Investment Corp. will provide $1 million to the Peoples Investment Fund for Africa, a microfinancing program for African small businesses that will match OPIC's money with loans from individual Americans. OPIC is a...

TECH ASSOCIATION, AGENCY TO PARTNER.
October 27, 2000... The Information Technology Association of America will be the Department of Labor's partner in helping employers find workers for high-tech jobs. The partnership "brings an unprecedented channel for communication between government and...

WEB DESIGNER HAS TALENT FOR MURDER.
October 27, 2000... Do you like mysteries? I do, too. For an erotic Halloween tale with a gruesome menu twist, turn to the "How to Kill a Pumpkin" contest winner on bluemurder.com's web site. You'll never want to eat pate again. The Portland-based web...

TRAVEL BOOK BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND.
October 27, 2000... Joe Bianco, host of the weekly radio show "Italian Living," has returned to the Portland streets. Bianco has a new version of his "Portland Step by Step," a wa1king guide to Portland that was first published a decade ago. The second...

PAMPLIN PAPER THINKS TWICE IS NICE.
October 27, 2000... Pamplin Communication's new Portland newspaper, the Portland Tribune, is expected to make its twice-weekly debut in February. The paper will be delivered free Tuesday and Friday to Portland-metro households and news boxes around the city,...

SEEMED HARMLESS.
October 27, 2000... In the interests of helping others avoid the horror of stumbling onto images of depravity while searching the internet, I feel it is my duty to alert readers when a potential pitfall of a pornographic nature is detected. A while back,...

LAWYERS LOVE THE WEB.
October 27, 2000... Has anyone ever mentioned that the internet is an important business tool and there are legal issues to consider? I guess that topic has been brought up, but it may be time for a refresher. Lane Powell Spears Lubersky and Internet...

ADD $5M TO QSENT TOTAL.
October 27, 2000... Raising $20 million is good news. Adding another $5 million is really good news. Qsent, a Lake Oswego firm that's trying to make money from wireless internet transactions, announced a few weeks ago that it raised $20.5 million and later...

TRIQUINT BOARD ADDS ALVAREZ.
October 27, 2000... Semiconductor industry veteran Alvarez has joined the TriQuint board. Alvarez has 30-plus-years experience in the semiconductor and computer industries. From 1979 through his retirement earlier this year, Alvarez worked for Intel Corp. and...

ANOTHER JOE'S.
October 27, 2000... Nearby, the Vancouver G.I. Joe's store is nearly done with a $1.5 million remodeling. The corporation, based in Wilsonville, is raising the store's ceilings and installing custom fixtures. The remodeled store will also feature boutique shops...

A CUP OF JOE.
October 27, 2000... Meanwhile, downtown Vancouver is getting its first Starbucks coffeehouse. The Seattle chain leased 1,500 square feet at Heritage Place, the $25 million, 137-unit townhouse project across from Esther Short Park, said Craig Sweitzer of...

ANIMAL KINGDOM.
October 27, 2000... For the rest of 2000 Fred Meyer Stores will serve as the exclusive bricks-and-mortar retailer of a line of stuffed animals developed locally to bring attention, especially among teens, to endangered species. The animals were developed by...

FROM THE GALLEY.
October 27, 2000... Choosing to plow money into its business rather than its real estate holdings, Skipper's Restaurants recently conducted sale-leasebacks of 12 corporate-owned stores, including some in metro Portland. The dozen properties were sold to an...

Audio/video quality problems on internet aren't improving.
October 27, 2000... If you think some of the audio you hear and video you see over the internet is lacking in quality, you're right. And it's not your equipment, according to a new study which has evaluated the audio quality of different sites. The best,...

Top building maintenance companies.
October 27, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]