St. Louis Business Journal articles from April 1996

St. Louis Business Journal archives from April 1996

Stifel's Maples reaps bonus of $811,381. (Stifel, Nicolaus and Company Inc. Senior Vice President Rick Maples)
April 8, 1996... Rick Maples of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc. has made a major deposit in his personal account mainly with the help of Midwestern banks. Maples, 38, is senior vice president and director of the corporate finance group at Stifel. Last year, he...

EZ buying stations KEZK, KFNS. (EZ Communications Inc.'s radio station acquisitions)
April 8, 1996... Robert Burch is wondering who his next boss will be. For now, the general manager of soft rock KEZK-FM and all-sports KFNS-AM is working for Par Broadcasting Inc. Radio industry executives are betting the radio combo here with 61 employees...

Mercantile to cut chartered banks from 75 down to 12. (Mercantile Bancorporation Inc.)
April 8, 1996... Mercantile Bancorporation Inc., which operates more separately chartered banks than any other bank company in the country, is consolidating its 75 banks in a move to cut costs and increase customer convenience. Although the final number...

Argosy turns its sights to Jefferson County site. (Argosy Gaming Co.)
April 8, 1996... Stunned by a grand jury subpoena in Indiana, Argosy Gaming Co. is dealing a card closer to home with interest in Jefferson County, one of the company's top executives said. H. Steven Norton, Argosy's president and chief operating officer,...

RightChoice wants to double execs' stock options. (RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc.)
April 8, 1996... Shareholders in RightChoice, the managed care spinoff from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri, will be asked next month to approve a plan to put more stock in the hands of senior executives. A measure on the ballot at the May 14 annual...

Braving the elements: CATCO specializes in disaster recovery.
April 8, 1996... Business activity: When hurricane Andrew hit the Florida coast, CATCO responded. When the Chicago River flooded in downtown Chicago, CATCO was there. And, when lightning struck St. Anthony's of Padua Catholic Church in south St. Louis, CATCO...

Black Rep, Grand Center feud boils over. (St. Louis Black Repertory Company)
April 15, 1996... Recent correspondence between the St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Grand Center indicates that relations between the two groups are at a low point. In a letter dated March 27, the board of directors of the Black Repertory Company...

TIFs: too many, too much, too often: developers grow through subsidy from taxpayers. (Missouri's tax increment financing districts)(includes related articles)
April 15, 1996... Developers grow through subsidy from taxpayers On the west side of Brentwood Boulevard stands the St. Louis Galleria, an economic powerhouse that pulls in an estimated $480 million annually in retail sales. About $15.5 million in public...

The Leadership Center of Greater St. Louis: celebrating 20 years of leadership excellence.
April 15, 1996... Leadership St. Louis is celebrating its 20th anniversary of service to the community. In recognition of this milestone the organization is presenting awards to nine members of the community whose vision, leadership and commitment have had a major...

Sporting News gets cash infusion; Internet supplier.
April 15, 1996... The Sporting News is getting a boost from parent Times Mirror in the form of a $3 million investment in new technology for the sports weekly. Times Mirror also is committing another $5 million to make The Sporting News a leading supplier of...

Study says St. Louis Art Fair's impact $10.8 million.
April 15, 1996... The St. Louis Art Fair, a fine arts and crafts street fair held for the past two years in downtown Clayton on the weekend after Labor Day, generated millions of dollars in direct spending and attracted national attention in 1995. A report...

Titanium clubs popular; Big Bertha driver costs $400. (golf clubs)(Business Links: Golf in St. Louis)
April 15, 1996... Wondering what's hot in golf these days? Think titanium, as in Callaway's Great Big Bertha driver - the Cadillac of titanium clubs that retails for roughly $400 - as well as cheaper versions just coming on the market from manufacturers such as...

Illinois land brings crop of new golf courses to region.(Business Links: Golf in St. Louis)
April 15, 1996... Area golfers will have three new courses to play in the coming months - each of them in Illinois. Illinois is dominating the market for new course development mainly because it offers more undeveloped and lower-cost land necessary for course...

East St. Louis golf course hits rough in buying land.
April 15, 1996... After weathering a few setbacks in the past two years, St. Louis-based developer Cris Cross Co. is still planning an East St. Louis riverfront golf course. The only hurdles left are a few land acquisitions, said Jim Koman, president of Cris Cross...

Pettit wants committee to slow eye laser approvals. (Susan Pettit, chairman of Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee)
April 15, 1996... Just as two more St. Louis area companies prepare to offer excimer laser services to treat nearsightedness, the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee appears to be taking a go-slow approach to the idea. Next month, the panel is expected...

Wilkerson has stake in WIBV ownership. (Bill Wilkerson; WIBV-AM)
April 22, 1996... "Good morning, it's Bill and Wendy...again." As Bill Wilkerson kicked off WIBV-AM's new programming at 6 a.m. April 15, few listeners probably realized they were not just hearing a popular and welt-known announcer who was among about a dozen...

RCGA, CVC set sights on Met Square. (St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association; St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission; Metropolitan Square building)
April 22, 1996... A change in address by two of the area's largest booster groups is exposing a weakness in the downtown St. Louis office market. The St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission have...

Sales drop could signal big problems for Venture. (Venture Stores Inc.)
April 22, 1996... One month after Venture Stores Inc. debuted its new image as a "family-value" department store, the St. Louis-based retailer is facing serious difficulties. Problems include a dramatic drop in sales, rumored trouble with the financial backers...

Bruce, Mary Robert owe nearly $1 million, IRS says. (Siegel-Robert Inc. majority shareholders)
April 22, 1996... The Internal Revenue Service wants almost $1 million from Bruce and Mary Robert - major holders in the privately owned Siegel-Robert Inc. metal plating business. The agency claimed the couple undervalued stock gifts in the company to at least...

Board denies Paragon request after residents object. (Creve Coeur Planning and Zoning Commission; Paragon Group Inc.)
April 22, 1996... The Paragon Group Inc.'s proposal to build an office and apartment complex in Creve Coeur hit a roadblock last week from the development site's surrounding neighborhoods. The opposition group emerged at an April 15 Creve Coeur Planning and...

Suit charges Blue Cross spinoff of RightChoice illegal. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri; RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc.)
April 22, 1996... A class-action lawsuit filed against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri contends the company acted illegally when it spun off its managed care business into RightChoice Managed Care Inc. in 1994. The lawsuit also charges that Blue Cross...

Mercer: quality follows cost when area judges managed care.
April 22, 1996... St. Louis-based companies are beginning to catch on to a national trend to evaluate the quality of managed care providers for their employees. But the St. Louis area remains behind the national curve, according to consultants at William M....

Pulitzer to name his general. (Pulitzer Publishing Co. Chairman and CEO Michael Pulitzer)(Broadcasting 76% of Pulitzer Profits)
April 29, 1996... NEW ORLEANS - Michael Pulitzer came to this shadowy Louisiana city with a clear idea of who will find the next newsroom general of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He will. The chairman and CEO of Pulitzer Publishing Co. said he would be a...

SSM buying Cardinal Glennon. (SSM Health Care System; Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital)
April 29, 1996... The Archdiocese of St. Louis has agreed to transfer control of Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital to the SSM Health Care System. SSM will pay the Archdiocese $16 million in cash when the transfer is completed April 30. The health-care system...

UniGroup looking overseas to become $2 billion company.
April 29, 1996... Robert Baer is moving UniGroup to a new level. Baer is president of Fenton-based UniGroup, which saw its sales and profit accelerate more than 40 percent last year with the help of its acquisition last March of Mayflower Transit Inc. With the...

Broadcasting 76% of Pulitzer profits: $65 million from airwaves. (Pulitzer Publishing Co.)
April 29, 1996... Profits for Pulitzer Publishing Co. are coming out of the air - television and radio station airwaves. For more than a decade, the company's broadcast operations, none of which is in St. Louis, have dominated Pulitzer's income. "We make over...

Armstrong, Teasdale grabs Lashly & Baer labor experts.
April 29, 1996... Five lawyers from Lashly & Baer - the bulk of that law firm's labor practice - have jumped to the much larger Armstrong, Teasdale, Schlafly & Davis. "This is going to give our clients more depth," said David Welch, one of the former Lashly...

Median land prices skyrocket 70% here in 5 years. (St. Louis, Missouri)(Real Estate)
April 29, 1996... During the past five years, the median price for a standard 10,000-square-foot lot in the metropolitan area increased 70 percent, from $25,000 to $42,500, according to a study of 30 metropolitan areas by the Urban Land Institute in Washington,...

Branneky, Wells families block Bickel's bank buy. (F. Gilbert Bickell III's attempt to control St. Johns Bancshares Inc.)
April 29, 1996... The two families who control the majority of ownership in St. Johns Bancshares Inc. say they will not sell their stake to F. Gilbert Bickel III, an investor who is attempting to gain control of the bank. The Branneky and Wells families, who own...

Tight market means owners are getting what they ask for.(Real Estate)
April 29, 1996... There's no need for artificially high pricing in St. Louis' suburban office market. The gap between what the owners of St. Louis' modern office buildings ask for in rent and what they receive has narrowed substantially in the past year. "In...

Subcontractors on thin ice after rink owners fail to pay. (lawsuit between U.S. Ice Sports Complex owners and Structural Systems)
April 29, 1996... A dispute between the owners of the U.S. Ice Sports Complex in Chesterfield and Structural Systems, general contractor for the facility, has left more than a dozen subcontractors waiting to collect their share of close to $1 million. Wayne...

HMO profits fall as plans grow market share. (health maintenance organizations)
April 29, 1996... Executives at St. Louis' largest health maintenance organizations say they have deep enough pockets to survive in an increasingly competitive market. It's a good thing because 1995 financial statements for these companies reveal a big hole in...

HOK tapped to design Microsoft HQ addition. (Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum Inc.)(Real Estate)
April 29, 1996... Microsoft Corp. has hired Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum of St. Louis - the nation's biggest architectural firm - to design its next round of headquarters buildings in Seattle. A 612,000-square-foot complex dubbed "Augusta" and another project...