St. Louis Business Journal articles from July 1998

St. Louis Business Journal archives from July 1998

Balke offers Illinois holdings; seeks investors for $40 million office portfolio. (Balke Properties)
July 6, 1998... Seeks investors for $40 million office portfolio Balke Properties is looking for a cash infusion and is using its $40 million, 10-building office portfolio in Illinois to attract investors. The St. Louis-based developer, which controls about...

Olson, Von Allmen pen $2 million concept. (Group One Capital's principals Bruce Olson and Doug Von Allmen)
July 6, 1998... PenUltima sells the write stuff for $30 to $15,000 Group One Capital Inc., the St. Louis-based investment firm that scored big with its Sunsations chain of sunglasses stores, is launching a new retail concept: PenUltima - The Writing Store....

Brown top paid health care exec. (BJC Health System Pres. and CEO Fred Brown)
July 6, 1998... At more than $l million a year, Fred Brown, president and chief executive officer of BJC Health System, appears to be the highest-paid health-care executive in the St. Louis area. Brown and BJC's former executive vice president, Alan Brass,...

Pay for President Casinos' Aylsworth $620,000, up 74%. (John Aylsworth)
July 6, 1998... The salary and bonus of President Casinos' top executive John Aylsworth jumped 74 percent to $620,000 for fiscal 1998, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aylsworth is president and chief operating officer...

Brown pays Fromm $450,000, offers to buy his house. (Brown Shoe Co. Pres. Ronald Fromm)
July 6, 1998... The new president of Brown Shoe Co., Ronald Fromm, makes an annual base salary of $450,000, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The three-year contract, effective May 1 and ending April 30, 2001, also stipulates...

Solutia moves past role as 'forgotten cash cow.'
July 6, 1998... Solutia Inc., last year's chemical spinoff from Monsanto Co., is relishing its new independence after years of feeding its profit to the life science business, Solutia's chief executive said. The burden of "financing moves into the life...

Reliable foresees $4.5 billion market with St. Louis U. Viagra alternative. (Reliable Pharmaceutical Co.)
July 6, 1998... An impotence drug treatment developed at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and licensed to Reliable Biopharmaceutical Co. has a potential $4.5 billion market over 15 years. The new drug is designed to help the 20 to 30 percent of...

Object of his affection: R. Duane Reed's gallery ranks among top in object art.(Small Business)
July 6, 1998... R. Duane Reed's gallery ranks among top in object art Business activity: Walking into R. Duane Reed Gallery is like walking into a friend's home. Art collectors ring the doorbell and are buzzed into the two-story house that houses the...

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (Proxy Reports Excerpt)(Company Profile)
July 6, 1998... August A. Busch III Chairman and president Anheuser-Busch Cos. is the world's largest brewer and one of the largest theme-park operators in the United States. The company is also a leading manufacturer of aluminum beverage containers and the...

SBC hangs up on D'Arcy. (SBC Communications Inc.; D' Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles Inc.)
July 13, 1998... SBC Communications, one of D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles' largest clients, pulled its work from the St. Louis advertising firm after more than 30 years. The SBC business represents about a quarter of D'Arcy's revenue, which was an estimated...

$15 million Kmart push. (Kmart Corp.)
July 13, 1998... 19 stores, including 8 Ventures, go to Big K format Kmart, long regarded as the dowdy sister of the national discount chains here, is investing $10 million to $15 million to reposition itself in the St. Louis market. The price tag does not...

Hospital profit is 33% above U.S. average.
July 13, 1998... Profit margins of local hospitals were 33 percent higher than those of hospitals across the United States in 1996 - an average of 8.27 percent in St. Louis, compared with 6.22 percent nationally, according to a June 29 article in Modern...

Casual days suit St. Louis. (St. Louis, Missouri)
July 13, 1998... 90 percent of businesses in survey have casual policy "Tomorrow is a tie day." That's the e-mail message Charter Communications Inc. executives send to employees whenever the usually casual office needs to dress up for certain visitors....

Hull-less Blues expect 5% hit on season-ticket sales. (St. Louis Blues)
July 13, 1998... Star's departure could mean loss of $1 million After slashing ticket prices for two consecutive seasons, the St. Louis Blues face the additional challenge of making up an estimated $1 million lost from fans disenchanted by the departure of...

Banks' deposits up, but so are the rates to attract them.
July 13, 1998... The good news is that deposits at area banks are growing. The bad news is that the banks are having to pay higher interest rates to attract those deposits. Nearly all of the banks on the St. Louis Business Journal's list of largest banks had...

Creditors seek investigation of Venture's real estate deals. (Venture Stores Inc.)
July 13, 1998... Venture Stores' court-appointed committee of unsecured creditors is seeking an investigation of two major real estate transactions made by the retailer before its bankruptcy. Venture has said it would cooperate in an investigation. Terms of...

Alpine Shop blazes new trail, adds store in Chesterfield.
July 13, 1998... The Alpine Shop, the Webster Groves retailer of top-of-the-line sporting goods, is on a roll. This August, owner Russell "Holly" Hollenbeck is opening a second store in Chesterfield at the Clarkson Square shopping center. In November, the...

Saks' LMI shares worth $31 million. (LMI Aerospace CEO Ronald Saks)
July 20, 1998... Ronald Saks, chief executive of LMI Aerospace, saw the value of his stake in the company rocket to more than $31 million after the company's public stock offering last month. Saks owned 2.84 million shares - 34.3 percent of the company after...

Premier Marketing smoking. (Premier Marketing Inc. posts sales increase)(includes related article on company profile)
July 20, 1998... Premier Marketing Inc., which markets private-label cigars, cigarettes and other consumer goods, was the area's fastest-growing private company last year, with revenue soaring to $20 million from just $317,729 in 1995. The company has seen its...

Bank sale prices: Central $48-$58 million, Duchesne $21-$25 million. (Central Bancompany Inc.; Duchesne Bank)
July 20, 1998... Central Bancompany Inc. likely agreed to pay between $48 million and $58 million for Colonial Bank in Des Peres, while First Illinois Bancorp Inc. probably will pay between $21 million and $25 million for Duchesne Bank in St. Peters, according to...

Ry Krisp marketing takes aim at younger women. (cracker brand from Ralcorp Holdings Inc.)
July 20, 1998... Ralcorp Holdings is taking aim at a new audience for its Ry Krisp brand. That comes after test marketing from the Brado Cuneo advertising firm was successful in selling the century-old brand to young women. "All of the marketing over the...

First Banks adds a factor to help smaller businesses. (First Banks Inc.)
July 20, 1998... Small to mid-size businesses soon will be able to get working capital by selling the bills they are owed to a new unit of First Banks Inc. FB Commercial Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Banks, has hired Wally Castillo to launch a...

World Events has 'Voltron' ready to defend universe. (World Events Productions; Voltron, Defender of the Universe television series)
July 20, 1998... "Voltron, Defender of the Universe" will storm onto TV screens this fall with 13 new episodes. World Events Productions, part of St. Louis-based Koplar Communications International, is reviving the popular 1980s animated show it developed -...

Unigraphics remains a 'buy' despite big drop in stock. (Unigraphics Solutions Inc.)
July 20, 1998... Shares of Unigraphics Solutions Inc. are down 21 percent from their initial public offering price last month, dragged down by flagging earnings at two of its biggest competitors. But analysts at brokerage firms that underwrote the June 18 stock...

Lincoln seeks partner to offset expected losses. (Lincoln County Memorial Hospital in Troy, MO)
July 20, 1998... Lincoln County Memorial Hospital is looking for a partner to help weather an expected loss of several hundred thousand dollars in Medicare reimbursements. The Troy, Mo., hospital, which has been an affiliate of SSM Health Care-St. Louis, last...

Obata Design has its roots on the riverfront and sights on the Internet.
July 20, 1998... Firm specializes in pre-press work, Web page design Business Activity: Obata Design is the "other" Obata in St. Louis. While HOK, headed by Gyo Obata, and Kiku Obata & Co., run by Gyo's daughter, have been publicized extensively, Obata...

800 moving downtown: Bell relocating west county employees. (Southwestern Bell; Saint Louis, Missouri)
July 27, 1998... Southwestern Bell is moving about 800 Yellow Pages employees from west St. Louis County into its downtown headquarters at One Bell Center in a streamlining effort. The company is spending several million dollars to renovate the 1.3...

At 86, Ollie still is picking the winners. (A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. senior broker Oliver Langenberg)
July 27, 1998... Oliver Langenberg says any business success he's had is all luck. "There's a lot to that," said Langenberg, who at age 86 is the most senior broker at A.G. Edwards & Sons, St. Louis' largest brokerage. Langenberg is the oldest of the 6,300...

GM strike's impact: Wainwright, Lear Corp. hit hard. (General Motors Corp.; Wainwright Industries Inc.)
July 27, 1998... The General Motors Corp. strike has forced Wainwright Industries Inc. to lay off workers for one of the few times in the company's 51-year history. GM is the largest customer of the privately held St. Peters auto parts supplier, said Don...

Ship may have come in for Landing sites. (land for sale on the site opposite to Laclede's Landing Embassy Suites Hotel)
July 27, 1998... The city's recent decision to help the Admiral move to Laclede's Landing is expected to spur redevelopment at several large vacant sites now up for sale on .the Landing. The largest site - the parking lot adjacent to Laclede's Landing Embassy...

National Benevolent opens door to new niche in housing. (National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church)
July 27, 1998... The National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), one of the nation's largest developers of retirement housing, is venturing into a new niche: the middle-income retirement housing market. The St. Louis-based...

Venture will give Prasifka $100,000 bonus to keep her. (Bankrupt Venture Stores Inc.; company counsel Karren Prasifka)
July 27, 1998... Bankrupt Venture Stores Inc. wants to pay a $100,000 bonus to hang on to its remaining in-house attorney. The company has asked the Federal Bankruptcy Court to approve a retention bonus of $100,000 to company counsel Karren Prasifka, who was...

Slay wants his rent cut at Gateway Intermodal. (Slay Industries moves to Gateway Intermodal Distribution Center)
July 27, 1998... A controversial bill before the St. Louis Board of Aldermen doles out special favors to the politically connected, critics allege. The bill, sponsored by Alderman Craig Schmid, D-10th Ward, and scheduled for preliminary approval at the board's...

IDN identifies partners, tags 10,000 members. (IDN Inc.)
July 27, 1998... Revenue to top $ 500,000 this year Tony Niskanen wants to take the uncertainty out of an emergency visit to a hospital. Niskanen is founder and president of IDN Inc., a St. Louis-based firm that provides an electronic storehouse of health...

Software maker puts the focus on forecasting. (Demand Management Inc.)(Company Profile)
July 27, 1998... Business Activity: Demand Management helps firms focus on the future. The company's software allows manufacturing and distribution firms to forecast demand for their products, allowing them to control inventories and cut down on waste and costs....