St. Louis Business Journal articles from March 1996

St. Louis Business Journal archives from March 1996

Concord takes off - from a mobile home. (Concord Bank)
March 4, 1996... Who would put their savings in a bank operated from a mobile home? People like Earl Gates of Servco Equipment Co., Carmelo Natoli of Natoli Engineering Co., Gordon Gundaker of Gundaker Better Homes & Gardens and Mike Shanahan Sr. of...

Earth City fertile ground for tax dollars. (St. Louis County, Missouri)
March 4, 1996... Earth City isn't just a bunch of warehouses and distribution centers. The 1,500-acre flood plain has turned into an $11 million a year producer of real estate taxes and the place to be for the likes of Georgia-Pacific Corp., Procter & Gamble...

CDMnet considers buying troubled Basic Network.
March 4, 1996... CDMnet is considering buying troubled Internet provider Basic Network. Basic Network has been a high-profile provider of access to the Internet. People who use the Internet typically pay a fee of $19.95 a month to a provider for unlimited...

Sinking their teeth in. (Transylvania Trading Co.)(Company Profile)
March 4, 1996... Business activity: Transylvania Trading Co. began as an economic development project. The company imports and is a wholesaler of products from Romania. Its main product is hand-knit wool sweaters. The company is also importing Dracula's Spirit,...

Royal flush: Kling, Hardin among irate Lloyd's investors.(Royal flush)
March 11, 1996... On a visit to London in 1982, Nancy Almond was introduced to Lloyd's of London. "I was allowed a rota - a meeting with some of the top people at Lloyd's," said Almond, who was introduced to Lloyd's by her ex-husband. "A waiter, really an...

Enterprise Bank eyes investment in WIBV radio.
March 11, 1996... Enterprise Bank of Clayton appears to among the investors in what is shaping up as a war for radio dominance in the St. Louis area. On the front lines the generals of the opposing camps are Rod Zimmerman, general manager of market-leader...

Trammell Crow to build $50 million warehouse. (Trammell Crow Co.)
March 11, 1996... Once given up for dead as a national real estate developer, Trammell Crow Co. is getting new life in St. Louis from the pension money of carpenters, sheet metal workers and bricklayers. Trammell Crow plans to build a $50 million warehouse and...

McEvoy heads group buying the Legends for $8 million. (John McEvoy; Legends golf course in St. Louis, MO)
March 11, 1996... The Legends golf course and clubhouse have a new group of owners - and they lack panache. A small group of investors, who want to keep a low profile, recently paid $8.05 million for the 18-hole golf course, clubhouse and the land for nine...

Group purchasing National stores sued for $1 million. (Family Company of America LC; National Supermarkets Inc.)
March 11, 1996... Family Company of America L.C. - the group buying 24 former National Supermarkets acquired by Schnuck Markets Inc. - faces a $1 million lawsuit from a St. Louis man who says he was supposed to be president and chief executive officer of the new...

GenMark's Nicholson turns to marketing guru Roarty. (Tim Nicholson; Mike Roarty)
March 11, 1996... Tim Nicholson's job is on the line at GenMark, so he's bringing in former Anheuser-Busch marketing whiz Mike Roarty and others for help. GenMark was set up in 1994 as the exclusive distributor of General American life and health insurance...

Cahokia's Midcoast Aviation lifts Sabreliner's revenues. (Sabreliner Corp.)
March 11, 1996... Once considered a fifth wheel under Trans World Airlines Inc., Midcoast Aviation Inc. in Cahokia is driving up revenues for its new parent company. What's more, Midcoast, a division of Sabreliner Corp., a diversified aerospace company in...

Hotel needed to sustain convention growth. (St. Louis, MO)
March 11, 1996... The St. Louis area's convention business has nearly doubled in the past four years. The growth is the result of two major expansions of the city's convention center, but that growth will plateau unless an 1,100-room convention center hotel is...

Seven Gables Inn.
March 11, 1996... Hotel's-old-world flavor charms guests Seven Gables Inn 26 North Meramec Clayton, Mo. 63105 Business Activity: Seven Gables Inn is a small, luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Clayton that is owned by Garrett Balke, president of Balke...

Rehabcare Group Inc. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
March 11, 1996... James M. Usdan President and chief executive officer RehabCare Group Inc. is among the largest contract managers of comprehensive medical rehabilitation programs and therapy services, serving nearly 100 hospitals nationwide. The company...

Berg investors $225 million richer. (Berg Electronics Corp.)
March 18, 1996... The investors who formed Clayton-based Berg Electronics Corp. in 1993 have made more than $225 million on paper as a result of the success of the company's initial public stock offering. Due to high demand from investors, Berg raised an...

Charter purchase provides WIBV with new outlets. (Charter Communications Inc.; AM radio station)
March 18, 1996... The final details of a deal between Charter Communications and one of its top employees, Tim Dorsey, to buy WIBV-AM in Belleville were still being hammered out up until the last moment before the contract was to be signed. Charter...

Majestic's new owners, Ritz, Hyatt sprucing up. (Hotel Majestic)
March 18, 1996... An Atlanta company known for finding, fixing and flipping hotels says a downtown St. Louis property is worth more than just a one-night stay. Bray & Gillespie LLC recently paid $4.3 million for the Hotel Majestic at 1019 Pine St. The...

UE has bargaining chip in getting phone services. (Union Electric Co.)
March 18, 1996... Union Electric Co. expects to benefit from providing phone services - a prospect made possible by the new telecommunications law. The utility won't go it alone in the telecommunications business, however. The law allows utility holding...

Ameren Services created to support UE after merger. (Union Electric Co.)
March 18, 1996... Charles Mueller, head of Union Electric Co., has formed a new entity, Ameren Services, to provide support services to the merged UE and Central Illinois Public Service Co. Mueller also made a number of organizational changes affecting top...

Missouri State Bank sheds troubled past. (Missouri State Bank and Trust Co.)
March 18, 1996... A few years after it nearly drowned in a sea of bad commercial real estate loans, Missouri State Bank and Trust Co. is dipping its feet back into the commercial lending pool. Missouri State also is expanding its mortgage products and...

Bryan Cave top St. Louis winner of Monsanto work. (Monsanto Co.'s law firm)
March 18, 1996... The Peper, Martin, Jensen, Maichel and Hetlage law firm here can expect its Monsanto Co. corporate work to wrap up in the coming months. Meanwhile, Bryan Cave, the region's largest law firm with @So attorneys, is gearing up to handle its...

Laser Vision to add excimer lasers despite restrictions. (Laser Vision Centers Inc.)
March 18, 1996... Federal restrictions on the use of excimer lasers could dampen profits for Laser Vision Centers Inc. But the company said it is pressing forward with plans to install eight additional excimer lasers throughout the United States. One of the...

Delmar Gardens wants to shift beds to north facility. (Delmar Gardens Enterprises)
March 18, 1996... Delmar Gardens Enterprises wants to juggle some of its nursing beds from west St. Louis County to north St. Louis County. The company has filed a letter with the Missouri Certificate of Need program, stating it intends to ask for...

Engineering growth. (PC & E Inc.)(Company Profile)
March 18, 1996... Business Activity: PC & E is a consulting engineering firm that specializes in process control and electrical engineering for new facilities, expansions and retrofit installations. (process control is working with automation and computerization...

Zimmerman: KMOX's tradition continues. (St. Louis, Missouri radio station; KMOX VP and General Manager Rod Zimmerman)
March 18, 1996... Thanks to everyone who offered advice and suggestions to us in these pages last week. KMOX is a St. Louis institution; and we expect and appreciate hearing from our listeners, past employees, advertisers, community leaders and management...

Express Scripts wants $54 million in stock sale. (Express Scripts Inc.)
March 25, 1996... To continue recent annual growth rates of 40 percent and up, Express Scripts Inc. may be looking for more acquisitions and better information systems. The St. Louis-based pharmacy benefits manager is trying to raise an estimated $54...

Group One Capital hires banker to seek acquisitions. (Group One Capital Inc.; Edward J. Riekelman)
March 25, 1996... Private investment firm Group One Capital has hired Edward J. Rieckelman, an investment banker from Chicago, to head its acquisition effort. Group One Capital invests the personal capital of Bruce Olson and Doug Von Allmen, who have a...

Drake pushes Jefferson sale despite $33,000 dividend. (Mary Katherine Drake, biggest shareholder in Jefferson Savings Bancorp Inc.)
March 25, 1996... A $33,000 dividend check is not enough to persuade the biggest shareholder in Jefferson Savings Bancorp Inc. to change her mind about putting the thrift on the sale block. Mary Katherine Drake, a Texan who owns a farm in southern Illinois,...

Terrill finds it's better to build than buy. (Jack Terrill, chairman and president of J.W. Terrill Inc.)
March 25, 1996... As chairman and president of an insurance brokerage firm, Jack Terrill is a veteran of making judgments based on calculated risk. But when the insurance executive decided to move his company's headquarters, Terrill learned a thing or two...

Wehrenberg picturing 33 percent growth for '96. (Wehrenberg Theaters Inc.)
March 25, 1996... Wehrenberg Theatres has been snapping up new management employees over the past year to handle the company's expected growth. Over the past two years, the company increased revenue about 20 percent to 30 percent and expects to see it...

Restoring health: Moore does $4 million in therapy. (TeamRehab Incorporated and Moore Rehabilitation Services Inc.)(Emerging Companies)(Company Profile)
March 25, 1996... Business Activity: Moore Rehabilitation Services provides physical, occupational and speech therapy services to long-term care, outpatient and home-health markets. TeamRehab is a Medicare-certified rehabilitation agency that also provides...