St. Louis Business Journal articles from May 1999

St. Louis Business Journal archives from May 1999

MCI, Met owners feel pinch.(MCI Communications Corp.; Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri)
May 3, 1999... Downtown assessments soar Assessments for downtown buildings 1999 % change (in millions) from '97 Laclede Gas $5.98 74%...

2 execs to energize Eveready.(Eveready Battery Co.)
May 3, 1999... As Ralston Purina Co. moves to sell a money-losing portion of its Eveready Battery Co. operation, the company has shifted a pair of executives to' shore up its sagging battery business. Joseph McClanathan was named vice chairman of North...

$200,000-plus homes are hot.(St. Louis, Missouri)
May 3, 1999... Schnoebelen: They're going in nanoseconds' SOLD FAST! 11 Kings Lynn, Olivette Asking: $355,000 Sold: $355,000 On market: 1 day A four-bedroom stucco house on Maryland Avenue in University City drew 10 contracts its...

Buyers 'unfazed' by million-dollar homes.(Blake & Davis)
May 3, 1999... Peggy Shepley of Blake & Davis recently was competing against three other agents for a home in Clayton priced at $1.65 million. "You would have thought that it was a giveaway day," Shepley said of the interest the house attracted. The...

Colt Safety Inc. looks to heat up sales with line of firetrucks.
May 3, 1999... Colt Safety Inc. is adding firetrucks to its line of industrial safety products. The company will sell firetrucks made by Camdenton, Mo.-based Precision Fire Apparatus, said Christine Bierman, president and chief executive of Colt. ...

A.G. Edwards taps IBM for $50 million upgrade.
May 3, 1999... A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. has cut a deal with IBM to provide equipment, installation and management for new work stations for the brokerage firm's 6,500 brokers. The contract - estimated to be worth at least $50 million - gives IBM a...

Prom is music to the ears for Marriott, Stallone's, Nettie's.(St. Louis Marriott Pavilion Hotel; Stallone's Formal Wear; Nettie's Flower Garden)
May 3, 1999... It's prom time and that means big business. The average couple will spend $515-$707 to attend the prom, according to an informal poll by the St. Louis Business Journal. "They want it to be special because in many cases it is their one...

Post-Dispatch shakes up newsroom in reorganization.(St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspapers)
May 3, 1999... 60 editors and reporters forced to reapply for jobs Several top editors at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have lost their current jobs in a sweeping reorganization of the newsroom. The former executive editors of the sports and business...

Morris rounds up contract to open Bullhide Liner stores.(Performance Surfaces Group President John Morris)
May 3, 1999... John Morris is taking the bull by the horns with an exclusive contract with Bullhide Liner Corp. to open six stores in the St. Louis area by the end of next year. Morris hasn't determined where the new stores will be, although he is likely...

Mercantile execs - what now?(change in executive ranks at Mercantile Bancorporation)
May 10, 1999... There likely will be some thinning out among the executive ranks at Mercantile Bancorporation - if Firstar Corp. follows the strategy employed in previous mergers. Since Jerry Grundhofer's Star Banc Corp. bought Firstar last year, seven of...

How the deal was made.(law firm expedited merger talks between Mercantile Bancorporation Inc and Firstar Corp)
May 10, 1999... A New York law firm involved in the biggest bank mergers of 1998 was the matchmaker that brought together Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. and Firstar Corp. in a $10.6 billion deal. Thomas Jacobsen, Mercantile's chairman and chief executive,...

Valuation is king as Firstar adds jewel to crown.(merger boosts sales of Mercantile Bancorporation Inc and Firstar Corp)
May 10, 1999... The acquisitions that propelled Mercantile Bancorporation Inc.'s growth to become the biggest bank in the St. Louis area also helped drive the bank's sale to Firstar Corp. While Mercantile was buying lots of small banks with limited growth...

Grace & Co. being sold to consolidator, CenterPoint.(CenterPoint Advisors Inc)
May 10, 1999... Grace & Co., one of the region's largest accounting firms, is being bought by CenterPoint Advisors Inc., one of the newest firms to enter the consolidating accounting business. Grace, based in Maplewood, is the region's seventh-largest...

Conrad adds experience of Wendy Timm, Elaine Medve.(Conrad Properties employs two more prominent women executives)
May 10, 1999... Conrad Properties has lured two prominent women in commercial real estate to spearhead financing and marketing for its St. Louis developments. Wendy Timm joins Conrad as chief financial officer after spending six years as vice president of...

O'Basuyi-led minority firm makes bid for GTE lines.(St. Louis, MO-based FBX Group LLC announces plan to acquire GTE Corp's telephone lines)
May 10, 1999... FPX offers $1.1 billion for lines in three states Hoping to capitalize on a push by the Federal Communications Commission to increase minority ownership in telecommunications, a little-known St. Louis minority firm is making a run for...

Cross' office building is cross between office, residential.(custom home designer Bill Cross)
May 10, 1999... Custom home builder Bill Cross has formed a commercial development division that will construct office buildings with a residential flavor. Cross' first commercial project, a $1.5 million, 12,658-square-foot atrium-style office building in...

St. Joseph in Kirkwood plans $8 million center.
May 10, 1999... SSM St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood plans to consolidate all its outpatient services in a single location, under an $8.15 million plan pending before the Missouri Certificate of Need program. Carla Baum said the plan to build an ambulatory...

St. Anthony's asks to build $45 million office building.
May 10, 1999... St. Anthony's Medical Center is planning a $44.8 million medical office building that would wipe out 120 licensed beds. The new medical office building is proposed for 10016 Kennerly Road. The building now at that address, the Anthony...

Weaving a tale of success with help from the Internet.(St. Louis County, Missouri-based Afro World)
May 10, 1999... Business activity: Afro World is one of the leading suppliers of 100 percent human hair for weaving, braiding, bonding and fusion. The family-owned business in north St. Louis County, now in its second generation, sells its products to more...

Primary Net cooks 'spam' with new $100,000 server.
May 10, 1999... How costly is "spam," the unsolicited commercial e-mail? Primary Network here had to prematurely jump from a $10,000 Internet server to a $100,000 one because of a surge in unsolicited e-mail, said Zack Sargent, chief network engineer for...

Mallinckrodt, SSM monitor employees' use of Internet.(SSM Health Care)
May 10, 1999... Companies are finding out fast that while e-mail and the Internet can help their business, electronic communications can cut productivity if used inappropriately. A recent survey by the American Management Association found that more firms...

$100 million condos.(building of The Fountain Place Residences at St. Louis, Missouri, by MLP Investments LLC and FRAM-America L.P.)
May 17, 1999... Porta, Toronto firm building high-rise in Clayton Hole St. Louis developer John Porta is teaming up with a Toronto-based company to fill in part of the Clayton Hole with a $100 million high-rise condominium building. The development,...

Grewe, Roof, Cushing bite into burger venture.(Gary Grewe; Tom Roof and Kevin Cushing's establishment of Le Carnessier gourmet hamburger restaurants)(Company Profile)
May 17, 1999... In the early 1990s, real estate developer Gary Grewe received a proposal to find restaurant sites for Apple Partners, The Cleveland company was developing the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar franchise in St. Louis and Portland, Ore. ...

American Freightways to build $15 million center.
May 17, 1999... Trucking firm is moving from city to St. Charles After 10 years on Hall Street, American Freightways will spend more than $15 million to build a trucking center near Fountain Lakes Commerce Center in St. Charles. The Arkansas-based...

$40 million industrial park is planned for Hazelwood.(Welsh Development Co.'s industrial park project in St. Louis, Minnesota)
May 17, 1999... A Minneapolis development company is breaking into the St. Louis market with a $40 million industrial park at McDonnell Boulevard and Fee Fee Road in Hazelwood. The Welsh Development Co. plans to build six office/warehouse buildings...

Clayco taking architectural, engineering services inside.(Clayco Construction Co.)
May 17, 1999... Firm creates 30 jobs now, will add 20 later Clayco Construction Co. plans to spend more than $1 million on technology as it brings its architectural and engineering services in-house. St. Louis-based Clayco is launching a group within...

Speculation mounts as Lemay revamps.(Lemay Bank and Trust Co.)
May 17, 1999... A revamped corporate structure has prompted speculation that Lemay Bank & Trust Co. is about to embark on a major expansion. Lemay Bank filed an application with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis April 23 to form a holding company. ...

Shambro wades into Internet stream with $1.5 million.(Robert Shambro's launching of StreamSearch.com Inc.)
May 17, 1999... Twenty-eight-year-old Robert Shambro walked away from a $500,000 job in February armed with a sure sense of his dealmaking ability and a catchy slogan: "We want to be the remote control for the Web." Since then, the native St. Louisan has...

Stiritz sells $8.5 million of Reinsurance Group stock.(William Stiritz; Reinsurance Group of America Inc.)
May 17, 1999... Says he likes prospects for Hussmann, Brown William Stiritz sold $8.5 million in Reinsurance Group of America Inc. stock in March, in the midst of a two-month wave of insider trading. Stiritz, a director at Reinsurance Group and the...

Teamsters problem cuts into profits, A-B's Jacob says.(Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.'s labor dispute; John Jacob)
May 17, 1999... An unresolved contract dispute between the Anheuser-Busch Cos. and the Teamsters union has dissolved into a war of words and the ever-present threat of a strike. Unhappy with the contract imposed by Anheuser-Busch after negotiations ended,...

Toan's salary jumps 74%; Forbes says it's still not enough.(salary of Express Scripts Inc.'s Chief Executive Barrett Toan)
May 17, 1999... Barrett Toan doubled the size of Express Scripts Inc. and he has the pay package to show it. Toan received $1.02 million in salary, bonus and other compensation in 1998, a 74 percent increase from 1997. A major part of his 1998 pay, just...

Pashea pushes expansion at Pulsar Plastics.(president, owner and founder Dale Pashea)(Company Profile)
May 17, 1999... Carlyle's largest private firm engineers $19 million in sales Business Activity: Pulsar Plastics, the largest private employer in the city of Carlyle, Ill., is a full-service shop for custom injection molding. Pulsar does not make the...

Boeing backlash hits LMI.(LMI Aerospace Inc.)
May 24, 1999... When Greece chose Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 fighter over Boeing Co.'s F-15 last month, Boeing supplier LMI Aerospace Inc. also took a hit. LMI, which makes aluminum skin and other components for airplanes, faces additional uncertainty...

A.G. Edwards executives get moderate pay increases.(A.G. Edwards Inc.)
May 24, 1999... Despite another year of record earnings, top executives at A.G. Edwards Inc. saw comparatively modest changes in their pay in the last year. The biggest percentage gain in salary and bonus - 7 percent from 1998 to 1999 - went to Benjamin...

HSA enters market with Dial warehouse purchase.(Dial Corp.; Hiffman Shaffer Associates Inc.)
May 24, 1999... A Chicago-based real estate firm is buying the 812,000-square-foot Dial Corp. warehouse in Madison County for more than $20 million. The property, in the 2,700-acre Gateway Commerce Center, is Hiffman Shaffer Associates (HSA) Inc.'s first...

Seed-capital bill blooms after Boeing layoffs announced.(St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association)
May 24, 1999... It looked as if the St. Louis Regional Commerce & Growth Association's top priority for the 1999 Missouri legislative session - a seed-capital bill - never would grow into legislation. The RCGA had planted the idea of seed capital for...

Catholic Knights launches 'responsible' mutual funds.(Catholic Knights of America; The Catholic Funds)
May 24, 1999... Catholic Knights of America, a St. Louis-based fraternal benefits association, is one of three partners in a joint venture to establish The Catholic Funds, a family of three mutual funds. The funds will include stocks of companies that give...

Gabriel Communications to switch on next month.(Gabriel Communications Inc.; telecommunications services)
May 24, 1999... Robert Brooks' Gabriel Communications Inc. plans to begin selling telecommunications services to St. Louis businesses by the end of June. The St. Louis-based company's interconnection agreement with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. recently...

Huntleigh, A.G. Edwards enter online trading fray.(Huntleigh Securities Corp; A.G. Edwards Inc.)
May 24, 1999... Huntleigh Securities Corp., a Clayton-based brokerage firm, said it plans to launch online trading before the end of the year. That comes on the heels of an announcement by A.G. Edwards Inc. that it would - reluctantly - begin offering online...

Buyouts boost area wealth.(buyouts of local companies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 24, 1999... While some decry the loss of corporate headquarters in St. Louis, many others have benefited personally from the sales of local companies. Among those whose fortunes have increased by the tens of millions are: * Barry Babcock, Jerry...