Houston Business Journal articles from April 1996

Houston Business Journal archives from April 1996

Rainwater REIT to buy Greenway Plaza. (Richard Rainwater; real estate investment trust; Crescent Real Estate Equities Inc.)
April 26, 1996... Allen Center also goes on block as real estate rules change for insurance owners The Greenway Plaza office complex is being sold to a Fort Worth real estate investment trust headed by Richard Rainwater, real estate sources confirmed last...

AG files suit to shut down sweepstakes. (Texas Attorney General Dan Morales)
April 26, 1996... 'I haven't seen anything quite like this in Houston' Texas Attorney General Dan Morales is seeking to shut down the operations of a Houston company accused of ripping off thousands of people in a deceptive sweepstakes promotion. A...

High-flying Eagle planning to build new headquarters. (Eagle USA Air Freight)
April 26, 1996... Air freight forwarder takes off following IPO A local air freight forwarding firm is planning to build a new $4.5 million facility that will house its corporate headquarters near Houston Intercontinental Airport. Eagle USA Airfreight Inc....

Canadians buy tract for new plant; Toromont setting up U.S. home base in Houston. (Toromont Process Systems Inc.)
April 26, 1996... Toromont setting up U.S. home base in Houston A Canadian manufacturing company has chosen to locate its U.S. headquarters in Houston and is building a $3 million facility in Aberdeen Business Park that could create up to 55 new jobs in the...

Public Internet marketing company uses acquisition to increase assets. (Summary Corp.)
April 26, 1996... Houston-based Summary Corp., an Internet marketing firm, is in the process of making an acquisition that likely will give the it enough assets to jump to the Nasdaq Stock Market. Now traded over the counter, Summary has signed a letter of...

Sweetwater Country Club sold to California gold course owner. (National Golf Properties Inc.)
April 26, 1996... One of Houston's premier country clubs is being sold to the nation's only golf-oriented real estate investment trust. Sweetwater Country Club, located in a prime area of Sugar Land off Sweet-water Boulevard and Palm Royale, is under contract...

Court sides with producers in latest round of 'take-or-pay' dispute. (natural gas producers)
April 26, 1996... Tennessee Gas Pipeline will continue to pursue long-running suit Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. has vowed to keep alive one of the last major "take-or-pay" contract lawsuits against natural gas producers, despite the Texas Supreme Court's...

Methodist signs up medical group to expand hospital delivery system. (Methodist Hospital; Methodist Medical Group)
April 26, 1996... The Methodist Hospital has taken another step on the road to developing an integrated health care delivery system. The city's largest hospital has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Methodist Medical Group, a primary care doctors group,...

Emergency ambulances try computers in effort to reduce patient paperwork.
April 26, 1996... A portable computer system designed to record patient information electronically and eliminate paperwork is being tested by ambulance crews for Emergency Medical Services in Houston. The pilot project, operated in conjunction with Lockheed...

Reaching for recognition. (Bank United of Texas F.S.B. President Barry Burkholder)(Profile)
April 26, 1996... Barry Burkholder has built a group of failed S&Ls into the states largest thrift. Now the Bank United of Texas president is out to gain respect by competing with the big banks. If Barry Burkholder remains the Rodney Dangerfield of the Houston...

Texas gains 300,000 new jobs to rank fifth in United States.
April 26, 1996... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Texas gained almost 300,000 new jobs last year, making it the fifth-hottest job market in the nation. The state's nonfarm employment increased from 7.92 million jobs in December of 1994 to 8.23 million last December...

Family squabbles over sandwich chain. (Antone's Import Co.)
April 19, 1996... Mother, daughter slice up Antone's in court A family spat over the rights to a popular Houston sandwich chain has developed into a courtroom battle, pitting mother against daughter. At stake is the future ownership of Antone's Import Co.,...

Post script: Chronicle rises in year without rival; advertising rate hikes draw little resistance. (The Houston Post; Houston Chronicle)
April 19, 1996... Advertising rate hikes draw little resistance When The Houston Post folded a year ago this month, it signaled a major shift in strategy for the Houston Chronicle. After absorbing the assets of its longtime daily newspaper rival, the...

Pipeline protest flares in Friendswood; energy town opposes Exxon conversion of crude oil line to ethane. (Friendswood, Texas; Exxon Pipeline Co.)
April 19, 1996... Residents of Friendswood are protesting a proposed pipeline project beneath their city. But this is no ordinary opposition from upset property owners against the pipeline, chemical and petrochemical industries. The target of their protest is...

Lennar acquiring Regency Title, expanding local mortgage firm. (Lennar Corp.; Regency Title Co.)
April 19, 1996... One of Houston's largest title companies is being purchased by real estate giant Lennar Corp., which acquired Friendswood Development Co. late last year. The pending purchase of Houston-based Regency Title Co. by Florida-based Lennar...

Calling the shots in health care. (Aileen McCormick, Prudential HealthCare director of operations)(Profile)
April 19, 1996... Aileen McCormick, head of Houston operations for Prudential HealthCare, has gained a reputation for adapting to change in a volatile industry. Aileen McCormick keeps her plate full, but not too full. As director of operations for...

Investment club's planning, strategy delivers high profits. (University Club's Investment Group)(Quarterly Banking & Finance Report)
April 19, 1996... The biggest challenge in organizing a new investment club is not finding a group of intelligent people, but getting them to work together as an effective decision-making body. That was my biggest challenge when I was asked in late 1994 to...

It's time to put 'venture' back into venture capital.(Quarterly Banking & Finance Report)
April 19, 1996... Since its inception following World War II, the venture capital business has operated on one simple principle: take outsize risks in hopes of realizing outsize rewards. Men like Gen. Georges Doriot, the Harvard professor whose investment in...

Plastic passion: businesses loading up on credit cards.(Quarterly Banking & Finance Report)
April 19, 1996... Purchasing via credit cards is an established consumer passion. But consumers aren't the only ones riding the plastic wagon - businesses are jumping on it as never before. According to RAM Research Group in Frederick, Md., the number of Visa...

Research institute survives and may soon thrive on founder's ideas. (Institute for Research Inc.)(Growth Strategies: An Information Arsenal for Emerging Companies)
April 19, 1996... Dr. Benjamin Mosier hates running his business. Yet, as a professional chemist, he's managed to keep his small company viable for 36 years. His Institute for Research Inc., located in southwest Houston, performs sophisticated scientific...

Conoco's new $600,000 a year consultant: former chairman signs contract with DuPont as spinoff speculation grows. (Conoco Inc.'s ex-chairman Constantine Nicandros)
April 12, 1996... Constantine Nicandros, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Conoco Inc., has received a two-year consulting contract from Conoco's parent company and has moved into plush offices at the Park Laureate building. The...

Tech-Sym spinning off seismic unit: new GeoScience group files plan to go public. (three Tech-Sym subsidiaries form GeoScience Corp.)
April 12, 1996... Nearly a year after acquiring CogniSeis Development Inc., a Houston seismic firm, Tech-Sym has grouped it with two other seismic subsidiaries and now plans a public spinoff. The companies were combined into a new subsidiary called GeoScience...

BFI officials baffled by FBI raid: company shuts down D.C. waste facility. (Browning-Ferris Industries Inc.)
April 12, 1996... Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. has shut down a Washington, D.C. medical waste treatment facility and laid off the employees in response to a raid last week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Scores of armed FBI agents invaded the...

Companies bypass middleman with direct health care plans. (Houston companies) (includes related article)
April 12, 1996... In an effort to take back control of its rising health care costs, Houston Lighting & Power Co. decided to cut out the middleman and in January established a permanent program to contract directly with health care providers. The idea of...

Wells Fargo cuts jobs as merger with First Interstate takes effect: layoffs in Texas top 100, with more to follow. (Wells Fargo & Co.; First Interstate Bankcorp.)
April 12, 1996... Wells Fargo & Co. spent $11.6 billion earlier this month to acquire First Interstate Bancorp., but the acquisition has already cost more than 100 jobs in Texas. Less than two weeks after finalizing the purchase, Wells Fargo has laid off at...

Hospital foundations learn fine art of competing for donations.
April 12, 1996... Thanks to a $1 million gift in February from John Baugh and Sysco Corp., the Memorial Healthcare System may have truly discovered the importance of swallowing its pride and accepting donations. Less than a decade ago, the Houston-based...

Big business can save big bucks with disease management.
April 12, 1996... New process praised as latest trend in cutting corporate health care costs Pete Maillet says it's a well-known fact in the health care industry that 10 percent of the population is responsible for about 80 percent of the total medical...

Media Play makes plans to exit one year after entering market. (Media Play store chain)
April 12, 1996... Hot competition from rival newcomers creates cool reception for national chain Less than a year after opening seven Houston-area stores, Media Play is reportedly looking to exit the local market. Media Play, which sells a wide variety of...

Lenders leery as investor seeks to exploit loophole in homestead law. (LandRush Realty Corp.'s Bill Hawkins; Texas' law prohibiting home equity lending)
April 12, 1996... When Bill Hawkins said last year that he had found a way around Texas' prohibition on home equity lending, many bankers said the plan wouldn't work. Undaunted, Hawkins now has an offering circulating to sell $100 million in notes to fund his...

Making a splash on the seafood scene. (Landry's Seafood Restaurants Inc.'s Tilman Fertitta)
April 12, 1996... Tilman Fertitta created waves by going public and building Landry's Seafood Restaurants into the nation's second-largest seafare chain. Now he's added a major hotel renovation to his crowded business plate. Not long ago, Tilman Fertitta made...