Houston Business Journal articles from July 1998

Houston Business Journal archives from July 1998

Memorial City nets Nordstrom, other anchors.... (Nordstrom Inc's opening of a store at the Memorial City Mall in Houston, TX)
July 3, 1998... The subject of intense speculation and gossip for years, Seattle-based fashion retailer Nordstrom Inc. finally announced this week its intention to anchor Memorial City Mall. Marking its first inroad in Houston, Nordstrom says it will build a...

... As troubled Town & Country finds new buyers. (Town & Country Mall in Houston, TX)
July 3, 1998... Two months after Trammell Crow scrapped its plans to buy Town & Country Mall, Dallas-based TPMC Realty Corp. has agreed to purchase the foundering shopping center. American General Realty Corp. owns the l-million-square-foot mall on the Katy...

Taking a break from lunch. (Sierra Grill restaurant in Houston, TX)
July 3, 1998... Upscale eateries drop midday meal to focus on corporate clientele A growing number of Houston restaurants are saying, "let's not do lunch." The latest high-caliber restaurant discontinuing lunch service is the seven-year-old Sierra Grill,...

Market woes hold up PPM stock deals. (physician practice management groups in Houston, TX)
July 3, 1998... Public doctor groups face Wall Street declines The physician practice management market is in need of some serious medical attention. Two Houston-based PPMs have put their initial public offerings on hold, and four other local companies that...

Beirne, Maynard law firm hires Holtzman & Urquhart partners.
July 3, 1998... Less than a year after gobbling up the 20-lawyer Bell & Murphy, local law firm Beirne, Maynard & Parsons is swallowing Holtzman & Urquhart. Houston attorneys Gerald Holtzman and Jack Urquhart and three other partners at the 20-year-old...

Designing couple. (The Design Firm owners Eric and Kara Wuellner)
July 3, 1998... Celebrity clients and determination have helped the Wuellner's design firm succeed Kara Wuellner clearly remembers the day she realized her interior design firm had reached new heights. "A professional basketball player had seen our work at...

American General Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
July 3, 1998... NYSE, Pacific AGC 2929 Allen Parkway, Houston 77019-2155 (713) 522-1111 American General Corp. is a market leader in retirement services, life insurance, and consumer finance. Total shares of common stock outstanding as of March 11,...

Coffee-processing company steaming with hot products. (United Intertrade Corp)(includes related article on gourmet coffee)
July 3, 1998... Burhan "Bob" Ajouz takes his coffee green, and preferably in a burlap sack. As the owner of the coffee-processing company, United Intertrade Corp. (Unico), Ajouz is in the business of transforming raw coffee into a packaged product. And that...

Redstone seeking new bank charter. (Redstone Group; Redstone Bank)
July 10, 1998... Proposed financial institution would target upscale clientele Northwest Bank is teaming with The Redstone Group to create a new Houston bank that will use courier services and electronic communications to target high-end customers. A group...

E&Ps cut proposed spending: oil prices hitting capital budgets. (oil and gas exploration and production)
July 10, 1998... Six months after announcing hefty increases in capital expenditure budgets for 1998, some oil and gas companies have apparently changed their minds. This week Salomon Smith Barney released its midyear update for worldwide oil and gas...

Wild Horse community slated near Cypress. (Houston, Texas)
July 10, 1998... An out-of-state golf course developer is planning the development of a 490-acre master-planned community called Wild Horse in northwest Houston. Middleton Properties Inc., an Arcadia, Mo.-based golf course developer, purchased the land last...

Moonlighting over managed care: declining incomes driving doctors into side businesses.
July 10, 1998... For dentist Larry Barbles, practicing medicine no longer provides a healthy income the way it did in the past. And the culprit, he says, is managed care. But Barbles has boosted his declining income by investing in a side business called Nu...

Vacant McKinney building sells to developer of shopping centers. (Levcor Inc.)
July 10, 1998... Levcor Inc. has purchased the unoccupied 1001 McKinney building in downtown Houston, an atypical maneuver for the developer of retail shopping centers. Although Levcor President Larry Levine did some office deals in the early 1980s, this...

Telecommunications looking to a mind-boggling future.(Focus on: Telecommunications)
July 10, 1998... Beyond superhighway is superairway, supersubway Mergers and acquisitions are abundant in the telecommunications industry. AT&T and TCI cable inked a $32 billion deal just two weeks ago, and the beleaguered MCI and WorldComm merger finally...

Churchill Group will join a rebuilding Bates Southwest in acquisition. (Churchill Group Ltd.)
July 10, 1998... Bates Advertising USA plans to acquire Houston-based public relations, advertising and research firm Churchill Group Inc. and make it part of its Houston-based Bates Southwest office. The deal is expected to be completed over the next few months....

Wireless competitors launch new products and services. (cellular phone companies)(Focus on: Telecommunications)
July 10, 1998... Some firms have visions of providing all phone services Traditional telephone companies coping with deregulation would be wise to examine their cousins in the wireless communications segment, where competition has spawned the launch of a host...

Standards of care: Dr. John Helfrick chairs the health care industry's largest accrediting body. (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
July 10, 1998... Dr. John Helfrick has the power to influence the quality of care at more than 18,000 hospitals and health care organizations across the country. But that means he isn't always a popular man. Helfrick is the chairman of the board for the Joint...

Humana, local clinic locked in legal battle. (lawsuit filed by Humana against Durham Physicians Group)
July 17, 1998... HMO patients pulled from Durham group Durham Physicians Group, its management company and Humana are in a nasty legal battle involving millions of dollars and 1,200 patients in The Heights area. Humana sued Durham Physicians Group and its...

Battle on Bellaire: banks vying for Asian market.
July 17, 1998... It's known as the Wall Street of China Town. Bellaire Boulevard between Beltway 8 and Ranchester, at the heart of Houston's largest Asian community, is home to seven bank offices, with an eighth a block north on Corporate Drive. Six of the...

In the mood for swing. (popularity of swing dancing at local nightspots in Houston, Texas)
July 17, 1998... Retro-dance fever catching on at local nightspots Big bands are back. So are zoot suits and two-toned shoes. It's cool to be a hepcat in Houston again. Nightclubs all over town are catering to patrons who want to jitterbug and jive to the...

Consolidator of automobile dealerships adds Casa Ford to its rolls. (Sonic Automotive Inc.)
July 17, 1998... Four-year-old Casa Ford in Baytown has sold to Sonic Automotive Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based company on a fast-paced buying spree of car dealerships across the country. The publicly traded auto retailer this week announced plans to acquire...

Up from the ashes. (profile of banker Manny Mehos)
July 17, 1998... Ten years after the massive Southwest Plan, Manny Mehos wants even more growth at Coastal Banc The collapse of Texas' savings and loan industry in the 1980s was a catastrophe for many long-time bankers. But for Manuel "Manny" Mehos, it was an...

Taking IT to the next level. (information technology; growth of Joanne and Bob Naughton's IT staffing company called Systems Integration Group Inc.)
July 17, 1998... Expansion of information technology staffing firm hasn't come without planning After years of growing the information technology staffing businesses at other companies, Joanne and Bob Naughton finally decided to grow their own. The Naughtons...

Bellwether Exploration Co. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
July 17, 1998... Nasdaq LDRY 1331 Lamar, Suite 1455, Houston 77010-3039 (713) 756-7029 Bellwether Exploration Co. is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. Total shares of common stock outstanding as of April 9, 1998 ...

Public personnel: staffing firm files $68 million offering in consolidation plan. (Burnett Personnel Services)
July 24, 1998... Burnett Personnel Services, one of Houston's largest women-owned businesses, is going public and rolling up 15 other staffing firms. The consolidation will create a company worth $168 million in revenue. Work International Corp. will be...

Methodist buys Katy real estate. (Methodist Health Care System; Texas)
July 24, 1998... Local health care system considers putting full-scale hospital on 19-acre tract The Methodist Health Care System, which announced last year its plans to construct several health care centers throughout the Houston area, has contracted to...

Ex-Sterling bankers seek charter for new financial institution. (Texas Commercial Bank; former vice chairman C.P. Bryan and CFO Seth McMeans)
July 24, 1998... Texas Commercial will target northwest Houston A pair of former Sterling Bank executives have broken away to start their own financial institution. C. P. "Chip" Bryan, former vice chairman of Sterling Bank, and Seth McMeans, one-time chief...

Kroger lets customers check out automated scanning machine.
July 24, 1998... Chain tests new device at Signature location Ever been frustrated by slow-moving supermarket lines? Or thought you could scan your own groceries faster than a cashier? Kroger is giving impatient shoppers a chance to prove it. The...

Visual Numerics becomes third major purchase for InterJetNet.
July 24, 1998... Houston-based InterJetNet Corp. plans to buy Visual Numerics Inc. and bring its data analysis software services under the same roof as InterJetNet's high-speed wireless Internet services. Visual Numerics, founded in Houston in 1970 by Chairman...

A contrarian's confidence. (profile of Rowan Cos. CEO Bob Palmer)
July 24, 1998... Brash and outspoken, Bob Palmer has kept Rowan strong by going it alone Bob Palmer is just as likely to crack an off-color comment as he is to quote Samuel Johnson or Julius Caesar. Employees say he's blunt to the point of aggravation. And...

Dwelling on disaster; Kansas calamity boosts business of agricultural salvage firm Houston Grain Trading.(Growth Strategies)
July 24, 1998... Seasonal businesses must plan for their ups and downs, but it's even trickier for a company like Houston Grain Trading Inc., which relies on disastrous events and "acts of God" to generate revenue. The winds of fate have blown Houston Grain...

Office park going up in Energy Corridor: Transwestern plans three-building project for 14 acres on Memorial. (Transwestern Property Co)
July 31, 1998... Transwestern plans three-building project for 14 acres on Memorial Transwestern Property Co. plans to erect three office towers in west Houston that will add more than one million square feet to the Energy Corridor submarket. The 14-acre...

Risque business: Top Drawer owner trades pharmaceuticals for frills. (Dow Hickam goes into lingerie business)
July 31, 1998... Dow Hickam has a little secret. You don't have to be Victoria to sell lacy lingerie. A former owner of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company and a guy's kind of guy, Hickam is an unlikely candidate to go in the delicate business of selling...

You say Tila's, I say Teala's: restaurants take the whole thing to court. (Houston restaurants with similar names)
July 31, 1998... In what may be a peppery fight to the finish, a pair of HOuston restaurants just a few blocks from each other are in a heated battle over their names. Teala's Mexican Restaurant has filed suit in state district court against The Original...

New logo for American General.
July 31, 1998... Insurance giant extending reach with acquisitions Houston-based insurance and finance giant, American General Corp., this week introduced a new name and logo to reflect the company's broadening base of financial services. To represent its...

BMC Software says IRS demand for $5.1 million does not compute. (opposes increase in taxable royalty and cost-sharing income)
July 31, 1998... For BMC Software, Inc., the Internal Revenue Service's demand for $5.1 million in additional taxes needs to be reprogrammed. The Houston-based software maker has filed a petition asking the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C. to overturn an IRS...

Hail to the agency chief. (Chuck Carlberg of advertising agency Rives Carlberg)
July 31, 1998... Chuck Carlberg has weathered more than 30 years of advertising storms to create the top independent shop in Houston The commander ill chief of Rives Carlberg, one of Houston's biggest advertising agencies, has a thing for United States...

Vets with a vision. (Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists)
July 31, 1998... Animal doctors tap clientele with specialization and state-of-the-art clinic Since Drs. Glen King, Jim Vulgamott and Bill Liska opened their specialized medical clinic a decade ago, they've drawn patients from all over the country. And over...