Houston Business Journal articles from March 1997

Houston Business Journal archives from March 1997

Buyer to redevelop historic Plaza Hotel. (Anderson Group)
March 7, 1997... Connecticut builder has upscale restoration plans for vacant inn A Connecticut real estate firm has contracted to purchase the historic Plaza Hotel and plans to convert the long-vacant property into an upscale inn and apartment complex. The...

UH planning new campus in Sugar Land. (University of Houston)
March 7, 1997... Project will depend on political maneuvering The University of Houston plans to develop a sprawling Sugar Land campus on 241 acres of land now owned by the Texas Department of Transportation. Since mid-1995, the university system has...

Orthopedic IPOs: Houston medical firms pursue hot new speciality market. (initial public offerings)
March 7, 1997... Houston-based DRCA Medical Corp. is the first publicly traded physician practice management company to specialize in orthopedics. But that distinction may not last long in an increasingly hot medical specialty market. Physicians Trust Inc.,...

Yaga saga: Isle icon moves to California. (Galveston, TX-based Yaga Inc.)
March 7, 1997... Yaga Inc. has gotten too big for its trendy island T-shirts. The 8-year-old maker of fashionable casual wear will move its corporate headquarters from Galveston to Huntington Beach, Calif. this month. "It's a tough decision," says Robert Lynch,...

Randalls could find investor to finance future expansion. (Randall's Food Markets Inc.)
March 7, 1997... Deal with KKR would give outsider stake in family grocery chain for first time In an effort to fund an ambitious expansion campaign, Randalls Food Markets Inc. reportedly is considering trading a significant stake in the company to a New York...

Brisk real estate market breeds bevy of new industrial projects.
March 7, 1997... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Houston's rebounding real estate market is spurring newcomers and veterans alike to launch major industrial projects. At least five new industrial projects totaling nearly 437,000 square feet square feet have been...

First Sierra Financial files for IPO to fund fast growth plan. (initial public offering)
March 7, 1997... Firm makes consolidation play in equipment leasing industry Houston specialty finance firm First Sierra Financial Inc. has acquired a Georgia equipment financing operation, has contracted to buy another in California, and plans to pay for the...

High-flying Eagle scores coup with major air freight contracts. (Eagle USA Airfreight Inc.)
March 7, 1997... Business at Houston-based Eagle USA Airfreight Inc. is taking off since the company landed multimillion-dollar contracts with a couple of mega corporations. Last week, Eagle USA was named national air freight forwarder for Minnesota Mining &...

Hospitals face dramatic change in current accreditation process.
March 7, 1997... A hospital will now have to prove it has more than just good standards in place to receive accreditation. Medical facilities will also have to provide data showing how successful they are in curing patients. The Joint Commission on...

Long-vacant Three Greenway Plaza attracting interest from large tenants.
March 7, 1997... Bechtel Corp, is reportedly one of several prospective office tenants eying the long-vacant Three Greenway Plaza building, which represents one of the last remaining big blocks of empty space in the city. The 510,000-square-foot tower, also...

Big banks targeting small businesses with on-line blitz.
March 7, 1997... The electronic banking battlefield may be shifting from the consumer market to small businesses as the state's largest financial institutions roll out more online banking options. Once confined to technophiles and computer aficionados, the...

Resale prices increase as Houston emerges from buyer's market.(Top 50 Residential Real Estate Agents)
March 7, 1997... Realtors selling homes throughout the Houston area posted the best year on record in 1996, with an amazing 38,925 homes sold. What's even more startling is that more homes than ever were sold while fewer resale homes were on the market than we've...

Visions of power: Jeff Skilling is on an innovative mission to make Enron Corp. the top trading powerhouse in a deregulated electricity industry.(Profile)
March 7, 1997... Zealous is a word that aptly describes Jeffrey Skilling, president and chief operating officer of Enron Corp. Skilling approaches his job at Enron with nothing short of evangelical zeal, and like most zealots he's convinced he's right....

Finding success with the "Houston model." (business growth)(Editorial)
March 7, 1997... A pattern of business growth developed by Houston corporate pioneers is being followed with apparent success by newer local companies today. This "Houston model" of aggressive growth-by-acquisition involves raising a large amount of money, then...

Banks vs. credit unions: a question of equality.
March 7, 1997... The headline read "Credit Unions Fear New Rules From Legislature." It concerned a news story about a "rally" by officials of the Texas Credit Union League to "fight against proposed legislation that could change the way credit unions operate."...

Vital Records: document and data storage becoming bigger business. (Vital Records Storage Inc.)(Company Profile)
March 7, 1997... Like most business owners, Judy Stringer worries about storage. But for Stringer, storage is her whole business. For the last 12 years, Stringer has owned and operated Vital Records Storage Inc., a Houston warehouser and organizer of magnetic...

A gift of heritage: card and gift shop accents African-American tradition. (Babypace Collectibles)(Small Business Monthly)
March 7, 1997... Darleane Pace dubs her recently-opened shop in First Colony Mall - Babypace Collectibles - "a 'Hallmark' store for Black people." Her inventory - carefully selected at trade shows on both coasts and in Atlanta - includes a colorful array of...

Specialization trend benefits both Realtors and buyers.(Small Business Monthly)
March 7, 1997... The trend in residential real estate specialization, which started here about eight years ago, coupled with advanced technology, will take this industry into the next millennium and beyond. I'm a firm believer in specialization in residential...

Defunct horse farm finds buyer; FDIC finally unloads ranch that bit the dust during oil bust. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)
March 21, 1997... An equestrian breeding and training facility that fell into foreclosure during the oil bust has been purchased from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. by the owners of an adjacent ranch. The 137-acre Richmond Ranch, located along FM 359, south...

Bechtel will shut down island plant; closure to cost 300 manufacturing jobs. (PMB/Bechtel Inc.)
March 21, 1997... PMB/Bechtel Inc. plans to close its Pelican Island facility in July, but Galveston officials say they won't give UP the manufacturer without an effort. Last week, company officials announced the division of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp....

It takes two to Dwango; small business signs big deal to market computer games on Microsoft network. (Interactive Visual Systems Corp.; Dial-up Wide Area Network Game Operation)
March 21, 1997... In an industry filled with fun and games, Houston-based Interactive Visual Systems Corp. has signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. that could mean big business. The small local company, which has developed a network for people to play fast-paced...

German firm picks Rosenberg as HQ site. (Albis Corp.)
March 21, 1997... A plastics manufacturer based in Hamburg, Germany is establishing its North American headquarters in Rosenberg, where the company first was lured eight years ago by a tax abatement. Albis Corp. developed a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing...

Firm foundations: floating a different idea for home slab repair.
March 21, 1997... As a sales manager for a foundation repair company, Gary Anderson found that the repairs his company were selling as permanent solutions to homeowners' foundation problems were really quite temporary. Many of the repair jobs the company was doing...

Sterling adds Houston National to its 'supercommunity' concept. (Sterling Bancshares Inc.; Houston National Bank)
March 21, 1997... Acquisition will open new geographic market to bank Houston-based Sterling Bancshares Inc. plans to expand on its "super-community bank" strategy by buying Houston National Bank and its parent, First Houston Bancshares, in a stock-for-stock...

Shell, Texaco sign major deal to combine refining assets; union could be challenged by consumer groups, federal regulators. (Shell Oil Co.; Texaco Inc.)
March 21, 1997... Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc. are the latest major oil companies to try and combine refining assets into a joint company in an effort to pare costs. Shell signed a memorandum of understanding this week with Texaco to combine their downstream...

Maverick with a master plan. (Charlie Leyendecker, overseer of development at master-planned community Summerwood)
March 21, 1997... Charlie Leyendecker has always called his own real estate shots. Now the veteran developer is taking aim to make Summerwood a household name. At age 62, Charlie Leyendecker is an unlikely rebel. One of Houston's most prominent residential...

Legal eagles give up paper for CDs. (law firms increasingly use the concept of paperless documents)(Technology Quarterly)
March 21, 1997... "We had tons of file cabinets and a warehouse filled with old patient files. Now we have a drawer full of CDs," says Monday Martinez, office manager for the Clinical Psychology Center. The technology to scan documents onto compact disks to be...

Comeback from oblivion: abandoned real estate center returns as small-business beehive in Stafford. (Turner, Adreac & Quest plans to redevelop Parkway Business Center)
March 28, 1997... Abandoned real estate center returns as small-business beehive in Stafford A Stafford business park that has been boarded up almost since its development in the mid-1980s is reopening as a haven for small businesses. The three-building...

Noise a growing office problem. (noise pollution control)(Commercial Real Estate/Office Furniture & Design)
March 28, 1997... The walls are coming down - literally and figuratively - in American offices. Offices of the 21st century will look a lot different than what office workers have been accustomed to. Already, many companies are adopting new design approaches...

New office and industrial projects are booming again. (Houston, TX's commercial real estate industry)(Commercial Real Estate/Office Furniture & Design)
March 28, 1997... Commercial real estate developers some who were newsmakers in Houston's boom years but haven't been heard from for years - are making headlines again with new projects. Steven Schneidau, industrial broker at Brown, Berry & Co., says the...

Logistics industry serving today's moving warehouses.(Commercial Real Estate/Office Furniture & Design)
March 28, 1997... The 18-wheeler, the rail car and the ship's hold are the warehouses of the future, and goods-in-transit is the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. A concerted effort to shift transportation costs to the vendor has forced the evolution of...

Family values. (Tri La, manager of Kim Son Vietnamese restaurant chain)(Profile)
March 28, 1997... The La clan has created the biggest Asian restaurant in Texas by striking a balance between East and West In Tri La's world, balance is everything. La, who oversees the ever-expanding Kim Son Vietnamese restaurant chain in Houston, is...

Professional Volvo Service; despite past hardships, the growth of Mike Polk's auto repair shop has accelerated.(Growth Strategies)(Company Profile)
March 28, 1997... Despite past hardships, the growth of Mike Polk's auto repair shop has accelerated Mike Polk is about to relocate his business into a space that will double its size. He wanted to make the move years ago, but a past business bankruptcy made...