Houston Business Journal articles from September 1996

Houston Business Journal archives from September 1996

Hines brings wrecking ball to West Loop. (demolition of two office buildings in Houston, Texas)
September 20, 1996... Two West Loop office buildings that were once among the most prestigious in the city faced the wrecking ball this week. Houston-based Hines is paying to have the 2300 West Loop and 2400 West Loop buildings - located in close proximity to The...

Two local securities firms to merge. (Sanders Morris Mundy's acquisition of Williams McKay Jordan & Co.)
September 20, 1996... Sanders Morris Mundy has reached an agreement to acquire Williams MacKay Jordan & Co. in a deal that will broaden the business of both Houston securities firms. The merger agreement, reached last week and expected to be complete by the end...

Two more energy firms make public offerings. (Cal Dive International Inc. and Offshore Energy Development Corp.)
September 20, 1996... Cal Dive, Offshore Energy join rush to Wall Street Two more local firms have joined what is quickly becoming an energy industry rush to the public markets. Earlier this month, Cal Dive International Inc. and Offshore Energy Development...

Bruce Wilkinson does it again: engineers the sale of his company. (sale of Proler International by acting CEO)
September 20, 1996... Former CRSS chief wins offer for 70-year-old Proler International For Bruce Wilkinson, it was deja vu all over again when Houston-based Proler International announced last week it is being acquired by another company. Wilkinson is acting...

Businesses finding it pays to outsource graphics works.(Focus On: Printing & Graphics)
September 20, 1996... The term "outsourcing" is used very loosely by many. To some, it means any provision of services by an outside vendor, regardless of how infrequent. Manzanita Alliances Inc., a technical documentation company, has had success by redefining the...

PUC rules Houston firm can't sell power to Austin apartments. (Public Utility Commission; Power Clearinghouse)
September 20, 1996... Power Clearinghouse, a Houston-based power marketer, lost its bid to sell electricity to an Austin apartment complex when the Public Utility Commission of Texas voted 2-1 to dismiss the case last week. The proposed transaction involved...

Investment banker to take another swing at baseball. (Sanders Morris Mundy Inc.' co-founder Don Sanders' investment in a baseball stadium construction project)
September 20, 1996... Don Sanders is ready to invest in Houston baseball again. This time, however, he knows things will be a little different. At one time Sanders, a Houston investment banker, was the largest minority owner in baseball with 13.5 percent of the...

Cleaning up after the oil industry. (Nickell Environmental Corp.)
September 20, 1996... Jerry Nickell parlays punches thrown by the environmental industry into gentle shoves towards new growth opportunities. Nickell is president of Houston-based Nickell Environmental Corp., which has grown rapidly during its four short years of...

Houston company stakes its claim on recycling CRTs. (cathode ray tubes)(Proactive Environmental Research and Development Inc.)
September 13, 1996... Carl Huff is gambling that environmental agencies will notice how much leachable lead is present in computer monitors and eventually prohibit their disposal in landfills. Huff has staked his future on a recycling business that breaks the...

American Rice Inc. moving offices to Beltway building.
September 13, 1996... Houston-based American Rice Inc. is moving its headquarters into a northeast Houston office building that was purchased last month by a limited partnership that includes the company's president. The giant rice milling and marketing company...

MethodistCare joins large insurer to bring new HMO to market. (health maintenance organizations)(Methodist Health Care System; General American Life Insurance Co.)
September 13, 1996... The Methodist Health Care System's new health maintenance organization announced an alliance this week that will bring General American Life Insurance Co. into Houston's competitive HMO market. MethodistCare will provide a full range of...

Breaking into software: Dr. James Birge leads MacGregor Medical in new directions. (MacGregor Medical Association)(includes vital statistics of the association)(Profile)
September 13, 1996... Dr. James Birge is a Houston physician who is trying to break into the software business. That may seem like a strange combination, but Birge is a man with a unique blend of skills. As medical director of MacGregor Medical Association, he is...

Developers pull plugs on power center projects.(Focus on Commercial Real Estate/Office Furnishings and Design)(Industry Overview)
September 13, 1996... Until recently, the hot trend for retail developers was to use vacant land for big box power centers. Now, it looks like the trend may be slowing down. Several of the companies that reportedly had plans to develop power centers have cooled...

West Loop still hot spot for big box construction. (power centers at most prized commercial real estate properties)
September 13, 1996... Some of the country's most prized commercial real estate properties, those along Houston's West Loop 610 that for more than two decades had been held for steel-and-glass business skytowers, are now being utilized for power centers anchored by...

Flexible programs providing multifamily finance options.(Real Estate Finance)(Column)
September 13, 1996... The new challenge in the 1990s for new multifamily development is financing. Debt financing for existing projects is readily available. Equity for new construction, however, is much more restricted. While there is an unprecedented amount of...

Both furniture and office now ergonomically correct.
September 13, 1996... In the 16 years that Jeffrey W. Black has specialized in the sale and lease of office buildings in Houston, he's seen companies go from the olives and golds of the 1970s to the earth tones of the '80s to the ergonomically correct office of the...

Small firm sees bonanza in DOE waste; stakes are high in government deal to develop radioactive landfill. (Waste Control Specialists Inc.)
September 6, 1996... Waste Control Specialists Inc. of Pasadena is working on a megamillion-dollar deal that would allow the small company to handle and dispose of federal low-level radioactive waste at its landfill in far West Texas. WCS has entered discussions...

Cash flow woes sink pasta sauce producer; Mama Rizzo's files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
September 6, 1996... The financial woes of a Denver uranium magnate have taken their toll on the local manufacturer of Mama Rizzo's pasta sauce. With cash flow problems mounting, Mama Rizzo's Inc. last week filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Denver bankruptcy...

M.D. Anderson signs first fixed-fee contract. (University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center)
September 6, 1996... The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has signed a unique contract with OneCare Health Industries Inc. to provide cancer treatment at a set price. Under the capitated, or fixed-fee, arrangement that takes effect this week, M.D....

'Mama Ninfa.' (restaurant owner Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo)
September 6, 1996... Ninfa Laurenzo turned a small tortilla factory into a sprawling restaurant empire. But she still has no recipe for retirement. No matter how hard she tries, Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo can't seem to retire from her restaurant empire....

Time running out on 'Year 2000 Problem.'(Editorial)
September 6, 1996... Organizations that have not yet given much thought to the "Year 2000 problem" are already running late. Business owners - while juggling today's personnel problems, next year's capital budget and the company's five-year plan - are also being...

Electric deregulation filled with promise and peril.
September 6, 1996... Are consumers about to get zapped with higher bills for electricity? Or will their bills go down as a result of the coming of deregulation and competition in the electric industry? Deregulation of the electric industry is full of promise and...

Ranches round up plenty of business in planning parties.(Focus On: Meetings & Conventions)
September 6, 1996... In the late 1940s, before he bought his 37-acre estate in Stafford, Joe F. Pizzitola Sr. would sneak his family onto the land for weekly Sunday afternoon picnics. The picnics became such a tradition, he even installed a swing on a tree there...

African-American groups favor Houston for confabs.(Focus On: Meetings & Conventions)
September 6, 1996... Conventions of African-American groups are actively sought for Houston. But the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau faced a problem when it set out to convince one of the biggest African-American groups to meet here. The Black...

Insurance Alliance.(Growth Strategies)
September 6, 1996... 'Bigger is better' agency thrives through profit-sharing For the first six months after Insurance Alliance opened for business, its computers malfunctioned almost every day. But what could have been a disaster brought the employees together...

Kathy Lehne takes Sun Coast Resources Inc. to the top.(Small Business Journal)
September 6, 1996... Company: Sun Coast Resources Inc. Business: Wholesale gasoline and diesel fuel distribution. Founded: 1985. Local employees: 75. Sales: $217 million. Like many high school students Kathy Lehne got a job while still in school. Nothing...

Sharing life's lessons with owners of other companies. (Warren Electric Co. owner Cheryl Thompson)(Small Business Journal)(Company Profile)
September 6, 1996... Company: Warren Electric Co. Business: Electrical and telecommunication wholesale distributor. Founded: 1919. Local employees: 176. Sales: $130 million. Cheryl Thompson likes to say that "Life is 10 percent what happens to you, and 90...

Women investors consider more than dollars and cents.(Small Business Journal)
September 6, 1996... You don't have to sacrifice profits for principles. This is the accepted premise of socially responsible investing, which appeals to a wide variety of people and institutions on all sides of the political spectrum. It was also the topic of a...

Growing together: women, business and the Internet.(Small Business Journal)
September 6, 1996... When Wilcene Brisbine's husband's job was downsized out of existence about a year ago she had a "pretty neat idea" for how to turn the settlement he received into "Texas gold." Leveraging the skills she had acquired during 20 years in the...