San Francisco Business Times articles from January 1998

San Francisco Business Times archives from January 1998

Growing up is not always easy. (Qualix Corp.)
January 30, 1998... Qualix stays on fast track despite some growing pains Staying on the fast track can be just as hard as getting there, or so Qualix Corp. has discovered since its initial public offering last February. After a lean and hungry start,...

Biotech firm keeps spending to slow burn. (Sequus Pharmaceuticals Inc.)
January 30, 1998... Product sales and pipeline potential make Sequus unique With both a revenue stream and a product pipeline, Sequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is an enigma as a biotechnology company. With its two products on the market providing $42 million in...

S.F. Hyatt Regency snags buyer; Chicago group offers Prudential, Rockefeller $175M. (Chicago, IL-based Strategic Hotel Capital Inc.; Prudential Insurance Co. of America, David Rockefeller & Associates)
January 16, 1998... A Midwest investment group flush with cash is in late-stage talks to acquire San Francisco's Hyatt Regency Hotel, sources close to the negotiations say. Chicago-based Strategic Hotel Capital Inc., a private investment partnership formed last...

City Center soars; vacancies sink, rents rise as Shorenstein takes command in Oakland. (Shorenstein Co.)
January 16, 1998... The Shorenstein touch is putting downtown Oakland's City Center on the map. When the Shorenstein Co. purchased the six-building complex for $120 million in December 1996, vacancy rates were running at about 30 percent. By the end of 1997...

$56M office deal boosts multimedia. (Stein Kingsley Stein's purchase of office complex in San Francisco, CA)
January 16, 1998... Stein Kingsley Stein, in a bid to capitalize on the city's burgeoning high-tech industry and sizzling office market, is adding the Francisco Bay office complex to its multimedia-friendly portfolio of properties. Cost of the deal: about $56...

Rite Aid challenges Walgreen; new kid on block pumps $50M into Bay Area expansion.
January 16, 1998... The national battle of the drug-store behemoths - Rite Aid Corp. and Walgreen Co. - is brewing in the Bay Area. Rite Aid is spending more than $50 million on stores here in 1998 and $4 million on a winter television campaign to extract market...

Post office delivers big San Bruno expansion site to Gap. (Gap Inc.'s plan to purchase Postal Service's parcel in San Bruno, CA)
January 16, 1998... Clothing retailer the Gap Inc. is trying to slip into a coveted 3.5-acre parcel in San Bruno for its next corporate expansion. The San Francisco-based clothing retailer, which is building a $60 million corporate campus across the street from...

Schwab's zest for life: brokerage will go national with sale of life insurance. (Charles Schwab & Co.)
January 16, 1998... Brokerage will go national with sale of life insurance Charles Schwab & Co. is taking its life insurance sales program on the road. Although the company isn't revealing sales figures, the San Francisco brokerage is so pleased with the...

Medical group pulls plug on most local operations. (MedPartners Inc.)
January 16, 1998... MedPartners Inc., the once-high-flying medical group management giant that's hit a patch of turbulence, is pulling out of most of its Bay Area operations. The Birmingham, Ala.-based enterprise, which earlier swallowed up the Mullikin...

Enron picks East Bay for headquarters; energy firm to employ 400. (Enron Energy Services)
January 9, 1998... Enron Energy Services, one of the big players. in California's deregulated electricity market, will locate its state headquarters in San Ramon. The Houston-based energy company will move 200 employees into Bishop Ranch on April 1, said Vice...

Executive of the year: BankAmerica CEO develops power within. (David Coulter)
January 9, 1998... While other big banks spent last year frantically expanding through acquisition, BankAmerica Chairman and CEO David Coulter focused on building California's largest bank from within. As counterparts at Wells Fargo, First Union and NationsBank...

Genstar shipping out of Bay Area, taking 130 jobs. (Genstar Container Corp.)
January 9, 1998... San Francisco-based Genstar Container Corp., the world's largest container lessor, is preparing to ship its corporate offices out of the Bay Area, sinking last year's plan to relocate to the East Bay. The company, which employs roughly 120...

Radio firm tunes in to Bay Area. (Radio One Inc.'s acquisition of KZSF-FM and KJAZ-FM)
January 9, 1998... An East Coast radio company is making its West Coast debut with the acquisition of two local FM stations. Radio One Inc., based in Lanham, Md., has signed an agreement to purchase KZSF-FM of San Francisco, which was formerly KJAZ-FM, and...

Law firms nibble at Big Apple. (San Francisco, CA-based law firms' proposed merger with New York, NY-based law firms)
January 9, 1998... Two of San Francisco's largest law firms are engaged in separate merger talks with midsize New York City law firms that could significantly bolster their New York footholds. Both 425-attorney Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and 200-lawyer...

From the top of The List: health club executives.
January 9, 1998... John Kinney Title: CEO Company: Club One How has the industry changed in the past year? The industry grew by more than 10 percent in terms of membership. Programs and services like personal training and massage have taken off as fitness...

Executive profile. (Wood, Warren & Co. Pres. and founder J. Roger Wood)
January 9, 1998... J. ROGER WOOD Name: J. Roger Wood. Title: President and founder. Company: Wood, Warren & Co., the Novato-based investment banking firm. Background: Managing director, Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., in charge of the western region...

Searching for the next blockbuster product. (French Transit Ltd.)(Small Business Growth Strategies)(Company Profile)
January 9, 1998... "I'm always looking for the next new, novel product," said Jerry Rosenblatt, founder of French Transit Ltd. in Burlingame. Novel, indeed. French Transit sells a deodorant made of natural mineral salts in the shape of a rock. It's Rosenblatt's...

Entrepreneur profile. (Joie de Vivre owner Chip Conley)
January 9, 1998... CHIP CONLEY Name: Chip Conley. Company: San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre, a $30 million management company which owns the majority of the 13 boutique hotels and five restaurants it operates. Employs 450 in properties ranging from the...

Economic explosion of '97 may turn to steady hum in '98. (San Francisco Bay Area)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... After a stellar 1997, the local economy will be hard pressed to provide an encore performance in 1998. The information technology revolution and export explosion that fueled the boom in the Bay Area over the past year may have been a...

Ad agencies drawn by Bay Area's offbeat reputation. (San Francisco Bay Area)(includes related articles on Foote, Cone & Belding and on Goldberg Moser O'Neill CEO Fred Goldberg)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... The Bay Area's reputation for innovative - sometimes "out-there" - creativity is a potent fertilizer for the growing advertising industry here. Out-of-towners, like New York's Lowe & Partners/SMS, which opened offices here last spring,...

Robust home sales lend momentum to sellers' market. (San Francisco Bay Area)(includes related articles on Costco Companies Inc. and on HFS senior vice-president Larry Knapp)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... Hold on to your hats because 1998 is shaping up to be another strong year for home sales across the state. A robust Bay Area economy plus low and stable interest rates mean that the two-year run of strong sales figures should continue,...

Builders lay plans as space crunch sends rates soaring. (San Francisco Bay Area)(includes related articles on AMB Property Corp. and on real estate developer William Wilson)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... The bigger the bubble gets, the sooner it bursts. But despite a banner 1997 for the commercial real estate industry, the Bay Area economy looks strong enough to stretch through another robust year. After the two best years this decade,...

Oracle left in wings as Microsoft takes center stage. (includes related articles on Ascend Communications and on Sybase COO John Chen)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... Microsoft, the once dreaded invader from the north, will play an increasingly important role in the region in 1998. Bill Gates is feared and loathed by many of the region's tech honchos, but all respect his clout - and many are scrambling to...

Sunny outlook for tourism, with no dark clouds in sight. (San Francisco Bay Area)(includes related articles on Fairmont Hotel Co. and on Port of San Francisco executive director Doug Wong)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... San Francisco sailed into 1998 fresh from a banner year for tourism and hospitality in 1997, with virtually nothing but good news for the industry. Record convention attendance has become an expectation, as Moscone bookings are set years in...

Health-care giants sort through spoils of merger battles. (San Francisco Bay Area hospitals)(includes related articles on Kaiser Permanente and on Brown & Toland Medical Group CEO Michael Abel)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... The consolidation craze continued in 1997, but many of the region's largest health-care systems ran up against frustrating barriers that kept them from making the most of their new acquisitions. Many of those limitations are expected to...

With drug pipeline full, biotechs gear up for big year. (includes related articles on Chiron Corp. and on Arris Pharmaceutical CEO John Walker)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... Investors bitten by the Asian flu may be wary of biotech stocks in 1998, but observers expect to see broad progress in the sector this year. Major drugs from COR Therapeutics, Genentech Inc., Chiron Corp., Gilead Sciences and Shaman...

Retailers sail into '98 on coattails of boom economy. (San Francisco Bay Area)(includes related articles on Mills Corp. and on Williams-Sonoma CEO Gary Friedman)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... Local retailers continued to feed on the strength of the Bay Area economy in 1997, with most seeing gains in total sales as well as in comparable sales per store. National retailers based in the Bay Area also did well, continuing to prosper...

Deregulation promises a year of chaos and opportunity. (California electric utilities)(includes related articles on Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and on PG&E Energy Services CEO Scott Gebhardt)(Special Section: Business Outlook '98)
January 2, 1998... It was a busy year for California's electric industry in 1997. When the Public Utilities Commission officially opened the floodgates of competition in the state's $20 billion electric industry last May, it overturned a system that had been in...