San Francisco Business Times articles from May 1998

San Francisco Business Times archives from May 1998

Real estate giants plot REIT mega-merger. (real estate investment trusts)
May 1, 1998... Marriage would pair developer William Wilson, Cornerstone Properties William Wilson & Associates is in talks to merge with Cornerstone Properties Inc., a New York-based real estate investment trust, the Business Times has learned. San...

Room boom. (construction of new hotel properties in Oakland, California)
May 1, 1998... Oakland market checks in with a trio of new hotels High room rates and low vacancies are drawing hotel developers to the thriving Oakland market. Construction is under way for about 400 new rooms at two new hotels in downtown Oakland and one...

Sybase castaway plans Inktomi IPO. (former Sybase executive Dave Peterschmidt)
May 1, 1998... Internet startup Inktomi Corp. is going public with hopes of raising $28 million to finance a hiring spree and an international expansion. The San Mateo-based Internet infrastructure company has filed for an initial public offering 2 million...

Political heavyweights square off for hotel in Yerba Buena. (development rights at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, California)
May 1, 1998... Top lobbyist and former supervisor among eight groups seeking development rights William Rutland Jr. - Mayor Willie Brown's best friend and the city's second highest-paid lobbyist - leads one of eight groups competing to build a hotel on a...

Ex-biotech boss adds another chairmanship. (Kirk Raab as interim CEO of LXR Biotechnology Inc.)
May 1, 1998... Former Genentech Inc. CEO Kirk Raab has been named chairman and interim CEO of LXR Biotechnology Inc. in Richmond - his fourth chairmanship of a young biopharmaceutical company. A board member of LXR since February, Raab replaces co-founder...

Newcomer thrives in the heat of global telecom war. (profile on Pacific Gateway Exchange founder Howard Neckowitz)
May 1, 1998... Howard Neckowitz, a veteran of the telecommunications wars, has spent the last five years pushing relative newcomer Pacific Gateway Exchange to the front lines of the fiber-optic business. Neckowitz's secret to selling millions of minutes of...

Forte's growth stymied by clients' obsessions with Y2K. (Forte Software Inc.; year 2000 date change problem)
May 1, 1998... After watching revenues jump from $10 million to $63 million in two years, Forte Software Inc.'s otherwise healthy sounding 13 percent growth last year looked positively anemic. Blame it on the millennium. Up until fiscal 1998, the Oakland...

Taking an old business into the 21st century. (City Park parking operator)
May 1, 1998... Are there some industries that just don't seem to move ahead to the 21st century? Would parking come to mind? Don't tell that to Tim Leonoudakis, president and second-generation owner of San Francisco-based City Park parking operations. The...

Mill Valley lender is winning the new mortgage game. (Redwood Trust Inc.)(Fastest Growing Public Companies in the Bay Area)
May 1, 1998... Redwood Trust Inc. has prospered in the increasingly commodity-like mortgage business. The Mill Valley company is a financial institution specializing in the single-family residential mortgage lending business. Through its portfolio of...

Union Bank busts in; lender challenges Wells Fargo, BofA for small business. (Union Bank of California; Bank of America)
May 8, 1998... Union Bank of California is launching a strategy to claw back small-business borrowers from arch rivals Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Union, with $31 billion in assets, has maintained a relatively low profile while its two larger...

NationsBank, BofA become sports force. (NationsBank Corp and Bank of America thrive in sports finance business)
May 8, 1998... The proposed $66.6 billion merger of BankAmerica Corp. and NationsBank Corp. joins not only two banking powers, but also two aggressive national forces in the world of sports finance. San Francisco-based BankAmerica has made great strides in...

Apartment building wave to roll into S.F.; developers push to add 900 units - including 48-story highrise. (apartment development in San Francisco, California)
May 8, 1998... Developers have tied up sites for two of San Francisco's largest apartment developments this decade, hoping to shake loose the city's pent-up housing demand. The South of Market projects, which could provide 900 new apartments, carry a...

Chevron hits $2 billion gas strike in South. (discovers natural gas off Mississippi coast)
May 8, 1998... Chevron has discovered a rich pocket of natural gas off the Mississippi coast that is expected to eventually yield around $2 billion in revenues. Chevron has invested $56 million in the area so far, quietly buying up leases and drilling four...

Genetic code translates to more space for medical device maker. (PE Applied Biosystems to lease more space to accommodate demand for genetic research equipment)
May 8, 1998... The Bay Area's largest medical instrument maker has taken an option to lease another 200,000 square feet in Foster City as it continues its voracious growth. Driven by demand for its genetic research equipment, the latest move means that...

Boom or bust? The area's hot office market may be racing toward disaster. (San Francisco, California)(Industry Overview)
May 8, 1998... San Francisco is plunging headfirst into an office development boom not seen since the early 1980s. But as construction cranes reach for the sky, is the city on track for a prolonged real estate boom or another real estate bust? By most...

REIT sees potential in ruins. (Madison Park Real Estate Investment Trust targets abandoned buildings)
May 8, 1998... Oakland-based Madison Park Real Estate Investment Trust has created a niche for itself by converting abandoned buildings in some of the Bay Area's worst neighborhoods into live-work rentals. The closely held REIT holds $17 million worth of...

Developer Catellus adds homes to its industrial diet. (Catellus Development Corp)
May 8, 1998... Catellus Development Corp. has decided that 1998 is the year of the home. In a significant strategy shift, the San Francisco-based development company is expanding beyond its traditional industrial focus and ramping up its residential business...

Bay Area's Spieker takes charge in Sacramento market. (Spieker Properties Inc)
May 8, 1998... If you've been following the Bay Area commercial real estate market at all, then you've heard of Spieker Properties Inc. And the Menlo Park-based real estate investment trust is becoming just as big of a force in the state's capital. Spieker...

Wells, BofA challenge Schwab. (Wells Fargo; Bank of America; Charles Schwab)
May 15, 1998... Banks ready summer launch of online stock trading Wells Fargo and Bank of America are launching their own online stock trading services, going head-to-head against discount giant Charles Schwab. Both banks plan to debut their online...

IBM bites Oracle. (IBM plans to dominate database business)
May 15, 1998... Big Blue to hire 1,000 as it vies to dominate the database business IBM is taking direct aim at Oracle in a bid to dethrone the database king. Big Blue is unveiling plans to spend over $800 million recruiting and training 1,000 new...

McCaw targets business - on Pacbell's turf. (Nextlink Communications Inc's owner Craig McCaw)
May 15, 1998... A phone company headed by telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is coming to the Bay Area to battle Pacific Bell for business customers. NextLink Communications Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., will open its doors in Fremont on May 21 with 50...

Montgomery sticks with the Pyramid. (NationsBanc Montgomery Securities renews lease at Transamerica Pyramid)
May 15, 1998... NationsBanc Montgomery Securities is about to renew its lease at the Transamerica Pyramid, ending one of San Francisco's most high-profile property searches. The price and length of the lease - expected to be signed within days - was not...

Developer feels like a million square feet South of Market. (William Wilson & Associates)
May 15, 1998... William Wilson & Associates is putting together a development site in San Francisco's South of Market area for up to a million square feet of new office space. The collection of parcels, bordered by Folsom, Mission, Fremont and Second streets,...

Net venture seeks a home-field advantage with online house sales. (Pacific Union Real Estate Group)
May 15, 1998... Karl Sopke, president of Pacific Union Real Estate Group, is launching a new "interactive" real estate firm that uses retail concepts and the Internet to put decision-making power back into the hands of homebuyers. SOMA Living, which opened...

Firm lets 401(k) investors go online. (401k Forum Inc.)
May 15, 1998... The good news is that nearly 100 million Americans are socking away retirement money in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. The bad news is that many couldn't tell you the difference between a growth fund and and a value fund if their nest eggs...

Getting there. (Fritz Companies Inc utilizes software products for enhanced services)
May 15, 1998... For logistics firms, shipping is an information business A few decades ago, moving cargo was both simple and simply laborious. Orders went from point A to point B, but took weeks of empty waiting from the time they left the factory in Detroit...

Gymboree strategy: grow up. (children's clothing retailer)
May 22, 1998... Kids' retailer to launch chain targeting pre-teens Gymboree Corp. is gearing up to launch a new line of stores aimed at pre-teens, hoping to retain customers as they graduate from its existing kids line. The flashy childrens' clothing...

McColl sees blue skies. (NationsBank Chief Executive Officer Hugh McColl Jr.)(includes related article)
May 22, 1998... NationsBank CEO details plans for BofA NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl Jr. has a message for employees, officials and others jittery over his bank's merger with BankAmerica Corp.; Don't worry. Hammered locally for the decision to base the...

Wham-O makes it pay to play. (toy manufacturer Wham-O Inc.)
May 22, 1998... San Francisco's Wham-O Inc. is playing for keeps in the rapidly consolidating toy industry. With a toy chest full of cash from major institutional investors and an armory of classic brand names such as Frisbee, Hula Hoop and Hacky Sack, the...

Arnie aiming for the green. (Arnold Palmer's Golf Presidio Trust's initial public offering)
May 22, 1998... Golf-course company swings for public offering Arnold Palmer's San Francisco-based golf-course management company is launching an initial public offering to raise funds to build a national chain of courses bearing the golf legend's name....

Adding energy to workplace. (use of feng shui concepts in workplace design)
May 22, 1998... Poison arrows are aiming at David Hayden from the big, bad black building across town. The angle of his mini blinds does not deflect their negative energy. But the CEO has the answer - with the help of his feng shui consultant. Last year...

Chasing ambulances. (partnership between Sutter Health hospital network with ambulance company American Medical Response)
May 22, 1998... AMR, Sutter have better way to treat on-the-job injuries The Bay Area's largest ambulance company has teamed up with Sutter Health's hospital network to resuscitate on-the-job health care. American Medical Response, which operates nearly 300...

Online auctioneer puts hammer down for big drive into Japan. (Onsale Inc.)
May 22, 1998... Online auction room Onsale Inc. is exporting its service to Japan through a joint venture with Japanese software distributor Softbank Corp. The new partnership is called Onsale Kabushiki Kaisha (Onsale Japan K.K. in English), and is 60 percent...

Surviving stress. (Front Street Chiropractic)
May 22, 1998... Frazzled workers seek ways to cope with the expanding work week Chiropractor Eben Davis set up shop in San Francisco's Financial District to deliver a simple message: Slow down. Eat healthy. Relax. He couldn't have found a better location to...

Lucasfilm day care puts workers' kids on location. (Lucasfilm Ltd.)
May 22, 1998... Christian Boatsman spends his working day in the competitive intensity of the film industry. He also gets to eat lunch daily with his toddlers and sometimes take them for bike rides in the Marin County hills. Boatsman is a digital audio...

Newest highrise lures Price Waterhouse: S.F.'s Fremont Properties ready to roll on $100M tower.
May 29, 1998... S.F.'s Fremont Properties ready to roll on $100M tower Fremont Properties is close to bagging an anchor tenant and has set a July groundbreaking for its new $100 million, 23-story office tower - San Francisco's second major office project to...

Eatery feasts: cash, map put Left at Albuquerque on road to expansion.
May 29, 1998... After a cash-stop in Texas, Left at Albuquerque is ready to serve up more of its Southwest flavor to the Bay Area's casual dining scene. Palo Alto-based restaurant company Blue Chalk Cafe, which currently operates six Left at Albuquerque...

Environmental firm spawns spinoffs; Levine*Fricke*Recon hopes new companies will clean up.
May 29, 1998... Emeryville-based Levine*Fricke*Recon is spinning off three new environmental companies to capitalize on the industry's renewed vigor. The startups include: * LFR Technologies, which aims to become the breakthrough environmental software...

Ordway buy makes Prentiss a major force in Oakland. (Ordway Building; Prentiss Properties Trust)
May 29, 1998... Prentiss Properties Trust has paid more than $76 million in cash for downtown Oakland's Ordway Building, making the real estate investment trust the largest owner and manager of property in the city. Dallas-based Prentiss, one of the nation's...

Once sleepy East Contra Costa dreams of luring jobs.
May 29, 1998... East Contra Costa cities are hanging out the "Help Waiting" sign for relocating companies. A band of community and business leaders, called the East Contra Costa Collaborative, is trying to lure jobs with the promise of eager workers and...

Nation's banker: McColl's growing a national bank - with Southern roots. (NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl, Jr.)(Banking & Finance Quarterly)
May 29, 1998... Despite a reputation as one of the nation's most colorful bankers, NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl Jr. - the man acquiring California's largest bank - is virtually unknown in Northern California. As the $60 billion NationsBank-BankAmerica merger...

Look beyond stereotypes for the real Charlotte.(Banking & Finance Quarterly)
May 29, 1998... Many Bay Area residents are likely to become far more familiar with Charlotte as the Southern city becomes home to the new BankAmerica and a significant source of capital for California. Many in the Bay Area were stunned that the merged...

Can old traditions survive a new location?
May 29, 1998... Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the Rod McLellan Co. no doubt seemed exotic and futuristic. While other farmers in Silicon Valley planted fruit trees and grew flowers native to California, the company covered its South San Francisco plot of land...