San Francisco Business Times articles from November 2000

San Francisco Business Times archives from November 2000

Mega-development awakens.
November 3, 2000... Delayed $200M project makes play for publisher Imagine Media San Francisco's largest entitled commercial development site -- slated for a whopping 1.3 million square feet -- is finally coming to life, nearly two decades after it was...

Angels spread their wings.
November 3, 2000... Investors' Circle seeks to help angel investors land heavenly profits Investors' Circle, the San Francisco-based angel network focused on socially responsible investing, is joining one of the hottest trends in the sector with the launch of...

Larry's kids: Ellison expands family.
November 3, 2000... Oracle tech billionaire brings his ventures up right -- with cash Big Daddy Larry Ellison's got a growing brood of brainchildren -- and billions of bucks to raise them. The Oracle chieftain is sowing his seeds throughout the fertile Bay...

Mission Bay snags first office tenant.
November 3, 2000... Catellus Development Corp. has found its first office tenant for its 303-acre Mission Bay project. Internet and business consulting firm marchFIRST Inc. has signed a lease for 270,000 square feet of space in a six-story office building to...

New owners of troubled aquarium fish for profits.
November 3, 2000... UnderWater World, the bottom-dwelling Pier 39 tourist attraction that sunk under its previous owners, is clutching a new lifeline following its takeover by France's largest bank. BNP Paribas Group, which took control of the aquarium earlier...

Lives in disorder.
November 3, 2000... As autism skyrockets, parents of afflicted kids struggle to cope with 'second career' Five years ago, Michael Timpanaro-Perrotta felt he had reached a good balance between his family life and career. A product manager for a large...

Ballot backers unamused by Pier 45 plans.
November 3, 2000... Proposition R backers hope voters on Tuesday will tell the Port of San Francisco to go soak its head over a proposal for a $31 million waterfront amusement park, but the port may have news for them, along the lines of "Right back atcha" ...

Bank hopes to herald new Epoch for individual investors.
November 3, 2000... Brokers, VCs bankroll venture to open up the market for IPO stock Leveraging its blue-chip pedigree, online investment bank Epoch Partners has launched an aggressive expansion drive as it seeks to underwrite more IPOs for sale to individual...

United tries to earn back wings from frequent flyers.
November 3, 2000... After a summer of hell for many of its travelers, United Airlines is trying to make the skies friendly once again, and what could be friendlier than big buckets of freebies? In particular, it's eager to be friendlier to its most frequent...

The loin kings.
November 3, 2000... Dot-coms have gotten the blame for changing the face of many San Francisco neighborhoods. CoolBoard.com doesn't want to change its new home -- just the name. So it's not the lurid, seedy Tenderloin anymore, but the cleaner, peppier...

Keeping it Real.
November 3, 2000... Guitarist and singer Rocco Cortese admits his seven-man band does not spend a lot of time discussing guitar riffs, amplifiers and drum solos. They are more likely to discuss top lease rates, building trades and companies prowling the...

Rise & Fall.
November 3, 2000... A barometer of the region's movers, shakers and fakers Al Davis * "Just win, baby" is back in the Raiders' vocabulary as Davis' long-under performing minions end the first half of the season jointly holding football's best record, a...

New digs, new hires all part of BT's 'master plan'.
November 3, 2000... A fast-growing San Jose-based real estate brokerage is making a major push into San. Francisco with plans to double its staff and move into a highly visible retail site featuring an outdoor digital sign. BT Commercial/NAI has snatched away...

MegaPath joins with fellow hiker on broadband trail.
November 3, 2000... MegaPath Networks, a Pleasanton-based reseller of high-speed broadband service to small- and medium-sized businesses, has acquired Phoenix Networks in a deal that reflects the coming consolidation among DSL service providers. The companies...

CORRECTIONS.
November 3, 2000... The retailing column in the Oct. 27-Nov. 2 issue incorrectly stated that Ownercare.com had raised $5.5 million in angel financing. The company is seeking that much, but has so far raised an disclosed lesser amount.

Bank of the Orient fills its plate with Hawaiian dishes.
November 3, 2000... Bank of the Orient has quickly grabbed most of the failed Bank of Honolulu, a move that could swell the San Francisco bank's international trade finance business but stall its Bay Area expansion. In a deal closed with regulators within a...

BofA expands private banking offices to cater to the rich.
November 3, 2000... Bank of America is ramping up profits in California by expanding its private banking franchise by 10 offices in the state's most affluent areas. To augment the longstanding Palo Alto Private Banking office, the bank has opened offices on...

Old-fashioned Doll gets hip new name and $450M.
November 3, 2000... Doll Capital Management plans to close on its third fund with $450 million by yearend. The 4-year-old firm also is switching to the hipper "dcm" in a brand-building effort. The early-stage venture capital firm had initially planned to raise...

Twitchy corporations protect themselves with soft money.
November 3, 2000... Harry Freeman, a former executive vice president with American Express, says a new poll supports what he saw firsthand at the financial services giant: Corporations give campaign contributions because they fear politicians will punish them if...

Egreetings restructures, cuts staff.
November 3, 2000... San Francisco's Egreetings Network Inc. cut 34 percent of its work force in a move to cut costs and restructure management. The company, which offers free online greeting cards, named Andrew Moley president and CEO following the resignation of...

Gap names new designer.
November 3, 2000... Clothing retail giant Gap Inc. appointed Jerome Jessup head of product design, replacing Lisa Schultz. Jessup was previously in charge of the San Francisco company's Banana Republic brand.

Napster available for Macs.
November 3, 2000... San Mateo music file sharing firm Napster Inc. announced it is releasing a new version of its software that can be used on Macintosh computers. The new program replaces a knockoff version of the controversial software, Macster, which Napster...

Petopia cuts staff, loses deal.
November 3, 2000... Petopia.com of San Francisco laid off about 120 employees, or 60 percent of its staff, after a financing deal collapsed. The layoffs cut the company's business development and corporate communications departments completely, and reduced staff...

PeoplePC launches in Europe.
November 3, 2000... San Francisco-based PeoplePC Inc. announced it will launch a European subsidiary in partnership with French media conglomerate Vivendi and the Japanese venture capital firm Softbank. PeoplePC gives away personal computers to customers in...

Sutter settles with St. Luke's.
November 3, 2000... St. Luke's Hospital, the last full-service independent hospital in San Francisco, announced that it would affiliate with nonprofit hospital network Sutter Health. The hospital will maintain its nonprofit status, as well as its directorial...

Corsair announces merger.
November 3, 2000... Palo Alto-based Corsair Communication said it will merge with Lightbridge Inc. in a stock swap valued at $165 million. The merged company will retain the Lightbridge name and will be headquartered in Burlington, Mass. Lightbridge CEO Pamela D....

Del Monte results dip.
November 3, 2000... San Francisco-based Del Monte Foods Co. reported a $3.1 million drop in quarterly net income compared with last year's results. Net sales dipped to $310.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2001 from net sales last year of $333.7 million....

Bertelsmann to drop Napster suit.
November 3, 2000... Bertelsmann AG, one of the big five music companies suing Redwood City-based Napster Inc., said it would drop its copyright infringement lawsuit against the song-swap company -- once it sets up a membership-based service that pays royalties....

Schwab, AOL partner.
November 3, 2000... Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. announced a multi-year, global pact with America Online Inc. that makes Schwab the main financial services company throughout AOL's personal finance channels. The pact will let Schwab build its customer base through...

Boycott forces Safeway job cuts.
November 3, 2000... Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc. announced it will lay off 200 part-time clerks, the result of an ongoing boycott by truck drivers and warehouse workers that has reduced sales at the grocery chain. Safeway officials said the cuts are a temporary...

Kaiser turnaround on target.
November 3, 2000... Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries reported solid third-quarter net income of $180 million and operating revenues of $4.4 billion, compared to a net loss of $29 million and operating revenues of...

Shoe Pavillion increases income.
November 3, 2000... Richmond-based Shoe Pavilion Inc. reported a 59 percent increase in net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and a 13.4 percent increase in comparable store sales. Net income tallied in at $389,000, compared to $245,000 for the...

Reef raises $35M in second round.
November 3, 2000... Reef, a San Francisco-based provider of online business software, announced it raised $35 million in a second round of funding led by Goldman Sachs and European venture capital firm 31. Previous investors Profrigo and Viventures also...

EXECUTIVE PROFILE.
November 3, 2000... Name: Steve McCarthy. Title: CEO. Company: Base Consulting Group, the Oakland-based provider of business intelligence and data warehousing consulting and training services. Education: Bachelor of science degree in accounting from...

Coalition wants market to feel nonprofits' pain.
November 3, 2000... Long before nonprofits being priced out of their space became a hot political issue, 12 nonprofits and city groups had joined together early this year as The Partnership for Affordable Nonprofit Space. "It wasn't on a lot of people's radar...

550 California to go for $110.6 million.
November 3, 2000... Local investment firm SPI Properties has tied up 550 California for what local brokers say is about $110.6 million. That's about $316 per square foot for the 350,000-square-foot building. The sale is expected to close in a few weeks. ...

Serving RE and economics.
November 3, 2000... The Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business are sponsoring a Real Estate & Economics Symposium. The event will take place from 8 am. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Westin St. Francis. Topics...

Industry always has room for HotelImprovement.
November 3, 2000... The customer is always right in the hospitality and hotel industries, and one San Rafael company has figured out a new way to keep track of what the customer said in the first place. HotelImprovement.com recently launched as a division of...

S.F. bureau eyes Japan.
November 3, 2000... The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau is setting its sights abroad by setting up its online site across the Pacific. The bureau has launched its own Japanese web site to keep the island nation abreast of travel and tourism...

PBGH scolds Health Net for not renewing accreditation.
November 3, 2000... Members of the Pacific Business Group on Health have begun to crack the whip on the Health Net HMO for choosing not to renew its National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accreditation this past summer. The NCQA's accreditation and...

Focus on Latino businesses.
November 3, 2000... The 275-member San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SFHCC), Blue Cross of California and St. Luke's Hospital have teamed up to help target Latino businesses. The program aims to increase the number of San Francisco small businesses...

Mission National cleans up act, makes small-biz play.
November 3, 2000... Even as the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency marched in with an order against Mission National Bank some 23 months ago, new CEO Owen Erickson had a plan. True, the first phase of that plan was aimed at taking care of its...

Union board to lose three at next annual meeting.
November 3, 2000... UnionBanCalCorp. board members Herman Gallegos, Sidney Petersen and Jack Hancock will leave the board after the annual shareholder meeting in April, Gallegos says. All will have reached the board's mandatory retirement age of 70. A...

Novato Community lauded.
November 3, 2000... Novato Community Bank was named Small Business of the Year by the Novato Chamber of Commerce. The nine-employee bank, founded 10 years ago as New West Thrift and Loan, was honored for its community contributions and customer service...

Net business.
November 3, 2000... Feeling the Internet pinch A funding crunch and investor disfavor continue to take their toll on local Internet enterprises. Some of the companies feeling the pinch: San Francisco web site for independent film makers Eveo Inc. is...

I-CANN be a squatter too.
November 3, 2000... International commitee may open can of domain name worms The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is expected to add new top-level name domain names (TLDs) -- such as .shop, .web and .kids -- to the Internet lexicon...

Webvan Group stock no rubber ball.
November 3, 2000... Online grocer Webvan Group, once one of e-commerce's penthouse dwellers, has joined its lesser business-to-consumer brethren in the stock market basement, flirting around the $1 mark. At $1.19 as of Nov. 1, a share of Webvan stock costs...

Date a CEO contest nets PR mileage.
November 3, 2000... Anybody want to marry a dot-com executive who may or may not be a millionaire? SocialNet.com CEO Liz Kalodner posted her photo and vital statistics on her own matchmaking web site, attracting a dozen eligible bachelors and a fair amount of...

VC Alexander Rosen sees future in peer-to-peer tech.
November 3, 2000... Venture capitalist Alexander Rosen, a general partner with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette's Sprout Group in Menlo Park, focuses on software and e-commerce. He counts mySimon, now part of CNET Networks, among his successes. San Francisco Business...

Online realty deals may catch on, but till then: Trees beware.
November 3, 2000... Real estate agents joke about the number of trees killed to supply the paperwork involved in every home transaction. But thanks to a new law and modern technology fewer trees may have to sacrifice their lives for such transactions in the...

Women-owned businesses face sizable credit gap.
November 3, 2000... Women own 38 percent of all of the small businesses in the United States but receive only 12 percent of all the credit provided to small firms, reports a new study conducted by the Milken Institute for the National Women's Business Council. ...

OPIC commits $1 million to African businesses.
November 3, 2000... The Overseas Private Investment Corp. will provide $1 million to the Peoples Investment Fund for Africa, a microfinancing program for African small businesses that will match OPIC's money with loans from individual Americans. OPIC is a...

Storing success.
November 3, 2000... Accidental entrepreneur designs dreams for wine collectors Behind the sofa in his office, Paul Wyatt has a statue of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god also known as the Lord of Obstacles -- because he removes them from your path. In...

ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE.
November 3, 2000... Shahla Davoudi Title: Founder and owner. Company: Elite Reprographics of the Bay Area Inc. Provides duplicating, blueprinting, CAD plotting, online printing, large color format printing, indoor and outdoor signage, black and white and...

Tech association, agency to team on worker needs.
November 3, 2000... The Information Technology Association of America will be the Department of Labor's partner in helping employers find workers for high-tech jobs. The partnership "brings an unprecedented channel for communication between government and...

Builders like HUD budget but want regulatory relief.
November 3, 2000... The real estate industry applauded the 16 percent budget hike Congress granted the Department of Housing and Urban Development, saying the increased funding for community development block grants and housing assistance vouchers will help more...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
November 3, 2000... BANKING/FINANCE The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco appointed Jennifer Burlison as vice president of mortgage purchases, promoted Anita Adams to vice president, director of affordable housing, and promoted Michelle Meyer to vice...

Groups spend big money on small business.
November 3, 2000... The National Federation of Independent Business' political action committee raised $8 million for the 2000 election -- a small sum compared with the $3 billion that observers estimate will be spent by all the players in this year's political...

Pushing growth outside city will solve nothing.
November 3, 2000... It's the economy, stupid. Bill Clinton rode that phrase to the White House in 1992. Eight years later, it's one worth remembering in San Francisco. For city voters have a clear choice on Tuesday about the shape and landscape of the future...

Say goodbye to the life of the party.
November 3, 2000... We got the news at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, that hour of the work week when thoughts drift from maximizing shareholder value to hammering back a cold one. It was approaching Miller Time, and we couldn't resist the urge to throw an...

Split-roll plan unkindest cut of all for business.
November 3, 2000... Developments this year indicate an accelerated spending lobby agenda in 2001 to increase property taxes paid by businesses in the form of a split roll, which is clearly the single most damaging tax policy change that could occur in California...

Knocking on the door of White House's Lincoln bedroom.
November 3, 2000... So, there I was in Washington, D.C., on business, enjoying posh accommodations at a newly opened Ritz-Canton hotel during a four-day conference. On a whim, I decided to investigate the possibility of staying over an extra day in the city's...

Bring on some new pinch hitters in election game.
November 3, 2000... It's time for a critical, detailed, intelligent analysis of the presidential election. Just saying these names out loud should provide energy, power and hope: Al Gore. George W. Bush. Ralph Nader. Two-hundred-seventy million...

Catellus projects stand on the right side of history.
November 3, 2000... Five years after Nelson Rising first came aboard as CEO, Catellus Development Corp. is racing faster than ever along tracks laid decades ago by former parent company Santa Fe Railroad. Necessity is the mother of invention for Catellus, as...

Economic boom creates more castles in the sky.
November 3, 2000... When Assim Abdullah and his wife began scouring San Francisco for a second home earlier this year, they considered luxury apartments atop the new Four Seasons and other upscale developments before opting for a palatial penthouse in Pacific...

Stanford controversy can't shake foundation plans.
November 3, 2000... Even with billions in the bank and a track record for giving that would put Bill Gates to shame, finding a piece of land to develop in the Bay Area's crunched real estate market can be daunting. But after a three-year search -- and a...

Mortgage conduits must fight to make ends meet.
November 3, 2000... Securitization is here to stay, and that's good news for commercial real estate brokers. It would normally be good news to conduits as well. Those are the lenders who resell securitized loans -- usually bundled-up packages of commercial...

Construction backup slowing Emeryville to a crawl.
November 3, 2000... Stuck in a crossroads between workers commuting to their Emeryville jobs, more commuters driving on and off the Bay Bridge, and hordes of shoppers heading to the area's hot new superstores, this one-square-mile city seems trapped in its own...

What's a little contamination when land prices surge?
November 3, 2000... Contaminated land is a scourge in many urban areas, but in the booming southern Bay Area it's often more than worth the trouble of cleaning it up. "Demand is so huge," said real estate broker John Troughton of Cushman & Wakefield, "the...

Learning letters: K or L?
November 3, 2000... In just four days, voters either will choose between two ballot measures regulating the city's growth or reject them both. Both would alter what was known as Prop. M, the successful voter initiative restricting the city from approving more...

Prentiss reaping what it sowed in rich Oakland soil.
November 3, 2000... A crucial decision made 16 years ago has reaped great rewards for Prentiss Properties Trust, now a major player in Oakland's hot commercial real estate market with approximately 1 million square feet of office space. The Dallas-based...

Oakland airport to open doors to Laptop Lane.
November 3, 2000... In today's mobile business environment, an "office" can consist simply of a slippery, molded plastic seat in a busy waiting area with a laptop computer balanced on one's knees. So it was perhaps inevitable someone would came up with the...

Construction bulldozes its way into technology.
November 3, 2000... Today, technology wears a hard hat Recent high-tech innovations in the $4 trillion-a-year construction industry have made it easier and more cost efficient to buy a bulldozer and then program it to move a ton of dirt. One company, Topcon...

New development to dock at Port of San Francisco.
November 3, 2000... Port to bustle again with landlubbers instead of sailors A series of new developments are pulling up to San Francisco piers, promising to dramatically change the look of the city's waterfront and unload millions of dollars into Port of San...

Predictions of Indian casino boom only smoke signals.
November 3, 2000... Although some predicted an Indian casino building boom after the passage of Proposition 1A this year, tribes have not flocked to architects, contractors and planning departments. So far the major effect of the initiative, which California...

Husband and wife kick up dust in building business.
November 3, 2000... Carolyn and Barry Shames work in the tough, messy world of construction, where business failure rates are second only to restaurants. Yet for more than a decade, Shames Construction of Livermore has thrived through down times, occasional...

Consultants guide new workers along paper trails.
November 3, 2000... Most Bay Area residents already know about the hardships of finding an affordable home, in a safe neighborhood, with good schools and access to various leisure activities. Imagine what this challenge is like for those moving here With no...

Move keeps Catellus at top of its game.
November 3, 2000... Catellus Development Corp. chief Nelson Rising is in a better position to develop in San Francisco than anyone else. The company is building more than 5 million square feet of office space, 730,000 square feet of retail space, 30 acres of...

Area companies eye Hayward warehouses.
November 3, 2000... Hayward has become the hot spot in the Bay Area for Peninsula and Silicon Valley companies looking for large warehouse properties but reluctant to pay big prices. One of the last sizable properties for sale in the Interstate 880 corridor...

Congregations build spirit with new churches.
November 3, 2000... Typically, Roseville-based Sierra View Construction Co. builds a church about every other year. "But we have three under construction this year," says owner Mark Davis. Sierra View, which has made a niche for itself in building...

Full-tilt boom times.
November 3, 2000... Our listings, an indicator, nearly tripled in five years In 1996, when the Sacramento Business Journal set out to produce our first edition of High Tech Direct, we could see that an important shift was developing in the local economy. But...

Bay Area's migration kicks into its third wave.
November 3, 2000... With prices out of control in the Bay Area, companies are moving to Greater Sacramento When Lisa Wade's company started talking about a move from Mountain View to Rocklin in January 2000, the Bay Area native wasn't even sure where Rocklin...

Venture capitalists tell what they're looking for.
November 3, 2000... The good news is we have more venture capital; the bad news is it's still hard to get There is more venture capital and investment money available to local high-tech companies than ever before, but it's still not any easier to get. ...

UC Davis works to put its technology into action.
November 3, 2000... University's culture is changing as business partnerships begin to emerge A spirit of entrepreneurship has creeping into the ivory towers and barns of the University of California at Davis. Driven by declining public funds for research...