Dallas Business Journal articles from July 1997

Dallas Business Journal archives from July 1997

Veteran bankers open new-style SSB. (Bank Dallas SSB)
July 4, 1997... State bank will emphasize commercial and mortgage lending TURTLE CREEK - BankDallas SSB has opened its doors as the first community-owned, state savings bank created in Texas since 1993. Co-founders Mark Lovvorn and Dick Giesecke started the...

And they're off.... (the Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas)
July 4, 1997... GRAND PRAIRIE - Along Belt Line Road north of Interstate 30, there isn't much to see. A sparse growth of weeds covers bare red clay where trucks roll along one of the few undeveloped tracts between Dallas and Fort Worth. But around a curve in...

Growing Tenet operations unit plans to move. (Tenet Healthcare Corp.)
July 4, 1997... FAR NORTH DALLAS - Tenet Healthcare Corp. is looking to move its national operations center out of Stanford Corporate Centre and reportedly is considering three proposed North Dallas office towers for a 250,000-square-foot office relocation and...

GE Capital aims to make Dallas a major merchant banking center. (GE Capital Commercial Finance Inc.)
July 4, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - GE Capital Commercial Finance Inc. will open a Dallas office this week for its Merchant Banking Group at One Lincoln Center. Mark Gudis, recently named senior vice president for the group, will manage the Dallas office, which...

Sterling Software's TI acquisition brings 130 layoffs in local area. (Sterling Software Inc.; Texas Instruments Software)
July 4, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Sterling Software Inc. cut 440 jobs last week following its acquisition of Texas Instruments Software from Texas Instruments Inc. About 130 of the layoffs were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Julie Kupp, a Sterling...

Airlines enter 'fractional ownership' niche.
July 4, 1997... LOVE FIELD - A division of AMR Corp. is storming a lucrative niche market of private aircraft buyers - the executives and wealthy class who buy shares of aircraft to avoid maintaining a flight department. Business JetSolutions opened its doors...

Politics complicating choice for new EPA administrator. (Environmental Protection Agency)
July 4, 1997... DOWNTOWN - President Clinton has a broad range of choices for a new administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's Dallas-based regional headquarters. That is, as long as he likes Texans and Louisianans. In the three weeks since...

Southwest to buy brokerage. (Southwest Securities Group)
July 4, 1997... DOWNTOWN - Dallas-based holding company Southwest Securities Group plans to acquire local brokerage firm Cullum & Sandow and fold the firm into its Brokers Transaction Services subsidiary. Southwest (NASDAQ: SWST) said it expects to close the...

Developers of Northpark Central plan to build second office tower.
July 4, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Developers are seeking tenants for a new 18-story office tower that will be the largest built along North Central Expressway in more than a decade. Without the fanfare and hype usually associated with new building announcements,...

Company hopes to cook with its "Mexican fortune cookie.' (The "Smart" Cookie Inc.)
July 4, 1997... DOWNTOWN - Sid Martinez was eating in a San Antonio Chinese restaurant one day when he noticed the restaurant's patrons reading and eating their fortune cookies. The idea dawned on Martinez, at the time a nine-year veteran with the San Antonio...

'Lifestyles' magazine gets a new editor, more resources.
July 4, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Dallas-Fort Worth Lifestyles magazine has undergone major editorial and production changes in an effort to become "the Vanity Fair of the Metroplex," including buying new equipment and hiring more columnists, photographers anti...

Quest Medical bounces back after product difficulty in '96. (Quest Medical Inc.)
July 4, 1997... ALLEN - Quest Medical Inc., a medical products company, is beginning to bounce back after a disappointing 1996. Last year was "horrible," conceded Tommy Thompson, Quest's founder, president and CEO. The company spent $11 million on a new...

Edelman Texas opts for Big D. (Edelman Public Relations Worldwide; Dallas, Texas)
July 4, 1997... TURTLE CREEK - Edelman Public Relations Worldwide has relocated its Texas headquarters to Dallas from Houston, aiming to take advantage of the number of Fortune 500 companies that recently have moved into the Metroplex. Edelman plans to...

Glitz and gambling. (daily attendance at the Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas)
July 4, 1997... Daily 'handle' at Lone Star Park averages $132 per person GRAND PRAIRIE - There's no getting around it: Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie is a magnificent facility. The suites in the grandstand look like Dallas law offices; the seats are...

Park's purse structure pleases horsemen. (the Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas)
July 4, 1997... GRAND PRAIRIE - Todd Glasser leaned forward, raising his eyebrows in a manner that suggested he was at least mildly impressed. "They've got some good quality horses here, and some big trainers," said Glasser, a jockey working at Lone Star Park...

High-tech firm pumping $43 million into chip plant. (Crysteco Epitaxial Corp.)
July 4, 1997... ALLEN - An Ohio-based company will invest about $43 million here over the next few years in a plant it's setting up to help produce the silicon waters on which semiconductors are placed. Crysteco Epitaxial Corp.'s 27,000-square-foot facility...

Office market continues strong, researchers say.
July 4, 1997... FAR NORTH DALLAS - The Metroplex office real estate market continues to roll along at a healthy clip, with no indication of any weakening in the mid-year report from Jamison Research Inc. The report shows that vacancy is down, absorption is up...

OSHA gathering data, taking names on workplace injury. (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
July 4, 1997... WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Occupational Safety & Health Administration is changing the way it collects workplace injury data in an attempt to make businesses more accountable for unsafe practices. The federal agency is surveying more than 80,000...

TV business people 'bad' to 'horrid.'(Column)
July 4, 1997... You built your company from scratch, overcoming banker disinterest, spousal anxiety and regulatory insensitivity. You hired hundreds of people along the way, becoming a community asset as well as a force in the marketplace. You gave time and...

Executives should mind their linguistic p's and q's.(Column)
July 4, 1997... Not long ago, I was on a cruise ship attending a trade seminar. One of the gatherings was an informal discussion of the cruise industry by top officers of two major cruise line corporations. The banter was lively as each poked good-natured fun at...

Gas trader fits service to customers' needs. (U.S. Gas Transportation)(Growth Strategies)
July 4, 1997... UPTOWN - The trading room buzzes with voices at all levels, the clicking and whirring of computers and video monitors. An operator mans a phone system with dozens of incoming lines, most of them blinking furiously, as casually dressed traders...

Transportation solutions key to growth.(Fast Forward)
July 4, 1997... The interchanges of Interstate 30, Interstate 35 and North Central Expressway just south of downtown Dallas pique the professional curiosity of Sandy Wesch-Schulze. As a project manager for the Texas Department of Transportation, Wesch-Schulze...

D-FW economic forecast: business will be booming. (Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas)(Column)
July 4, 1997... Economists have a notoriously poor record as forecasters, but in this case how can we go wrong? A decade from now we'll see a booming Metroplex economy that's not only the focal point of the oil patch but rivals Chicago as the Heartland's...

Prepare work force for technological challenges.(Fast Forward)(Column)
July 4, 1997... Educators have always been long-range planners; preparing people for the future is our business. But the future has just gotten a lot more complicated. Our challenge for education in the new millennium is to know how to address the changes...

Revitalization sets Dallas apart from other cities.(Fast Forward)(Column)
July 4, 1997... A major symphony, a well-known museum, a performing arts center for opera and local theater, a renowned sculpture collection. world-class convention and tourism accommodations and professional sports facilities. Is it New York? Chicago? San...

Access to quality health care will be close at hand.(Column)
July 4, 1997... Today, during a period of rapid transition in health care, such terms as quality, choice. convenience, access, satisfaction, competition and managed care (among others) are reverberating throughout the health care establishment. They paint a...

Going nowhere fast? (traffic congestion)(Fast Forward)(Column)
July 4, 1997... Agencies developing plans to address Metroplex traffic congestion; promote alternative modes There you are sitting on 635 (or Central or I-30) stuck in traffic yet again. And you wonder, is anybody doing anything to make these cars move?...

Struggling Tyler Corp. leaving town. (conglomerate to relocate from Dallas to Houston, Texas)
July 18, 1997... New CEO turns out the lights on company's opulent headquarters DOWNTOWN - Tyler Corp., a 35-year-old Dallas industrial conglomerate that once ranked among the Fortune 500, will move its corporate headquarters to Houston this fall. Ten years...

Spanish province opens trade office. (Andalusia's trade representative in Dallas, Texas)
July 18, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Entrepreneurs from Andalusia, Spain, are taking a page from Christopher Columbus' book - venturing forth to penetrate parts of the New World. But this time, they're using Dallas as a beachhead. One of the largest regions in...

CompUSA expanding in North Dallas. (CompUSA Inc.)
July 18, 1997... FAR NORTH DALLAS - CompUSA Inc. is planning to expand its presence in Far North Dallas. The computer retailer (NYSE: CPU), which has 130 retail superstores nationwide, needs additional space for its Dallas operations, said Jim Halpin, the...

NTS rolls out debit card for remote employes. (TransPay debit card tested)
July 18, 1997... FORT WORTH - First Data Corp. subsidiary NTS has completed start-up testing for TransPay, a debit card designed to allow companies to transmit payrolls to employees in remote locations, and has begun nationwide marketing of the product. "The...

Investor group planning big speculative office building.
July 18, 1997... PARK CENTRAL - An investment group led by the Today Group of Cos. is planning the biggest new speculative office tower in the area this decade. Churchill Tower, to be located at the southeast corner of Churchill Way and Coit Road, is a $17...

Texas, Metroplex exports reaching record-high levels.
July 18, 1997... CARROLLTON - Metroplex manufacturer A.J. Wichita first exported his oil additives and lubricants back in 1985. Now, 12 years later, Wichita has product going to more than 20 countries, and 50% of his business is international. President of...

Apartment firm leaping into extended-stay suites market. (Intervest Properties Co.)
July 18, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Buoyed by its initial success in the niche, Dallas-based Intervest Properties Co. has given the go-ahead to develop 16 more properties over the next two years catering to the $350-per-week "extended-stay" suites market. That...

Publisher expands line of sports card magazines. (Beckett Publications Inc.)
July 18, 1997... FAR NORTH DALLAS - Out in a bookstore or hobby shop, Jeff Amano could be mistaken easily for one of the teen-agers who make up his target market. With his buzz cut, earring and propensity to vault over his desk on a whim, the president of...

Magazine targeting area visitors with TV program. (D Magazine's television program 'D on TV')
July 18, 1997... DOWNTOWN - "D on TV," D Magazine's first foray into television, will air its first broadcast at 7 p.m. July 18 on KTXA (Channel 5) with an hour-long program designed to help viewers decide what to do and where to go in the Dallas-Fort Worth area....

Koll Real Estate's reorganization to have 'no impact' on local deals. (Koll Real Estate Group Inc.)
July 18, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - Koll Real Estate Group Inc. has filed for reorganization in a plan that was pre-approved by its bondholders and stockholders. Officials at the company's Southwest division, based in Dallas, said the reorganization will have no...

Fancy law offices give way to more efficient space.
July 18, 1997... DOWNTOWN - Nowhere were the excesses of some 1980s office projects more evident than in the offices of some of Dallas' leading law firms. Top-dollar finish-out and amenities that would have shamed the set designers of "L.A. Law" allowed the...

New company is 'calling all cabs' for advertising. (Creative Cabs Inc.)
July 18, 1997... PLANO - After reading about advertisements on taxicabs in New Orleans, Dino Antovoni wondered why no one had tried the same thing in Dallas. It turns out many people had tried - and failed. But Antovoni hopes that studying their failures will...

Group proposing new bank in Tarrant County's Lake Worth. (Star Bank of Texas)
July 18, 1997... LAKE WORTH - Surrounded on all sides by Fort Worth, this city of 4,591 will soon have its first state-chartered bank - if an application from a group of 11 Tarrant County residents succeeds. While it awaits the state's decision, the group is...

Paragon jumps into financing for expensive used vehicles. (Paragon Acceptance Corp.)
July 18, 1997... NORTH DALLAS - California-based Paragon Acceptance Corp. has set up shop here to finance expensive used vehicles in Texas and Oklahoma. Within 12 months, Paragon expects to be generating 2,400 contracts each month totaling at least $36 million....

Tucker Rocky is relocating from Irving site to Alliance. (Tucker Rocky Distributing Co.)
July 18, 1997... FORT WORTH - Tucker Rocky Distributing Co. is the latest distribution company relocating to Alliance Development Co.'s Gateway business community. The firm, the nation's largest distributor of parts and accessories for motorcycles,...

Lincoln takes over Maxus Tower management. (Lincoln Property Co.)
July 18, 1997... DOWNTOWN - Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas has taken over the management and leasing of Maxus Energy Tower after the building's owner abruptly pulled Trammell Crow Co. off the job in early July. The 34-story, 827,704-square-foot Downtown...

InterVoice defends its financial performance.
July 18, 1997... FAR NORTH DALLAS - InterVoice Inc. is facing criticism from shareholders and analysts over its sluggish performance during the last few quarters. When the Richardson maker of call automation systems holds its annual meeting on Thursday, July...

In the driver's seat: manager training spells success for luxury dealerships. (Park Place Dealerships)
July 18, 1997... OAK LAWN - In the movie "City Slickers." Jack Palance as the wizened old archetypal cowboy tells city boy Billy Crystal that the secret to life is "this" - and he holds up one finger. "One thing. Just one thing," Palance says. And once you...

Renovation motivation: older homes have savvy appeal.
July 18, 1997... EAST DALLAS - What Pat Shelton did in the way of building her own nest at 5455 Vanderbilt is hardly a sign that the great Diaspora to the suburbs is reversing. New home construction in Plano, Allen, McKinney, Coppell and the Mid-Cities...

Benefits of fixing it up vs. buying it new. (home improvements)
July 18, 1997... Many flock to home improvement stores to do-it-themselves; competition is heating up A television commercial touting paint tells the story of a couple who purchases the most run-down house in the best neighborhood. Such advertising is more...

Hunting in cyberspace. (real estate Web sites)
July 18, 1997... Real estate Web sites can speed process by helping home buyers research neighborhood and prices People can buy everything from cats to cars on the Internet, but the one thing 'Net-heads can't purchase online just yet is homes. The Internet...

Seniors enjoy amenities at residential communities.
July 18, 1997... Gloria Booker and several of her neighbors wanted to shop at Albertson's, but the grocery store was not on the list of stops. The driver not only took the three ladies to the Albertson's, but also shuttled the others on the van to supermarkets...

Good buys on foreclosed homes don't come easy.
July 18, 1997... The word "foreclosure" invariably conjures up images of bargain-basement buys. But to be successful in the world of foreclosures, the first thing you should do is cleanse your mind of visions of paying 30 cents on the dollar. In these days of...

Dallas ranks high in housing study.
July 18, 1997... Dallas is back in the Top 10 markets for affordability of mid-level executive housing, according to a national study released by the Ernst & Young Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group. The Metroplex now ranks in eighth place, up from the 11th...

Home warranties require close buyer, seller scrutiny.
July 18, 1997... A new home purchase often includes the option of a residential warranty. These warranties are sometimes provided free to the buyer by the builder, or the listing Realtor, as an inducement to purchase. Builders and Realtors also offer home...

Luxury home owners have distinct design expectations.
July 18, 1997... The idea of relaxing in a Jacuzzi while looking through the skylight on a starry evening, then curling up by a cozy tire in the imported stone fireplace at the far end of the master bedroom suite isn't necessarily a dream. It's an example of the...