Dallas Business Journal articles from May 1994

Dallas Business Journal archives from May 1994

Dutch firm scouting plant sites: food processing company wants big breaks from cities competing for deal. (Delta Daily Foods)
May 27, 1994... Several area suburbs are vying for a Dutch company that wants its first U.S. address to be somewhere in the Metroplex. Delta Daily Foods, a food distributor and processor, is scouting the suburbs for a site to build a $15 million,...

Office Depot targets spec building. (Office Depot Inc.)
May 27, 1994... GRAND PRAIRIE -- Office Depot Inc. is about to make an industrial real estate developer's gamble pay off. Last year, Memphis, Tenn.-based Industrial Development International (IDI) built a 295,000-square-foot building in Grand Prairie in the...

Building a bank: Lamar Ball on his way to $1B mark. (First Bancorp Inc. executive Lamar Ball)
May 27, 1994... DENTON -- Lamar Ball knows what a crumbling banking empire looks like. In the 1980s, as head of retail banking in five of the seven markets served by MCorp, he could smell trouble on the wind. But it was trouble he says he hadn't helped...

Interactive start-up plots $39M offering. (7th Level Inc.)
May 27, 1994... George Grayson is taking a stab at one of the most risky -- and potentially most lucrative -- emerging industries around. And he's asking investors to go along for the ride. Grayson and his new company, Richardson-based 7th Level Inc., are...

Palm Harbor aims to raise $25M in IPO. (Palm Harbor Homes Inc.; initial public offering)
May 27, 1994... A Dallas-based maker of mobile homes is heading to Wall Street to bankroll construction of new manufacturing plants and up to 24 new retail superstores. Palm Harbor Homes Inc., the nation's fourth-largest builder of manufactured homes, plans...

Marriott plots senior citizen housing for Preston Road site. (Marriott Senior Living Services)
May 27, 1994... Marriott Senior Living Services is stepping up its push into Texas with plans to build a $4.5 million senior care facility in North Dallas. The facility is planned for a 3-acre site at 12400 Preston Road that a division of Marriott...

Pilots back out of fast-track talks. (Allied Pilots Association negotiations with AMR Corp.)
May 27, 1994... The Allied Pilots Association has taken a tougher stance in preparation for negotiations with AMR Corp. The union, representing American Airlines Inc.'s 10,000 pilots, has backed out of an earlier agreement with the airline to put...

City mulls new approach to debt payment. (Dallas City, Texas)
May 27, 1994... Fiscal conservatism could be a thing of the past at Dallas City Hall. City officials structuring $100 million in new debt are considering breaking with tradition to slow repayment so that City Hall has more cash on hand to satisfy other...

Columbia charges ahead: company to sell 20% stake to local docs, execs. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
May 27, 1994... Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. is stepping up its march through the Metroplex with a plan to offer doctors at its eight area hospitals a piece of the action. Now with an 18-year veteran of the health care industry at the helm, the hospital...

Nafta numbers show modest jump in trade. (North American Free Trade Agreement)
May 27, 1994... After a chaotic start, the first news about how the North American Free Trade Agreement is affecting U.S. trade is beginning to filter in, and the trade agreement appears to be living up to its billing. For the Garland plant of Adams Magnetic...

Who's who in small-business lending.
May 27, 1994... The Dallas Business Journal has scanned the Metroplex for individuals active in lending to local small businesses. In our Who's Who compilation, we have tried to include executives from some of the area's most active banks -- giving names and...

Business must back Cotton Bowl effort. (college football bowl games)
May 27, 1994... For 58 years, the Cotton Bowl has been the football game that kicks off the New Year in Texas. Year after year, people across the region have become used to bundling up and heading to Fair Park for the last Southwest Conference game of the...

Texas' homestead law is worth preserving.
May 27, 1994... Editor's note: State Sen. John Leedom wrote this commentary in response to a recent Dallas Business Journal editorial supporting repeal of a ban on home equity loans. Supporters of a repeal of the Texas Constitution's longstanding ban on...

Family-firm successions: danger zone. (Strategies)
May 27, 1994... Foster Poole and his wife Nancy didn't need a nationwide search to find new owners for their Dallas gift shops and wholesale business. They just looked across the breakfast table. As they enter their early 60s, the husband-and-wife owners of...

For the rich, the future demands nimbleness - or leads to decline. (Strategies)
May 27, 1994... "You really scared them. Most of them head family-run manufacturing businesses and are pretty darned conservative." That was the feedback from a talk I gave recently. Funny, I didn't think I'd said anything that dramatic. I'd just returned...

DataSource thrives in lot-tracking niche. (Real Estate DataSource) (Strategies)
May 27, 1994... A lot of people eat Mexican food and get more than they bargained for. Bob Gass and Jody Reese got an idea for a new company. Over a lunch in May 1989, the duo decided they could do a better job of tracking the area's oversupply of...

High yen gives U.S. a competitive edge. (Strategies)
May 27, 1994... An economic recession in Japan and the yen's strengthening exchange rate with the dollar have provided opportunities for U.S. exporters and real estate developers alike. The strong yen has cut the retail price of U.S. goods shipped to Japan...

Big plans for big D. (Dallas, Texas) (Metro Market Report)
May 27, 1994... As a young man, Ben Carpenter was ready to face the future hand-in-hand with Dallas. It was the 1960s. Carpenter and his business associates had a notion of developing ranch property northwest of Dallas. One day, Carpenter drove into town...

The Dallas Education Center moves into the old Joske's building. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... If you put together different non-profit organizations, a group of businesses and seven schools, what would you get? You can be forgiven if your answer is "a mess." But the real answer to the above is -- a multi-institutional educational...

The Farmer's Market receives a new logo, image and a face-lift to make it a bustling marketplace. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... Entering the new Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas, you are immediately aware of the vibrant colors, and sights, sounds and smells of a luscious and bustling marketplace. And when construction ends this fall, what has been a good thing in...

New commercial developments bring excitement and positive results to the Dallas Uptown area. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... Excitement is brewing in Dallas' Uptown area. And it's an excitement born of the positive results from new commercial developments that are taking hold in a sector of Dallas that has seen leaner and slower times. Area developers are...

Downtown is alive and well. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... "Things are never as good as they say they are, nor are they as bad as they say they are." You probably believe that downtown Dallas is on the verge of becoming a ghost town. However, downtown is experiencing quite a bit of excitement these...

Main Street makeover. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... There's a new attitude and a new look springing up in downtown Dallas. Take time to stroll down Main Street, and you will see a myriad of improvements that make you want to stroll down Main Street. And you can't fail to look up and admire the...

The demand for downtown housing is answered. (residential housing; Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... What could not be accomplished alone by consumers interested in downtown residential housing, or by the City of Dallas, or by area residential developers, is now becoming a reality by the combined efforts of all three. A number of loft...

Entertainment in downtown Dallas. (Dallas, Texas) (Downtown Renaissance)
May 27, 1994... (Writer's note: the following could be a letter written by one recently transplanted Dallasite to friends and relatives up north.) Dear Friends and Family North of the Mason-Dixon Line, All of you were wrong about "Big D." First of all,...

Zell grabs Glen Lakes property. (real estate investor Samuel Zell)
May 20, 1994... Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell has staked a claim on North Central Expressway (U.S. 75) with an agreement to buy the Glen Lakes Tower office building and adjacent land. Armed with a $500 million acquisition fund, Zell is taking a...

Largest HMOs post big gains in enrollment. (Dallas, Texas) (Industry Overview)
May 20, 1994... HMO growth Change in membership since 1992 Cigna -46% Harris 35% Kaiser 3% MetLife -11% Prudential 71% Sanus 23% Southwest 13%...

Certification agency must open records. (North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency)
May 20, 1994... Minority businesses wary of telling all to obtain contracts with government ARLINGTON -- Beverly Gipson is discovering the disadvantage of being disadvantaged. Her family trucking company is among an estimated 2,500 companies certified...

Bank of America peddling branches around Texas. (Bank of America Texas N.A.)
May 20, 1994... Bank of America Texas is looking to shed some of its 234 Texas branches. Bank of America has conducted preliminary discussions with bankers in north, central and south Texas about selling an undetermined number of its branches, industry...

Dallas investor paying $22M for Preston Road office building. (Eric Brauss)
May 20, 1994... Dallas real estate investor Eric Brauss is adding to his growing office portfolio with an agreement to buy the Signature Place II office building in Far North Dallas. A partnership led by Brauss is paying nearly $80 per square foot for the...

Dallas cabbies organize to fight City Hall.
May 20, 1994... A city crackdown on substandard taxicabs at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport last week and the cab drivers' spontaneous strike in response has focused the spotlight on the vise drivers say is squeezing them. On one side, the city --...

Courting on the course. (searching for new corporate sponsors for Dallas-based golf tournaments)
May 20, 1994... Metroplex golf tournaments woo new sponsors -- all at once Norm Campbell, Bill Bowers and John Denton don't know each other, but a quirk of fate has given them one thing in common -- each is a big game hunter in the jungle of sports...

Dallas legal industry starts to stabilize. (Industry Overview)
May 20, 1994... Though efficiency will continue to be the watchword at local law firms, managing partners say the legal industry finally is stabilizing here. After several stormy years of fast growth -- and almost-as-fast shrinkage -- local firms are more...

The world at our door. (World Cup Dallas 1994)
May 20, 1994... More than a quarter of a million soccer fans from all over the world are headed for Dallas this summer -- and making their stay smooth has been a big job for months The tourism estimates have dipped, and the hotels aren't banking on total...

ATM deal opens market for Comtrac. (automated teller machines; Comtrac Corporation Inc.)
May 20, 1994... The settlement last month of a government investigation into automated teller machine networks is causing fiefdoms in this high-volume industry to tumble. And waiting to pick up the pieces are companies like Dallas-based Comtrac Corp., a maker...

Merger fever hits firms - not financiers. (Moorco International Inc; Fischer nd Porter Co.; Elsag Bailey Process Automation NV)
May 20, 1994... Houston-based Moorco International Inc. thought it had taken a large step toward expanding its markets when it agreed last Fall to buy Fischer & Porter Co., a Warnminster, Penn. maker of oilfield instruments. The $150 million deal gave the...

Case uses medical sales expertise to build firm. (Catherine Case, owner of Case Professional Medical Inc.)
May 20, 1994... Catherine Case spent the earlier part of her career laying a foundation for the company she has built. Case started her career selling pharmaceuticals and quickly moved to selling durable medical equipment. In a short while, she determined...

Trade group works to spread network. (International Trade Association of the Dallas-Fort Worth Area)
May 20, 1994... It's the questions that keep life interesting for Bennett Greenfield, the new executive director of the International Trade Association of the Dallas-Fort Worth Area. "We get calls every day from people wanting to know 'How do I ship horses...

Harrah's gambles on Dallas. (Promus Companies Inc. Harrah's)
May 13, 1994... Casino giant targets six area sites as Legislature prepares to weigh gaming law Gaming heavyweight Harrah's is surfacing as a serious player in the scramble for Dallas-area sites appropriate for riverboat gaming. Harrah's, and its Memphis,...

Hell on wheels? (substandard taxicabs at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport)
May 13, 1994... Airport taxis substandard, cab companies say The central cab queue at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is a showcase of what critics say is wrong with the local taxi business: three acres on which 250 dented, dirty and damaged taxis...

Audit reveals violations of D/FW contracting rules. (Dallas/Fort Worth Airport)
May 13, 1994... IRVING -- Federal auditors are urging tougher government oversight of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after uncovering conflicts of interest and other problems affecting millions of dollars in public contracts. A new audit by the...

RTC sues Miller for $13M. (Resolution Trust Corp.; real estate developer Vance Miller Sr.)
May 13, 1994... The Resolution Trust Corp. is taking real estate developer Vance Miller Sr. to court, claiming he owes the agency nearly $13 million plus interest for unpaid notes he guaranteed. But Miller said he knows nothing about the lawsuit and that the...

Rauscher Pierce taps Wall Street for new derivatives division chief. (Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc.; Ken Hedrick)
May 13, 1994... In an effort to keep pace with its Wall Street competitors, Dallas-based investment banking firm Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc. has hired a New York financier to help the company use sophisticated financial instruments known as derivatives....

State health care starts in Houston.
May 13, 1994... HOUSTON -- The White House may be watching events in the Houston area with great interest in coming weeks. Houston-area small businesses were able to start buying health insurance through the state's first-ever purchasing alliance on May 10....

Ambulance firm plots big push into Metroplex. (Rural/Metro Corp.)
May 13, 1994... An Arizona-based company is buying five local ambulance services in a bid to develop a statewide network. Rural/Metro Corp. said it would acquire the local ambulance services and consolidate the operations into one in an attempt to operate...

NationsBank runs for the border with plans for new subsidiary. (expands Mexican business)
May 13, 1994... CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NationsBank Corp. plans to open a bank in Mexico, where the North American Free Trade Agreement has created huge opportunities for ambitious U.S. banking companies. NationsBank has operated a small, limited-service office...

Finding a voice. (voice recognition systems) (High Technology)
May 13, 1994... Local companies prosper with technology that allows consumers to talk their way through any transaction Ten years ago, voice processing companies marketed glorified answering machines with features like pre-recorded raspy voices or voice...

High-profile technology execs form venture capital fund. (Eureka Ventures) (High Technology) (Interview)
May 13, 1994... One of the latest venture capital firms to burst onto the Dallas financing scene features a few locals who already made a name for themselves in the high-tech market. Three former executives of local computer companies -- Avery More, former...

Federal government backs electronic signature technology. (High Technology)
May 13, 1994... While technology experts regularly do some fairly amazing things with silicon, the ability to sign an electronic document -- with a computerized technique that would hold up in court -- has eluded them. That's about to change. According to...

Golf club maker bets on excellence. (Adams Golf Inc.) (Company Profile)
May 13, 1994... RICHARDSON -- Barney Adams said when he speaks to people considering buying or starting their own business, he gives them some blunt advice. "You better go into something you like because the hours you will work are going to be twice as long...

Janitorial firm cleans up with basic virtues. (Adame Janitorial Services) (Small Business) (Company Profile)
May 13, 1994... Althea Bell made a total of $150 her first year in business. After graduating from college in 1989, Bell had tried to turn her part-time job of cleaning individuals' homes into a full-time business. That first year on her own, however, was...

Trade-status spat sours U.S.-China prospects. (Small Business)
May 13, 1994... To Dallas-area businesses that possess a world view, China stands as a land of trade opportunity: The world's largest potential market with 1.2 billion people; an economy that grew 5% in 1993: and an explicit plan to spend money on...

Amusement company targets Dallas; Discovery Zone subsidiary wants to build three giant entertainment centers.
May 6, 1994... Discovery Zone Inc. wants to expand its entertainment kingdom by building as many as three giant new Enchanted Castle amusement centers in the Metroplex. Enchanted Castle would dwarf anything similar in the Dallas area by combining many of...

Armey rethinks his support of Love restrictions. (Rep. Richard Armeyy; Dallas Love Field)
May 6, 1994... The Wright Amendment could be losing the support of a local congressman whose clout is increasing in the Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Dick Armey, a five-term lawmaker from Denton County, has told Wright Amendment opponents that he might join...

Hospitals join forces for public clinic: Parkland, Presby to develop facility in Vickery Hill area. (Parkland Memorial Hospital; Presbyterian Healthcare System)
May 6, 1994... Parkland Memorial Hospital and Presbyterian Healthcare System are launching a joint assault on the health problems of low-income people who live near Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. In an innovative public-private partnership, Parkland and...

PageMart goes public to finance expanded paging network; $55M offering may boost company into cutting-edge personal communications.
May 6, 1994... PageMart Inc. is hoping to elbow its way into the huddle of the nation's leading paging companies with a $63 million initial public stock offering. The Dallas-based company also is asking Wall Street to help PageMart stake its claim on the...

Wireless company launches IPO. (RF Monolithics Inc.; initial public offering)
May 6, 1994... One of the wireless communications industry's quiet companies has started calling out to Wall Street. RF Monolithics Inc., a Dallas-based manufacturer of low-power wireless electronics, plans to hit the public markets in an attempt to raise...

Garland health care company plans first stock offering, regional growth. (Outreach Health Care Inc.)
May 6, 1994... A Garland-based home health care company plans to fuel a four-state expansion by raising $9 million with a public stock offering, according to documents filed April 27 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rapidly growing Outreach...

Teamsters say contract compromise wasn't worth strike. (International Brotherhood of Teamsters)
May 6, 1994... Local leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters say the just-ended strike of national trucking companies was a failure that hurt union members more than helped them. "I've been in on every contract we've negotiated since we...

Car sales surpass 1993's comeback pace. (Dallas County, Texas)
May 6, 1994... New car and truck registrations in Dallas County jumped 15% for the first quarter of 1994 to the highest number of vehicles sold for the period since 1986. The revving sales are more than a push out of the ditch for an industry that enjoyed...

Lusting for apartments; buyers nab new complexes - before they're done.
May 6, 1994... Luxury apartment developments are such a hot commodity that pension funds and other institutional investors are lining up to buy -- sometimes even before construction is completed. It's a case of too much money chasing too few deals, say...

The family tree of Dallas commercial real estate brokerage. (Real Estate Focus)
May 6, 1994... Retired Dallas real estate magnate Henry Miller Jr. likes to compare the large brood of corporate offspring produced by his family's eight decades in business to that of another Dallas-born commercial empire. "My wife and I compared it to...

One flight up: second-story retail market a peculiar - and profitable - niche. (Real Estate Focus)
May 6, 1994... In the building boom of the mid-1980s, the high cost of land prompted developers to build up instead of out. So two-story retail projects were born. And then came the crash, which emptied out many of those second floors and left a sizeable...

Banks reach out to tornado victims.
May 6, 1994... DeSOTO -- The tornados that tore a path through the towns of DeSoto and Lancaster last month took only a few minutes to destroy property and lives. Rebuilding from the devastation will take lots of time and money. But the nine banks serving...

Market upheaval has bonds drawing new investor interest.
May 6, 1994... The recent upheaval in international securities markets has caused many investors to sell their holdings in an effort seek shelter on the sidelines. Such an exodus creates opportunities for less risk-averse investors -- just the sort who now...

Counting money makes markets for CSI Inc. (Currency Systems International Inc.)
May 6, 1994... It takes money to make money, goes the old saw. But it takes a virtual mint for Currency Systems International Inc. to do business. The Irving-based company makes machines that count money, and it has focused its sales on the central banks...