Baltimore Business Journal articles from December 1997

Baltimore Business Journal archives from December 1997

Towson hospitals eye merger. (Maryland)
December 19, 1997... Towson's two major hospitals have spent the last year in onagain, off-again discussions about a merger that could create a hospital powerhouse north of Baltimore. A link between St. Joseph Medical Center and the Greater Baltimore Medical...

BGE nixes deal to sell Florida mall. (Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.)
December 19, 1997... Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s deal to sell an Orlando retail and entertainment complex to a Florida real estate mogul has collapsed. The Baltimore utility's real estate subsidiary, Constellation Real Estate Group Inc., and George Straub, a...

Parks takes Tropicana to breakfast. (Parks Sausage Co.)
December 19, 1997... In a bid to reenergize a faded brand, Parks Sausage Co. launched its first major marketing effort since Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell took over the troubled company more than a year ago. Officials of the Baltimore company say its...

MicroProse faces music after deal collapses.
December 19, 1997... Don't expect MicroProse Inc. to seek out merger partners anytime soon. That's the message from Stephen Race, chief executive of the legendary computer game company, in the wake of an aborted merger attempt with New York-based software company...

Towson Marketplace undergoing a rebirth.
December 19, 1997... Site to be a large discount center By this time next year, a failed Towson mall - Towson Marketplace - will be one of the biggest discount shopping centers in the region. The renamed Towson Place will be a 670,000-square-foot collection of...

Martek grows overseas, but struggles at home. (Martek Biosciences Corp.)
December 19, 1997... Babies in Colombia can imbibe baby formula enhanced with Martek Biosciences Corp.'s lab-engineered oils. But babies in Columbia, where Martek is based, can't get near the stuff. Shut out of the U.S. infant formula market that is...

London Fog battling Canadian company.
December 19, 1997... London Fog has filed suit against a Canadian company it says is trying to cloud the issue over who makes its famous raincoats. The suits and countersuits have been flying between London Fog and Mac Mor of Canada Ltd. since June, when...

Christmas bonus: business find holiday season keeps on giving. (Baltimore, Maryland toy stores)
December 19, 1997... After Black Friday rings in the official holiday shopping season, people have about four weeks until the gift-giving begins. And retailers make their holiday wishes for a buying bonanza that, if all goes fight, adds up to a huge proportion of...

Canton factory turns from tin cans to technology: construction on American site includes creating incubator for info-tech firms.
December 19, 1997... Biotechnology incubators now dot the Baltimore-area landscape, fostering the growth of fledgling companies in that industry. State anti city officials now want to offer the same help to entrepreneurs in the information-technology field with an...

Prudential HMO chief leaves for Philadelphia job. (Elizabeth J. Misek resigns from Prudential HealthCare to become Prestige Health CEO)
December 26, 1997... The head of the Prudential HealthCare's regional office in Baltimore has left the insurance company and plans to leave Baltimore. Elizabeth J. Misek ran Prudential HealthCare of the Mid-Atlantic, a managed care organization which has about...

Bucking the trend. (Baltimore, Maryland businesses)
December 26, 1997... The restaurants in Little Italy sit in the shadow of a bright red and yellow, 68-foot neon guitar that beckons diners to the Hard Rock Cafe, which opened this summer at the Power Plant. Nowhere in Baltimore is the challenge faced by locally...

Blue Cross partnership wins nod from regulators. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc. and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area partnership)
December 26, 1997... A link up between the Blue Cross companies in Maryland and Washington, D.C., received two long-awaited regulatory blessings this week. Insurance commissioners for each jurisdiction approved a proposal to bring Blue Cross and Blue Shield of...

High-tech firms may get an incubator in Howard. (Howard County, Maryland, to develop incubator industrial parks)
December 26, 1997... Howard County may open a business incubator to lure young technology companies. More and more, high-technology startups are critical to our economy, said County Executive Charles I. Ecker. "High-value jobs and the promise of rapid growth are,...

Mortgage company chief to start Hunt Valley thrift. (Empire Mortgage Pres. Charles W. Lott to open Empire Bank in Maryland)
December 26, 1997... The head of a Hunt Valley mortgage company has filed an application with federal regulators to create a savings bank. If approved, Empire Bank would be the first new thrift to open in Maryland in three years, according to state records....

Forging their own links: as a community, Little Italy stands up against the onslaught. (restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland)
December 26, 1997... As a community, Little Italy stands up against the onslaught When Enrico Velleggia Opened his restaurant in Little Italy 60 years ago, he was the new kid on the block. Since then, neighboring restaurants have come and gone. But Velleggia's...

Oscar Smith Jr. takes pride in his markets. (president of Super Pride grocery stores)
December 26, 1997... It's never been easy running Super Pride - and it's about to get a whole lot harder. Back in 1970, when this Baltimore City-based chain of eight grocery stores began operating, the larger supermarkets showed little interest in serving...

Jos. A. Bank finds clothes make the firm: area retailer fashions image menswear. (Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc.)
December 26, 1997... Area retailer fashions image in menswear For a company that stakes its reputation on traditional clothes, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. has done an awful lot of changing in the last seven years. And in 1998, the 95-year-old company that nearly...

Bolewicki doesn't plan on being frozen out: despite lures of competitors buyers return. (Bolewicki's Appliance Center)
December 26, 1997... Despite lures of competitors, buyers return Joe Bolewicki doesn't take credit cards at his Highlandtown appliance store. That policy - cash, check or company credit only - speaks volumes about 50-year-old Bolewicki's Appliance Center, an...

Old-line Mercantile an unlikely maverick. (Mercantile Bancshares Corp.)
December 26, 1997... The way H. Furlong Baldwin sees it, most bank acquisitions occur for one of two reasons. The chairman and chief executive officer of Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares Corp. says most of the banks that sell either want to sell or have to...

A little book learning takes Weese a long way. (Bibelot bookstore chain owner Brian D. Weese)
December 26, 1997... One week after signing a lease to open a Bibelot bookstore on U.S. 1 in Bel Air, Brian D. Weese learned of Barnes & Noble's plan to move in just across the street. Though not thrilled by the prospect of going head-to-head with the national...

Columbia companies stop fighting, to merge. (Maryland; GSE Power Systems Inc. to acquire RNI Technologies)
December 26, 1997... A pair of Columbia companies that train nuclear plant workers found an unusual way to resolve their bitter legal dispute: They decided to merge. GSE Power Systems Inc. said Dec. 9 that it agreed to buy RNI Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed...

JP Foodservice Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
December 26, 1997... Corporate Profile For the third consecutive year as a public company, Columbia-based JP Foodservice Inc. reported an outstanding year. The company's success in 1997 is evidenced by an increase in sales by more than $400 million from what it...

Consulting growing in popularity. (management consultants)
December 26, 1997... The not-so-old joke is that the downsized all call themselves consultants. What's not funny is that many people who become consultants in this manner fail after a few years because their former employer is their first and only client, said Tom...

Post publisher's history inspirational to Hyman. (Global Messenger Pres. Pauline Hyman)
December 26, 1997... Pauline Hyman learned how Katharine Graham rose to become the leader of her family's business - by having to overcome her insecurities and tossing away the self-mocking label of "doormat wife" - by reading the Washington Post publisher's recent...