Baltimore Business Journal articles from December 2000

Baltimore Business Journal archives from December 2000

Lost pride.
December 1, 2000... What went wrong at a city supermarket chain Getting a job at a Super Pride market in 1981 was something more than a career move for Thomas King. It was a source of pride to the former store manager, who ran all but two of the defunct...

CitiFinancial decides against Clarke tower.
December 1, 2000... CitiFinancial, which announced in September that it would keep its headquarters downtown, plans a massive renovation to its 43-year-old office tower at 300 St. Paul Place. The consumer credit division of Citigroup Inc. last month sent a...

3rd hotel eyed for H&S site.
December 1, 2000... H&S Properties Development Corp. and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. are considering the construction of an extended-stay hotel at Inner Harbor East, the first of its kind downtown. Despite plans for the opening of the Marriott...

Boschert takes on A.A. transit.
December 1, 2000... David G. Boschert longs for the day when people stop asking him, "What is ARTMA?" The recently appointed executive director of the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Association is trying to turn this obscure transportation...

Ad agency lays off 13 employees.
December 1, 2000... Gray, Kirk/VanSant, Baltimore's second-largest advertising agency, laid off 13 of its 80 workers in a restructuring directly tied to its loss of the $40 million Choice Hotels International account Roger Gray, the company's chief executive...

Lockheed closes deal.
December 1, 2000... Lockheed Martin has completed the sale of its Aerospace Electronics Systems businesses to BAE Systems North America Inc. for $1.67 billion in cash. BAE Systems is a subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, a Farnborough, England company. "With this...

T. Rowe reduces fees, commissions.
December 1, 2000... T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. has lowered the cost of stock trades on its Internet brokerage to $19.95 for trades up to 1,000 shares. James S. Riepe, chairman of T. Rowe Price Investment Services, said the commission rates for online trades...

Micros makes acquisition.
December 1, 2000... Micros Systems Inc., a provider of information technology to hotels, restaurants and cruise lines, announced that it has bought the hospitality division of Hospitality Solutions International for an undisclosed amount of cash. Micros, which has...

Hoops HQ might bolt.
December 1, 2000... Looking for an office with a view of the harbor? You may be in luck. Space may be opening up on the eighth floor of the World Trade Center at 401 E. Pratt St. before winter's chill arrives. The day it announced its plans to merge with...

Changes at Nordstrom.
December 1, 2000... With Nordstrom's recent decision to hold off on opening a store in downtown Pittsburgh, shoppers around Baltimore are wondering about the department store's fate here. Nordstrom (www.nordstrom.com), a high-end department store known for...

Taking on the networks.
December 1, 2000... A University of Baltimore School of Law professor is at the forefront of an effort to break up the Voter News Service, the organization blamed for botching television reports of the presidential election results. Robert H. Lande, a...

Gainers & Losers.
December 1, 2000... Not only does PSINet host a winning NFL squad, now it gets to host one of the fiercest rivalries in sports. Go Navy! * Retailers Despite signs of a slowing economy, Marylanders swarmed the shopping malls and one survey showed sales up 3.8...

Struever cements deal for Belvedere Square.
December 1, 2000... A team of three local real estate companies, including Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., has taken the first step to purchase and redevelop Belvedere Square, the struggling North Baltimore Shopping Center. Struever Bros., Manekin Corp....

County bar sued for illegally playing music.
December 1, 2000... A Middle River tavern has caught the ire of one of the largest music licensing organizations in the world. The Corner Stable Inn, on Eastern Boulevard in Middle River, is being sued by seven music publishers that are represented by the...

Sitel going after more revenue.
December 1, 2000... Sitel Corp., a provider of customer relations management applications for businesses, is making some major changes in an attempt to generate more revenue in a market that shows no signs of cooling off. Company officials announced the...

Hospitalist trend catches on at area hospitals.
December 1, 2000... Don't be surprised if the next time you go to your hospital for an inpatient visit, you don't see or even talk to your primary care physician. That's because doctors known as "hospitalists" -- doctors who work full time in the hospital to...

ER-7, Part II.
December 1, 2000... About three years after Sinai Hospital opened its highly anticipated ER-7 emergency department, fellow LifeBridge Health member Northwest Hospital has announced plans to construct an $8.5 million ER-7 facility modeled. after the original....

Architects choose Little Italy for new firm.
December 1, 2000... With the progress of Inner Harbor East very visible, adjacent neighborhood Little Italy is gaining in popularity. That's certainly the case with 2fortyone - as in 241 S. Exeter Street -- where Baltimore's newest architecture firm has setup...

Maddux readies for change.
December 1, 2000... Tis the season for change at KLNB Inc., a Towson commercial real estate firm. The company announced that Thomas H. Maddux IV, a principal and retail operations leader, will succeed Thomas C. Martel, who is retiring from his post as...

COPT sells stake in center.
December 1, 2000... Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia real estate investment trust, recently sold its remaining interest in Tred Avon Square Shopping Center, a 149,191-square-foot retail project in Easton. The trust made $5.9 million off the sale...

Clark starts construction.
December 1, 2000... Clark Construction (www.clarkus.com) of Bethesda has begun to build a three-story biomedical engineering center at Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. The 60,000-square-foot research facility will include 13 faculty labs, 10 labs...

Renaissance manager leaves for Philly hotel.
December 1, 2000... Baltimore and Philadelphia often compete for convention business. Now the City of Brotherly Love has taken one of Charm City's best known hotel general managers. Marriott International Inc. promoted Christian J. Mari from general manager...

Luring history buffs.
December 1, 2000... The Baltimore African American Tourism Council Inc. hosted 16 members of a group focused on preserving historical points of interest throughout the southeastern United States Nov. 17 and 18. The Southeast Regional African American...

Maryland Permanent appoints new CEO.
December 1, 2000... Maryland Permanent Bank & Trust Co. has found a new president and chief executive officer. The bank hired Joel C. Sweren, a former executive at The Bank of Baltimore and Yorkridge-Calvert Savings & Loan Association, on Nov. 21. ...

Outsourcing accounting.
December 1, 2000... A company that specializes in helping companies outsource many of the functions that an accounting department or consultant can do has opened an office in downtown Baltimore. Resources Connection (www.resourceconnection.com), a former...

Mentor in Middle East deal.
December 1, 2000... Annapolis-based Mentor Technologies Inc. , a developer of online framing programs for technical workers, joined forces with Synergy Consulting & Training Middle East, a training firm based in the United Arab Emirates. The partnership was...

London calling.
December 1, 2000... The top interactive designers in the world gathered in London last week, and a Fells Point firm was among them. Baltimore-based digitalorganism (www.digitalorganism.com) was featured in two of the categories at the annual Flash Film...

Learning to communicate.
December 1, 2000... UB's Kleinman blends business with academia Neil Kleinman knows a thing or two about reinvention. As a school administrator turned lawyer turned professor, the co-director of the School of Communications Design at the University of...

Web Site of the Week: www.instat.com.
December 1, 2000... Information for the technology enthusiast This site, which is run by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Cahners In-Stat Group, acts as a resource for just about every area of technology. From revenue projections for the high-speed Internet market to...

In tech, redundancy is no dirty business word.
December 1, 2000... Redundancy saved me from a technology disaster this week. It could save your business, too, if you implement a few redundant systems. Here's what happened. Verizon Wireless canceled my cell phone. No, it wasn't because I didn't pay my...

Sridhar Raju Gadhi.
December 1, 2000... Paradigm Infotech Inc. BBJ: Where did you get the idea for your business? Gadhi: It was self-inspiration. I wanted to achieve the highest goals in life. BBJ: Exactly what does your business do? Gadhi: We put technology to real...

eOriginal names CEO.
December 1, 2000... There's another new technology executive in town. Baltimore-based eOriginal Inc. (www.eoriginal.com), a developer of digital signature technology, named Craig D. Jung chief executive officer last week. Before joining the local firm,...

Teachers get AOL tutelage.
December 1, 2000... Jim Kimsey may be best known in the technology industry as the guy who saved Steve Case's job at America Online. More than a decade ago, when Case was in trouble with investors, Kimsey, a co-founder, stepped in and asked the board to give...

Who's Who in Intellectual Property Law.
December 1, 2000... William E. Carlson Chair, Business Department, Shapiro Sher & Guinot Age: 43 Residence: Baltimore In the past year, the Baltimore area has seen a biotechnology boom. And with that growth has emerged a hot legal issue:...

Market Facts.
December 1, 2000... The number of top-earning women corporate, officers in big business has not only grown, it has increased by 100 percent since 1995, according to a survey conducted by Catalyst Inc. The study focused on the growing number of women executives...

Legal issues await merchants who sell online.
December 1, 2000... Electronic commerce's promise of expanding markets without dramatically increasing overhead has lured many businesses onto the Internet. But like the sirens of Greek mythology, the allure of e-commerce can send unwary companies crashing onto...

Always give your best pitch.
December 1, 2000... My friend Bill loves to make sales presentations. Every time I hear from Bill, he raves about the sale that will ensue from the sales presentation he has scheduled next. Too often, though, a few days later when I ask how the presentation...

Trading post.
December 1, 2000... Rosen Group holds trade show for crafters For some, the word "crafts" conjures up an image of holiday decorations or quilts sold at the county fair. But there's a much bigger market, especially for fine crafts such as elegant jewelry,...

How did you integrate technology into your business?
December 1, 2000... Rick Powell President, Production Management Group / Hanover "We decided to convert our direct-mail consulting business to a Web-based platform. Soon, everything we do will be automated and accessible 24/7 to our customers and...

Telephone sales: be brief and concise.
December 1, 2000... Take away the telephone and you'd have a tough time doing business. Is this sales tool so vital that you take it for granted? Do you assume that just because it's there, that you know how to use it? Bad assumption. Phone control plays...

People.
December 1, 2000... * Advertising Mullin/Ashley Associates Inc. hired William C. Whitman as senior account manager. Whitman is a former creative director and account supervisor at Barrett Advertising. * Accounting The Maryland Association of...

Corporate Office Properties Trust.
December 1, 2000... Corporate profile Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia real estate investment trust, is best known for its construction of suburban office complexes near Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The trust has about 60 percent...

Serving customers right.
December 1, 2000... If you're lucky, you did not encounter bad service as you battled the crowds at the local mall this weekend. More than likely, you did. Face it. If you've shopped, eaten at a restaurant or needed something repaired lately, you too have...

State bar behind curve.
December 1, 2000... The Maryland State Bar Association board of governors' decision not to allow fee-sharing between lawyers and nonlawyers is shortsighted. The real issue is whether or not accountants can form partnerships with lawyers for estate planning...

Longing for the days of 'unprofessional' journalists.
December 1, 2000... For the first time in my dozen years as a journalist, I've stopped turning into an instant jerk when someone dares to criticize the media. Time was, when anybody would blame the press for societal ills, I would start my rant -- the usual...

Largest minority-owned businesses in the Baltimore area.
December 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Largest charitable foundations in the Baltimore area.
December 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Taking Stock.
December 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

REIT bidding for 6 buildings.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 8, 2000... Deal would expand COPT's BWI presence Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia real estate investment trust, is trying to buy six buildings at Airport Square in Linthicum. Randall M. Griffin, president and chief operating officer...

Lasting power.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... City's only minor league team stays alive As the 35-year-old elder statesman of the Baltimore Blast, Doug Neely has seen his share of failed indoor soccer franchises. Neely, a nine-year veteran of the minor, league sport, was a member...

Computer schools targeted.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... State officials are clamping down on illegal computer training schools in Maryland, and a Baltimore County computer store is feeling the heat. The Maryland Higher Education Commission (www.mhec.state.md.us) wants to shut down a computer...

Psychic line suing tech firm over list.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... A Pikesville psychic hotline is suing Advertising.com for nearly a quarter of a million dollars, claiming the Locust Point Internet company unfairly profited from a list of Psychic Friends customers used in a marketing campaign. The Real...

BGE customers switch.(Baltimore Gas and Electric Co)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... More than 100,000 residential customers have switched from Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., the natural gas supply arm of Constellation Energy Group, to other suppliers in the first year of industry deregulation, according to BGE. There are...

Cidera gets financing, scraps IPO.(from Wheatley Partners)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Cidera Inc., which delivers internet content via satellite, announced that it has received $75 million in Series D preferred stock funding from a group of new and existing investors led by Wheatley Partners. This brings the total financing that...

Proposed basketball merger on hold.(International Basketball League)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... The prospective merger between the Baltimore-based International Basketball League and the American Basketball Association has been put on hold after officials from both leagues failed to work out details of the merged entity. However, both...

Ciena beats Wall Street estimates.(financial information)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 8, 2000... Linthicum-based Ciena Corp. reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenues that beat Wall Street expectations. The company also projected 2001 revenue growth that would top most estimates. Ciena reported net income of $41.3 million, or 14 cents...

Legg helping grow Turf.(Legg Mason Inc. hired by FieldTurf)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 8, 2000... FieldTurf, a maker of synthetic grass, hired Legg Mason Inc.'s sports group to raise $12.5 million for the Canadian company. FieldTurf's product is used in Tropicana Field, Memorial Stadium-Tom Osborne Field, the University of...

Renaissance gets new chief.(John Daw)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... The new general manager of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel is scheduled to take over the downtown hotel less than a month after former GM Chrislian J. Mari left. Marriott International Inc. (www.marriott.com), which owns the Renaissance,...

United Way picks Eisner.(Eisner Communications)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eisner Communications Inc. is taking on pro bono advertising duties for the United Way of Central Maryland. The $205 million, agency got agency of record responsibilities after United Way (www.uwcm.org) and its former agency, Shandwick...

Of duckpins and eccentrics.(housing in Baltimore)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Baltimore was the subject of a major story last week in The New York Times (www.nytimes.com). But it wasn't the usual stuff about the Inner Harbor, murder rates or even the rock 'n' roll mayor. No, it was Charm City's unique attachment to...

Gainers & Losers.(brief area company news)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... It's not a good time for some blue chips. While some customers spurn BGE and decide to go elsewhere for their natural gas, the S&P drops two old-line manufacturers. * BGE More than 100,000 customers made the switch to other natural gas...

Insurance delay puts surgery center at risk.(Downtown Baltimore Surgery Center)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Dr. Marc Posner is playing a health care version of the waiting game -- one he hopes does not cost him his new downtown surgery center. More than two months after opening the Downtown Baltimore Surgery Center next door to his family...

Proposal to redevelop naval base is attacked.(Economic Development Commission)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Opposition says existing tech center plan might harm environment, neighborhood Efforts to redevelop a closed Navy base along the Annapolis waterfront have run into opposition from nearby residents, one of the area's key lawmakers and an...

PSINet: Poor finances won't end name deal.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... A plunging stock price and grumblings from analysts aren't enough to convince PSINet Inc. to give up its naming rights to Baltimore's professional football stadium, company officials said. The Ashburn, Va.-based Internet services company...

Cohen says BMW site will stay.
December 8, 2000... The former owner of the Heritage car dealerships has purchased Brooks BMW and plans to keep the business at its familiar location on Kenilworth Avenue in Baltimore County. Lou Cohen, president of Towson Automotive Inc., declined to discuss...

Md. venture firms raise $2.4B in 3rd quarter.
December 8, 2000... Look out Virginia Maryland venture capitalists are starting to throw their weight around. Over $2 billion in weight, that is, during the third quarter. Maryland venture capital firms raised $2.4 billion during the quarter. That's more...

Thoma joins with CPAs.
December 8, 2000... Earlier this month, Thoma Capital Management LLC (www.thomacap.com) in Towson started a new program in which it will partner with certified public accountant firms to provide CPA clients with investment advice. The new program is called the...

IWIF's return best in U.S.
December 8, 2000... The Towson-based Injured Workers' Insurance Fund has had the best annualized investment returns of any state workers' compensation insurance fund in the United States over the past five years, according to a new report. IWIF's investments...

Officials grapple with HMO Medicare exit.(Kaiser Permanente; CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. The backlash associated with the pending Medicare HMO pullouts has left thousands of Greater Baltimore seniors searching for answers that Pat Venable...

FDA clears MRI device.(Food and Drug Administration; Surgi-Vision Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. Surgi-Vision Inc., a Columbia-based medical technology company, announced that it has received marketing clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug...

Magellan Health Services Inc.(Universal Health Services Inc. buys hospitals)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * Columbia-based Magellan Health Services Inc., which announced in October its intentions to refocus its operations on its core business of managing...

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.(CipherGen Biosystems Inc. joint research)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Ciphergen Biosystems Inc. of Fremont, Calif., have announced a collaborative research effort...

Union Memorial Hospital.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * Union Memorial Hospital (www.medstarhealth.org/union) has combined its on-site medical clinics to form an all-encompassing adult medicine center....

HealthExtras.(International Pharmacy Management)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 8, 2000... Chris Silva, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * Rockville-based HealthExtras recently acquired a controlling interest in International Pharmacy Management, a pharmacy benefits manager in...

Area among top five for its online shoppers.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eleni Chamis, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. Baltimore is among the top live cities in the United States for online shoppers, according to a report released by Scarborough Research. Fifty...

Smoothie chain eyes area.(Planet Smoothie Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eleni Chamis, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. A Baltimore duo plans to bring 10 Planet Smoothie stores to the area over a five-year period. Michael Egerton and Sam Hershey, college buddies at...

TSI to close local stores.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eleni Chamis, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. TSI Soccer Inc. (www.tsisoccer.com), a Durham, N.C., retailer is closing all its physical stores, including locations in Towson and Columbia. ...

Cross Street Cheese Co.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eleni Chamis, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * The Cross Street Cheese Co., a staple in Federal Hill's Cross Street Market, is close to being sold, say its owners. Graham and Beverly...

Black & Decker Corp.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Eleni Chamis, a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, contributed to this column. * Towson tool manufacturer Black & Decker Corp. is preparing to relaunch its Web site (www.blackanddecker.com) this month. The company hired...

Speeding up the Internet.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... The use of high-speed Internet connections is expected to grow from 10 million modems this year to more than 90 million modems by 2004, according to the latest research from Scottsdale, Ariz-based Cahners In-Stat Group, a technology research...

Aether promotes Davis.(Aether Systems Inc.)(George Davis)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Aether Systems Inc., an Owings Mills developer of wireless data technology, named George Davis, president and vice chairman. Davis formerly was the company's chief operating officer. He will, work with Chief Executive Officer David Oros to...

Heading into town.(Cresco Technologies LLC)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Abingdon-based Cresco Technologies LLC (www.crescotech.com), a Web applications and consulting firm, announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Baltimore and Washington, DC. Company officials said the 2-year-old firm hopes to...

New editor at Mom.com.(Jeanne Murphy)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Baltimore-based Mom.com Inc., an Internet portal aimed at mothers, has named Jeanne Murphy managing editor of the Web site. Murphy will oversee the site's content-based advertising initiatives and work with strategic partners. "We realized...

More money for Essex.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2000... Two investment firms have agreed to put an additional $400,000 in Columbia-based Essex Corp., raising their total investment in the company to $2.4 million. Officials with Essex (www.essexcorp.com), an optical and communication engineering...