Baltimore Business Journal articles from February 1993

Baltimore Business Journal archives from February 1993

NationsBank: too few loans? (Maryland Attorney General's office to conduct investigation of bank's purchase of MNC Financial Inc.)
February 26, 1993... State probes small-business lending in post-MNC era BALTIMORE -- The state Attorney General is stepping up its investigation of the proposed acquisition of MNC Financial Inc. by NationsBank Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., to determine whether the...

Corned Beef Row revival in a pickle. (Lombard, Maryland's delicatessens)
February 26, 1993... BALTIMORE -- The term outdoor marketplace never had greater irony. Once live chickens, corned beef and other Old World delicacies were traded with splendor along Lombard Street just east of the Central Business District. Now, the trades...

IRS claims Hale owes $1.3M in back taxes. (Internal Revenue Service; Baltimore Bancorp. chairman Edwin F. Hale)
February 26, 1993... WASHINGTON -- On the eve of a major effort by Baltimore businessman Edwin F. Hale Sr. to enter the world of banking two years ago, the shipping and trucking executive found himself embroiled in a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service....

Builders claim tree law hurts recovery. (real estate developers; Maryland's forest preservation law)
February 26, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- The state's forest preservation law is barely seven weeks old but Maryland's builders already hate it. They complain that it makes rational growth management planning almost impossible. They complain that the law -- three years...

NationsBank pact to yield 25 percent savings. (deal to buy MNC Financial Inc.)
February 26, 1993... Consolidating 350 MNC-NationsBank branches to cut payroll by at least 250 workers BALTIMORE -- As many as 250 workers could lose their jobs throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C., as a result of NationsBank Corp.'s deal to buy MNC...

Pinkard surprised by opening of 2nd Colliers outlet. (W.C. Pinkard and Company Inc.; Colliers International Property Consultants Inc.; Spaulding and Slye Real Estate Services L.P.)
February 26, 1993... TOWSON -- The Washington, D.C., office of real estate broker Spaulding & Slye this week pushed openly into the territory of its Baltimore cousin, W.C. Pinkard & Co. Inc., announcing it would open a Baltimore office to handle three suburban...

Study: insurance dept. needs new arms to prevent flight. (Maryland Insurance Division must win accreditation to meet national standards on insurance regulation)
February 26, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland insurance regulators and industry executives, whose efforts to get a bigger and stronger Insurance Division have been thwarted so far, have come here this year armed with new ammunition. A study produced by the state...

Dump truck compromise gets industry off the hook. (Senate Bill 871 will eliminate road damages through reconfiguration of trucks)
February 26, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Dump truck owners don't have to worry anymore about paying a $26 million road repair bill. That's how much the Governor's Commission on Efficiency and Economy in Government had decided they should be taxed to pay for annual...

GTS Duratek Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 26, 1993... FYI In May, the company united its technology and service sectors and began trading under the name GTS Duratek. Since then, the company has been awarded over $26 million in new contracts, including a multi-year contract to support...

The borderline home buyers: realtors in Md., Pa. frustrated by closing costs. (Maryland; Pennsylvania) (Real Estate Monthly) (Industry Overview)
February 26, 1993... BALTIMORE -- A young accountant earning $48,000 a year was tired of throwing her money away on rent, but instead of saving up for a home, she opted to invest her cash in her education. Now holding a master's degree, she is "slightly cash...

Long-term planning almost a mantra at Circle Companies. (Real Estate Monthly)
February 26, 1993... GLEN BURNIE -- The recent commercial real estate slump is blamed by industry experts for one of the worst cases of developer-dominos this region has ever seen. Even the biggest guys were sent toppling. Yet, the Circle Companies stands tall....

Home sales are really hopping down in Odenton. (Odenton, Maryland) (Real Estate Monthly)
February 26, 1993... ODENTON -- Wal-Mart officials know it. So does most of the local real estate industry. Landlocked Odenton, never known as a chi-chi address in water-conscious Anne Arundel County, has become the fastest growing residential area in the entire...

Spotlight on convention center: House schedules hearing on controversial $150 million expansion. (Baltimore Convention Center)
February 19, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- The politically explosive proposal to expand the Baltimore Convention Center will be front and center Thursday but its financing remains in doubt. Ever since Gov. William Donald Schaefer presented his capital budget without...

Big tenants force lower, better rents.
February 19, 1993... Developers don't want to talk about it, but many can't escape it. Real estate brokers promote it. Lenders usually like to see it. For tenants it can mean the difference between the life and death of their business. It's the en masse...

Thunder's owners break pro sports' game plan. (Baltimore Thunders, lacrosse team)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Okay, so the Baltimore Thunder's payroll isn't quite up there with the Orioles' $25 million-plus in player salaries for 1993. In fact, Cal Ripkin's $4.5 million paycheck this year exactly equals the entire annual budget for the...

Give Baltimore the Ball: the skybox sale blitz. (proposed stadium)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Fasten your seatbelts, hon, it will be time for another round of "Give Baltimore the Ball" showmanship game. The city is about to embark on a long drive to get a football franchise, a drive that could whittle the number of local...

Columbia Design abandoning suburbia for downtown tower. (Columbia Design Collective Inc.)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Columbia Design Collective Inc., one of the largest architecture firms in the Baltimore area, is planning to move downtown from its suburban headquarters at the end of the year, a partner in the firm said this week. The firm is...

Mutual funds: annual rankings are misleading. (Industry Overview)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Don't always believe what the big financial publications have to say about mutual fund performances. That's the advice fund managers give on a flurry of recent newspaper and news magazine stories on the industry and how they rank....

Blue Cross taps hospital executive Jews as CEO. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc.)(William L. Jews)
February 19, 1993... OWINGS MILLS -- The executive chosen to lead Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland has the right resume and skills to get the battered company back on its feet, say local health care and insurance leaders. William L. Jews, 41, named...

Manufacturers crying foul over Fair Distributorship Act.
February 19, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- At a time when state officials are trying to revive Maryland's manufacturing sector, key legislators are behind a bill that manufacturers say will put them out of business. Industry representatives are vigorously opposing the...

Survey: many Marylanders would play el Gordo again.
February 19, 1993... So state plans to offer them second chance BALTIMORE -- Although the Maryland Lottery's highly touted el Gordo game last December came up short by more than half its projected sales, officials are ready to try something similar down the road...

Blue Cross reforms will cost board 10 of 18 directors. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc.)
February 19, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, after replacing nearly all of its top management, also will have a markedly different board of directors by next year. At least 10 of the seats on the 18-member board could be filled with...

City claims Geico factors race into car insurance rates.
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore City Council is charging that Geico Corp. and other auto insurers discriminate against inner-city minorities by setting high premiums in certain areas of the city. "We've watched rates follow minority trends and...

State to delay expansion of BWI's international terminal. (Baltimore Washington International)
February 19, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- The state has grounded plans for a $123 million international pier at BWI in anticipation of an overseas airline's departure to Dulles International Airport. Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer's announcement Tuesday...

Working without an insurance net: hospitals staff front lines of the healthcare crisis. (includes related article) (Special Report: Healthcare)
February 19, 1993... Marcie T., a 22-year-old college graduate who lives in the suburbs and works downtown, is engaged to marry a lawyer this spring. John D., 55 years old and unemployed, was an alcoholic and former drug abuser who lived alone in West Baltimore....

Easton firm promises clients HMOs at self-insurance prices. (Borchardt Group Inc.) (Special Report: Healthcare)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- In 1987, when MNC Financial decided to include a managed care program among the health insurance options offered its employees, company officials liked the philosophy behind HMOs. But they also liked the fee-for-service feature of...

New firm to make Hopkins' CPR invention. (CardioLogic Systems Inc.; John Hopkins Hospital)(cardiopulmonary resuscitation) (Special Report: Healthcare)
February 19, 1993... BALTIMORE -- An inflatable vest that reportedly doubles the effectiveness of manual CPR efforts could be on the market in as little as two years, meaning both longer lives for some heart attack victims and jobs for an estimated 50 Baltimoreans....

Walter F. Galbraith refuses to give up the good fight. (medically uninsured protest high insurance premiums) (Special Report: Healthcare)
February 19, 1993... RIDERWOOD -- On Jan. 1, when his health insurance premium hit $9,672 a year, Walter F. Galbraith became a member of a group most people hope never to join: The uninsured. But unlike most of those who stop paying their insurance premiums and...

Monarch Avalon, Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 19, 1993... FYI Sales for Baltimore-based computer and board game manufacturer Monarch Avalon decreased almost 8 percent during fiscal year 1992, despite a slight gain in game sales, which was 0.1 percent, or a $6,000 increase over fiscal year 1991....

Market niche for the '90s: high-end consignment.
February 19, 1993... COCKEYSVILLE -- Liz Claiborne, Laura Ashley, Ralph Lauren, Anne Klein. Upscale brand names like these are traditionally found in high-end department stores. But Better Homes and Garments Ltd., a new consignment boutique in Cockeysville, breaks...

Politics to reopen vote on HCFA? (Health Care Financing Administration)
February 12, 1993... Mayor's letter to Clinton prompts reconsideration, an insider claims BALTIMORE -- Developers of the federal government's Health Care Financing Administration were getting ready to break ground this week amid renewed questions about where the...

Concrete era breaks stonemason's heart. (Bob Marsili)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- People like Bob Marsili aren't supposed to make a scene, just take their gold watches and shuffle off to retirement. In his case, 46 years swinging an 8-pound stonemason's hammer would be enough for most people. But Bob Marsili...

Small business seeking financial impact reports. (Haussner's Restaurant)
February 12, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Sometimes it seems that state law couldn't be more perverse. That's certainly how Haussner's Restaurant vice president Francie George feels about the unemployment insurance emergency surcharge that forced her to pay more than...

Hollywood is returning to Maryland big time. (Tri-Star Pictures Inc. shoots film in Baltimore, Maryland)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Next week, a crew from Tri-Star Pictures -- including Shirley MacLaine -- will descend upon Baltimore, invading various neighborhoods around town for eight weeks to shoot "Guarding Tess," a film about the widow of a U.S. President...

Steel didn't work, so port turns to cocoa beans. (North Locust Point Marine Terminal)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- In 1991, the Maryland Port Administration moved a 45-ton container crane from Dundalk to the North Locust Point Marine Terminal, believing that it would enhance the port's ability to unload imported steel in that section of the...

Large banks again profitable as loan portfolios improve. (Maryland banks)
February 12, 1993... The state's biggest banks continued to show signs of recovery during the last three months of 1992 as part of their year-long effort to streamline operations, improve loan quality and refortify capital positions. "I would say there are a few...

Now law, firms still leery of family leave requests. (law on employee leaves)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- The Clinton Administration holds up quick passage of the family leave bill as a symbol for the end of legislative gridlock. But local businesses are hardly in agreement with the administration on the merits of the bill and whether...

Hopkins, Sheppard Pratt win hospital rate increases. (Johns Hopkins Hospital; Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Citing "uncontrollable expenses," Johns Hopkins Hospital will hike its rates to raise $10 million to help pay bills. Maryland's Health Services Cost Review Commission last week approved the hospital's request to use 2 percent in...

Rochester-like pool said to reduce insurance costs. (employee health benefit system; health insurance)
February 12, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Yet another proposal for reforming Maryland's health insurance system has been thrown into the hopper. This latest plan, however, has the powerful backing of the president of Johns Hopkins Health System, and has piqued the...

Downtown safety guides told importance of good pr. (Baltimore, Maryland; public relations)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Just as the new television series, "Homicide," is getting rave reviews for its portrayal of the grittier side of Baltimore, a small team of city-sponsored safety guides is getting ready to try to turn the area into "Charm City" for...

New steel import duties could reduce port traffic. (Port of Baltimore)
February 12, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Just when the Port of Baltimore thought that it had regained its financial health, it now has new ailments to worry about. Protectionist steel trade policies unveiled recently by the Clinton Administration may cast the port back...

Empty Frito-Lay plant awaits change in political tastes. (Frito-Lay Inc.)
February 12, 1993... ABERDEEN -- Crunch all you want, says Frito-Lay pitchman Jay Leno, we'll make more. But even though the company built a $20-million manufacturing and distribution plant in Aberdeen, they won't be making anything here. Not for a while anyway....

Ag, natural resources bill draws crowd of opposition. (bill to merge the departments of Agriculture an Natural Resources)
February 12, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- About 300 people have attacked House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr.'s bill to merge the departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources. At a committee hearing Tuesday, no one but Mitchell and his assistant supported it. "I...

Building up downtown. (Baltimore, Maryland) (Special Report: Hopkins Forum on Urban Development)
February 12, 1993... Schmoke expected to outline views on future redevelopment Clean, safe streets and a cooperative city government -- that's the pitch Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is expected to make in a speech to downtown business leaders at Johns Hopkins University...

Hopkins seminars to focus on the future of Baltimore. (Hopkins Forum on Real Estate Development)
February 12, 1993... What are real estate opportunities here? BALTIMORE -- Mayor Kurt Schmoke is the first of four guest speakers seminars set to explore real estate development opportunities in Baltimore beginning Thursday, Feb. 18. The forum is designed to...

Kirschner Medical Corp. (Proxy Reports Excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 12, 1993... FYI The company manufactures and markets total joint reconstruction products, such as artificial hips and knees, along with other orthopedic products. Kirschner's new management considered 1991 a turnaround year that would position the...

Calm water ahead for Baltimore? (Port of Baltimore) (Special Report: The Port)
February 12, 1993... Maybe the best way to describe conditions at Baltimore's port right now is with a weather report: smooth sailing in favorable tides. The newest numbers for Maryland Port Authority docks show tonnage is up. The port turned a profit last year...

Angelos isn't afraid to get his feet wet. (Michael P. Angelos, deputy executive director of the Maryland Port Administration) (Special Report: The Port)
February 12, 1993... Michael P. Angelos takes a lot of pride in the rebound going on over at the Port of Baltimore. "We've worked hard to promote the port's versatility and diversity, and that hard work has allowed us to weather the uncertainty of the world...

Tough wetlands regulations expected under Clinton team. (wetland protection laws) (Special Report: The Port)
February 12, 1993... WASHINGTON -- Environmentalists, worn from years of battles with Republican White Houses over wetlands protection, are confident the Clinton administration will take more action to preserve wetlands. "What's clear is (the Clinton...

Clinton's appointment to SBA under close scrutiny. (candidates for Small Business Administration administrator)
February 12, 1993... WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Perceived as a temporary haven for also-rans, the top office in the Small Business Administration may soon have a whole new image. If President Clinton follows through on campaign promises to appoint someone with...

Is Eli down, out in the 9th: Orioles' future worth hangs on TV pacts, labor contracts. (Eli S. Jacobs; baseball club)
February 5, 1993... BALTIMORE -- For months, banks have been hounding Orioles principal owner Eli S. Jacobs for payment of millions of dollars in overdue loans. Now the secretive New York businessman faces a more critical challenge: How to get rid of his team...

Fees, fees, fees: bureaucrats want firms to pay more. (business charges)
February 5, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- The proliferation of user fees to support the state budget has business advocates puzzling over what government should charge for customer service. In simpler times, when the economy grew fast enough to cover the public's bills,...

Climbing the wall new workout fad. (Clipper City Rock Gym)
February 5, 1993... BALTIMORE -- The monotony of mindless aerobics routines and rowing machines has sports enthusiasts climbing the walls. In what appears to be an abandoned warehouse in the Clipper City Industrial Park, indoor rock climbers scale man-made walls...

Hospital profits up; charges slower to rise. (Industry Overview)
February 5, 1993... BALTIMORE -- The cost of a hospital stay in Maryland rose less than half the national average last year, while hospitals throughout the state managed to improve their bottom-line earnings by 85 percent overall. The containment of hospital...

Gov. wants $20M to buy office space; state pays $12.2M for 6 St. Paul Center. (Gov. William Donald Schaefer; Maryland)
February 5, 1993... BALTIMORE -- Baltimore office building owners passed over by the state's decision to purchase the long-empty 6 St. Paul Center are now pinning their hopes on the $20 million Gov. William Donald Schaefer wants to spend on office space this year....

Sears catalog sales era ends for small town merchants. (Sears, Roebuck and Co.)
February 5, 1993... About two weeks ago, Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog merchant Jack Moore got a computer message from corporate headquarters that he should make sure the local telephone company had the correct address and business name for his store in the...

Cleaning up Blue Cross: legislators set to referee between insurance division, Taylor's proposals. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc.; Casper R. Taylor)
February 5, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Legislators wrangling over how to clamp down on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland will go back into the wrestling ring today to try reaching a compromise on a host of conflicting opinions. After a hearing Tuesday, the House...

Blacks, women fight over bill on state procurement goals.
February 5, 1993... ANNAPOLIS -- Black and women legislators hope this is the year they can agree how to slice the state's minority procurement pie. But their constituents seem poised to cut up each other instead. And white male contractors aren't too happy...

Cosmetic Center Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 5, 1993... FYI For the first time ever, sales eclipsed the $100 million mark in fiscal year 1992 while earnings climbed to a record high of $2.4 million. The 35-year-old company, which sells about 25,000 brand-name prestige and mass-merchandised...

Never fear, Mr. Rescue has arrived in Baltimore. (Road Rescue of Houston Inc.; Baltimore, Maryland) (Special Report: Telecommunications)
February 5, 1993... Anyone who's ever had a breakdown on the road knows that being stranded is not only inconvenient, it can be terrifying. Not to fear, a Houston company created a service six years ago to tap into car phone users' demand for protection against...

Baltimore company scrambles to protect caller privacy. (PrivaFone Corp.; Baltimore, Maryland) (Special Report: Telecommunications)
February 5, 1993... BALTIMORE -- If the Prince and Princess of Wales had used PrivaFone, maybe their extramarital phone chats would not have been splashed across British tabloids. But alas, Charles and Diana and Camilla did not have the benefit of the...

Latest Supreme Court tax ruling hitting home.
February 5, 1993... The U.S. Supreme Court recently made business page headlines by ruling that Dr. Nader E. Soliman, a Virginia anesthesiologist who practiced medicine in three hospitals yet had an office at home solely for his professional paperwork, was...