Baltimore Business Journal articles from February 1996

Baltimore Business Journal archives from February 1996

One year + $6M: jobs still elusive empowerment goal. (Baltimore, MD)(includes related article on Empower Baltimore Management Corp.)
February 2, 1996... Private sector still hesitating More than a year after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced Baltimore's designation as a federal empowerment zone, the rewards of the multi-million dollar grant program still appear elusive. So far Baltimore has...

Rouse Co. planning to build Owings Mills restaurant park.
February 2, 1996... The Rouse Co. will build a park full of restaurants next to Owings Mills Mall if Baltimore County agrees to rezone a 13-acre parcel of land. The park, which would be located on the north and south sides of Red Run Boulevard, would be a...

100 to lose jobs in plant closing. (DCA Food Industries Inc.)
February 2, 1996... More than 100 people will be laid off when a Jessup manufacturing business is liquidated in March. The DCA Food Industries plant, which produces baking equipment for commercial users, will be shut down by the Beloit, Wisc.-based Kerry...

Other cities uneven in progress.(One Year + $6M: Jobs Still Elusive Empowerment Goal)
February 2, 1996... Detroit has companies lining up to do business in its new federal empowerment zone, but the administrative side of the program is a self-described "mess." Philadelphia has received calls from some international corporations interested in...

Hopkins takes heat from labor organizers over pay. (Johns Hopkins Health System and Hospital)
February 2, 1996... A Baltimore labor organization of low-paid service workers is taking aim at the city's largest private sector employer - the Johns Hopkins Health System and University. The Solidarity Sponsoring Committee, a group formed about two years ago by...

Area labor market ranks among worst in the nation. (Baltimore, MD)
February 2, 1996... Payback. That's how a Washington, D.C., economist views the Baltimore metropolitan area's incredible shrinking labor market. Ten years ago, the Baltimore region and the entire Mid-Atlantic was one of the hottest regions in the world, said...

Breaking out on their own. (James Hardesty and V. Randolph McMenamin Jr., executives of Hardesty Capital Management)(Special Report: Finance)
February 2, 1996... Money managers leave the big boys to reap success James Hardesty is having fun again. After running a $25 billion trust business for a major Baltimore bank for 17 years, he has his hands on the money again. Hardesty, a former executive...

Md. venture capital soars; private investors double stake, pour $138M into emerging companies here. (Maryland)
February 9, 1996... Venture capital firms sank nearly $138 million into Maryland's emerging companies last year, more than double the amount of private equity dollars invested in 1994. Private investors funded 28 companies, ranging from a Columbia company that...

Small banks 'friendlier' to small firms.
February 9, 1996... Smaller community banks are the most willing to lend money to small Maryland businesses, while the state's larger banks rank much lower on the loan-friendliness scale. That's according to a new U.S. Small Business Administration survey that...

Breaks paid off, Harford insists: assessing Merry-Go-Round. (Harford County, Maryland; Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc.)
February 9, 1996... Eight years ago, Harford County economic development officials lured Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. to Joppa with an incentive package that included an unprecedented five-year property tax break. Last week, the one-time fashion giant announced...

Helix spending $90 million on hospitals. (Helix Health System)
February 9, 1996... Helix Health, one of the state's largest health systems, has launched a $90 million renovation project to upgrade equipment and overhaul several units in four of its five hospitals. Over the next three years, Helix will spend $16.1 million...

450-worker defense office moving into site near BWI. (National Security Agency; Baltimore-Washington International Airport)
February 9, 1996... Airport area coping with National Security Agency cutbacks The agency that conducts background checks for the Department of Defense will move its primary investigative offices out of Fort Holabird Industrial Park in Baltimore City this spring...

Baltimore's FutureHealth sold to Florida firm. (FutureHealth Corp.; LifeWay Inc.)
February 9, 1996... Special software product appealed to LifeWay A South Florida start-up company has bought a Baltimore-based health care management firm, hoping to expand its niche in managing care for chronically ill patients. LifeWay Inc. of Miami - a...

Gallo set to move in to new headquarters. (AIDS researcher Robert Gallo)
February 9, 1996... When renowned AIDS researcher Robert Gallo chose Baltimore last spring as the site for his new Institute for Human Virology, it was considered an economic development coup for the city and state. Today, workers at the former Hutzler's warehouse...

Delegate sees value in medical spending accounts. (James M. Kelly)
February 9, 1996... A state lawmaker is trying to give Maryland residents more control over their health care spending, with a proposal to allow employees to establish medical savings accounts. State Del. James M. Kelly, a Towson Republican, has filed a bill that...

Regulators eye soaring hospital profits; Commission votes to stop rewarding institutions for cutting certain costs. (Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission)
February 9, 1996... Maryland's hospitals held the line on costs last year, leading to their highest profit levels in 20 years, nearly double their net income the year before. But state regulators are concerned the dramatic increase in overall hospital earnings -...

Maryland still ahead of telecommunications bill.
February 9, 1996... Telecommunications experts don't expect the sweeping legislation that sailed through Congress last week to kill Maryland's status as an industry reform leader - a status that has meant corporate investment and jobs in the Baltimore area....

Walters, Lyric ask state for construction funds. (Walters Art Gallery; Lyric Opera House; Maryland)
February 9, 1996... Two powerhouses of Baltimore's arts community will look dramatically different if funding comes through for their planned expansions. Bills for the state to float bonds on behalf of the Walters Art Gallery and the Lyric Opera House would...

Bill calls for tax break, but there's a price tag attached.
February 9, 1996... In an ongoing legislative effort to make Maryland more business friendly, a Montgomery County lawmaker has introduced a bill that would reduce the state's personal income tax rate by 5 percent. But the state's leading business group, which has...

Cardboard manufacturer to add Hunt Valley jobs. (Alliance Packaging and Display Co. to open new facility in Maryland)
February 16, 1996... A North Carolina cardboard manufacturing firm whose clients include a number of Fortune 500 companies is expanding its packaging operations into Maryland. Alliance Packaging and Display Co. of Winston-Salem, N.C., has signed a deal to open its...

Howard wins warehouses. (Howard County, MD, chosen as site of four new industrial warehouses)
February 16, 1996... Sending the strongest signal yet that warehouse space in the Baltimore-Washington corridor is hot property, the Manekin Corp. and Prudential Real Estate Investors will speculatively develop four warehouse and distribution buildings with a total...

Plants turn recycled hospital products into profits.(Special Report: Health Care)
February 16, 1996... In 1993, two medical supply giants raced to build local processing centers to compete for lucrative hospital contracts for reusable surgical clothing and other recycled products. The companies - Amsco International and Baxter International -...

Noise Cancellation Technologies Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
February 16, 1996... Corporate profile Business finally may be looking up for Linthicum-based Noise Cancellation Technologies Inc. At the end of January, the company announced it would report a profit for the fourth quarter - its first profitable quarter since...

Columbia, a little bank, has big ambitions. (Columbia Bank)
February 23, 1996... First, Columbia Bank snatched a lucrative position as the only bank in upscale Cross Keys from the grasp of massive NationsBank Corp. Now, the relatively tiny bank wants to take away Howard County, too. Columbia's chief executive officer,...

Local software developer moves into the home market. (SkillsBank Corp. of Baltimore, MD)
February 23, 1996... Even among Baltimoreans, it seems to be a well-kept secret that "The City That Reads" is home to SkillsBank Corp., a national publisher and developer of educational software. Founded in 1986, SkillsBank creates products that teach basic skills...

Floral firm sows seeds for growth. (Greening of America)
February 23, 1996... After more than two decades taking care of plants in offices all around Baltimore, Harvey Fruman and Alvin Schenk are getting out of the business. But someone from Greening of America still will show up to provide, water and prune flora in the...