Baltimore Business Journal articles from February 1999

Baltimore Business Journal archives from February 1999

Deaf community hits snag; lender plans foreclosure on Wyndholme developer's property.(Wyndholme Village LLC)
February 26, 1999... Lender plans foreclosure on Wyndholme developer's property Developer Jim Lancelotta's plan to bold the state's first community for elderly deaf residents in southwest Baltimore has hit a major snag. Wyndholme Village, on which...

Seeing promise: Ted Laster plotting a rebirth in Northwest.(redevelopment plans for Northwest Baltimore, Maryland)
February 26, 1999... Ted Laster sees promise in Northwest Baltimore blocks filled with abandoned housing and boarded-up shops. Just up Reisterstown Road from an often forgotten section of Baltimore, commerce still thrives. His job, as economic development...

DPI checking in to hotel market.(DPI Business Information Systems Inc.)
February 26, 1999... Jeff Livingston never drags a laptop computer along when he travels out of town for work, but he knows that other businesspeople do - and that many don't like the extra burden. He says that hunch could mean $300 million in new business...

Tech Council leader leaves to take UM job.(Greater Baltimore Committee Technology Council Executive Director Jane Shaab; University of Maryland)
February 26, 1999... The head of the Baltimore area's leading technology industry association is leaving. Jane Shaab is expected to announce her resignation Feb. 26 as executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee Technology Council. She will become...

Wires, wires everywhere ...; Baltimore region moves up to 20th on list of most wired locales.
February 26, 1999... The city by the San Francisco Bay tops Yahoo! Internet: Life's list of cities with the greatest percentage of people using the Internet. The city by the Chesapeake Bay ranks 20th overall, according to Yahoo! Internet Life, the magazine...

A conversation with ... Pawan Malhotra.(analyst & director, Electronic Commerce/Internet Group, Legg Mason Inc.)(Interview)
February 26, 1999... With the Internet becoming more integral to everyday life, it's no surprise that Baltimore's venerable Legg Mason Inc. has established an Internet division, both to advise clients on buying Internet company stocks and to develop services...

Preventing terror: researchers go after federal funds.(bioterrorism)
February 19, 1999... Introduce a few drops the anthrax virus into a downtown building's air-conditioning system, and everyone inside will likely die. Dr. D. A. Henderson, director of Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies in Baltimore, said it...

City jilts Merc: Baltimore pensions go to Mellon Bank.(Mercantile Safe-Deposit and Trust Co.)
February 19, 1999... Mercantile Safe-Deposit and Trust Co. this week lost its 21-year long contract to manage $3 billion in Baltimore City retirement funds to Pittsburgh-based Mellon Bank The city Board of Estimates approved a plan Feb. 17 to hire Mellon to...

Columbia chief settles in.(Columbia Association Pres Deborah O. McCarty)
February 19, 1999... While one of Columbia Association president Deborah O. McCarty's primary jobs is to make sure Columbia's parks stay green, many are relying on her to help the Howard County community cultivate a good business environment. Six months on...

No olive branch: banks battle for the best locations.
February 19, 1999... Edwin F. Hale Sr. calls it an act of spite. The First Mariner Bancorp chairman said he was expecting to make a few minor renovations before opening the bank's new Bowleys Quarters branch. But what he says he got was a building that had...

Clinical center brings smiles to UM dentists.(University of Maryland Dental School)
February 19, 1999... University of Maryland Dental School officials hope the new Center for Clinical Studies will give Maryland an edge in the multibillion-dollar dental products industry. Ultimately, the center hopes to attract a mix of both National...

Glen Burnie takes anti-takeover measures.(Glen Burnie Bancorp)
February 19, 1999... Even though it successfully fended off an aggressive suitor last year, Glen Burnie Bancorp is not taking any more chances. The Glen Burnie bank company is asking shareholders to approve a proposal at its annual meeting next month that...

MCI occupies rest of Hunt Valley building.(MCI Telecommunications Corp)
February 19, 1999... MCI Telecommunications Corp. signed a lease last week to fully occupy a 107,691-square-foot building in Hunt Valley to make room for employees it is moving from a closed service center in Linthicum. The D.C.-based subsidiary of MCI...

Peace of mind: mental health insurance remains elusive for many U.S. workers.(Special Report: Health Insurance)
February 19, 1999... Mental health advocates couldn't contain their praise for Maryland lawmakers five years ago. In a proactive move aimed largely at managed care providers, the legislature passed a wide-sweeping law during its 1994 session that was...

A conversation with ... Robert L. Williams: executive director, Baltimore area, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.(Interview)
February 19, 1999... No industry is changing more rapidly these days than health insurance. A growing number of huge and not-so-huge mergers and acquisitions are changing the players and processes, and creating some negative backlash among consumers, media and...

State allows coverage for domestic partners.(insurance regulations in Maryland)
February 19, 1999... Poets claim that love transcends all. But until recently, it didn't necessarily transcend insurance regulations in Maryland. Under state law, employers could only provide health coverage for the married partners or blood relatives of an...

'Pirates' sapping area software.(computer software piracy)
February 19, 1999... Chris Maier isn't selling as many copies of Microsoft Corp.'s Office 97 Pro as he would like to, but he says it isn't due to a weak marketing effort. It is due in part to rampant software piracy in Maryland, said Maier, operations...

Now hear this: Motorola dealer keeps firm small.(Blanchard Communications Inc)
February 19, 1999... David Blanchard probably has the most straightforward business philosophy in the world: * Bigger is not necessarily better. * If you can't do the math in your head, the deal is probably too complicated. * If you are making a...

BGE gas unit retrenches.(Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s subsidiary Constellation Energy Source)
February 12, 1999... Faced with fierce competition for customers, a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. subsidiary is shifting its focus away from the retail sale of natural gas to wholesale in several of its markets. Marking a shift in strategy for one of the...

Parks loan altered; terms of incentives changed after sale.(Parks Sausage Co.)
February 12, 1999... Though Parks Sausage Co. no longer owns the Park Heights plant where it had long pumped out pork products, the company could spend the next 25 years paying it off. Before its marriage to Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson earlier this...

Hoop dreams: Baltimore league takes up romantic cause.(International Basketball League)
February 12, 1999... Thaxter R. Trafton seeks success in an arena where many have failed. Trafton, former president of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers, is heading the International Basketball League, the newest start-up league to...

The business that reads; giant bookstores flourish, but how much is enough?
February 12, 1999... Bibelot Inc., a local mega-bookstore chain, is plotting its next expansion with a move into the Village of Cross Keys. But that's only after a retrenchment only six months ago. Bibelot founder Brian D. Weese said the Cross Keys...

Aon Corp. unveils novel policy to protect earnings.(Enterprise Earnings Protection Insurance)
February 12, 1999... Call it act of God insurance for your bottom line. Earlier this month, Aon Corp., a worldwide insurer with a major office in Baltimore, was among the companies to roll out Enterprise Earnings Protection Insurance, a policy that guarantees...

UB survey: labor shortages expected.(University of Baltimore's Maryland Business Climate Survey)
February 12, 1999... Even though many are finding it increasingly difficult to find skilled labor, Maryland manufacturing companies are expecting an increase in revenues this year, according to a recent survey conducted by the University of Baltimore. The...

In midst of merger, Manekin shuffles ranks.
February 12, 1999... Manekin Corp. is going through some major changes. Besides its merger this week with a massive San Francisco real estate investment trust, Greater Baltimore's biggest developer has quietly made some changes in the top management levels....

Healthy times: architects struggle to keep up with demand.(Special Report: Design & Construction)(includes related article on job market for architecture graduates)
February 12, 1999... 'It's a busy climate out there. It's a reflection of the general health of the economy' Don Sadler remembers when new projects were few and far between for Baltimore's architects. A decade ago, building - and the planning of new...

Pencil gets a bit dull in the computer age.(Special Report: Design & Construction)
February 12, 1999... Despite the computer-aided design technology that has reached the architectural industry, Gerard A. Baxter still uses one of the oldest tools of the trade. "I'm still a pencil man," said Baxter, the managing director of the architectural...

Martek Biosciences Corp.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
February 12, 1999... Corporate Profile For Columbia-based Martek Biosciences Corp. - a biotechnology company that researches, develops and manufactures nutritional supplements, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals from microalgae - 1998 was a year of steady...

Layoffs likely at hospital.(New Children's Hospital)
February 5, 1999... Children's closing in-patient division New Children's Hospital has notified state officials that it will lay off some of its 164 employees when it closes its in-patient hospital next month. "The hospital informed the Maryland...

State of lending: Tucker praised, criticized for loan strategy.(Stanley W. Tucker, CEO of MSBDFA Management Group Inc.)
February 5, 1999... Stanley W. Tucker is living proof of the self-fulfilling prophecy. For 18 years, in state government and out, Tucker has talked of "fueling dreams, creating new realities, taking businesses by the hand and leading them all the way to Wall...

Pavilion lease to be sold.(SFX Entertainment Inc. to acquire Merriweather Post Pavilion)
February 5, 1999... N.Y. company eyes Merriweather Post SFX Entertainment Inc., a New York-based operator of concert venues across the country, plans to take over Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. The acquisition will give the new operator a major...

BCI building a comeback.(BCI Contractors)
February 5, 1999... A low-profile Baltimore contracting company that built some of Maryland's best-known buildings - the Baltimore Arena and University of Maryland's Byrd Stadium among them - is on the comeback trail. BCI Contractors, the Fells Point...

NationsBank Corp. pays Lombard $145K.(settlement for case filed by Lombard Securities Inc.)
February 5, 1999... NationsBank Corp. has paid out roughly $145,000 to a Baltimore investment firm that took the bank to court claiming it did not have proper safeguards to detect check fraud. A spokeswoman for the Charlotte. N.C.-based bank said the company...

Spec space growing in Odenton.(business park in Baltimore, Maryland)
February 5, 1999... An Atlanta logistics firm is the latest company to snatch up space in a sprouting Odenton business park. Burnham Logistics, which helps companies distribute and store products, agreed to lease an Arundel Crossing Business Park building...

Moving the money.(Hunt Valley, Maryland-based CyberSystem Technologies Inc. provides e-commerce and Web hosting)
February 5, 1999... Business-to-business electronic commerce becomes a major force During this year's holiday shopping season, electronic commerce took center stage as millions of consumers discovered online retailers such as bookseller Amazon.com Inc. ...

A conversation with ... Frank A. Adams.(president and CEO of Grotech Capital Group)(Interview)
February 5, 1999... Ever wonder how some companies take off and become successes while others languish, no matter how original or practical their product idea may be? The success factor, business gurus suggest, can be attributed to appropriate investment...

Bid for success: firms takes advantage of good times.(Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc.)
February 5, 1999... Even though attorney Howie Bierman has 30 foreclosed homes going up for auction tomorrow morning, he's not sweating. Thanks to the capable staff at Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc., he says, the ads have been run, the legal papers all are in...

MedStar leads pack to buy Georgetown.(MedStar Health; Georgetown University Hospital)
February 5, 1999... MedStar Health has emerged as the leading contender to buy financially beleaguered Georgetown University Hospital. Georgetown officials said Feb. 3 that they had entered "serious discussions" with Columbia-based MedStar, formerly...