Baltimore Business Journal articles from January 1998

Baltimore Business Journal archives from January 1998

Industry trusting in REITs. (real estate investment trusts)(The Year Ahead: 1998 Real Estate)
January 2, 1998... The biggest real estate story of 1997 - the eye-popping price paid for 100 E. Pratt St. - speaks volumes about what will happen to the local real estate market in 1998. But like any forecast, it's subject to interpretation. On one hand, the...

Tourism should dominate headlines in '98.(The Year Ahead: 1998 Tourism)
January 2, 1998... With a bombardment of theme restaurants, innovative attractions and a brand-new football stadium, this year all eyes will be on Baltimore's fast-growing tourism industry. In 1998, Planet Hollywood is expected to open a location at the Inner...

Talking tech is focus of Maryland summit. (The State of Technology in Maryland: A First Annual Summit)
January 2, 1998... Maryland's most influential movers and shakers will meet in Annapolis this month to talk technology. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. are hosting "The State of Technology in Maryland: A First...

Chain hammering out plans for area locations. (Restoration Hardware)
January 2, 1998... A high-end specialty hardware chain is eying Baltimore and Annapolis after opening several stores in the Washington, D.C., area. Restoration Hardware sells finishes, tools and other products for restoring homes, and offers an eclectic...

PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
January 2, 1998... Corporate Profile PharmaKinetics Laboratories Inc. is a contract research organization providing a range of clinical research and development services to the worldwide pharmaceutical industry and to the biotechnology industry in the...

Hospital profits slipping. (Helix Health)
January 9, 1998... In a striking example of how profits are bleeding out of Maryland hospitals, Helix Health started the 1998 fiscal year by posting its first-ever quarterly loss. Statewide, hospital operating profits plunged nearly 33 percent - $16 million -...

Bicentennial blues: program raised $1.5M, but reviews are mixed. (Baltimore Bicentennial Celebration Inc.)
January 9, 1998... Now that Baltimore has blown out its 200th-birthday candles. Joshua Waldorf is looking for a new job. The executive director of Baltimore Bicentennial Celebration Inc. is packing up his office full of memorabilia. from mugs and hats to books...

Brokerage going public. (Chapman Co.)
January 9, 1998... Nathan A. Chapman Jr. is taking his investment bank public, a move that would make the company one of the biggest publicly traded minority-owned firms in the state. Chapman, the 40-year-old president of the Baltimore-based Chapman Co., filed...

Utility competitors may challenge PSC delay. (Maryland Public Service Commission's delay of full competition in the state's electric utility sector)
January 9, 1998... Companies itching to compete in Maryland's electric utility industry may sue to speedup the process. The Maryland Public Service Commission issued an order last week delaying full competition in the monopoly-controlled electric industry until...

Son awarded $15.3M in fight over family firm. (Frank A. Serio & Sons Inc.)
January 9, 1998... A family feud at a Howard County bakery supply company has turned into a $15.3 million court judgment against the business. A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Francis X. Serio the money after he sued his family and its company, Frank A...

Mergers bring growth to Green Spring offices. (Green Spring Health Services)
January 9, 1998... Swelled by a spate of mergers and red-hot growth, Green Spring Health Services is preparing to gobble up more office space in Columbia. Green Spring is considering nearly doubling the size of its future Howard County headquarters to absorb the...

Decision may help Bell Atlantic; Texas court rules in favor of Bells. (Bell telephone companies)
January 9, 1998... Texas court rules in favor of Bells Bell Atlantic Corp. got a late Christmas present from a federal judge this week. The telecommunications company, which provides local telephone service to more than 90 percent of Maryland households, wants...

Hot-wired: demand is skyrocketing for wireless phones, keeping the industry hopping.(Special Report: Technology)
January 9, 1998... When Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, newspaper writers coined a cliche to describe the Baltimore baseball team's new upscale clientele. It's a "cell-phone crowd," they wrote, disparagingly. Because more than a few fans were spotted...

USF&G Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
January 9, 1998... Corporate Profile USF&G Corp. appears to have completed its slow recovery from financial problems in the early 1990s and is enjoying healthy profits. Last month, USF&G completed its acquisition of TITAN Holdings Inc. The purchase more than...

Metris may add 500 jobs. (Metris Companies Inc.)
January 16, 1998... A Minneapolis credit card company that opened a 500-employee operations center in White Marsh last fall is considering doubling the facility's operations, according to company officials. The move by Metris Cos. Inc. could bring between 400 and...

Radio One heads west for growth. (Radio One Inc.)
January 16, 1998... Radio One Inc. went on a buying binge last month, signing deals to gobble up five radio stations in San Francisco and Detroit. Lanham-based Radio One is spending $56 million on the stations - two in San Francisco and three in Detroit. It will...

Hospitals say denials soar. (medical claims)
January 16, 1998... Maryland hospitals claim insurers have dramatically increased denials of medical claims, a further sign of tightening financial fortunes in the state's health care industry. Hospitals say the trend is caused by managed care companies willing...

Kiddie Academy seeks bankruptcy protection. (Kiddie Academy International Inc.)
January 16, 1998... Kiddie Academy International Inc., a Bel Air-based franchiser of child-care centers nationwide, was forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection when a string of franchises defaulted on loans, according to company officials. The company...

Former G. Heileman brewery draws buyer.
January 16, 1998... The former Colt 45 brewery, a landmark property that faces Interstate 695 in Halethorpe, is about to get a new owner. Stroh Brewing Co., the Detroit-based owner of the shuttered facility, has signed a contract to sell the brewery for...

EA Engineering, Science and Technology Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
January 16, 1998... Corporate Profile EA Engineering, Science and Technology Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the fields of energy, the environment, and health and safety, recently reported a 52.3 percent increase in first-quarter net income over its...

Obrecht holdings for sale. (P.F. Obrecht & Son)
January 23, 1998... A massive Chicago real estate company is bidding for approximately 1 million square feet of commercial 'real estate around the Baltimore area, according to sources in the real estate industry. The property - valued at between $65 million and...

Man with a mission: a quixotic retiree's quest for the poor. (Dr. William H.M. Finney)
January 23, 1998... A quixotic retiree's quest for the poor Dr. William H.M. Finney can get a patient brain surgery for $5. Finney isn't a miracle worker, nor is he an HMO's dream come true. He's a sharp-tongued, retired neurosurgeon with connections who runs...

USF&G's loss not a fatality.
January 23, 1998... USF&G Corp.'s demise will be another in a long line of big-company kicks in Baltimore's stomach. This time, however, the local economy may be strong enough to take it. On Monday, USF&G chairman Norman Blake announced his plan to sell the...

Flat speaker is music to Linthicum firm's ears. (NCT Audio Products Inc.)
January 23, 1998... A Baltimore-area technology company is turning the audio world on its ear by creating a speaker that can wrap the Rolling Stones in a Renoir. NCT Audio Products Inc., a newly formed subsidiary of Linthicum-based Noise Cancellation Technologies...

Downtown trolley service in jeopardy: owner of Water Taxi says he will suspend service.
January 23, 1998... Owner of Water Taxi says he will suspend service After a season with one leg on shore - controlling the tourist trolleys traveling the streets of Baltimore - Ed Kane has decided to stick to the sea. The owner of the Water Taxi will cease...

Hospital merger first step toward network. (Mercy Medical Center and North Arundel Health System)
January 23, 1998... The merger of downtown's Mercy Medical Center and North Arundel Health System is just the first step in an ambitious plan to create a regional health care network. Leaders at the two institutions said they plan to form an organization of...

Chemical firm invests $38 million in project. (Millennium Inorganic Chemicals)
January 23, 1998... Millennium Inorganic Chemicals wants to change the way it does business. And the Hunt Valley-based maker of titanium dioxide and other chemical products is spending $38 million and bringing 50 employees from across the globe to Baltimore to do...

Used, not obsolete: used computers a cheaper option.(Growth Strategies)
January 23, 1998... Used computers a cheaper option These days, it's virtually impossible to conduct a viable business without computers. But for a small firm with little capital, buying a new computer can be daunting. A PC with a high-speed modem and tons of...

Harbor Federal Bancorp Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)
January 23, 1998... Corporate Profile Many changes have occurred at the Baltimore-based bank since its conversion to a federally chartered stock savings bank in 1994. For starters, the bank bought three Baltimore-area branches of Sequoia National Bank in February...

Tech center rises again in Baltimore. (Internet Enterprise Center to put up another Internet incubator)
January 30, 1998... Baltimore businessman Jay Goldsberry made headlines in 1996 when he and a partner started the country's first private Internet incubator in an old Canton broom factory. The president of the Internet Enterprise Center is at it again. This time...

Law firm shrugs off the blows. (Piper and Marbury)
January 30, 1998... To hear Piper & Marbury's Frank Burch tell it, Baltimore's biggest corporate law firm could see into the future. About 20 years ago, Piper & Marbury began preparing for the exodus of corporate headquarters from its Baltimore hometown, said...

Atlanta firm swallows Jessup liquor distributor. (National Distributing Co acquires Kronheim Cos)
January 30, 1998... Jessup-based Kronheim Cos. has been acquired by one of the biggest liquor distributors in the country. National Distributing Co. of Atlanta said last week that it acquired Kronheim, which has about 350 employees in the area and a...

Millersville firm rides into Japanese market. (Premier Rides Inc sells roller coaster to Suzuka Circuitland theme park)
January 30, 1998... Japanese theme-park operators wanted their own roller coaster that could take a 7-ton train from 0 to 70 miles per hour in about three seconds. So a Millersville company, Premier Rides Inc., is building the Mad Cobra for thrill-seekers at the...

Hotel project emerges from Angelos and city. (hotel development proposal by Peter G. Angelos approved)
January 30, 1998... Backing off its claims that downtown Baltimore could support only one major new hotel during the next five years, the Baltimore Development Corp. presented new evidence last week indicating that demand exists for two such hotels. Using that...

Poof: roll-ups make magic out of groups of firms. (roll-up companies combine mom-and-pop businesses nationwide)
January 30, 1998... Wall Street has an eye on a shrewd breed of consolidator that is combining similar mom-and-pop businesses across the country and taking them public in a finance gambit called roll-ups. Some people on Wall Street call them "poof" companies -...

Gallery owner learned trade from print book. (Craig Flinner learns art from art books)
January 30, 1998... Craig Flinner admits that when he opened his gallery he didn't know a whole lot about art. 'Typically, people work with someone else in the [art print] business first, but I just barged in," explained the owner of the Craig Flinner Gallery on...

Hot commodity: software firms are having trouble getting programmers to stay put.
January 30, 1998... You couldn't blame Sean Flaherty at Diehl Graphsoft Inc. for feeling a little bit like a revolving door these days. As vice president of engineering, he's in charge of hiring software programmers for the Columbia-based computer-aided design...