Baltimore Business Journal articles from March 1999

Baltimore Business Journal archives from March 1999

Pension managers scrapped: Mercantile, two others fired by state pension chairman.(Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co.; Maryland State Treasurer Richard N. Dixon)
March 5, 1999... State Treasurer Richard N. Dixon is overhauling Maryland's retirement pension fund and has fired three fund managers, including Mercantile-Safe Deposit &Trust Co., for what he says is poor performance. Dixon, who became chairman of the...

Pencil pushers: for Geddes, a simple no. 2 just won't do.(Raymond Geddes and Company Inc.)(Company Profile)
March 5, 1999... Will Geddes, no doubt, is a kid at heart. The 39-year-old president of Raymond Geddes & Co. Inc., an oddball school supply company in Middle River, has pencils topped with colorful feathers in his office and peculiar-looking pens in his...

Insurer eyeing Howard: Northwestern Mutual plans massive project.(Howard County, MD; Northwestern Mutual Life Investment Management Co.)
March 5, 1999... A national life insurance company with a penchant for real estate in Greater Baltimore is building Howard County's largest industrial development in the past two years. Northwestern Mutual Life Investment Management Co., the investment arm...

Nurses in big demand: hospitals brace for approaching shortages.(Maryland)
March 5, 1999... Maryland's hospitals are facing a costly and potentially disruptive shortage of registered nurses. Industry experts and hospital officials say an aging nursing population and expanding job opportunities will fuel the shortage. In addition,...

Spectera moving plant to Fort Holabird park.(Spectera Inc.)
March 5, 1999... Health services company Spectera Inc. is planning to move its downtown eyeglass manufacturing unit to the Fort Holabird Industrial Park in East Baltimore by May 1. The move, helped along by financial incentives this month from Baltimore...

Insurance firms team to create new product.(Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.; Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes; United States Insurance Services)
March 5, 1999... Two local insurance brokerages have teamed up with the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. to form a new independent agency that offers workers compensation policies over the Internet. The partnership, called EmployersEdge of Maryland, began...

A conversation with ... Gregory A. Devou: chief marketing officer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.(Interview)
March 5, 1999... The constantly changing health care environment presents both challenges and opportunities for established entities such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of Maryland's largest employers and health insurance companies. One of the most...

The right mix: TBH moves from road building to making concrete.(Thomas, Bennett and Hunter)(Company Profile)
March 5, 1999... Ronald Weisgerber, president of one of the oldest road contractors in the state, gets a little mushy when it comes to concrete. "It defines civilization," said Weisgerber, sitting in the humble board room of Thomas, Bennett & Hunter in...

Leeds Federal Bancshares Inc.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
March 5, 1999... Corporate profile Leeds Federal Bankshares Inc. is planning its first branch expansion ever by building an office this year in the growing Elkridge area. The Arbutus-based parent company of Leeds Federal Savings Bank is fueling the...

Serio and Sons being sold.(commercial baking goods distributor)
March 12, 1999... After a year that saw a bitter feud in its controlling family and criminal charges against its CEO, Frank A. Serio & Sons is being sold to a Dutch conglomerate. Frank A. Serio & Sons, the largest commercial baking goods distributors in the...

Proxy fight looms: Provident, Shearer in a war or words.(Provident Bankshares Corp)
March 12, 1999... A well-known activist investor is asking Provident Bankshares Corp. shareholders to vote for a resolution calling for the bank's management to sell the company. The move is the latest in Jerry Shearer's campaign to force the sale of...

Tech council will go its own way.(Greater Baltimore Committee Technology Council)
March 12, 1999... The Greater Baltimore Committee Technology Council has won its independence from the group that spawned it 10 years ago. The Abell Foundation, a Baltimore charitable organization, has awarded the Technology Council a grant that will enable...

Blue skies: for the blues, 1998 was pivotal year.(Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland)
March 12, 1999... Five years ago, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland was stagnant, even floundering. Today, it dominates the Maryland health care industry like a Goliath. "It is fair to say that both the Maryland [Blues] plan and the D.C. plan were not...

Eye surgeon leaves LCA for competitor.(LCA Vision eye clinic)
March 12, 1999... TLC The Laser Center Inc., a large Canadian eye laser surgery chain, has lured away one of the region's leading eye surgeons from its main competitor to run two new centers in Baltimore and Annapolis. Dr. Anthony Kameen, former director of...

State waste permits backed up at MDE.(Maryland Dept of Environment)
March 12, 1999... More than half of Maryland's hazardous waste facilities are operating under expired permits because of a mounting backlog of requests for permit renewals. State Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery County, said he is seeking to eliminate that...

Sources: Mamsi, Cigna HealthCare talking.(health maintenance organizations)
March 12, 1999... Cigna HealthCare is negotiating to buy Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc. (Mamsi) of Rockville, one of the Washington-Baltimore region's largest - and most troubled - managed care companies, according to two industry insiders. Officials...

Ice cream entrepreneur dreams big.
March 12, 1999... This is the first of an occasional series of articles about one local entrepreneur's efforts to start her own business. Kirsten Hubbard holds an advanced degree in astrophysics from Johns Hopkins University. Last year she launched a...

Radio One files for IPO.(Radio One Inc.)(initial public offering)(Company Financial Information)
March 19, 1999... Radio One Inc. is seeking permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to go ahead with a $115 million initial public offering this year. The Lanham-based radio broadcasting company will use the net proceeds of the offering to...

Sleepy bank wakes.(Carrollton Bancorp)(Company Business and Marketing)
March 19, 1999... Long conservative Carrollton eyes M&A Carrollton Bancorp is on the prowl for its first acquisition in its 95-year history. Though the banking industry has been engrossed in a merger-and-acquisition frenzy for the past five years,...

Fog's future still murky.(London Fog Industries Inc.)(Company Financial Information)
March 19, 1999... A changing of the guard at London Fog Industries Inc. has done little to clear up nagging questions surrounding the company's massive debt and stalled stock offering. New CEO William Dragon Jr. is only the latest in a line of executives...

Port makes valuable contacts through bid.(Port of Baltimore)(Company Business and Marketing)
March 19, 1999... Even if tile Port of Baltimore's attempt to lure shipping giants Sea Land and Maersk away from New York fails, state officials say the bid's exposure alone has already been a boon to the port. Since answering Sea Land/Maersk's May 1998 call...

Henkel's restaurant site to be developed.(Howard County, Maryland)(Company Business and Marketing)
March 19, 1999... The former Henkel's restaurant, a longtime favorite of judges, railroad workers and businesspeople in Howard County, is being turned into an office and warehouse complex. Merritt Properties LLC has acquired the nine-acre Henkel's property...

TCI will raise cable rates in city.(TCI Communications Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland)(Company Business and Marketing)
March 19, 1999... As some regulatory control over cable prices ends this month; one of the region's two local providers plans to raise rates. TCI Communications of Baltimore, the subsidiary of the Denver cable giant, will raise rates by June 1, but officials say...

Outreach shakes up the 'net.(online commerce)(Outreach Technologies Inc.)(Industry Trend or Event)
March 19, 1999... Human contact is virtually nonexistant in the online marketplace. Consumers who shop over the Internet have been able avoid trips to the mall, long lines at cash registers and sales clerks who may not endorse their store manager's belief in...

Marina does well by doing good.(Port Annapolis Marina)(Company Business and Marketing)
March 19, 1999... For Dave Gohsman, the general manager of Port Annapolis Marina, making money while still doing the right: thing is the key to success. He proved it under pressure during a recent winter storm, when 35-knot winds threatened to plow a 40-foot...

Sinai eyes New Children's: LifeBridge may sew up more of northwest care market.(New Children's Hospital; LifeBridge Health)
March 26, 1999... LifeBridge Health, northwest Baltimore's dominant health care provider, is in talks to partner with the beleaguered New Children's Hospital, according to hospital officials and state health care regulators. Officials at both LifeBridge,...

Doctors groups flounder.(physician practice management companies in Baltimore, Maryland)(Industry Overview)
March 26, 1999... After promising big returns in the health care industry's business-model crap shoot, physician practice management companies have turned up snake eyes. Once touted as the savior of the doctor business and the new paradigm in managed care,...

Ever optimistic: Lancelotta believes, if bankers don't.(James M. Lancelotta)
March 26, 1999... When James M. Lancelotta stands on the battered front porch of his parents' former home in southwest Baltimore, he looks out at the property and sees white-washed condominium buildings with huge bay windows, surrounded by manicured gardens and...

Shareholder ready to pay for proxy battle.(Mid-Atlantic Investors; sale of Provident Bankshares Corp.)
March 26, 1999... A South Carolina investment company that has been pushing for the sale of Provident Bankshares Corp. is preparing to spend roughly $100,000 to get its message ont to fellow shareholders. That sum, however, is a mere fraction of what...

E.spire stock soars amidst takeover talk.(e.spire Communications)
March 26, 1999... Fueled by speculation that it is being looked at by buyers, the stock of e.spire Communications rose 60 percent in the past three weeks. The stock of the Annapolis Junction technology company is trading near $10; the stock hit a low of...

'Net' firms play hot market; USInternetworking hopes to catch the wave of IPO mania.(Internet)
March 26, 1999... If one is a technology entrepreneur taking a company public, the word "net" in the name can act like a supercharger on a car engine. And USinternetworking Inc., the Annapolis company that plans to make an initial public offering shortly,...

Remaking the 'burbs: Nottingham transforms White Marsh.(Nottingham Properties Inc.; Avenue at White Marsh)
March 26, 1999... The Avenue at White Marsh opened in late 1997 with a barrage of publicity. Columnists wrote about it, people waxed philosophic about it on radio talk shows and hordes of visitors came calling. If it was an amusement park, the Avenue's...

A conversation with ... Richard Alter.(interview with the president and CEO of Manekin Corp.)(Interview)
March 26, 1999... Richard Alter shook the foundations of the Baltimore commercial real estate industry last month. Alter - the president and chief executive officer of Manekin Corp. - merged the 43-year-old, family-run company with San Francisco real estate...

Firm offers big company experience.(accounting firm Sturn, Warner, Sacclaris and Lombardo)(Company Profile)
March 26, 1999... For Sturn, Wagner, Sacclaris & Lombardo, skimping on technology has never been an option. In its nine years of servicing clients, the mid-sized Annapolis certified public accounting firm has sunk as much as "six figures" per year on the...