Business First-Columbus articles from February 1999

Business First-Columbus archives from February 1999

Some users benefit in market glutted by cheap foreign steel.(manufacturers' steel purchasing)
February 26, 1999... There's a flip side to the pain Ohio's steelmakers are feeling over recent foreign steel dumping incidents. Though industry insiders are claiming that foreign producers are selling hot-rolled steel for $40 to as much as $200 a ton less...

Limited applies a branding lesson.(corporate repositioning as destination stores)
February 26, 1999... Several years ago, Limited Inc. and the man who created it, Leslie H. Wexner, were getting rapped on Wall Street. In the 1970s and 1980s, Limited and other apparel stores that anchored shopping malls could easily lure shoppers from a...

Sportservice nears pact at new arena.(to handle concessions in the arena after contract signing with the National Hockey League expansion franchise)
February 26, 1999... The Columbus Blue Jackets are close to agreeing on a concessions contract for Nationwide Arena. An executive at Buffalo-based Sportservice Corp., which handles food sales at Jacobs Field in Cleveland and Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, said...

Road plan coming together to handle Polaris shoppers.(Polaris Centers of Commerce)
February 26, 1999... A revamped road system planned for Polaris Centers of Commerce and a nearby mall expands on the $24.1 million in projects developers and city officials proposed nearly four years ago to serve another retail complex. Glimcher Development...

Tax credits draw Pinnacle to Groveport site.(includes related article on Brooks Beverage Management Inc.'s tax break)(Pinnacle Data Systems Inc.)
February 26, 1999... An expanding Columbus computer hardware company plans to move its manufacturing and repair operations into part of the former Sun Television & Appliances Inc. headquarters in Groveport. Pinnacle Data Systems Inc. plans to lease 56,600...

Marsh banks on Memorial to drive its image building.(Marsh and McLennan Companies Inc.; Memorial Tournament)
February 26, 1999... It's the largest human resources consulting firm in the world, but William M. Mercer Inc. isn't well known outside of certain segments of the business world. Local Mercer executives and sports marketing analysts say this year's Memorial...

Huntington, opponents gain backers in DOI rules fight.(Huntington National Bank's case against the Ohio Department of Insurance)
February 26, 1999... Huntington National Bank's federal regulator and Bank One Corp. are lending support to Huntington's lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Insurance, while a consortium of state and national insurance groups has joined the action as...

Ohio hospitals asked to mull suit against tobacco industry.(information session from lawyers at Buckingham Doolittle and Burroughs)
February 26, 1999... Ohio hospitals are considering whether to sue the tobacco industry to reclaim uncompensated-care expenses for tobacco-related illnesses. Administrators from area hospitals met Feb. 11 in Columbus to hear from lawyers at Buckingham...

Area's 3 TV cable systems squaring off with upgrades.(cable television activity in Central Ohio)
February 26, 1999... As one of the few areas in the nation with evolving and heavy cable television competition, Central Ohio's cable TV subscribers are getting tuned in to the industry's freshest technology. Cases in point: * Time Warner Communications...

Arena draws 2 projects; venture shoots for autumn start on mixed-use complexes in developing district.(Nationwide Arena District in Columbus, OH)
February 19, 1999... Venture shoots for autumn start on mixed-use completes in developing district Developers of Nationwide Arena expect to complete one, and perhaps two, speculative mixed-use projects at about the time the sports-and-entertainment venue...

In rural Pickaway, debate over its economy thickens.(Pickaway County, Columbus, OH)
February 19, 1999... Every morning, Albert Junior Roese notices the traffic jam on the northbound lanes of Route 23 in South Bloomfield. At the end of the day, the mayor of this village in Pickaway County sees the bottleneck of vehicles in the southbound...

National audience will get Crew for 11 season games.(professional soccer team Columbus Crew)
February 19, 1999... Columbus Crew games will be broadcast nationally a record 11 times in 1999, close including the Major League Soccer team's first-ever regular season appearance on ABC in August The unprecedented television exposure for the Crew is crucial...

Apartment vacancies up as construction starts braking.(Franklin County, Columbus, OH)
February 19, 1999... A Danter Co. survey shows a modest rise in empty apartments in Franklin County, a possible foreshadowing of higher vacancies in the next few years. But a separate compilation of multifamily housing construction permits for 1998 suggests...

Southern Delaware hottest area for single-family home building.(Delaware County, Columbus, OH)
February 19, 1999... Construction of single-family housing soared 36.5 percent in Delaware County in 1998, while Franklin County posted gains just under 10 percent. Statistics compiled by the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio show builders...

Minitender offers catch eyes of state, R.G. Barry investors.(Ohio)
February 19, 1999... Ohio securities regulators are warning investors to be cautious of so-called minitender offers after an Arizona-based company made an offer for 2 percent of R.G. Barry Corp.'s outstanding shares for below-market prices. IG Holdings Inc....

Business optimistic for cut in inventory tax.(Ohio)
February 19, 1999... This could well be the year Ohio businesses achieve political nirvana at the Statehouse by finally winning passage of a reduction in the state's inventory tax. With Gov. Bob Taft supporting a reduction, and with both parties in the...

Ohio may open pensions.(private annuities)
February 12, 1999... State may let employees invest in private annuities Statehouse lawmakers are about to take up the contentious issue of whether public employees in Ohio can for the first time invest their retirement savings in private insurance annuities....

Advertising war: hospitals waging ad battle for patients' loyalty, wallets.
February 12, 1999... In Central Ohio, where there's hospital care, there is, with increasing frequency, advertising warfare. Faced with managed care's influence on consumers and the merger-induced blurting of the public's view on who owns whom,...

OSU eyes Park for orthopedics.(Ohio State University Medical Center's planned acquisition of Park Medical Center)
February 12, 1999... A purchase of Park Medical Center would speed an Ohio State University Medical Center plan to create an orthopedics department that some at OSU hope will be run by a prominent local orthopedic surgeon. A proposal to create an orthopedics...

Dublin crafting incentives to help Cardinal.(Dublin,OH; Cardinal Health Inc.)
February 12, 1999... The Dublin city administration has proposed an incentive package to make sure Cardinal Health Inc. continues consolidating its burgeoning operations in its home of the last 14 years. City Council will get its first view Feb. 16 of the...

Pizzuti's CreekSide center scores a tenant in Invacare.(Pizzuti Cos., Invacare Corp.)
February 12, 1999... A suburban Cleveland medical equipment manufacturer and distributor will fill nearly half of a warehouse Pizzuti Cos. is finishing at CreekSide Industrial Center in Obetz. Elyria-based Invacare Corp. will lease 130,400 square feet of...

CNB, Checksmart accord aims to aid check-cashing workers.
February 12, 1999... Commerce National Bank has hooked up with a check-cashing company in an unusual arrangement aimed at attracting businesses that want to help their employees avoid bank service fees. Commerce National, a one-branch bank in Worthington that...

Accounting firms settle suit over employee defections.(Ciuni & Panichi, Groner Boyle & Quillin LLP)
February 12, 1999... Two accounting firms that wound up in a court fight after two-thirds of one firm's staff left for the other have settled their differences. Cleveland-based Ciuni & Panichi and Columbus-based Groner Boyle & Quillin LLP have settled a $7.5...

United Behavioral Health, Mount Carmel reorganize.(Mount Carmel Medical Center)
February 12, 1999... Restructurings mean office closings and layoffs of clinicians Two local mental-health organizations are reorganizing their businesses, which will result in two office closings and job losses. United Behavior Health, a subsidiary of...

Regional plans may realign carriers' hierarchy at airport.(Port Columbus International Airport)
February 12, 1999... Delta, US Airways close in on America West as No. 1 at Port Columbus Delta Air Lines could challenge America West this year as the top carrier at Port Columbus International Airport as the city's major airlines alter their regional...

HER offers more associates chance to own piece of firm.(HER Realtors Inc.)
February 12, 1999... HER Realtors will invite more of its top associates into ownership of the region's dominant residential real estate company as part of a broader incentive program to help it retain its best talent and finance growth outside Greater Columbus....

NRA, retailers take shots at Ohio gun lock proposal.(National Rifle Association)
February 12, 1999... A handgun control proposal at the Statehouse is triggering debate among lawmakers, Central Ohio gun dealers and the National Rifle Association. The bill would prohibit the sale of a handgun without the simultaneous sale of a trigger lock...

$81M plan for Mt. Carmel.(expansion plans for Mount Carmel Health System)
February 5, 1999... Expansion at East, St. Ann's designed to keep system solid in east, northeast county Mount Carmel Health System plans to spend $80.9 million to expand operations and increase services at its Mount Carmel East and St Ann's hospitals. ...

Ohio banks kept profits high in '98.
February 5, 1999... Ohio's banks rode increased service and fee income to another year of strong operating profits in 1998, but across-the-board charges wiped out many of their gains. Yet, even with the slew of merger and restructuring charges, the banks...

Skyline serving up two-way for managers.(Skyline Chili Inc.)
February 5, 1999... Tony Currie was a district superintendent with Frisch's Big Boy Restaurants Inc. when he became eligible for full retirement after 28 years with the company. That's when he began looking for an opportunity where he could be his own boss,...

Forecast: jobs will go begging deep into 1999.(labor shortage in Ohio)
February 5, 1999... No one has to tell David Garick there's a job crunch in Ohio. He just has to check his employer's Internet Web site. More than 500,000 people a week score hits on the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services site at www.obes.org; which is...

Credit union gains territory blanketing Franklin County.(expansion of Groveport, Ohio-based First Service Federal Credit Union)
February 5, 1999... A Groveport credit union has been granted a charter that makes all of Franklin County its pool of potential members. The 9,000-member First Service Federal Credit Union, which rims offices in Groveport and Pickerington, will see the...

Columbus exposed.(marketing of Columbus, Ohio as a prospective conference site after the Religious Conference Management Association's February 2-5, 1999 convention)
February 5, 1999... The hospitality community bids to show off the city to 400 planners of religious conferences, conventions It wasn't the largest convention in Columbus or the most glamorous or the one whose attendees had the deepest pockets. But the...

Mekka owner, 2 partners to buy Newport.(Belkin Productions and SFX Entertainment Inc.'s acquisition of the Newport Music Hall)
February 5, 1999... The Newport Music Hail is in line to get a new owner, settling uncertainty over the future of the University District music club. A partnership that includes the owner of the Mekka nightclub, Belkin Productions and SFX Entertainment Inc....

Children's Hospital public relations contract is awarded to Gerbig Snell.
February 5, 1999... Children's Hospital is launching a multi-year public relations campaign to raise national awareness about what it does so it can recruit researchers and research dollars. Children's retained Columbus-based ad agency Gerbig...

Law firm looking to Taiwan for its first foreign initiative.(Schottenstein Zox & Dunn)
February 5, 1999... Taiwan wants to integrate managed care into its $30 billion-a-year health industry, and lawyers from Schottenstein Zox & Dunn hope to be there when it happens. Two health-care attorneys with the Columbus law firm will head to the capital...

Kid's fun without product hype.(profile of Columbus, Ohio-based Highlights for Children Inc.)(Company Profile)
February 5, 1999... The no-advertising policy is another constant; it is a corporate belief not to market to children. "One of the reasons we don't have advertising in the book is we don't want to create that adversarial relationship with children and parents of...