Business First-Columbus articles from June 1998

Business First-Columbus archives from June 1998

Ciuni sues Groner Boyle. (Ciuni & Panichi Inc.; Groner Boyle & Quillin LLP)
June 26, 1998... Former staffers named in $7M legal action The coup has sprung a lawsuit. Cleveland-based accounting firm Ciuni & Panichi Inc. has filed a civil action against its former Columbus managing partner and Columbus-based rival Groner Boyle &...

Burgess & Niple acquires firm in Va. (Burgess & Niple Ltd.)
June 26, 1998... The second largest engineering firm in Columbus has expanded into Maryland and Virginia through its first acquisition in 12 years. Burgess & Niple Ltd. will merge with Bengtson DeBell & Elkin Ltd. of Chantilly, Va., effective July 1. The...

OSU pumps life into heart hospital. (Ohio State University)(includes related article on reaction of managed-care insurers and hospitals toward a proposed for-profit heart hospital in Dublin, OH)
June 26, 1998... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] The potential for a rival heart hospital in Dublin is prompting Ohio State University Medical Center and its physicians to consider a freestanding heart hospital. "We are in very preliminary discussions," said Kam...

Investors signal interest in wireless alarm system.
June 26, 1998... One day in 1993 Brian Hess looked at his portable Aiwa compact disc player and a chord of inspiration sounded in the cell-phone entrepreneur's mind. Why, Hess thought, couldn't a home/office security system be as portable and foolproof as...

Pizzuti prepares $8M spec CreekSide industrial center. (Pizzuti Cos.)
June 26, 1998... Pizzuti Cos. will begin shifting its industrial development focus from Grove City to Obetz in July with the construction of a spec distribution center. Pizzuti expects to break ground in July on an $8 million, 275,000-square-foot spec...

Banc One puts its stamp on online bill presentment. (Banc One Corp.)
June 26, 1998... Banc One Corp. wants to make your daily trip to the mailbox a much more pleasant experience. It hopes to accomplish this by eliminating bills - or at least the need to send them along with the letters, catalogs and AOL solicitations people...

Accel International mulls merger, acquisition options. (Accel International Corp.)
June 26, 1998... Accel International Corp. is considering merger offers from two insurance companies and says it will pursue others if they fall through. Thomas H. Friedberg, chairman, president and CEO, said Accel has been looking for "strategic...

Coaxial sale expected to bring high-speed access to Internet. (Coaxial Communications)
June 26, 1998... The sale of Coaxial Communications to Insight Communications is expected to bring low-cost, high-speed Internet access for businesses and residences on the east side of Columbus as early as next year. A service similar to Time Warner...

After 25 years, Fiesta Hair Salons stays a cut above. (Fiesta Hair Salons Inc.)
June 26, 1998... Fiesta Hair Salons Inc. and founder Phyllis Jones are celebrating 25 years in the business of beauty. Jones, 73, founded Fiesta with her late husband, Clayton Jones, in 1973. The couple opened their first store on East Broad Street. Jones...

BOA buys General Insurance. (Berwanger Overmyer Associates; General Insurance Agency Inc.)
June 19, 1998... Berwanger Overmyer Associates will buy General Insurance Agency Inc. in a deal combining Columbus' first- and third-largest locally owned independent insurance agencies. The merger increases BOA's annual premium volume by 15 percent at a...

Downtown sale nets investors 87 percent gain. (Continental Real Estate Cos.' sale of Continental Center to Oregon State Teachers Retirement System)
June 19, 1998... A Columbus real estate partnership has sold Continental Centre for $44.9 million, scoring an 87 percent price boost for the property inside of 30 months. Continental Real Estate Cos.' Frank Kass, Jack Lucks, Bill Dargusch and Wayne Harer...

Fitness chain muscles into market. (California Fitness Centers to open branch in Central Ohio)
June 19, 1998... A Tampa-based fitness chain is pumping up on Columbus with plans for what it hopes will be more than a half-dozen exercise centers in Central Ohio by the end of next, year. California Fitness Centers will open its first Central Ohio - and...

Cigna seeks changes with vendors. (Cigna HealthCare of Ohio Inc.)
June 19, 1998... Cigna HealthCare of Ohio Inc. plans changes in how it deals with vendors, suppliers and hospitals as part of a statewide reorganization. The company in June consolidated statewide management functions at its Cleveland office instead of having...

Ciuni & Panichi reloads, promises no letdown to clients. (Ciuni and Panichi Inc.)
June 19, 1998... Ciuni & Panichi Inc., a Cleveland-based accounting firm with more than 300 clients in Central Ohio, is finding that there's life after losing two-thirds of its Columbus staff to a cross-town rival. Vincent Panichi, senior partner who founded...

BIA nails down Arlington site for 1999 Parade of Homes. (Building Industry Association of Central Ohio)
June 19, 1998... The Building Industry of Association of Central Ohio will return to Upper Arlington in 1999 within a new luxury subdivision. The BIA has selected the 20.6-acre Tarrington Woods development proposed by land developer Commonwealth Capital Corp....

AEP shift to Gahanna gives Nationwide downtown space. (American Electric Power Co.; Nationwide Insurance Enterprise)
June 19, 1998... Nationwide Insurance Enterprise has moved to expand its downtown office presence as 'American Electric Power Co. shifts some of its operations to Gahanna. AEP on June 12 sold two office buildings on Front Street, an adjacent surface parking...

Wagenbrenner, U.S. Realty team up in German Village. (Wagenbrenner Management Co.; U.S. Realty Consultants Inc.)
June 19, 1998... Wagenbrenner Management Co. plans to break into the downtown Columbus market through the renovation of a German Village building on South High Street. Wagenbrenner Management will renovate and manage the property at 492 S. Third St. now...

French mutual funds buys 5.8 percent of Greif Bros. (SoGen International Fund; Greif Bros. Corp.)
June 19, 1998... A $4 billion mutual fund based in France has bought a nearly 6 percent interest in Greif Bros. Corp., a Delaware-based industrial packaging and container company. SoGen International Fund, a subsidiary of Societe Generale, bought 640,000...

GB&Q lands 10 staffers from Ciuni. (Groner Boyle & Quillin LLP; Ciuni & Panichi Inc.)
June 12, 1998... Ten staff members - nine of them accountants - have left Ciuni & Panichi Inc. to join rival accounting firm Groner Boyle & Quillin LLP. The coup began June 4 when Brad Eldridge, former managing partner of Cleveland-based Ciuni's Columbus...

Gahanna joins hospitality boom; 5 projects, 500 rooms planned. (lodging industry)
June 12, 1998... The nonexistent lodging industry in Gahanna will skyrocket to more than 500 rooms in the next 12 months as developers move forward on five projects. Taking center stage is Wichita-based Candlewood Hotel Co., which has acquired a 2.9-acre...

Cheryl & Co. seeks more dough to grow cookie empire. (includes related article on closure of branch)
June 12, 1998... Cheryl & Co. is planning to raise up to $3.5 million in a private placement this year to expand its Westerville headquarters and finance possible acquisitions. The baked goods and gift retailer's headquarters and production facility on...

A seller's market for labor fuels wage, benefit demands.
June 12, 1998... Don Lee is in a creative business and he's had to use his creative skills to find and keep workers. "I think work environment is a big plus to keeping people," said Lee, CEO of Columbus-based Horizons Cos., a multimedia development firm....

Partners mull 300-room Hyatt Regency expansion.
June 12, 1998... Nationwide Realty Investors and its partners in the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown are dusting off a $30 million-plus proposal to expand the city's largest hotel. Ohio Center Hotel Ltd., owner of the 631-room convention hotel, will decide late...

Automaker Daewoo taps OSU students to sell cars. (Daewoo Motor America; Ohio State University)
June 12, 1998... In its first foray into Ohio, South Korean automaker Daewoo will shun traditional dealers and use Ohio State University students to sell its low-priced cars beginning in 1999. "We have to get hip and cool pretty quick. We are unusual,...

Infiniti of Columbus taps Jupiter for branding drive. (Jupiter Marketing Inc.)
June 12, 1998... Infiniti of Columbus has launched a radio campaign to brand the dealership and influence the car-buying and car-leasing decisions of Central Ohio's affluent. The consumer awareness campaign is using a similar formula that branded two other...

McGraw-Hill turns spade on Polaris office building. (Polaris Centers of Commerce)
June 12, 1998... New multimedia technologies and product lines will drive growth at the Columbus-based educational publishing group of McGraw-Hill Cos. as it consolidates local operations at Polaris Centers of Commerce. The educational and professional...

Pharmacies find flavoring gives new taste to competing.
June 12, 1998... Four-year-old Brian Reese used to run and hide from his parents at medicine time. The 4-year-old, who underwent a bone marrow transplant for a rare genetic disease, has had to take up to 20 different medications at a time. "It would take us...

Heart hospital pumped on Dublin. (HeartOne Hospital of Ohio LLC's planned 140,000-sq-ft facility at Dublin's Perimeter Center)
June 5, 1998... Central Ohio hospitals - take hear. A partnership formed by a Chicago cardiologist is about to build a $40 million for-profit heart hospital in Dublin to take away your business. HeartOne Hospital of Ohio LLC plans to have its 67-bed,...

Duke buys 2 Easton Oval for $19M. (Duke Realty Investments Inc)
June 5, 1998... Duke Realty Investments Inc. has taken another step in its quest to be the regions dominant office developer-owner. On May 29, the Indianapolis-based REIT purchased 2 Easton Oval for $19 million. The 120,000-square-foot Easton property had...

Diversified Capital spins off from parent, seeks brokers. (Diversified Capital Markets)
June 5, 1998... Diversified Capital Markets has broken off from its parent company in a move officials say will allow the retail brokerage firm to grow more quickly. Columbus-based Diversified became an independent brokerage April 30 after three years as a...

Matthews Click-CB deal seen as giving small firms options. (merger between CB Richard Ellis and Matthews Click & Associates Inc)
June 5, 1998... The CB Richard Ellis office in Columbus will have a definite Mathews Click & Associates flavor once the two real estate companies formally combine operations in the next few weeks. But as Mathews Click, the markers largest property management...

House bill would set limits on community cable systems.
June 5, 1998... A bill introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives would limit how municipalities can operate cable TV systems. The bill, introduced by Rep. Lynn Olman, R-Maumee, was written by the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association. Private...

Medicare HMOs rethink plans for rural growth. (health maintenance organizations)
June 5, 1998... Concerned about their ability to profit in rural Ohio counties, several local managed-care companies are rethinking their Medicare HMO strategies. One - Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield - is going as far as revising its marketing territory....

Open sees IDI as vehicle for European expansion. (Open Text Corp; Information Dimensions Inc)
June 5, 1998... Dublin-based Information Dimensions Inc., purchased just 10 months ago by a California technology management firm, has been sold again - this time to a Canadian document management company for $10 million. Open Text Corp. of Waterloo, Ont.,...

Burkholder Flint agency lands Columbus State ad account. (Burkholder Flint Associates; Columbus State Community College)
June 5, 1998... Columbus-based ad agency Burkholder Flint Associates Inc. will help Columbus State Community College project its image as a Central Ohio college for lifelong learning. The Burkholder firm landed the account, $500,000 to $800,000 worth of...

Allied employees benefit in Nationwide takeover offer. (Allied Group Inc.; Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.)
June 5, 1998... There's 300 miles between Columbus and Des Moines, but you'll probably hear Allied Group Inc. employees cheering if Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.'s takeover offer clears. Although the majority of the attention on Nationwide's $1.7 billion...