Business First-Columbus articles from March 1998

Business First-Columbus archives from March 1998

Continental sells retail properties. (Continental Real Estate Cos)
March 27, 1998... Cleveland REIT pays $180M for 13 sites A Cleveland-based REIT has entered the Columbus market in a big way with its acquisition of 13 retail properties from Continental Real Estate Cos. Developers Diversified Realty Corp. closed March 22...

Moody/Nolan acquires local engineering firm. (Sticklen-Belsheim and Associates)
March 27, 1998... Architectural and engineering firm Moody/Nolan Ltd. Inc has merged with civil engineering firm Sticklen-Belsheim & Associates in a partnership that principals say fills key voids for both companies. The merger between Moody/Nolan, one of...

Nashville firm plans alliance for maternity care hospitals. (MediSphere Health Partners Inc)
March 27, 1998... A Nashville-based health-care company is working with a Columbus doctors group to build for-profit maternity hospitals in the Tuttle Crossing and Easton areas. MediSphere Health Partners Inc. is working with Columbus Obstetricians and...

Star takes shine to Meijer with in-store branch plans. (Star Bank)
March 27, 1998... Star Bank will open six branches in Meijer superstores in Central Ohio late this year. The installation of the full-service Star branches will make Meijer the last of supermarket chains in the area to bring in-store banks to most of its...

Chilean order could bring blizzard of work for Snow. (Snow Aviation International)
March 27, 1998... A Chilean joint venture could get Snow Aviation International off the ground after a decade-long struggle to keep the region's aerospace industry viable. Snow Aviation, based at Rickenbacker Air Industrial Park, has formed ENAER-SAI S.A....

Sonic's boom will be heard in Columbus auto market. (Sonic Automotive Inc; Columbus, OH)
March 27, 1998... Sonic Automotive Inc., which is cruising into the Columbus market via the Hatfield dealerships, buys strong automobile groups in healthy communities and uses local dealers' knowhow and connections to grow bigger. The Charlotte-based company,...

Parsons projects signal interest in urban setting. (real estate developments in Parson Ave, Columbus, OH)
March 27, 1998... Big business has arrived on Parsons Avenue. The commercial street running through the South Side of Columbus, sagging from years of neglect and business flight, has new signs of life, the most visible coming from large firms. Two years...

Fruits of labor, Macaluso produces profit wholesale from fruits & veggies. (Macaluso Fruit Co.)
March 27, 1998... When Frank Macaluso's father died of pneumonia in 1919, the 14-year-old took on the responsibility of supporting the family while attending school. Macaluso attended classes during the day then sold bananas and other produce from a truck in...

Monitors predict commercial building maintenance.
March 27, 1998... Commercial property managers believe prevention is the best medicine for their buildings' mechanical systems. "Preventive maintenance programs account for the most cost-effective money you can spend." said Mark E. Murphy, vice president of...

Doerschlag builds image for fast food restaurants. (Wolfgang Doerschlag Architects and Engineers Ltd Inc)
March 27, 1998... Here's some food for thought - Columbus has room for more new restaurant chains. That insight comes from Christopher Doerschlag, vice president with Columbus-based Wolfgang Doerschlag Architects & Engineers Ltd. Inc. "There's always room...

Assembly drafts bill to reform liquor law. (Ohio General Assembly)
March 20, 1998... An innocuous bill to codify a U.S. Supreme Court decision has unleashed a behind-the-scenes Statehouse skirmish to restyle Ohio's local liquor-option law. Critics are using the related bill to drastically alter the option law, which now...

Fifth Third plans acquisition of lender W. Lyman Case. (Fifth Third Bank)
March 20, 1998... Building its commercial lending muscle, Fifth Third Bank says it will buy W. Lyman Case & Co., the Columbus-based leader in commercial mortgage banking and one of the state's largest. Terms of the deal, announced March 19, were not disclosed....

Local employer health costs are among lowest in state. (Columbus, OH)
March 20, 1998... Local employer health-care costs are lower on average than those in Cleveland and Cincinnati, a new survey says. The findings are in the just released 1997 survey of employer-sponsored health plans conducted by Mercer/Foster Higgins, a...

Cigna puts group-model HMO on the selling block. (Cigna HealthCare of Ohio Inc.; health maintenance organization)
March 20, 1998... Losses topping $3 million over the last three years have prompted Cigna' HealthCare of Ohio Inc to put its group-model health maintenance organization up for sale. The HMO, known as Cigna HealthCare of Ohio, includes two practice centers....

OhioHealth HMO to offer preferred stock of its MDs.
March 20, 1998... In an effort to grow membership, OhioHealth Group HMO Inc. plans to offer convertible preferred stock options to its network physicians and hospitals. Paperwork for the offering circular, which will be made available to 1,200 physicians and...

PIE liquidation will run up hefty bill for legal services. (PIE Mutual Insurance Co.)
March 20, 1998... The financial meltdown of PIE Mutual Insurance Co. may provide a growth industry for lawyers. As regulators prepare to liquidate the Cleveland-based firm, attorneys are gearing up for high-stakes battles in courtrooms across the nine states...

Markpoint readies $30M Ravines residential project. (Markpoint Development)
March 20, 1998... A Bexley developer plans to mix 144 condos and 13 single-family homes in a 40-acre, low-density development on McNaughten Road. Markpoint Development expects to begin sewer and road construction by the end of March on its Ravines of...

Thomson opens door on home/lifestyles magazine. (Thomson Newspapers Inc.; At Home magazine)
March 20, 1998... The free magazine rack at the local grocery just got a little more crowded. Thomson Central Ohio, a division of media giant Thomson Newspapers Inc., has launched a residential magazine that targets local middle-income homeowners. The...

State auto splits stock 2-1, alters pooling arrangement. (State Auto Financial Corp.)
March 20, 1998... State Auto Financial Corp. has announced it will declare a 2-for-1 stock split later this year, its third stock split since it went public in 1992. The split depends on shareholder approval of a proposal to increase authorized shares from 30...

Banc Stock Group finds value in bank stocks.
March 20, 1998... As Wall Street focuses on big bank mergers, a Columbus company has been keeping its eye on the everyday business of Main Street banking. For 21 years, Banc Stock Group has been finding value in community bank stocks. But since new management...

OhioHealth nixes MD group ownership. (Practice Advantage Inc)
March 13, 1998... After losing more than $1 million dollars in each of the last three years, OhioHealth is getting out of the business of owning and managing physician practices. Practice Advantage Inc., the OhioHealth arm that employed as many as 80...

Applied Innovation bets big on dial-up Internet access. (Applied Innovation Inc)
March 13, 1998... Gerry Moersdorf is betting that most people will continue to use dial-up connections to the Internet in the years to come - not cable moderns, satellites or other high-bandwidth access methods. Moersdorf is chairman, president and CEO of...

Lit agent prefers bright lights of Bexley to New York City. (literary agent and Jeff Herman Literary Agency Inc. President Jeffrey H. Herman)
March 13, 1998... Gennifer Flowers' "New York" literary agent actually lives and works in Columbus. Jeffrey H. Herman, president of Jeff Herman Literary Agency Inc., moved from Long Island to Bexley in 1996 to live with his new wife, Deborah Levine Herman,...

Huntington battles to keep 'best' ATM at City Center site. (Huntington National Bank; automated teller machine; City Center shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio)
March 13, 1998... Huntington National Bank is fighting eviction from its best ATM location, a spot under the escalator at Columbus City Center mall. In a motion filed Feb. 27 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Huntington said Taubman Co., owner of the...

FBI initiates criminal probe of PIE Mutual Insurance Co. (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
March 13, 1998... The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into the failure of PIE Mutual Insurance Co., once the state's largest medical malpractice insurers. Agents from the Cleveland office of the FBI seized an unknown number of items from PIE...

Coaxial sees opportunities in high-speed Web access. (Coaxial Communications Inc)
March 13, 1998... Coaxial Communications Inc. is getting in the high-speed cable modem business. New Coaxial President and CEO W. Edward Wood said the company plans to make cable modems available to its 92,000 Columbus customers by summer, a move that will...

Ricart expands subprime arm to offer financing to dealers. (Ricart Automotive Group's Central Ohio Credit Corp subsidiary)
March 13, 1998... Ricart Automotive Group is expanding its financial services arm so it can offer subprime lending services to other auto dealerships for their credit-poor customers. Fred and Rhett Ricart bought a 20,000-square-foot office building in...

Wendy's Thomas delivers investment into Rail Van. (purchase of stake in Rail Van Inc by Wendy's founder R. David Thomas)
March 13, 1998... An investment firm partly owned by Wendy's founder R. David Thomas has purchased an interest in a Worthington-based logistics company that hopes to become a major player in a consolidating industry. Though neither party would disclose the...

Cabot uses REIT status to acquire local properties. (Cabot Partners; real estate investment trust)
March 13, 1998... The transformation of Boston-based Cabot Partners into a publicly traded REIT has raised its stature in the Columbus industrial market. The renamed Cabot Industrial Trust acquired five Westbelt warehouse district properties and two...

Duke plans southeast park. (Duke Realty Investments Inc.)
March 6, 1998... Duke Realty Investments Inc. has a 290-acre industrial park in the works in the competitive Groveport/Rickenbacker market. The Groveport Council in February approved a planned industrial park zoning for the Groveport Commerce Center acreage...

Outlook forecasts better '98 despite lingering concerns. (Business Climate Outlook's forecast on capital spending)
March 6, 1998... Capital spending by businesses will increase more in 1998 than in 1997 even though overall business expectations and hiring plans are down and inflation pressures are up. Those are the findings of the latest Business Climate Outlook, a...

5/3 shuffles branches in State Savings takeover. (State Savings Bank merges with Fifth Third Bank of Columbus)
March 6, 1998... The merger of State Savings Bank into Fifth Third Bank of Columbus will result in 11 office closings. Among the offices to shut down is State Savings headquarters at 20 E. Broad St., built in 1869 and on the National Register of Historic...

Continental plans office building at former Lucent site in Dublin. (Continental Real Estate Cos.; Lucent Technologies)
March 6, 1998... The former Lucent Technologies property in Dublin has snagged its first development project. Continental Real Estate Cos. plans a 50,000-square-foot office building it will lease it to the software development division of Cendant Corp.,...

OSU Medical Center targets W. Side for outpatient center. (Ohio State University)
March 6, 1998... Ohio State University Medical Center has found a site on the West Side to build an outpatient services center. The hospital is in discussions to purchase about 8.1 acres at Evans Way Court near the intersection of I-270 and Hilliard-Rome Road...

Banks step up marketing of new small business tools. (banks negotiates with small business firms)
March 6, 1998... Bankers have come calling at fast-growing Martha Vance & Associates Inc., a Dublin-based office support and temporary service firm. In the last two years, bankers have stepped up their cold calls to offer deposit services, but the company...

ISPs seek link to lawmakers through statewide association. (Internet service providers)
March 6, 1998... Efforts are under way to establish a statewide organization of Internet service providers that could address common problems. Chris and Kathryn Cooper, owners of Eureka Networks in Athens, are spearheading the drive they hope will result in a...

Development groups cautious, encouraged by Star loan plan. (Star Banc Corp.)
March 6, 1998... Star Banc Corp. says its pledge last month to invest $5.15 billion for community development expands on earlier commitments for that type of lending. In its Central Ohio market, Cincinnati-based Star Bank will invest at least $750 million in...