Business First-Columbus articles from May 1998

Business First-Columbus archives from May 1998

Mt. Carmel plans $33M ER upgrade. (Mount Carmel Health's emergency room expansion)
May 1, 1998... Hospital system will renovate, East, St. Ann's Fueled by increased demand for services, Mount Carmel Health will spend $33 million renovating and expanding emergency rooms at its East and St. Ann's campuses. Mount Carmel will finance the...

Immke, Tobin divide former Tom Gill dealership. (Jim Immke and Dan Tobin divide Tom Gill Oldsmobile GMC)
May 1, 1998... Cousins Jim Immke and Galen T. Mantell are operating a brand new Oldsmobile dealership on Sawmill Road. The April 27 transaction was the first of a series of steps that will transform the former Tom Gill Oldsmobile GMC, which had been operating...

Patel plans two hotels for convention center area. (hotel developer David Patel of NTK Hotel Group plans to construct a hotel building)
May 1, 1998... A Columbus developer has plans for one and perhaps two 175-room hotels serving the Greater Columbus Convention Center. NTK Hotel Group, a partnership headed by hotel developer David Patel, has asked the city's Historic Resources Commission for...

Dollar, Thrifty to park car rental operations at airport. (Dollar Rent A Car; Thrifty Rent-A-Car System Inc)
May 1, 1998... Port Columbus International Airport will have a full complement of car rental competitors when its new garage opens. Dollar Rent A Car and the Thrifty Rent-A-Car System Inc. franchise plan to join five other major car rental companies with...

City plans connector to serve Air Center facility. (Columbus International Air Center)
May 1, 1998... The Columbus Municipal Airport Authority has cleared the way for a connector road designed to improve access to a former aircraft factory along East Fifth Avenue. The proposed three-quarter mile Aircenter Drive is expected to help...

Columbus Community marks anniversary, financial recovery. (Columbus Community Hospitals)
May 1, 1998... On the eve of its seventh anniversary, Columbus Community Hospital continues to build its business as a small independent for-profit hospital and has no desire to affiliate with a larger hospital system. By many measures, the South Side...

Midland's risk assessments now includes pet ownership. (Midland Life Insurance Co)
May 1, 1998... Cholesterol level, blood pressure, medical history and... Sparky. If you own a dog or a cat, Midland Life Insurance Co. may have a life policy for you. Midland is believed to be the first life insurance company in the country to consider pet...

Battelle Breakthrough Center helps push products to market.
May 1, 1998... Yard equipment manufacturer McCulloch Corp. of Tuscon had a problem: How to make its electric weed trimmer stand out from a crowd of competitors. So company engineers and designers came to Battelle's new Breakthrough Center to create a unique...

Banc One uses CD-ROMs to recruit new employees.
May 1, 1998... Banc One Corp. continues to go hightech with its recruiting efforts. The soon not-to-be-based-in-Columbus banking giant has begun shipping Bane One CD-ROMs to college campuses and its stalling offices in 12 states, The goal - filling the 3,000...

Blue Jackets shoot for small business to fill loge seats at Nationwide Arena. (Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team in Ohio)
May 8, 1998... Nationwide Arena and Columbus Blue Jackets officials will announce May 11 that the arena's interior seating design and ticket cost will cater to small businesses and Columbus Chill season ticket holders, Business First has learned. The...

Private offering lets Cameron's set table for expansion plan. (restaurateur Cameron Mitchell)
May 8, 1998... Cameron Mitchell has completed a private securities offering worth $3.5 million, ensuring his three latest restaurants will be built and setting the stage for more. In a related move, Mitchell has also created Cameron Mitchell Restaurants LLC...

MLS says Cincinnati not on short list for expansion. (Major League Soccer and Columbus Crew soccer team's denial of expansion plans in Ohio)
May 8, 1998... Major League Soccer and Columbus Crew officials are denying two reports that Cincinnati has made an eight-city list of potential MLS expansion sites. In separate reports in late April, the Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer reported the...

Mitsubishi Motors retools, funds local car advertising. (Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc.)(Columbus, Ohio)
May 8, 1998... California-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America is targeting Columbus consumers in an ad campaign designed to increase awareness of the Mitsubishi brand. Mitsubishi is funding a local campaign that fits its "built for living" national...

Corporate One invests in CD-ROM tech store to store share drafts. (Corporate One Credit Union's investment in digital imaging technology)
May 8, 1998... Credit unions around the state will soon get a leg up on most banks in one area of technology - digital check processing. Credit unions will be able to offer their customers instant images and copies of their share drafts - credit unions'...

Growth the operative word as Karrington eyes future. (Karrington Health Inc.)
May 8, 1998... In the midst of a growth spurt, Karrington Health Inc. continues to report losses but that's expected to change next year. Columbus-based Karrington, a publicly traded chain of assisted-living residences, plans to highlight its growth at its...

Glavan unit gives life to grand designs. (Jeff Glavan and his architectural firm's unit, Glavan and Associates Productions)
May 8, 1998... Technology not only has refashioned how Jeff Glavan and his Columbus architectural firm does business - it has created a whole new line of business. The three-dimensional animation work of Glavan & Associates Productions provides live-action...

Somethin's cookin. (improvement of employee eating facilities in Columbus, Ohio)
May 8, 1998... Companies realize business served by lunch table decisions Savvy Columbus corporations are beginning to offer their employees the pepper mill rather than the run-of-the-mill when it comes to employee eating facilities. The days of the...

Bank First National readies for Columbus. (BancFirst Ohio Corp. puts up Bank First National)
May 15, 1998... BancFirst Ohio Corp.'s expansion into Columbus will take a high-profile turn May 16 when Bank First National makes its debut. The bank will be a new name in Columbus, but the institution is well-established - Bank First National is a...

Kia shops Morse dealers for third area franchisee. (Kia Motors America)
May 15, 1998... Kia Motors America is looking for a third franchisee in Columbus. Kia, the Korean car manufacturer, entered the Columbus automobile market in February with three dealership sites. The carmaker is talking to Morse Road auto dealers who might be...

CheckFree brings hundreds of jobs to Dublin site. (CheckFree Corp. purchases Dublin office space)
May 15, 1998... CheckFree Corp. could add 800 to 900 new jobs to its regional employment base over the next three years as it begins consolidating nearly 800 current jobs within the former Frigidaire Corp. headquarters in Dublin. Suburban Atlanta-based...

Industry buzz links CB and Mathews Click. (possible merger between CB Richard Ellis and Mathews Click)
May 15, 1998... Will rapid consolidation in the commercial property management industry include Mathews Click & Associates? Persistent street talk in the industry has Mathews Click - the undisputed leader among regional property management firms - and CB...

M/I Homes takes interest in 117-acre southwest site. (M/I Schottenstein Homes Inc. contemplates Grove City investment)
May 15, 1998... M/I Schottenstein Homes has its eyes on 117 acres on the southern edge of Grove City, where it could build more than 300 homes. Franklin County Commissioners have put annexation of the property off Holton Road on their July 1 agenda. The...

Lasting Impressions buys K.G. Marx rental division. (K.G. Marx sells to Lasting Impressions Rentals)
May 15, 1998... K.G. Marx has sold its rental division to Lasting Impressions Rentals, leaving K.G Marx with its retail operations alone. J.P. Fritz, Lasting Impressions co-president and co-owner, said the equipment - enough to fill a 12,000-square-foot...

Tobin drives ahead with Sawmill area dealerships. (General Motors Corp. dealer Dan Tobin to build dealership in Northwest Columbus, OH)
May 15, 1998... Despite a shortage of product and an unresolved lawsuit involving a fellow General Motors dealer, Dan Tobin is moving forward with plans to build a new dealership in Northwest Columbus. Tobin bought the former Dublin Pontiac GMC Inc., 2539...

Analysts, competitors wary of Ameritech-SBC merger. (Ameritech Communications Inc.; SBC Communications Inc.)
May 15, 1998... Business and residential customers of Ameritech in Central Ohio aren't likely to feel an immediate impact if a proposed merger with SBC Communications goes through. Long-term questions, however, remain for regulators, analysts and consumer...

Merger with SBC rang hollow for many at Pacific Telesis. (implications of SBC Communications Inc.'s merger with Pacific Telesis)
May 15, 1998... With a speed and focus that often shocked Pacific Telesis executives and employees, SBC Communications systematically dismantled large portions of PacTel and its phone subsidiary Pacific Bell, reassembling them to fit the needs of its new parent....

Crew boots PSLs for stadium. (Columbus Crew soccer team)
May 22, 1998... GM says arena competition won't hurt suites goal The Columbus Crew means business - especially small business - when it comes to premium seating in their first-in-the-nation professional soccer stadium slated to open in April 1999 at the north...

A vacation home of his own. (Dawson Personnel Senior VP Phil Freeman receives a vacation condominium unit for his invaluable service)
May 22, 1998... Dawson rewards senior VP with condominium in S.C. Often with great ceremony, many companies award the proverbial gold watch to recognize decades of meritorious service. But in Phil Freeman's case, a gold watch just didn't cut it. So with...

Madison County Hospital charts new course with affiliation, CEO search.
May 22, 1998... London's Madison County Hospital has reached a watershed moment in its history. The board of the 102-bed nonprofit institution has hired an attorney to negotiate an affiliation agreement with a Columbus hospital system. Candidates include...

Long-term growth focus of AmeriLink initiatives.(Company Profile)
May 22, 1998... Although AmeriLink Inc. had a banner year in 1997 compared with a disappointing 1996, its most recent quarterly figures were still below expectations of Wall Street analysts. When AmeriLink's quarterly and year-end figures were released May...

Wild Oats buys Northwest Natural's Grandview store. (Wild Oats Markets Inc; Northwest Natural Foods)
May 22, 1998... Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets Inc., the second largest natural foods supermarket chain in the United States, is establishing a foothold in Columbus. On May 1, Wild Oats closed on its purchase of Northwest Natural Foods store at 1636...

Banc One pares 90 Ohio branches in reorganization.
May 22, 1998... To improve its competitive position, Bank One has closed or sold nearly 25 percent of its Ohio branches within the last year as part of an ongoing reorganization. Bank One is not alone in the move, joining KeyBank and National City Bank in...

Nationwide sues takeover target for breach of duty.
May 22, 1998... Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has sued Allied Group Inc. in U.S. District Court as part of its hostile takeover attempt. The four-count complaint, filed May 18 in the court for the southern district of Iowa, alleges that Allied's management...

Ohio job machine humming.
May 29, 1998... State sees gain of nearly 550,000 in five years Only four states added more jobs than Ohio during the first five years of Bill Clinton's presidency, but Ohioans' after-tax share of disposable income ranks the Buckeye State in the top third of...

Providers work to prevent possible nursing shortage.
May 29, 1998... Terri Medley is feeling the symptoms of a malady afflicting her profession. Medley, executive director of First Choice Home Health Care Inc., said it takes more than six weeks on average to find a nurse for her burgeoning business, which...

Party could be over for K.G. Marx Inc. as three creditors push for chapter 7. (bankruptcy)
May 29, 1998... K.G. Marx Inc. may be forced into bankruptcy by a group of its creditors, putting the company's future in question. The Westerville-based party supply retailer has been in receivership since July 1996, but three of its creditors on May 14...

Huntington Fla. acquisition prompts service in Spanish. (Hunting National Bank)
May 29, 1998... "Para asistencia en Espanol seleccione la opcion 2." If you don't understand that line, you aren't one of the thousands of customers Huntington National Bank is trying to attract with its latest service - customer assistance in Spanish....

Worthington Foods expands appetite for institutional sales.
May 29, 1998... Worthington Foods Inc., an established meatless foods player with a commanding 50 percent share of the domestic market, is beefing up home state distribution of its products. Earlier this month, food broker Buckeye Foodservice Sales Inc. began...

Panelists disagree on value of niche hospital operations.
May 29, 1998... The merit of niche hospitals is a hot topic in local health care. At a "Can managed care be managed:" luncheon held May 27 at the Adam's Mark Hotel and sponsored by law firm Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP, panelists debated the advent and...

Fifth Third Bank prepares for ramp up the SBA lending. (small business administration)
May 29, 1998... Fifth Third Bank of Columbus is gunning to become Central Ohio's top Small Business Administration lender thanks to an initiative to make more loans available in inner cities. Fifth Third's commitment to small business lending was increased as...

Ohio companies stick to familiar comp care providers.
May 29, 1998... Preliminary statistics indicate Ohio employers are sticking with the managed care organizations they selected over a year ago to handle workers' compensation claims. "Overall, most employers seem pleased with their MCOs," said William...