Atlanta Business Chronicle articles from November 1998

Atlanta Business Chronicle archives from November 1998

Seeking a cure for AIDS: pharmaceutical companies flock to try drugs here.(Atlanta, GA)
November 27, 1998... Pharmaceutical companies flock to try drugs here In early November, San Francisco-based drug manufacturer VaxGen Inc. selected the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta Inc. to conduct one of the most advanced studies of an AIDS vaccine...

Chains aim to out-tub rivals.(SpinCycle Inc. in Atlanta, GA)
November 27, 1998... Will mom-and-pops fold? Atlanta is the next expansion city for a company that aims to take coin-operated laundries out of the mom-and-pop business category and into the big time. SpinCycle Inc., which hopes to do for self-service...

Argentine airline readies to land here in February.(Lineas Areas Privadas Argentinas)
November 27, 1998... Andres Deutsch likes to visit Atlanta. Sometimes he flies his private plane to "Simply, I have a lot of friends in Atlanta," he said, mentioning a high school classmate and friends at The Coca-Cola Co., CNN and area engineering companies....

Jury fines 3 companies $52 million.(Avondale Mills Inc., Russell Corp and Alabama Power Co.)
November 27, 1998... Three Atlanta companies must pay $52.6 million to a group of Alabama homeowners who blame the companies for pollution in the lake around which they live. The families stated in a lawsuit that dye in wastewater released by textile...

Greater access: companies offer new options as patients seek to break free of health-care restrictions.(Health-Care Quarterly)(Georgia's health maintenance organizations)
November 27, 1998... Two decades after the first health maintenance organization (HMO) was introduced in Georgia and elsewhere to control runaway medical costs, employers and HMO members are clamoring for less restrictive health coverage that doesn't force them...

Businesses begin moving out of runway's path.(Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport)
November 27, 1998... With the fifth runway looming ever closer at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, only 27 businesses have relocated so far. Two of the bigger tenants in the 550-acre area, Heritage Bag Co. and Flight Safety International, are...

Condos will rise soon at Selig's Brookwood Place.(Buckhead, GA)
November 27, 1998... Southeast Capital Partners Inc., a venture between businessman Satish Lathi and Jay Clark of Apartment Realty Advisors Inc., will break ground in mid-December on the $33 million residential component of the new Brookwood Place development in...

State PSC nearing BellSouth long-distance vote.(Georgia Public Service Commission)
November 27, 1998... As the process approaches its two-year anniversary, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) is gearing up to vote on BellSouth. Corp.'s application to provide long-distance service in the state. The commission earlier set a deadline of...

Sara Lee kicks of Toz concept at North Point Mall.(Sara Lee Corp.)
November 27, 1998... An upscale sock store called Toz (pronounced Toes) is the latest endeavor for Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE), a Chicago-based company whose brands run the gamut from Hillshire Farms to Endust to Wonderbra. The company is launching the new Toz...

Builders, buyers discover old neighborhood's appeal.(Brookhaven, GA)
November 27, 1998... Dan Woodley paints a pretty picture of the Dresden Drive side of Brookhaven in 10 years. "My vision is brick sidewalks, gas lights, trees... boutiques, upscale restaurants, coffee and ice cream shops." Betsy Eggers waxes eloquent about...

Such a deal! Firms buy back stock.(publicly-owned, Atlanta, GA-based firms to reacquire stock because of depressed stock market prices)
November 20, 1998... The stock market's plunge this summer made some investors feel sick, but for many public companies in Atlanta, it was just what the financial strategist: ordered. More than 10 public companies here announced plans to buy their own stock...

Housing boom shows a crack.(Atlanta, GA, residential housing market)(Industry Overview)
November 20, 1998... The whisper is turning into a muffled drumbeat: Atlanta may be seeing the beginning of the end of its housing boom. For the first time since 1995, the number of new-home occupancies - the number of buyers moving into new homes after...

McKesson, HBOC merger yields rewards for executives.(McKesson Corp.; HBO and Co.)
November 20, 1998... The marriage of Atlanta health-care software giant HBO & Co. and San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical distributors, promises to produce a multimillion-dollar nest egg for the companies' top...

Gumbo guru branching out.(entrepreneur Mark Kennedy poised to franchise Cajun-style restaurant under new firm to be called Gumbo A Go-Go! Franchising Systems Inc)
November 20, 1998... When Mark Kennedy first began serving Louisiana-style cuisine to hungry Emory University students in early 1996, he knew he wanted more. Soon, he will get it. Kennedy completed the paperwork this week that will allow him to franchise...

Subsidiary of iXL wins $10 million investment.(iXL Enterprises Inc unit Consumer Financial Network)
November 20, 1998... Consumer Financial Network (CFN), a subsidiary of iXL Enterprises Inc., has received a $10 million equity investment from GE Capital Equity Capital Group, one of the 28 businesses that make up financial services giant GE Capital Corp. ...

Portman shifts from Asia to build in Poland.(Portman Holdings L.P.)
November 20, 1998... John Portman Jr. plans to build his first overseas development of the decade in Warsaw, Poland. Portman Holdings L.P. has signed a letter of intent with an arm of Sweden's Skanska AB to develop a four-star hotel in downtown Warsaw. The...

New financing twist: funding future Web sites.(Atlanta, GA, leasing firms add software leasing to traditional services)
November 20, 1998... Atlanta leasing companies are learning to change with the times. Many companies have added software leasing to their traditional line of equipment leasing, allowing businesses to buy expensive, even custom-designed, software immediately and...

Macquarium CEO starts online art supply store.(entrepreneur Marc Adler starts electronic retailing venture called MisterArt Inc)(Company Profile)
November 20, 1998... Marc Adler's at it again. The 26-year-old who started Web design company Macquarium Inc. while still an Emory University graduate student now is trying his hand at the hottest trend on the Internet: electronic commerce. Adler has started...

Mohawk takes aim at lucrative carpet tile market.(rapidly growing Mohawk Industries Inc plans to diversify into another branch of carpet business)
November 20, 1998... Mohawk Industries Inc. has taken over a quarter of the U.S. carpet market by weaving together 10 acquisitions in six year's time. Now the company plans a thrust into an uncovered corner of the carpet business. Mohawk plans to start...

Churchs looks for leg up with smaller restaurants.(fast food restaurant chain Churchs Chicken hopes to accelerate growth with new strategy)
November 20, 1998... Churchs Chicken is changing the size of its restaurants in a move it hopes will ultimately accelerate growth of new locations throughout the country. More than 80 percent of its customers either take out food or use the drive-through...

REITs take creative tack to solve credit crunch.(real estate investment trusts; Atlanta, GA)(Industry Overview)
November 20, 1998... Atlanta's real estate investment trusts (REITs) are relying on a variety of tactics to squeeze money out of their assets and generate capital in a market fraught with constraints. Be they equity REITs, which develop and own property, or...

Money keeps flowing to start-ups.(investments of Georgia's venture capital firms)
November 13, 1998... As the stock market plunged between July and September of this year, initial public stock offerings dried up like a Nevada salt flat. Junk bond financing disappeared in a puff of low interest rates as public-market investors sat on their...

Big chicken on campus: Chick-fil-A expands quickly into colleges.(fast-food chain)
November 13, 1998... Each time Chick-fil-A opens a restaurant on a college campus, the company presents the college president with a Chick-fil-A tie. And if the fast-food chain continues its advance on college campuses, someday all college presidents may be...

Rail giant stretches in midtown, doubling office space to fit 500.(Norfolk Southern Corp.)
November 13, 1998... Norfolk Southern Corp. will double its office space at the One Georgia Center building in midtown. The rail giant is expanding to accommodate more than 500 employees who will be added because of its recent deal with CSX Corp. to jointly...

Killearn to revive run-down Rabun County resort.(real estate firm Killearn Inc.; Rabin County, Atlanta, Georgia)
November 13, 1998... A prominent Atlanta development company is hoisting its flag over Rabun County's ghost town-like Kingwood Inn and Country Club Resort, planning to reopen it as a resort and conference center and develop nearly 1,000 residences. Killearn...

As demand bulges, fitness clubs pump up.
November 13, 1998... Atlanta's fitness clubs, racing to keep up with burgeoning demand, are expanding and opening new locations to maintain their edge in a highly competitive business. Their goal is to hang on to members, who may hop to a glitzier club or...

Warehouse vacancies show signs of overbuilding.(Atlanta, Georgia)
November 13, 1998... It's time to stop building speculative bulk warehouse space, especially in the south and northeast submarkets of metropolitan Atlanta. That's the message being sent loud and clear by Jamison Research Inc., which is waving red flags when...

AirTran's losses fly counter to industry trend.(AirTran Airlines)
November 13, 1998... The future may continue to be bumpy for AirTran Airlines, the discount carrier that uses Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport as its major hub, according to several airline industry analysts. A collision on the ground Nov. 1 raised...

Duluth electronic firm grows by thinking small.(Spectral Response Inc.)
November 13, 1998... Spectral Response Inc. is a hardware-maker for the little people. The Duluth company produces electronic components for smaller businesses, which may need, for example, only 1,500 units of a product in a year. Avoiding the large...

Atlanta investors like looks of health-care firm.(EndoSonics Corp.)
November 13, 1998... Atlanta investors have a piece of a California company that has developed a technology to screen for heart disease and other circulatory ailments. A private Buckhead investor, James O. Patterson, has been increasing his share in recent...

Columbia-Emory deal born of CEO's friendship.(Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.; Emory Healthcare)
November 13, 1998... In Atlanta's health-care world, deals are not just made in the boardroom, but sometimes are created when social and professional circles collide. This was the case in the recently signed partnership agreement between Nashville,...

Promotion strategy now has several dimensions.(Bass Hotels and Resorts)
November 13, 1998... Hotel campaign blends various media efforts Integrated marketing communications, the meshing of advertising, promotions and public relations into a single effort, is expanding rapidly as an effective way for businesses to advance...

So far, Jones' endorsements stay on track.(Atlanta Braves' third baseman Chipper Jones)
November 6, 1998... Like President Clinton, whose Monica Lewinsky problem had little effect on elections this week, Braves third baseman Chipper Jones so far is relatively unscathed by a sex scandal. But in the image-conscious, big-bucks world of sports...

Popeyes' parent steers through the Asian crisis.(AFC Enterprises Inc.)
November 6, 1998... Atlanta's biggest fried-chicken company, undeterred by the currency crisis in two of its largest foreign markets, is still betting on growth in Asia and set on having 1,000 restaurants overseas by 2000. "The opportunities are so great...

Technology partners thrive.(partnerships between technology companies)
November 6, 1998... Technology companies are turning to one another, rather than Wall Street, for some of today's biggest deals. In just one example of a corporate partnership, Lucent Technologies Inc. recently agreed to help expand Winstar Communications...

S&P 500 outperforms Georgia stocks during dip.
November 6, 1998... A dismal third quarter knocked Georgia stock prices into negative territory through the first nine months of the year, according to a recent survey of 133 public companies based here. The Georgia Database, compiled by the Milwaukee-based...

Will it rain or shine in '99? Survey shows plenty of firms plan to expand.(Commercial Real Estate)
November 6, 1998... Almost half of Atlanta companies surveyed plan to expand in the next year or so, adding more than 500,000 square feet of office space, according to Jamison Research Inc. The 296 companies that responded already occupy 2.25 million square...

Toronto's Global Stone tumbles into Atlanta.(relocation of headquarters to Roswell)
November 6, 1998... A Canadian company that has been mining the United States for acquisitions has moved its headquarters to Roswell. Global Stone Corp. is the fifth-biggest producer of lime and limestone in North America. It operates 11 mines and factories...

Missions to Mars give Norcross firm a boost.(Electromagnetic Sciences Inc.)
November 6, 1998... Some finely tuned products of an Atlanta area company are going to Mars, and executives hope the trip will boost their company's prospects. Electromagnetic Sciences Inc. of Norcross is selling about $6 million worth of its star trackers...

The nuts and bolts of hardware success: how Home Depot captured imagination.
November 6, 1998... Editor's note: As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, Atlanta Business Chronicle takes a look back at a highlight in the retail industry. Starting a business is never easy, not even for today's most admired entrepreneurs. The...

Poncey-Highland plant to become loft space.
November 6, 1998... High-end offices will occupy old dairy The resurrection of commercial development in midtown and downtown is starting to move east into the Poncey-Highland area of Atlanta. Raulet Property Partners has under contract the Southern...

TUG's Chapman hauling his firm to another level.(TUG Manufacturing Corp.'s Don Chapman)
November 6, 1998... When Don Chapman travels, he looks out the airplane window and thinks about the empire he can build. "There's a lot of funny looking stuff driving around the ramp," he said, "and we want to make it." Now that his company, TUG...

Horizon's troubles quickly lead to investor suit.(Horizon Medical Products Inc.)
November 6, 1998... Stock price dips; shareholder alleges misrepresentation Horizon Medical Products Inc. had been under the weather recently with a dropping stock price and lower than expected third-quarter earnings. Then, it got hit again. On Oct. 30,...