The Business Journal - Serving Phoenix & the Valley of the Sun articles from April 1995

The Business Journal - Serving Phoenix & the Valley of the Sun archives from April 1995

25 lawyers line up with Osborn in firm split. (split of Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn and Maledon; Osborn Maledon; Meyer Hendricks, Victor, Ruffner and Bivens)
April 7, 1995... Two firms - Osborn Maledon and Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Ruffner & Bivens - are emerging from the meltdown of the Valley's eighth largest law firm. The five name members of the existing firm of Meyer Hendricks Victor Osborn & Maledon are...

Supermarkets to feed growth of retail centers. (Phoenix, Arizona)
April 7, 1995... Retail developers and supermarket chains are positioning themselves to open 30 to 50 new retail centers anchored by grocery stores in the next 18 months. Strong population growth and new home construction is prompting the frenzy. While 1994...

1,400 homes, 2 golf courses planned for far East Valley. (Lyle Anderson Co.; Pinal County, Arizona)
April 7, 1995... The developer who created the successful Desert Mountain project in North Scottsdale has assembled a nearly 800-acre parcel in the far East Valley and plans to build a master-planned community with 36 holes of golf, more than 1,400 single-family...

Restaurants to hire welfare recipients. (Arizona Restaurant Association program)
April 7, 1995... The Arizona Restaurant Association, working with the Arizona Department of Economic Security, has come up with an answer to one of the major complaints about the current welfare system. Critics say the welfare system has a built-in disincentive...

Hospitality industry likes 'second' spring. (Sun Valley, Arizona)
April 7, 1995... Valley hotels and restaurants didn't see many baseball fans this March due to the Major League Baseball strike, but owners say there was no shortage of customers waiting to take the place of disappointed fans. And some of the businesses may...

Telecommuting plan killed by state refusal. (Arizona)
April 7, 1995... A telecommuting program designed to take advantage of unused government office space, cut the number of cars on the road and make life easier for government employees at all levels has hit a dead end with the state's decision not to participate....

Legislature strips bill of citizen suits. (Arizona)
April 7, 1995... A bill that would deny private property owners the ability to sue those polluting their land may yet find success in the last days of the Arizona Legislature. House bill 2196 squeaked through the state House earlier in the session and on April...

Mayo Clinic Scottsdale opens liver facility.
April 7, 1995... Mayo Clinic Scottsdale has opened a new Liver Clinic to provide transplant evaluations and follow-up care for patients receiving liver transplants at Mayo Clinic Rochester. The coordinated effort with Mayo Clinic Rochester will allow Arizona...

Phoenix's 'road warrior' of baseball. (Arizona; Arizona Diamondbacks GM Jor Garagiola Jr.)
April 7, 1995... Joe Garagiola Jr. has been surrounded by baseball for all of his 44 years. In his law office on the 19th floor of the Phelps Dodge tower in Phoenix's Central Corridor baseball paraphernalia fills the walls, tables and desk. In mid-May,...

Phoenix may hike impact fees. (Arizona; commercial and residential development)(Focus: Development and Construction)
April 7, 1995... In an effort to curb urban sprawl, Phoenix is considering hiking and expanding the impact fees it charges to commercial and residential developers on the northern boundary of the city. But the proposal, which would more than double the fees...

Energy-efficient showcase. (Arizona Public Service Co. Environmental Showcase Home)(Focus: Development and Construction)
April 7, 1995... APS home uses materials keyed to conservation By the time the mortgage is paid off on most new homes, a new four-bedroom home at the corner of 60th Street and Greenway Road will have saved 60 percent in energy and water costs compared with its...

Work to begin on Goodyear medical offices. (PMH Health Resources Inc.)(Focus: Development and Construction)
April 7, 1995... PMH Health Resources Inc. will break ground this month on a 40,000-square-foot medical office building at its Goodyear campus. The $4.6 million project is the first phase of a 36-acre master-planned medical campus that is part of the larger...

ASU program puts 'real' in real estate. (Arizona State University)(Focus: Development and Construction)
April 7, 1995... Most developers would say they are born, not made, but an innovative program at Arizona State University is changing all that. The Real Estate Program at ASU's College of Business began at the start of the year. The non-traditional program...

Power play by out-of-state firm: Iowa company takes on Arizona utilities. (Industrial Energy Applications Inc. to open office in Phoenix)
April 14, 1995... An Iowa power company plans to go head-to-head with Arizona utilities before summer temperatures peak. Industrial Energy Applications Inc., a power company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, announced that it is opening an office in Phoenix, says...

World-class care attracts people and their cash. (hospitals and health care institutions based in Phoenix, Arizona)
April 14, 1995... Phoenix has become a world-class destination for health-care services, and it is attracting hundreds of millions of dollars from patients outside Arizona. The Valley is home to Arizona Heart Institute & Foundation, Barrow Neurological...

State senate kills funding for high-tech. (Arizona State Senate scraps funding for the Arizona Technology Development Authority)
April 14, 1995... The Arizona State Senate ended the roller-coaster ride of HB 2131 - funding for the Arizona Technology Development Authority - by killing it. The bill would have provided up to $6 million over two years to companies to help them secure federal...

Developers race to build hotels before Super Bowl. (Super Bowl XXX to be held in Tempe, Arizona on Jan. 28, 1996)
April 14, 1995... Coming off the strongest hospitality season in local history and with professional sport's biggest tourism event - the Super Bowl - still to come, new hotel development is beginning to sweep the Valley. More than a half-dozen hotel projects, a...

Home construction down for February. (Arizona)
April 14, 1995... It seems that higher interest rates and higher home construction costs continue to take their toll on new home construction. Activity slowed for single-family home construction during February, down more than 26 percent from the strong pace set...

Meyer Hendricks spawns third firm. (Meyer Hendricks Victor Osborn & Maledon to be divided into three firms)
April 14, 1995... A third new law firm has evolved from seven attorneys at Meyer Hendricks Victor Osborn & Maledon, the Valley's eighth largest law firm, which is dissolving into two smaller firms. Another group of four Meyer Hendricks attorneys, all of whom...

New independent bank returns to basics. (Valley Commerce Bank)
April 14, 1995... The first new bank to open its doors in Arizona in almost five years is "getting back to the basics" of small business banking, according to its new president, Robert A. Homco. And to promote that kind of hometown-banking philosophy, Valley...

Phoenix No. 2 city for Hispanic business. (includes related article)
April 14, 1995... A national magazine has named Phoenix as the second-best city in the country to run an Hispanic business. The April 1995 issue of Hispanic Business magazine, which has a national circulation of 200,000, took the 50 largest U.S. cities as...

Industrial vacancies drop to 6.1% for first 3 months. (Phoenix, Arizona)
April 14, 1995... Coming off one of its strongest years in history, the Valley's industrial market is continuing its torrid absorption pace into 1995. During first-quarter 1995, nearly 2 million square feet of existing industrial space was leased, dropping the...

Airline cracks down on agency fraud. (America West Airlines Inc.)
April 14, 1995... America West Airlines Inc. is joining other airlines in cracking down on fraud with a new computer reservations systems auditing program - a move officials say could save the Phoenix-based airline more than $1 million annually. The computer...

Mississippi firm buys 16% of PMM. (Dixie National Corp.; Phoenix Medical Management)
April 14, 1995... A Mississippi company has agreed to acquire a 16 percent interest in Phoenix Medical Management, which recently opened a SurgiNet outpatient facility in Phoenix and plans to open several more nationwide. Jackson, Miss.-based Dixie National...

Fiesta Bowl gets aid in hunt for sponsor. (Raycom Inc. helps Fiesta Bowl to find title sponsor)
April 14, 1995... Fiesta Bowl officials are looking for a six-year, multi-million dollar title sponsor and they have enlisted the help of Charlotte, N.C.-based Raycom Inc. to find one. The job of finding title sponsors has been handled almost exclusively by...

Tempe product keeps crop dusters on track. (Satloc Satellite Differential System)
April 14, 1995... The same technology that guides cruise missiles for the U.S. military is now guiding crop dusters, thanks to a Tempe company. Satloc, a 4-year-old firm that develops non-military uses for global positioning system satellites, is scheduled to...

India seeks business interest from Valley. (Phoenix, Arizona)
April 14, 1995... Arizona businesses are being encouraged to look east for future growth possibilities - way east. "India has the fifth largest economy in the world, and there are a number of areas in which the American and Indian economies exhibit strong...

Economic indicators show positive March. (Arizona economy expands in March 1995)
April 14, 1995... The Arizona economy continued to expand in March with all economic indicators again in the positive column, according to a survey of purchasing managers throughout the state. Increasing at essentially the same rate as in February were the...

10 Lee Optical stores to close. (New West Eye Works Inc. to close stores in Arizona)
April 14, 1995... Tempe-based New West Eye Works Inc., which plans to open 10 to 20 retail eye stores this year in various markets nationwide, is closing 10 of its unprofitable Arizona Lee Optical stores. The 10 Lee Optical stores are in grocery stores owned by...

More companies giving benefits to part-timers.
April 14, 1995... Changes in workforce demographics, along with increasing competition among businesses and continued attempts to control costs are contributing to the hiring of more part-time staffers to handle the work load. As a result, more employers are...

Sun City to get 288-unit life-care center. (life-care community to be built on the campus of Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital)
April 14, 1995... Freedom Group and Sun Health Properties have approved a limited partnership agreement that will allow development to begin on Grandview Terrace, a 288-unit apartment life-care community to be built on the campus of Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital...

High-rise sold, 5 more for sale. (Phoenix, Arizona office buildings)
April 21, 1995... An Arizona-based limited partnership has purchased one of the largest office buildings in Phoenix's Central Corridor - one of a half dozen uptown high-rises on the block. The OCP LP purchased for $16.5 million One Columbus Plaza, a...

Practice of law now business of law. (Phoenix, Arizona law firms)
April 21, 1995... The "practice" of law has become the "business" of law, and survival in today's toughening legal arena requires one to be lean and mean. The increasing competitiveness for law work is but one of several economic factors within the past five...

Firms overestimated growth, leased too much costly space. (Sun Valley, Arizona law firms)
April 21, 1995... The slower-than-expected growth of the law profession has many of the Valley's most prominent firms saddled with expensive lease payments for offices - and, in some cases, entire floors - that sit empty. Many law firms that overestimated their...

Opus develops two speculative industrial parks. (Opus Southwest Corp.)
April 21, 1995... The ever tightening industrial market has prompted Opus Southwest Corp. to begin development on two industrial parks in the southeast and southwest Valley, starting with construction of more than 400,000 square feet of speculative space. Opus...

Critics say Legislature trashed environment. (Arizona)
April 21, 1995... The 1995 session of the Arizona Legislature adjourned, making news nationwide for its action on environmental issues. While the governor's signing of a bill allowing freon and other chlorofluorocarbon-producing agents to be manufactured in the...

Windmill Inns plans hotel in Chandler. (Windmill Inns of America; Arizona)
April 21, 1995... Hotels are beginning to pop up in the Valley like mushrooms after an April shower. Windmill Inns of America, an Ashland, Ore.-based hotel developer and operator, has purchased a parcel of land just less than 5 acres in Chandler and plans to...

Landis to provide info to real estate market. (Landis Info Freeway owner Jerry Landis)
April 21, 1995... After a six-year hiatus, Jerry Landis is back in the real estate market. Involved in the real estate information and aerial photography business in the Valley on and off since 1957, Landis has started a new company that will provide...

New Megafoods chief seen as positive force. (Megafoods Stores Inc. Pres. and CEO William J. White)
April 21, 1995... The appointment of William J. White as president and CEO of Megafoods Stores Inc. is a step in the fight direction for the Mesa-based supermarket chain that has been in Chapter 11 reorganization since Aug. 17, say analysts, creditors and U.S....

Expert says power options beneficial. (Electrical Consumers Resource Council)
April 21, 1995... About 60 local business leaders spent a rainy morning April 18 listening to arguments in favor of competition in the electricity market by John Anderson, executive director of the Electrical Consumers Resource Council. With retail wheeling,...

Cox cable promises a new dimension. (Cox Communications Inc.; Dimension Cable Services)
April 21, 1995... Dimension Cable customers may see a new name on their cable television service this month, but the recent merger with Cox Communications Inc. brings far deeper changes. Those changes, Dimension officials say, will help put Phoenix on the...

Kurta merger builds staff in Phoenix. (Kurta Corp.; Mutoh America Inc.; Arizona)
April 21, 1995... A merger between Phoenix-based Kurta Corp. and an Illinois manufacturer of plotters and drafting machines is expanding operations in Phoenix. Mutoh America Inc. has moved its offices from Mr. Prospect, Ill., to the Phoenix offices of Kurta, a...

Banker warns investors of tougher times. (Northern Trust Bank of Arizona Sr. VP and chief investment strategist Robert LeFleur)
April 21, 1995... With little financial time bombs going off around the world for the past 13 months, can an explosion be far behind? Robert LeFleur, senior vice president and chief investment strategist for Northern Trust Bank of Arizona, says investors must be...

AZ Diamondbacks select new offices. (Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team)
April 21, 1995... Up to now, the Arizona Diamondbacks have been nourished in the womb of the Phoenix Suns office at America West Arena. But in May, the new Major League Baseball expansion team for Phoenix will open its own office, thus giving the new team its...

Firebirds working to sell Austin on package deal. (Phoenix Firebirds minor league baseball club; Texas)
April 21, 1995... Buy our special seating package, and we will come. That is what the Phoenix Firebirds have told baseball fans in the city of Austin, Texas. On March 30, the Austin City Council unanimously agreed to clear the way to build a stadium to be used...

New Alzheimer's center. (Mercy Healthcare Arizona; Phoenix, Arizona)
April 21, 1995... Mercy building 72-unit campus in Phoenix Mercy Healthcare Arizona has broken ground for a $2 million, 72-unit Alzheimer's residential campus in Phoenix. The Huger Mercy Living Center, being built at 2345 W. Orangewood Ave., is expected to be...

Small business owners seek rational rules. (Arizona; environmental regulation)(Focus On Environment)
April 21, 1995... While most small-business owners agree that protecting the environment is important, many say government efforts to do so are ineffective and carry an unnecessarily high price for small companies. But members of the Arizona delegation to the...