Orlando Business Journal articles from October 1997

Orlando Business Journal archives from October 1997

World gymnastics contest lands here; Orlando sports commission aces American Cup deal. (Orlando Area Sports Commission)
October 31, 1997... The Orlando Area Sports Commission has inked a deal that will bring America's most prestigious gymnastics competition to Orlando for three straight years. The American Cup, which features the highest-ranked gymnastic teams in the world, will...

Brokers, traders twist and turn with the Dow. (Dow Jones Industrial Average)
October 31, 1997... Stockbroker Robert Janssen stands up, kicks his chair away from his desk and begins pacing frantically in circles. "I've got 15,000 people screaming at me," he barks into the telephone. "Everybody here is swamped right now." He hangs up,...

Business: no united front on sales tax.
October 31, 1997... There's aline being drawn between businesses which support Orange County's proposed one cent sales tax hike and those which don't - the line between big and small business. 'Despite a huge groundswell of support by some of Central Florida's...

Matrixx hiring 200 in Heathrow. (Matrixx Marketing Inc)
October 31, 1997... Cincinnati-based Matrixx Marketing Inc. is embarking on a hiring spree: The company's Heathrow technical services division plans to hire 200 more employees by year's end. The additional manpower will help the company handle a spate of new...

A business divided: Siegels split properties. (David and Bettie Siegels)
October 31, 1997... Bettie Siegel got the house, David Siegel got the Rollerblades, the Internal Revenue Service will get an estimated $100 million - and Central Florida's largest privately held company, Central Florida Investments, Inc., gets a brighter future in...

Judge douses Disney firefighter's sex suit. (Judge G. Kendall Sharp's ruling on the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Walt Disney World, Reedy Creek Improvement District and four Reedy Creek fire officials)
October 31, 1997... Walt Disney World, Reedy Creek Improvement District and four Reedy Creek fire officials have won a major round in a sexual harassment lawsuit. U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp has thrown out the first of six counts in the controversial...

Will city strike stadium gold? (renovation of the Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium)
October 31, 1997... SANFORD - If you renovate it, will they come? The city of Sanford is gambling a $1.1 million renovation will draw the recreation-minded to the Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium. The stadium, which the city bought back from a private owner...

University fuels retail growth. (University Boulevard development)
October 31, 1997... University Boulevard's emerging retail district has attracted a 15-acre, multimillion-dollar center featuring a 150-room hotel, a cluster of restaurants, and retailers and a gas station. Joint developers Main Street Investments and University...

Disney executive: bias cost promotion. (Walt Disney Attractions' demoted director of media partnerships and broadcast marketing D. Charles Haugabrook)
October 31, 1997... D. Charles Haugabrook, the demoted director of media partnerships and broadcast marketing at Walt Disney Attractions Inc., has filed a five-count federal court lawsuit for unspecified damages charging his employer with racial discrimination and...

Football gate receipts bring in big bucks - but how much?(State of Sports)
October 31, 1997... Who needs a budget? Every fall Friday night, thousands of parents and fans cram into high school football stadiums across Central Florida, paying a few dollars for a ticket and the chance to watch as the kids battle for football supremacy....

New school tackles sports fund raising. (Winter Springs High School)(State of Sports)
October 31, 1997... For most high schools, getting money for uniforms, balls and officials is no problem. They tap into money made from last year's ticket sales and booster clubs. Winter Springs High School doesn't have that luxury. The Seminole County school...

Orlando viewed as national leader in area of sports tourism. (Orlando, Florida)(State of Sports)
October 31, 1997... America is watching you, Orlando. As more and more communities find out about the wonders of sports tourism, they are looking to Orlando to find out how to do it. But watch out, those others are gaining. "Communities throughout the...

Tapping into health care careers.(Health Care)
October 31, 1997... When Jenny Osborn's 10-year marriage headed to a rocky end two years ago, the 34-year-old homemaker knew she needed a career to support herself and her two young children. While looking through the help-wanted classifieds, she came upon an...

IHS founder achieves success by catering to new needs. (Integrated Health Services founder Robert N. Elkins)(Health Care)
October 31, 1997... To Robert N. Elkins, the founder of Integrated Health Services Inc., the key to success in a competitive health care industry is a no-brainer: Ask questions and listen to the answers. In 1986, leaders of the young company asked everyone in...

Get employee input on health programs.(Health Care)
October 31, 1997... An employer once asked me how a health promotion program could be developed for his employees. "Could we do it one day next month?" he asked. I explained to him that he was thinking about a health fair and that a real health promotion program...

Balancing lifestyle, work eases stress cycle.(Small Business Strategies)
October 31, 1997... Our parents, schools, colleges and corporations lay out goals for us, all with the best intentions. But our systems' goals are not the same as our own goals, and inevitably we start to lose ourselves. We make decision after decision that we...

City putting on the ritz for area film, television production biz. (first Florida Motion Picture & Television Assn Day in Orlando, Florida)
October 31, 1997... A homegrown version of "hooray for Hollywood" gets under way in downtown Orlando Nov. 22 when the Orlando/Central Florida chapter of the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association and the city of Orlando jointly sponsor the first FMPTA Day...

Fruggies: sweet taste of success?
October 24, 1997... Popeye, eat your heart out. Aloes International Inc., an Orlando-based manufacturer of aloe vera and health-related products, has come up with a sweet-tasting alternative to such childhood aversions as spinach, broccoli and squash. Called...

MCorkle wins round in state investigation. (William and Chantel McCorkle's fraud and money laundering investigation)
October 24, 1997... A controversial real estate promoter and local infomercial star has won a round in a yearlong fraud and money laundering investigation being conducted by Florida Attorney General Robert A. Butterworth. The bulk of William and Chantel...

Siegel letters pledge undying love. (time share developer David A. Siegel's divorce settlement negotiations with his wife, Bettie)
October 24, 1997... Time share developer David A. Siegel tried every way he could think of - including vows of eternal love - to persuade his wife, Bettie, to amicably settle their $200 million divorce settlement agreement out of court, according to newly...

Guitar chain strumming up expansion plans. (George's Music Inc.)
October 24, 1997... Guitar Gallery takes aim at serious players, collectors A bit of guitar heaven just landed on Downtown Disney's West Side. The 1,500-square-foot Guitar Gallery opened in September, selling six-stringed instruments priced at between $199...

Big business, small customers warm to utility deregulation. (Florida's electric utilities industry)
October 24, 1997... TALLAHASSEE - Florida's first real look at restructuring the way the electrical industry is regulated generated a lot of heat but very little action earlier this month. Instead, members of The House Committee on Utilities and Communications...

Columbia to merge divisions. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
October 3, 1997... Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., under investigation for alleged Medicare fraud, is restructuring Florida operations by merging its Bay Area and Central Florida divisions, according to sources close to the company. Unless other divisions are...

First Union axes 40 Orlando jobs. (First Union Corp.; Orlando, Florida)
October 3, 1997... Reshuffling closes collection units In a companywide consolidation, First Union Corp. will close a payment collections unit in Orlando by year's end, cutting 40 local jobs. The bank also will shutter collections units in Charlotte Roanoke,...

All business: local school snares career grant. (Ivey Lane Elementary School in Orlando, Florida; business education for children)
October 3, 1997... An aging school in one of Orlando's poorest neighborhoods is the only elementary school in Florida to have snared a cutting-edge grant designed to teach kids the basics of business. But now that Ivey Lane Elementary School has enough money to...

Refiguring the American way of debt. (bankruptcy)
October 3, 1997... Congress mulls ways to clean up bankruptcy courts WASHINGTON - Bankruptcy is not such a bad word anymore. It is no longer the same source of embarrassment or sign of financial failure that it used to be. Nor is it considered the last resort...

Upscale clothier hangs hat here. (Rania Tabbah; Orlando, Florida)
October 3, 1997... New York fashion designer Rania Tabbah is trading a niche on Manhattan's Seventh Avenue for Winter Park. Rannia designer boutique for women is slated to open this week on Orlando Avenue. The upscale clothing store will offer both...

Congress: region is major drug trafficking area. (Central Florida)
October 3, 1997... Central Florida has been awarded a dubious congressional distinction: A bill authored by Congressman John Mica and passed by the House-Senate Conference Committee will formally tag the region as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area....

Trade delegation heads for Asia. (Florida)
October 3, 1997... Teetering at the Rim? In a one-of-its kind venture, Gov. Lawton Chiles is leading a major trade delegation of more than 80 business and government leaders to Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul this week. Dubbed Team Florida Asia '97,: the mission is...

Merger takes Behr's Chocolates statewide. (Florida)
October 3, 1997... In a move designed to sweeten sales, a home-grown candy maker and a 20-year-old South Florida confection concern have agreed to merge retail locations, production space - and names. Behr's Chocolates, Central Florida's largest privately...

Caught in the cross fire? CFI's CFO sues ex-boss for $300,000. (Central Florida Investments Inc.; R. Alan Rainey)
October 3, 1997... The man in the middle is fighting back. R. Alan Rainey, the $300,000-a-year ex-chief financial officer for time share conglomerate Central Florida Investments, has sued his former employer, alleging he was fired after being caught in the...

With Boeing Co. decision, all is not lost for Brevard. (Brevard County)
October 3, 1997... TITUSVILLE - Boeing Co. picked Alabama over Brevard County and two other sites for a proposed $400 million rocket-making plant, but the Space Coast was not left entirely in the cold. Although Brevard will not see the 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs...

Big store, big local headaches? (megastore in Ocoee, Florida)
October 3, 1997... Discount king Wal-Mart wants to open a megastore in Ocoee - but some commercial neighbors aren't ready to roll out the welcome wagon. Current plans, according to the Bentonville, Ark., retailer, call for a 213,000-square-foot supercenter...

Squeezed by debt, prominent citrus grower files Chapter 7. (Joseph Caruso Jr.)
October 3, 1997... Face with court-ordered garnishments and a multimillion-dollar debt owed SunTrust Bank of Central Florida, prominent Orlando citrus grower Joseph Caruso Jr. has filed for Chapter 7 protection from creditors under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code....

New small biz bankruptcy rules: only the strong will survive.
October 3, 1997... WASHINGTON - Consider: After three years of toiling hard to make the company work, an entrepreneur falls behind on taxes and bank payments. He is struggling to pay his suppliers, and his employee workers' compensation and pension fund payments...

Breaking the bank? Financiers crying foul.
October 3, 1997... WASHINGTON - Three years ago, when Congress appointed a special nine-member panel to revamp the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, banks and credit card companies had the most to gain from any changes which might make it tougher for consumers to write off...

Wisconsin lawyer weathers bankruptcy board brouhaha. (Brady Williamson)
October 3, 1997... MADISON, Wis. - Brady Williamson, a practicing lawyer in this town for two decades, is home from the front. "I have spent hundreds of hours volunteering my time to the U.S. Congress and the people of this country," says Williamson, a...

Gut reaction: germ linked to Crohn's disease.
October 3, 1997... The first four of 50 batches of blood samples drawn for local research into the cause of Crohn's disease, a chronic painful inflammation of the intestines, all appear to link the illness with a common bacterium found in both milk and meat....

State vs. restaurateurs: the bare knuckles brawl continues. (Florida)
October 3, 1997... Tallahassee's on-again, off-again embrace of the so-called "no bare hands rule" has the 35,000-member Florida Restaurant Association and the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation duking it out for the second year in a row....

Strange bedfellows: asbestos, tobacco tussle over damages.
October 3, 1997... ATLANTA - Two longtime villains of environmental health - asbestos and tobacco - are duking it out in U.S. District Court in Atlanta over whether to split legal costs for hundreds of millions of dollars in personal-injury awards. Raymark...

Rosenberg's challenge to MOIAC: keep on walking the walk. (Metro Orlando International Affairs Commission; Dr. Mark Rosenberg)
October 3, 1997... You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? That, in a nutshell, was the challenge issued by Dr. Mark Rosenberg of Florida International University at the Sept. 24 quarterly meeting of the Metro Orlando International Affairs Commission....

Bahama Breeze whetting Darden shareholders' appetites. (Darden Restaurants Inc.)
October 3, 1997... But will Wall Street bite? While finicky shareholders voiced disappointment with Red Lobster's sales during Darden Restaurants Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting Sept. 25, Olive Garden met their expectations and the Orlando company's test...

Newest Breeze: Heckel fills post. (Bahama Breeze Senior VP Gary Heckel)
October 3, 1997... Darden Restaurants Inc. has tapped Gary Heckel to fill the post of senior vice president of Bahama Breeze, the Orlando-based chain's third and newest restaurant division. Previously vice president of operations in Darden's New Business...

Firm finds a little TLC pays off. (Tilden Lobnitz Cooper)
October 3, 1997... Orlando's Tilden Lobnitz Cooper running on fast track with record revenue Tilden Lobnitz Cooper. Sounds a little like that awesome Notre Dame backfield of college football's Golden Era in the 50s. Coincidentally, that's about the same...

Orlando law firm sues Maitland Forum owner, management. (Higley and Barfield)
October 3, 1997... Real estate deals are always full of twists and turns. And this one at the Maitland Forum office building ranks right up there in the most puzzling category. Higley & Barfield, a prominent Orlando law firm, is suing the Forum's owner, the...

New faces in Central Florida commercial real estate.
October 3, 1997... Patterson leaves Pizzuti to join Highwoods' leasing team Jeffrey D. Patterson, a senior office leasing broker at Pizzuti Commercial Real Estate since 1992, has joined the Florida division of Highwoods Properties Inc. of Raleigh, N.C....

To rent or own - that is the question.(Small Business Strategies)
October 3, 1997... Making the right choice can affect the stability of your company For any small business, expansion can be a scary thing, loaded with questions. What are the implications of bringing on more staff? Can the company handle the extra orders?...

Marketing ABCs: take substance over glitz.(Small Business Strategies)
October 3, 1997... Two conversations this week forced me to rethink the practice of my chosen profession: marketing. Every now and then we need a refreshing reminder of the basics. Marketing innovation moves with such speed and demands and such agility that we...

Commission seeks to plug loopholes, shore up system. (National Bankruptcy Review Commission)
October 3, 1997... Florida enjoys a special reputation among bankruptcy law attorneys: Along with Texas, it is one of just two states where debtors are allowed to keep million-dollar homes. "Florida is perceived as being a very liberal state in terms of...