Denver Business Journal articles from August 1997

Denver Business Journal archives from August 1997

Newcomer rattles telephone business. (McLeodUSA Inc.)
August 1, 1997... Residents in several mid-sized Colorado towns may be able to pick their local phone company within the next few months. McLeodUSA Inc. plans to refile rates with the Public Utilities Commission next week, and even with likely challenges from U...

AT&T puts local service on hold for '97.
August 1, 1997... AT&T Corp. isn't likely to begin offering local phone service in Colorado this year, and unless some "critical issues" are worked out with U S West, it might not happen before mid-1998, an AT&T official said. "We feel like we've run into a...

Wells Fargo plans bold expansion; goal: 20% of market. (Wells Fargo Bank)
August 1, 1997... After months of quiet planning, Wells Fargo Bank has launched an aggressive, two-pronged attack to win both commercial and retail banking business in Colorado. The San Francisco bank plans to roll out 50 retail locations in Safeway stores...

A business for the birds. (Gobbell Hays Partners Inc.)
August 1, 1997... Petrified of walking beneath the pesky pigeons congregating in the crevices of your building? Tired of flying pests using your shiny, clean BMW for bombardier practice? Gobbell Hays Partners Inc. can help. The environmental consulting and...

The lessons from an investment gone bad.(Column)
August 1, 1997... There is a lesson or two for stock market investors in the collapse of Aurora's Financial Instruments Corp. In case you missed the past two issues of this newspaper, we've been reporting on the problems of Financial Instruments, a network of...

Schwab hunts for suburban site. (Charles Schwab & Co.)
August 1, 1997... Financial services giant Charles Schwab & Co. may help boost the currency of metropolitan Denver's far southeastern suburbs. Schwab is considering creating a new call-center campus in the Meridian International Business Center at Interstate 25...

Arsenal bid probe under way: conflict of interest claim scuttles award.
August 1, 1997... The U.S. Army will investigate conflict of interest allegations involving the awarding of the $1.2 billion environmental management contract at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal before it reopens the bidding process. The contract, initially awarded...

DCPA shatters barrier with 1 million season. (Denver Center for the Performing Arts)
August 1, 1997... Alan Hallauer and Sharon Lubieniecki went to the box office at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts recently to pick up tickets for Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," one of the blockbuster musicals responsible for making Denver a hot spot of...

Descente shows off duds with International flair. (Descente Ltd.; Sprint International)
August 1, 1997... Golfers aren't the only winners at the Sprint International. Golf apparel companies such as Descente Ltd. can benefit from the tournament, set for Aug. 7-10 at the Castle Pines Golf Club. Descente North America, headquartered in Englewood,...

Columbine JDS weighs Park Central relocation. (Columbine JDS Systems Inc.)
August 1, 1997... Columbine JDS Systems Inc., one of the country's largest makers of data processing software for the cable and broadcast industries, may give downtown Denver another shot in the arm. The growing, Golden-based company is looking at moving its...

Retail forecast finds short supply. (Denver, CO, market)
August 1, 1997... Grocery chains' improved finances are forcing large investors to look for new investment opportunities in the retail sector, said Grubb & Ellis Co. in its latest report on the Denver market. The company's mid-year forecast reveals...

McData attempts to reach past IBM's coffers.
August 1, 1997... If McData Corp.'s switch technology doesn't knock the average person out - and why would it? - its ratio of revenue per employee should. The 15-year-old operation boasts roughly $1 million in sales for each of its 200 employees making a...

Colo. banking fees among lowest, according to new national survey.
August 1, 1997... Colorado consumers continue to enjoy some of the lowest banking fees in the country. But the gap in costs between the large regional banks and the smaller independents and credit unions continues to widen, according to one of the country's...

Colorado's friendliest small-biz banks: rural independents beating the big guys.(Small Business Strategies)
August 1, 1997... About two out of three small-business owners who borrow money turn to a commercial bank. But not all banks consider small-business lending their cup of tea, and entrepreneurs can expect to strike out if they walk through the wrong door. To...

Feds pledge to buy more from small businesses. (federal agencies)
August 1, 1997... WASHINGTON - Federal agencies promise they will buy more from small businesses in coming years. At least, that's what they said in an internal survey to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy late last month. According to the survey,...

Entrepreneurs in the making: CU Boulder, Denver centers teach art of the small business startup. (Universities of Colorado at Boulder and Denver)(includes related article on its two entrepreneurial programs)(Education & Careers)
August 1, 1997... With the Front Range of Colorado serving as a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity, it is not surprising that the Universities of Colorado at Boulder and Denver have developed programs to capitalize on this small-business-friendly environment....

UCD professors try hand in 'real world.' (University of Colorado at Denver)(Education & Careers)
August 1, 1997... Externship program gives academicians experience at area businesses Professors from the University of Colorado at Denver's business school are donning suits and ties this summer and entering the corporate rank and file. But far from flying the...

DU tailors startup program to telecom industry. (University of Denver)(Education & Careers)
August 1, 1997... While Colorado's state universities duke it out for recognition as the best general entrepreneurship program in the state, the University of Denver has tailored its program to one of the highest growth industries in the nation -...

Online MBA gains attention for UCCS. (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs)(Education & Careers)
August 1, 1997... Colorado Springs school works with Jones to create winning mix of content, technology One of the lesser-known branches of the University of Colorado system is capturing national attention for its cyberspace offerings. In its June 16 issue,...

Summit's retail dreams turned to dust. (Denver Summit of the Eight)
August 8, 1997... While President Clinton and top foreign leaders were discussing the world's economy during the Denver Summit of the Eight, the rest of downtown was a ghost town. Business was down, way down, for most downtown retailers and restaurants during...

Sprucing up the Blues. (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado's president and CEO David Kikumoto)(Power Brokers)
August 8, 1997... David Kikumoto, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado, may well be remembered as the man who took the health plan out of troubled times and led its conversion to a for-profit company. But that's not his gauge of success....

Feds look at possible mail fraud. (Financial Instruments Group)
August 8, 1997... Financial Instruments gets new oversight U.S. District Court Judge John Kane has assumed control of the Financial Instruments Group case from U.S. Bankruptcy Court as the criminal probe into the company and its founder John Aptt appears to...

A new chapter in the Columbia/HCA saga. (several executives step down due to inquiry into Columbia/HCA Healthcare's billing practices)
August 8, 1997... It has been two years since Columbia/HCA Healthcare took Denver by storm, pouring nearly $600 million into major hospital acquisitions. The storm hasn't abated. Indeed, questions surrounding Columbia/HCA have only grown larger in recent weeks....

Phone firm fee: $49.95 per month.
August 8, 1997... Sterling after callers with bad credit rating Sterling International Funding Inc. may not mean anything to most telephone customers, although the name Ameritel may ring a bell. Ameritel has been operating in Colorado for the past four years...

Nike knows how to flex its muscles.
August 8, 1997... When Nike Inc. founder and CEO Phil Knight was honored at last year's Oregon Entrepreneurship Awards, he insisted his resume for the occasion include the fact that he has gotten 50 speeding tickets in his driving career. Knight and Nike have...

Benton legal fees could hit $24M. (Oren Benton)
August 8, 1997... Oren Benton, once among the wealthiest people in Colorado, built the world's largest uranium-trading operation and an empire producing everything from pasta sauce to silicon chips to major league home runs. But as the dust settles from Benton's...

Telephone giants losing to long-distance upstarts.
August 8, 1997... WASHINGTON - With more than $60 billion in revenue at stake, the nation's largest long-distance telephone service providers are losing customers to hundreds of smaller upstarts. Over the past decade, the smaller carriers' share of toll revenue...

US West unit looks for home after saying goodbye, Boston. (U S West Media Group's cable operating unit, MediaOne)
August 8, 1997... U S West Media Group is scouring southeast Denver for a home for its MediaOne cable operating unit, which it plans to relocate from Boston this fall. MediaOne has 5.1 million subscribers in 19 states, including 4.3 million it acquired when it...

Strike hits packaging franchises. (strike at United Parcel Service of America Inc.; Pak Mail Centers of America; The Packaging Store)
August 8, 1997... Metro companies report customers not delivering Officials from Pak Mail Centers of America and The Packaging Store, two packaging-and-shipping franchises headquartered in the Denver area, said earlier this week that the strike by United Parcel...

U S West struggles to connect in Oregon. (U S West Communications Inc.)
August 8, 1997... Technology customers' needs go unmet PORTLAND, Ore. - U S West Communications Inc.'s ongoing record of poor service has regulators breathing down its neck and competitors threatening the company's market share by offering unhappy customers an...

Fort Collins plucks high-tech plum. (building of Celestica plant at Fort Collins, Co)
August 15, 1997... Celestica Inc., a Toronto-based frontrunner in the burgeoning third-party manufacturing component of the computer industry, has picked Fort Collins as its American headquarters. Four-year-old Celestica will build a plant that begins with a...

Building costs hit new highs; construction index jumps 20% in 1997.
August 15, 1997... Construction index jumps 20% in 1997 Construction costs for Colorado's roads and bridges continue to rocket far ahead of inflation, powered by an ever-growing appetite for infrastructure. The cost of road building, as represented in the...

Grynberg tilts at giants. (Grynberg Petroleum Pres. Jack Grynberg sues Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Co. and parent parent company KN Energy Inc.)(includes related article on Grynberg-KN feud)
August 15, 1997... Colorado oilman Jack Grynberg has spent 15 years and nearly $3 million trying to get Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Co. to pay him the more than $17 million he says the company owes him - and he isn't about to give up now. Grynberg, president of...

Politics outscores money in Pepsi center deal. (funding on the construction of hockey and basketball arena)
August 15, 1997... In the end, it was a deal that perhaps only a mayor could love. Yes, Denver will get a spanking new Pepsi Center hockey and basketball arena that, with a little luck, will be an indoor complement to the outdoor delights of Coors Field. Yes,...

Competitors fume over US West fee. (network upgrading costs)
August 15, 1997... Competitors for local phone business claim a proposal by U S West to charge them millions of dollars for network upgrades whose costs are as yet unknown is tantamount to writing the Baby Bell a blank check. U S West calculates it will cost more...

Payment offered in M&L case: New York firm wants to buy off creditors.
August 15, 1997... New York firm wants to buy off creditors Investors in the M&L Business Machine Co. Inc. Ponzi scheme are being courted by a company offering to buy their claims against the bankrupt operation for 50 cents on the dollar. Trustee Christine...

Flyfisher flees Creek amid rising rent tide; owner finds business better in new home.
August 15, 1997... Owner finds business better in new home Faced with a 50 percent increase in rent and parking problems that aggravated his customers, Ren Cannon pulled up stakes this summer and moved his Flyfisher Ltd. store out of the Cherry Creek North...

PR pro Russell joins Ramseys' camp. (public relations professional Charles Russel providing counsel on the John Ramsey murder case)
August 15, 1997... Denver public relations professional Charles Russell has raised some eyebrows since he was hired to provide counsel on the Ramsey murder case, leading many to consider why and how public relations professionals choose clients. In an industry...

'Community' too small for two Colorado banks. (Community First National Bank sued Colorado Community First National Bank for stealing its name)
August 15, 1997... Is putting Colorado in front of a competitor's name enough to avoid trademark infringement? Community First National Bank has sued Colorado Community First National Bank to stop it from using a name it claims is too similar to its own....

Reality check: Sun facility is a call center. (Sun Microsystem's Broomfield operation focused on customer-service division)(Column)
August 15, 1997... Let's set the record straight about Sun Microsystems' operation in Broomfield. It's a call center. A darn good call center, but a call center nonetheless. I must admit, it was disappointing to learn that the first phase was going to be...

Hunt for Dorsey replacement leaves Colorado. (Columbia-HealthOne LLC, CEO replacement)(Column)
August 15, 1997... The Columbia-HealthOne LLC hospital empire, which has been looking for a chief executive officer since Jeff Dorsey announced his departure last spring, likely won't have a new CEO until at least September. "We're continuing the search," board...

Castle Rock expansion ready to open. (Castle Rock factory shops expansion program)
August 15, 1997... Saks Fifth Avenue will open its long-awaited outlet store in the Castle Rock Factory Shops at the end of this month. Off 5th opens Aug. 29 in the 110,000-square-foot expansion of the popular outlet center on Interstate 25 and Meadows Parkway....

Vari-L shifts strategy to tap wireless market. (Vari-L Co., filed a patent for new applications)
August 15, 1997... Vari-L Co. is quietly amassing a portfolio of patents that positions it as a player to be reckoned with in the rapidly expanding consumer market for wireless communications products. On July 31, the Denver-based company filed a patent for a...

Rural town wants to keep charm: development, DIA drawing Brighton closer to metro Denver. (Denver International Airport)(Small Business Strategies)
August 15, 1997... Development, DIA drawing Brighton closer to metro Denver With construction along the E-470 corridor, developers may have an eye on Adams County, but the historic town of Brighton isn't ready to surrender mom and apple pie. The opening of the...

Check scam spreads. (thieves swiping outbound bills from mail boxes)(Small Business Strategies)
August 15, 1997... Businesses and individuals should be aware of a new check seam that is spreading across the metro area. The seam involves thieves swiping outbound bills from mail boxes and altering the checks, said Deborah Dreiling, a partner with Colorado...

Bad weather good news for disaster-recovery biz.(Small Business Strategies)
August 15, 1997... As extreme weather plagues Colorado, disaster-recovery companies such as Westminster-based Disaster Restoration Inc. are among the few reaping the benefits. Michael Griggs, president-elect of the National Institute of Disaster Restoration and...

Water vendors make a splash nationwide. (coin-operated water purifiers)(Small Business Strategies)
August 15, 1997... Something in the water encouraged husband-and-wife team Don and Lani Dolifka to create a national business. Concerned about high levels of nitrates in their rural hometown's water supply, the Dolifkas searched for a convenient, low-cost method...

The importance of being Wilma. (Wilma Webb, wife of Denver Mayor Wellington Webb)
August 22, 1997... Denver's first lady looks for role beyond her husband's shadow Wilma Webb, wife of Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, wants to be a regional director for the U.S. Department of Labor - badly. The plum, Denver-based post would make her the federal...

LockMart poised to profit from VentureStar. (Lockheed Martin Corp.'s space vehicle)
August 22, 1997... BETHESDA. Md. - Even Peter Teets president of Lockheed Martin Corp., is beginning to think about the day when rockets no longer are assembled at the aerospace giant's sprawling complex in Denver's southwestern suburbs. Teets, a launch-vehicle...

Ambulance firm top execs step down. (American Medical Response Inc.)
August 22, 1997... Two top officers of Aurora-based American Medical Response Inc. are leaving the company, the nation's largest ambulance concern with $l.3 billion in revenue, as the company completes a reorganization after its purchase by Canada's Laidlaw Inc....

Seagate doubles Longmont staff. (Seagate Technology Inc.; Longmont, Colorado)
August 22, 1997... The world's largest disk drive manufacturer has been quietly increasing its presence in Longmont, and the whisper is that there's more to come. Seagate Technology Inc., the biggest player in personal computer hard drives on the planet, has...

Mining firm looks to Chile. (Luis Araya & Associates Mining Industry Services)
August 22, 1997... Araya sees profit in mineral deposit A Golden-based mining company is sitting atop what it calls a "world class" industrial minerals deposit about 10 miles from one of the fastest-growing port cities in Chile. Luis Araya & Associates Mining...

Evergreen duo puts new twist in soba biz. (Ginger and Christopher Payne)
August 22, 1997... Expansion to other cities on horizon Ginger and Christopher Payne think small. But by thinking small, and debating the minutia of the soda industry - everything from the proper ingredients to how to open a can - the Evergreen couple hopes to...

Bistros complaint: parking pads tabs. (Denver, Colorado)
August 22, 1997... Enjoying dinner at one of the more than 40 new eateries in lower downtown can leave a bitter taste in the mouths of restaurant goers when they have to add $3 to $15 to pay for parking. The revitalization in downtown Denver, particularly near...

Revenge of the nerds. (skilled technology workers)
August 22, 1997... High-tech, telecom companies open coffers for computer-skilled workers, increasingly in short supply Recruiter Steve ParKer of Peak Career Management Inc. tells of one northern Colorado company so eager to attract an out-of-state software...

Departure at Janus may divide investors. (Janus Funds)
August 22, 1997... Until now, Janus Funds has managed to avoid the turnover that tripped up mutual fund families from Fidelity to Founders. But Tom Marsico's abrupt departure last week over a failed leveraged buyout of the firm has left some Janus investors and...

Colorado Institute of Art trains future Web gurus.
August 22, 1997... The propeller-heads at the Colorado Institute of Art don't look like your typical pocket-protector and button-down-shirt nerd. These students carry artist's portfolios and think on the right side of their brains, and the skills they learn in...

OK for TCI tracking stock almost a certainty. (Tele-Communications Inc.)
August 22, 1997... Wall Street likes Tele-Communications Inc.'s plan to let investors swap shares in the cable company for shares in its new tracking stock. There's no doubt the stock swap will win shareholder approval at TCI's Aug. 28 annual meeting, because...

Maverick Beef profits from health concerns. (Maverick Ranch Lite Beef)
August 22, 1997... While other beef producers, processors and distribution companies scramble to prove that they aren't selling "Hudson" burgers, or meat tainted with the E. coli bacteria, Denver-based Maverick Ranch Lite Beef is not hurting for customers. The...

Mutual fund investors push for greater rights.
August 22, 1997... Are mutual fund investors owners or customers? Don Phillips, president of Morningstar Inc., argues that federal law views them as fully empowered owners. But good times have mutual fund companies increasingly treating them as mere customers....

Verio scouts Twin Cities for acquisition. (Verio Inc.)
August 22, 1997... MINNEAPOLIS - Twin Cities businesses can expect the Internet provider market to get a little more complicated in the next several months as Verio Inc., the largest national chain of Internet service providers, shops for a privately owned provider...

Congress offers proposals to curb financial crimes.
August 22, 1997... WASHINGTON - After putting it on the back burner for more than three years, Congress once again is ready to handle the issue of money laundering. Two bipartisan bills, one targeting money laundering and the other asset forfeiture, have made...

Companies unearth a gold mine of goodwill: using generosity as a marketing strategy.
August 22, 1997... In the summer of 1995, right after police caught the Bourbon Street Pizza Bar & Grill and several other Greenwood Village restaurants serving alcohol to under-age customers, Bourbon Street owner Michael Brody launched a program called Being an...

Small-biz relief may tax taxpayers.
August 22, 1997... WASHINGTON - The recently passed tax bill offers some long-awaited tax relief for small businesses. But it could be expensive for taxpayers: Tax cuts aimed at small businesses will cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $30 billion during the...

Master your fears to manage change effectively.(Small Business Strategies)
August 22, 1997... Whether you're managing a forced or chosen company reorganization, downsizing, career or personal change, fear shuts the doors of your mind, limits your horizons and choices, throttles your energy and resources and thwarts success. People in...

Know your priorities.(Small Business Strategies)
August 22, 1997... When Betsy decided to prioritize her goals she filled out a personal interest questionnaire with answers that contained some surprises. She had no desire to expand her company nationally, even though the potential for national growth clearly...