Denver Business Journal articles from February 1996

Denver Business Journal archives from February 1996

State falls flat in tire tax mess. (Colorado; waste tire recycling fund)
February 2, 1996... As mountains of old tires rise sky-high, state agencies and local governments are fighting for control of a $3 million waste tire recycling fund. Tire retailers collect $1 for every old tire customers leave behind. The fee eventually makes its...

U S West customers get choice. (Integrated Network Systems Inc.'s plan to launch a local telephone company to compete with U S WEST Inc.)
February 2, 1996... Upstart INS to launch service New competitors are ready to hit the deregulating local phone market in Colorado. Denver-based Integrated Network Systems Inc., which for eight years has helped wire corporate customers as a top agent for U S...

Pavilions lands new backers. (downtown Denver entertainment and retail project)
February 9, 1996... California developer Bill Denton appears to be at an apex on his roller coaster ride to acquire financing for downtown Denver's $94 million Pavilions entertainment and retail project. Those new backers, however, have big appetites for high...

PERA's coffers coveted: Miller-Anschutz seeks partnership. (Public Employees Retirement Association)
February 9, 1996... Miller-Anschutz Properties LLC is wooing a new financial partner, according to informed sources. The local commercial real estate company hopes to cement a relationship with the Denver-based Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA)....

An electronic hoe-down: Jones launches country music channel. (Jones International Ltd.'s Great American Country music video network)
February 9, 1996... Hold onto your hats: Jones International Ltd. is turning up the volume on its rather tame lineup of educational and high-tech TV shows. Launched Dec. 31, Jones' new Great American Country music video network will strike up a tune on Denver TV...

Marching to Colin Powell's rules of conduct.
February 9, 1996... Colin Powell was one heck of a military man. He is also an astute student of management. As his book, "My American Journey" (Random House, $25.95), makes clear, Powell studied under some of the masters. He was a key aide to former defense...

Calif. firm to swallow Brothers, Java City. (Diedrich Coffee Co.; Brothers Gourmet Coffees Inc.)
February 9, 1996... Hannibal's deal lands belly-up; Diedrich Coffee Co. moves in A deal to sell 30 Brothers coffee bars that was slated to close by Dec. 31 has gone cold, but a new buyer quickly has moved in to lap up the troubled company's retail operation. The...

Diagnosis: POV's 'box' is hot stuff: HMOs discovering electronic surveys are good medicine. (Point-of-View Survey Systems Inc.)
February 9, 1996... HMOs discovering electronic surveys are good medicine The time is approaching when your first contact in a doctor's office may be with a computer instead of a physician. Computer technology is finding its way more and more into the...

RTD seeks help with parking lots: retail developers could expand crowded park-N-Rides. (Regional Transportation District)
February 9, 1996... Could catching the bus become synonymous with day care, the dry cleaners and a double latte? The Regional Transportation District has floated a "request for expressions of interest" to determine if private developers could help expand six of...

Internet access tax proposed: online providers may pay a price. (Colorado Department of Revenue proposal)
February 9, 1996... Colorado's Internet access providers have done their best to fan the flames from the cyber explosion, but the smoke has caught the unwanted gaze of the tax man. The Colorado Department of Revenue will examine the bursting medium as a possible...

Cyberspace a cold place for U S West. (U S West Inc.)
February 9, 1996... As if they didn't have enough to worry about with all these Time Warner Inc. rumors flying around, the folks at U S West Inc. have popped up on the radarscope of an anonymous 'Net surfer. Just who this disgruntled techie is we don't know - but...

Cyprus Amax outsources accounting. (Cyprus Amax Minerals Co.; Arthur Andersen and Co.)
February 9, 1996... Most companies are close to their accountants, but Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. has taken that closeness to another level. Cyprus Amax, the state's third-largest public company with $3 billion in revenues, has outsourced most of its local...

Don't underestimate any idea: $5 hair accessories net huge fortunes for their inventor. (Denie Schach, inventor of Hairdini roller)
February 9, 1996... When she's not styling hair, you might find Texas hairdresser Denie Schach poking around Home Depot looking for stuff to turn into prototypes of hair accessories. So far, her brainstorms have scored major hits. The Hairdini, a foam-covered...

Task force may punt tax decision to voters: Broncos want dough for stadium. (Denver Broncos)
February 9, 1996... Does it make more sense to spend $264 million on upkeep at Mile High Stadium over the next 20 years, or to build a new stadium for about the same amount of money? That is the question Mayor Wellington Webb's special task force on sports...

William Boyer: a foot soldier in Denver coffee wars. (president and founder of Boyer's Coffee Co.)
February 9, 1996... Colorado's coffee industry is brewing up strong competition. But the owner of Boyer's Coffee Co., a household name in Denver a generation before Starbucks took Wall Street by storm, promises he can take the heat. William Boyer, the 68 year-old...

Sims announces resignation from AT&T Wireless. (Mike Sims; AT and T Wireless Services)
February 9, 1996... After steering an established telecommunications outfit for four-and-a-half years, Mike Sims wants to cut loose. "I decided that I'm sort of an entrepreneur," said Sims, who will resign as vice president and general manager of AT&T Wireless...

Postage increases could sock small firms.
February 9, 1996... Careful planning, understanding of new rules can help you lick coming rate boosts Businesses could find themselves on the high end or low end of new postal rates set to debut this summer. The U.S. Postal Service has toiled for the last five...

Praise for Patti Shwayder, 'acting' health official. (executive director of Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment)
February 9, 1996... Her efforts over the past year have made it easier for businesses to meet standards Relationships between regulators and businesses are improving - perhaps dramatically, I believe - based on changes in the Colorado Department of Public Health...

Forest Oil pares debt, builds energy reserves.
February 9, 1996... Now that Forest Oil Corp. has restructured its balance sheet, the Denver-based oil and gas company has big plans for its Canadian and Gulf Coast holdings. Bob Boswell, the company's president and CEO, said he would like to take the company to...

Mint guards gold bullion worth billions: history records two robbery attempts at high-security landmark. (U.S. Mint)
February 9, 1996... From the outside, the U.S. Mint looks like any other downtown government office building - except, that is, for the guard towers and the tall black wrought iron fence protecting its outer boundaries. When people step inside the foyer at the...

Colorado IPOs offer investors mixed bag. (initial public offerings)
February 9, 1996... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Investors who bought stock in Colorado's newest public companies last year had even odds of getting a prince or a pauper. Of the eight companies in the state that had initial public offerings last year, four are up by...

Phillips revs up for Colo. (Phillips Petroleum Co. to expand in Colorado)
February 16, 1996... Oklahoma giant adding stations Get ready Conoco and Total, here comes Phillips 66. Bartlesville, Okla.-based Phillips Petroleum Co. has announced plans to expand its retail petroleum empire in metro Denver and across the Rocky Mountain...

Cyclo faces uphill ride with expansion to China. (Cyclo Manufacturing Co.)
February 16, 1996... Cyclo Manufacturing Co. is looking to the largest market in the world to inflate sales of its No-Mor Flats bicycle inner tube. The Denver manufacturer hopes to pump up sales by tapping into China's more than 800 million bicycles through a joint...

Aragon's restaurants grow: ProServe acquires 42 Pizza Hut restaurants in Nebraska. (Joe Aragon)
February 16, 1996... Don't ask Joe Aragon for his secrets. He doesn't have any. This self-made success story, who completed the purchase of 42 Pizza Hut restaurants in Nebraska last year, believes that simply carrying a slim wallet ranks as the best advice anybody...

British company takes Gates: Tomkins acquires Denver rubber company for $1.6 billion. (Tomkins PLC acquires Gates Rubber Co.)
February 16, 1996... The British have had a hand in a lot of Colorado's history, dating back to Lord St. George Gore's famous hunting excursions into the Rockies. The British-American connection continued in 1995 when an agreement was reached to sell one of...

Eagle's leaving Tabor. (Eagle's Nest)
February 16, 1996... Clothier selling off merchandise A nest in Tabor Center soon will be empty. Eagle's Nest, a locally based outdoor clothing and equipment retailer, will close its Tabor Center store March 31 after its lease expires. "At the Tabor Center,...

Webb, Pena advisers make splash in area. (John Huggins, Stephen Kaplan)
February 16, 1996... Huggins, Kaplan boost city's talent pool Despite a sluggish real estate market and a retailing bloodbath, Denver's economy keeps moving forward. One reason is because the city continues to attract some of the most talented professionals in...

Manville spins off two subsidiaries. (Manville Corp.)
February 16, 1996... Most deal makers are interested in building empires, but Manville Corp. and its CEO Tom Stephens deftly dismantled one last year. Stephens and his board of directors sold two of Manville's most marketable subsidiaries and reworked the holding...

Western Wireless snags communications deal.
February 16, 1996... After edging past other bidders to buy a $64.5 million license, GTE Mobilnet Inc. opted not to bring Denver-area customers the latest in wireless communications. Rather, the phone giant will hand that opportunity to Bellevue, Wash.-based...

Authority redevelops Lowry. (Lowry Redevelopment Authority)
February 16, 1996... Former air force base getting face-lift as urban center Last year was one of laying groundwork for the Lowry Redevelopment Authority. The LRA, charged with converting the former Lowry Air Force Base into a model of the "new urbanism," took...

Signs point to Wells Fargo retaining bank.
February 16, 1996... First Interstate's new owner applies to use both names in Colorado Wells Fargo & Co. has sought, and Colorado has granted, an important state certification that points to the California banking giant keeping its foothold here. Late last...

HealthOne joins forces with Columbia/HCA.
February 16, 1996... State's largest health-care provider strikes venture with nation's largest Just in shear numbers, the deal that brought together national giant Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. and Colorado s largest health-care provider, HealthOne, was...

Crescent shopping Colorado: REIT builds portfolio with downtown, DTC properties. (Crescent Real Estate Equities Inc.)
February 16, 1996... Richard Rainwater made a big splash in the Denver area last year. The Fort Worth financial whiz and his 2-year-old real estate investment trust, Crescent Real Estate Equities Inc., swept into the city and sealed one of the biggest real estate...

TCI's groups boost business: cable company positions itself for media consolidation. (Tele-Communications Inc.)
February 16, 1996... Tele-Communications Inc., the industry giant based in Englewood, stepped nimbly as it grew in 1995. TCI's newly partitioned business groups boosted its cable, telephone and other services with a healthy infusion of investors' dollars. Its...

Fraud probe turns to bingo. (embezzler Janice Brauch)
February 23, 1996... A woman who has admitted stealing money from the defunct Printing Industry Credit Union is under investigation by bingo gaming inspectors with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. Janice Brauch, who faces sentencing on federal embezzlement...

Memo key to $400M CU claim. (evidence in patent infringement suit involving University of Colorado Foundation and American Cyanamid Co.)
February 23, 1996... Foundation sues over drug patent A "Mystery Memo" may be key evidence in a patent infringement lawsuit that has the University of Colorado Foundation claiming $100 million to $400 million in damages against chemical giant American Cyanamid...

From N.H. to Jeffco, falling pay tests GOP. (New Hampshire; Jefferson County, Colorado; Republican Party)
February 23, 1996... There are 2,000 miles between Jefferson County and Manchester, N.H. But I'll bet you a cup of coffee at your favorite donut shop there's a lot of similarity in the way voters feel in both places. And as the presidential primary moves into a...

Employees buy out Weber Design. (Weber Design Inc.)
February 23, 1996... Two artists decide to buy business they helped build Marty Gregg said it best: Buying the business that he and partner Craig Rouse have poured their creative best into for more than a decade "is a lot like buying the house you've been living in...

Creating new health system. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Pres. and CEO Jeff Dorsey)(Health Care)
February 23, 1996... Dorsey leads Colorado's largest health-care venture The past year has been quite a ride for Jeff Dorsey. Dorsey was president and CEO of Rose Health Care System a year ago. But if he was getting comfortable in that role, his life was about to...

Market steers toward drive-thrus. (Denver, Colorado Boston Chicken Inc. restaurants)
February 23, 1996... Homemade meals will be as easy as driving your car if Boston Market has anything to say about it. The casual-dining restaurant chain is introducing drive-thru service to its 20 area locations. About five area locations already have drive-thru...

Prospective retailers scout Stadium Walk. (shopping center development project in Denver, Colorado)
February 23, 1996... Getting lower downtown's stamp of approval earlier this month proved to be a shot in the arm for Arnold Schwarzenegger's $65 million Denver real estate project. The development's entertainment and retail component, called Stadium Walk, is...

Black vies for building. (financier Leon Black)
February 23, 1996... 1999 Broadway Ch. 11 heats up Aggressive New York financier Leon Black may be at it again. The former Drexel, Burnham, Lambert executive and current partner in Vail Associates, owner of the Vail ski resort, is maneuvering to shift ownership...

Trial: boon and bane of small biz. (trial concerning the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; Denver, Colorado small businesses)
February 23, 1996... From the restaurant owner who wants to provide meals to victims' families to the East Sixth Avenue dry cleaner already prepared to offer 50 percent discounts to anyone from Oklahoma in town for the trial, Denver entrepreneurs greeted the news...

Mining companies relocating to Denver. (BHP Minerals; Colorado)
February 23, 1996... BHP, Granges will employ 50 Denver is gaining international recognition as the gold capital of the world - but gold isn't the only commodity taking hold in the Mile High City. An integrated minerals company also has chosen to make the Denver...

Advantage Cellular hires could reach 200. (Advantage Cellular Inc.)
February 23, 1996... AT&T Wireless dealer faces tough competition as deregulation looms A new dealer for AT&T Wireless Services has stepped up the fight for Denver-area cellular phone customers. Advantage Cellular Inc. has opened the first store on Colorado...

Denver may lose 260 jobs. (Colorado)
February 23, 1996... Mellon workers bound for Texas? Mellon Mortgage Co. is ripe to leave metro Denver, taking 260 jobs with it. The Houston-based mortgage banking company, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Mellon Bank, plans to consolidate its Denver, Houston...

CSU's quiet top gun uncovers new crops. (Colorado State University associate professor Duane Johnson)
February 23, 1996... FORT COLLINS - Reclining in his chair, talking on the telephone in his tight, cluttered basement office in the Plant Sciences Building at Colorado State University, Duane Johnson appears to be a man of little ambition. Appearances can be...

Martin may benefit from fiasco in China. (Lockheed Martin Corp.)
February 23, 1996... Denver Astronautics giant Lockheed Martin Corp. could get a long-term boost from a botched satellite launch by its Chinese competitor last week. Lockheed Martin vies for global market share of commercial satellite launch services with two...

Pentagon ax could fall on Denver data center. (Department of Defense; Colorado; Defense Information Systems Agency)
February 23, 1996... A report working its way through the Pentagon could spell major changes for a Denver defense agency. Denver's 271-employee megacenter, one of the five largest data processing facilities in the country, is one of 16 similar operations that have...

Speculation swirls around Exeter buy. (Nabors Industries Inc.; Exeter Drilling Co.)
February 23, 1996... Talk centers on Nabors merger Colorado's Oil and gas industry is abuzz with speculation that the nation's largest land-based oil and gas drilling contractor may be planning to buy up one of its closest competitors, Denver-based Exeter Drilling...

Golden Aluminum may sell division to workers. (Golden Aluminum Co.)
February 23, 1996... Struggling Golden Aluminum Co. is looking for buyers for its recycling operations and its Swiss-based subsidiary Lauener Engineering. Karen Breen, director of investor relations for the company's parent, Golden-based ACX Technologies Inc., said...

Bigelow & Co. moves into corporate finance.
February 23, 1996... Bigelow & Co. has decided to move beyond bonds. The young underwriting firm, best known for its work with municipalities, will tackle corporate financing. Although it is still shaping its approach, Bigelow plans to concentrate on private...

Wazee Wire loft project plans spring start date. (Wazee Wire Works lofts in Denver, Colorado)
February 23, 1996... The upscale Wazee Wire Works lofts, a $4.5 million project that incorporates renovation of a historic building and construction of a new five-story structure in lower downtown, expects to begin construction later this spring. The project...

Sports-Haley offering hopes to raise $7.5 mil. (Sports-Haley Inc.)
February 23, 1996... Golf clothier launching new products Sports-Haley Inc. wants to beat par with a proposed stock offering. The Denver maker of high-end golf clothing filed this month to offer at least 800,000 shares of common stock in pursuit of $7.5 million....

Colorado hits no. 5 in job growth.
February 23, 1996... Colorado, once a small child, is rapidly gaining ground on its siblings. The Western region is one of the fastest growing in America. A recent Denver Business Journal report, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows...

Boston Market gets a leg up on Roasters. (Boston Chicken Inc.; Kenny Rogers Roasters)
February 23, 1996... Kenny Rogers closing restaurants Fort Lauderdale, Fla. - Kenny Rogers Roasters is approaching its fifth birthday amid slowed growth, executive turnover and at least two pending lawsuits from unhappy franchisees. The Fort Lauderdale-based...

Denver fashion designer files bankruptcy. (Colorado; Jean Louie Kasson)
February 23, 1996... Jean Louie Kasson, Denver's faux fashion designer, unveiled a liquidating bankruptcy in place of a spring lineup. The embattled designer, who gave bogus reports to a local newspaper that he owned boutiques in Paris and Athens and had trained...

Stein Mart scours area for staff of sales clerks. (Stein Mart Inc.)
February 23, 1996... With opening day just a month away, Stein Mart is shopping around for a sales force to handle customers hunting for a bargain. The off-price retailer, scheduled to open March 28 in the old Wal-Mart site at Quebec Street and County Line Road, is...