Denver Business Journal articles from May 1996

Denver Business Journal archives from May 1996

Bad loans soar for farm banks: wheat, cattle woes slam bottom line. (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City)
May 10, 1996... The economic storm pounding Colorado's rural areas is starting to reverberate throughout the state's economy. A bottomless cattle market and topless wheat crop have rural bankers batting down the hatches and preparing for a rough year. "We...

Trade zone tiff hits city; is Denver hobbled by dormant deal? (Denver foreign trade zone)
May 10, 1996... Denver's foreign trade zone sees less international traffic than the fallow Stapleton International airport it neighbors, and critics are calling for change. The obscure, 12-acre portion in the Denver Business Center north of the vacant...

Diet supplement boom finds home in Rockies. (diet supplement industry; Rocky Mountain states)
May 10, 1996... Health-conscious Americans, led by aging Baby Boomers, spend about $6 billion a year swallowing concoctions with strange-sounding names like Ginkgo Biloba, Guarana and Ginseng. Outdoor-loving Coloradans haven't been left out of the dietary...

Norwest overhauls banking staff; job cuts at Minneapolis financial giant may sidestep Colorado unit. (Norwest Corp.)
May 10, 1996... Minneapolis-based Norwest Corp. and its 45,000 employees will undergo a major restructuring starting next week. The overhaul is designed to cut overhead across the regional bank holding company's operations and it won't be completed until...

Martin shoots for Mars; global surveyor blasts off in Nov. (Lockheed Martin Corp. built the Mars Global Surveyor)
May 10, 1996... Lockheed Martin Corp. hopes it has built the first space ship to successfully travel to Mars in three decades, but prior to launch the Mars Global Surveyor must take a simulated voyage on the edge of the metro area. Engineers at Lockheed...

Colorado exports top $4.7B; shipments up 15 percent in '95.
May 10, 1996... Colorado exporters continued to enjoy double-digit growth around the globe in 1995, bringing home a 15 percent increase for the year. Exports from Colorado, excluding agriculture, reached $4.7 billion in 1995, up from $4.1 billion in 1994,...

Office experts ponder absorption conundrum. (effects of absorption on lease rates)
May 10, 1996... During the last six years, rental and vacancy rates in the metropolitan Denver office market have behaved predictably and steadily. Absorption, however, has been a wild child. While this area's office rents consistently have jumped year after...

Industrial properties sprouting in Denver; broker's prediction comes true. (Grub & Ellis Co. industrial broker Tim D'Angelo)
May 10, 1996... Late last year, when Grubb & Ellis Co. industrial broker Tim D'Angelo predicted 2 million square feet of new construction would sprout in metropolitan Denver's industrial market this year, his colleagues gasped. His guess appeared ambitious....

Baby Bell cuts staff of directory operators; U S West will route calls elsewhere. (U S West Communications Inc. will close its directory assistance services)
May 10, 1996... Later this summer, people who dial 1411 will no longer reach a friendly operator right next door. U S West Communications Inc. intends to close its directory assistance center in Denver and route those calls to centers in Pueblo and...

Pacific Linen throws in towel, shuts store. (Pacific Linen Inc.)
May 10, 1996... Pacific Linen abruptly closed its Cherry Creek North store late last month in the wake of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Bothell, Wash.-based housewares retailer filed for protection from creditors in federal bankruptcy court...

Calif. bank opens office in Boulder. (Silicon Valley Bank; California)
May 10, 1996... After flying its employees to Boulder for the past six years, Silicon Valley Bank has opened a permanent lending office in Boulder. The Palo Alto, Calif., bank has targeted high technology and other emerging growth companies along the Front...

Northern suburbs woo retail; Highway 36 corridor could become shopping hot spot.
May 10, 1996... Growth is buzzing along the Highway 36 corridor in southeastern Boulder County. The addition of office space - such as in Interlocken Business Park - and a boom in the construction of affordable housing has traffic zooming along the Boulder...

Companies see green in tainted Brownfields. (cleanup of "Brownfields" properties by Greenfields Financial Co. Inc.)
May 10, 1996... Mildly contaminated urban properties tend to get lost in the environmental shuffle when it comes time for financing a cleanup. But a couple of Colorado companies are working to turn these now-worthless "Brownfields" properties into lucrative...

Upstart tilts at data storage giants. (MediaLogic ADL Inc.)
May 17, 1996... MediaLogic ADL Inc. wants to plow the fertile ground of the tape storage industry, but it must cultivate a market share between the monoliths of the sector in the heartland of the billion dollar business. The Boulder-based seedling hopes to...

Stock sale: more than just scraps? (Recycling Industries Inc.)
May 17, 1996... Recycling Industries Inc. is asking investors to help it corner the metal recycling market with a $27 million stock offering. And while the story has the lure of turning garbage to gold, investors may want to read the company's prospectus...

Mountain real estate market turns to slush; high prices cool formerly hot areas. (Colorado)(Industry Overview)
May 17, 1996... High prices cool formerly hot areas Colorado's recently rock-solid mountain residential real estate market is softening. Over the last six months, as more housing has been built and prices have risen, an imbalance has sprouted between supply...

Foreign markets key to success of Vari-L. (Vari-L Company Inc.)
May 17, 1996... Vari-L Co. Inc. is profiting from a business that hasn't even reached U.S. customers yet. The "personal communications services" (or PCS) technology will combine a pager, wireless phone and message machine in a single handheld instrument. But...

Fred Schmid employees keep name alive. (Fred's Electronic Service Inc.)
May 17, 1996... Former service center workers hope for success after going it alone Fred's back in the electronics industry. Even though Brighton, Mich.-based Fretter Inc. closed all its Fred Schmid stores earlier this year, former employees have not pulled...

Int'l Learning Systems finds new approach. (International Learning Systems Inc.)
May 17, 1996... Training includes games, multimedia Playing board games may not seem like an effective business learning tool, but one Colorado company uses games and other unique approaches to provide corporations with the training they need. International...

Case Logic expands beyond cloth carriers. (Case Logic Inc.)
May 17, 1996... Case Logic brought its international sales force to Longmont May 9 to check out its package for increasing sales. "I'm a firm believer that you can learn a lot about a company by seeing how they do business," said Peter Storz, president of the...

ICG dials up Meridian HQ. (IntelCom Group Inc.; Meridian International Business Center)
May 24, 1996... Upstart local telecommunications company lntelCom Group Inc. wants to build a monument to itself along southern Interstate 25, according to real estate sources. The burgeoning competitive local exchange carrier, which connects businesses to...

Even with industry's 'Oscar,' respect eludes ad specialties. (Advertising Products Co.)
May 24, 1996... Despite 42 years in his industry and seven Clios in his company's conference room, Arthur Bartell is still trying to get some recognition for the specialty advertising business. Bartell, vice president of Aurora-based Advertising Products Co.,...

Medical missionary turns entrepreneur. (Eric Swenson of H. Victory Ltd.'s setting up of a new firm called Medi Resource Network)
May 24, 1996... Swenson hopes to continue charitable with Internet venture Eric Swenson, perhaps best known for shipping recycled medical supplies to needy nations overseas with his H. Victory Ltd. charity, has gone on the Internet with a new company providing...

QuestCom's stumble raises bid questions. (QuestCom Inc.)
May 24, 1996... Did PCS auction get out of hand? A new wireless phone company in Denver gambled big and lost. QuestCom Inc. anted up $873 million in a big-bucks federal auction that ended May 6. The company won the rights to sell cutting-edge wireless...

Spice maker's sale ends cash-flow pinch. (Colorado Spice Co.)
May 24, 1996... When Tim Ziegler began what is now Colorado Spice Co. in 1988, he never imagined the work and the financial drain it would be. Zeigler's story shows that despite a founder's enthusiasm and knowledge of an industry - in this case spices - a lack...

Anschutz has plan for telecom empire. (Philip Anschutz of Interwest Communications Corp.'s plans to purchase Internet Communications Corp.)
May 24, 1996... Philip Anschutz is just getting started in the communications business. The Denver tycoon will buy Internet Communications Corp. to combine with his Colorado Springs-based Interwest Communications, officials announced May 14. Internet,...

It's time to divide Magellan's treasures. (Fidelity Magellan Fund)
May 31, 1996... The time has come to break up the Fidelity Magellan fund. Here are three very good reasons why the world's biggest mutual fund should do the right thing and call it quits. First, the $56 billion pool of money is way too big to be run by one...

Flats faces cash squeeze. (Rocky Flats)
May 31, 1996... Kaiser-Hill Co. is struggling to patch a gaping hole in its operating budget as it tries to clean up Rocky Flats. Lead members of the contracting team are scrambling to work around a $30 million cash shortfall with four months to go before its...

Presidio considers Chap. 11; SEC filings reveal severe debt woes. (Presidio Oil Co.; Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 31, 1996... SEC filings reveal severe debt woes Presidio Oil Co., all to familiar with the energy industry's boom-bust cycle, may soon go bust. The once burgeoning Englewood-based oil and gas producer is in such desperate financial straits it's...

Policy Studies collects from deadbeat fathers; states fork over stake of the take. (Policy Studies Inc.)
May 31, 1996... States fork over stake of the take Policy Studies Inc. knows there is money in unpaid child support. The Denver company has grown from 25 to 400 employees across the country since it began squeezing deadbeat parents for municipalities five...

Chap. 11 proposal emerges; 1999 Broadway offers debt plan. (1999 Broadway Partnership)
May 31, 1996... 1999 Broadway offers debt plan The owner of downtown Denver office high rise 1999 Broadway has a plan to pull the 43-story structure out of bankruptcy. The cost: $36.5 million and change. The 1999 Broadway Partnership, having filed Chapter...

Rock bottom serves up ChopHouse concept; popular LoDo eatery considering expansion sites in Chicago, D.C. (Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc.; Denver ChopHouse and Brewery; Washington, D.C.)
May 31, 1996... Popular LoDo eatery considering expansion in Chicago, D.C. The Denver ChopHouse & Brewery, one of the most popular of the new restaurants that have opened in lower downtown Denver in the shadow of Coors Field, will start expanding into new...