South Florida Business Journal articles from July 1998

South Florida Business Journal archives from July 1998

Florida eatery wants to shine around the U.S. (R.J. Gator's)
July 3, 1998... R.J. Gator's plans to double its size in the next 18 months R.J. Gator's, a Jupiter-based casual dining chain with a Florida theme, is planning to double in size during the next 18 months by expanding into new markets, including its first South...

Imax theater may show up at CityPlace. (Florida)
July 3, 1998... Big-screen venue would be the county's second Imax at CityPlace? Grab the popcorn. It could happen soon. Talks between the big-screen movie company and the West Palm Beach retail and entertainment complex could lead to a deal within 30 to...

Boca's spec office boom: too much of a good thing? (Boca Raton, Florida)
July 3, 1998... Most of the 600,000 on square feet of office space coming on line this year in Boca Raton hasn't been leased, but that's not ending the area's speculative' office boom. A second wave of developers eager to tap into the city's low vacancy rates...

Search (like crazy) and you shall find. (executive search firm Curtiss Group)(Small Business Strategies)
July 3, 1998... Bill Frank flies to as many as five airports a day to find the right executives Bill Frank has no problem with being small. He wants to keep the Curtiss Group, an executive search firm he founded almost 18 years ago, a boutique operation for...

United HealthCare too slow to pay, survey says.
July 3, 1998... Managed care company raises hospitals' concerns A recent survey of South Florida hospitals indicates United HealthCare of Florida - the region's largest managed care company - accounted for a disproportionately large share of unpaid bills....

Click click, who's there? (Telcom.Net)
July 3, 1998... South Florida company combines phones, Net to produce big savings The race may be on to popularize Internet phones - and to merge voice and data on one phone line. But a North Miami-Dade company believes it has found a way to earn profits on...

The county opens Ag Reserve for developers. (Palm Beach County, Florida)
July 3, 1998... Palm Beach County's decision earlier this month to open the 20,923-acre Agricultural Reserve for residential development has luxury home builders grazing for sites. With no other large tracts of land available in the county's populated and...

Wellington Mall moving forward. (Florida)
July 3, 1998... A planned regional mall in Wellington has received site plan approval, developers have started clearing land and construction is expected to start by early 1999. The big questions left now are: Who will the mall get as other anchors and how...

A hit for Jupiter's economy: ball park complements Abacoa town center plan. (Jupiter, Florida)(includes related article on attendance at the new Roger Dean Stadium)
July 10, 1998... Ball park complements Abacoa town center plan With a successful inaugural season completed, Jupiter's new neighborhood baseball facility, Roger Dean Stadium, has put a fresh spin on the concept of Spring Training. New home to the St. Louis...

Phone bills will hinge on study. (local telephone service in Florida)
July 10, 1998... A year-long study is gearing up to find out what it actually costs to provide basic telephone lines. The only competition for local telephone service has been on the business end, long dominated by BellSouth which had to inflate business rates...

Closing offices bucks trend for private banking. (Bank of Boston Florida)
July 10, 1998... Four months after closing two of its three private banks in South Florida, Bank of Boston Florida is still deciding what to do with the leased space. In February, Bank of Boston closed private banks in Palm Beach and Coral Gables in a...

Insuring credibility: Palm Beach Gardens ratings company takes a tough look at insurance providers.(Small Business Strategies)
July 10, 1998... For someone whose reputation rests on his understanding of insurance companies, Martin D. Weiss ignores many details about their inner workings. Weiss says he turns away all insurance executives who invite him to hear their business and...

As stock lags, Columbia Labs looks to push sales. (Columbia Laboratories)
July 10, 1998... Prodded by financial shortfalls and falling stock prices, Miami's Columbia Laboratories is moving to play a bigger role in selling the pharmaceuticals it develops. Until recently, the company left most marketing decisions to the distributor of...

Regulators debate proposed United, Humana merger; concern over competitive environment lingers.
July 10, 1998... Hospital and doctor groups statewide are planning a vote on whether to oppose United HealthCare Corp.'s plan to merge with Humana Inc. If approved by state and federal regulators, as well as both companies, shareholders, the $5.5-million deal...

TechExchange Online to power up in South Fla.
July 10, 1998... Promoting South Florida's high-tech companies is going high-tech: A new web site will put technology seekers in touch with technology inventors and manufacturers. TechExchange Online will officially log on later this month. The address:...

Navarro Lowery says timing is right for office buildings.
July 10, 1998... There is a sign that the county's office building boom is finally reaching West Palm Beach: More than 100,000 square feet of speculative office space is going up near Palm Beach International Airport. The office space represents the first...

PSC asks BellSouth to retrain some workers after complaint. (Florida. Public Service Commission)
July 10, 1998... Competition apparently leads to confusion when it comes to local phone service. That was apparent in a proceeding that pitted upstart Supra Telecommunications & Informations Systems of Miami against BellSouth. Under deregulation, behemoths...

Neighbors split over apartment plan. (apartment building construction in Tarpon Springs, Florida)
July 17, 1998... Differing views call tower a boon for area or too tall for the neighborhood To Fort Lauderdale homeowner Tom Tobin, the 16-story apartment building planned for the south bank of the New River is too tall for the low-scale Tarpon River...

Equestrians seek to build political base.
July 17, 1998... Giddyap and go. That's what players in Palm Beach County's $229 million a year equestrian and polo industry have decided to do to keep horse facilities from being overrun as development spreads west. Topping the equestrians' to-do list will...

Buyout of dental practices grows.
July 17, 1998... Managed care contracts are one allure Dentist Roy L. Greenberg was skeptical last year when a Massachusetts company offered to buy and help run his 20-year-old practice in exchange for a share of his net income. He hesitated for six months,...

Oppenheimer to open offices in Boca Raton. (New York-based brokerage firm CIBC Oppenheimer; Boca Raton, Florida)
July 17, 1998... Brokerage setting up shop in landmark Mizner building CIBC Oppenheimer, a New York-based brokerage firm, is planning to open a Boca Raton office this fall in a historic building. The firm has signed a lease for 10,000 square feet of office...

After years of talk, timing may be right for Trade Center.
July 17, 1998... After years on Miami's list of priorities, there's still life in the concept of a World Trade Center - a one-stop shop where buyers and sellers can meet, get information, view goods on exhibit, do deals and get financing. A variety of business...

Southern exposure. (advertising agencies in South Florida)
July 17, 1998... Latin American television discovers the best ad talent right here in South Florida Child-like imagination topped the checklist when executives at Nickelodeon Latin America in Miami Beach went shopping around for an advertising firm to design...

SouthTrust's regional HQ moving from West Palm. (SouthTrust Bank of Alabama N.A.)
July 31, 1998... After picking up $3 billion in deposits by purchasing the South Florida offices of Savings of America, SouthTrust Bank gears up aggressive plans to lend much of that money to businesses and consumers. SouthTrust, based in Birmingham, Ala.,...

Talk about growth. (Audio Book Club)
July 31, 1998... Boca's Audio Book Club rides the trends Selling books on the Internet made Amazon.com a hot stock. Selling audio books on the net made Audio Book Club of Boca Raton a hot one, too. The company made headlines nationwide this month when it...

Office space: how South Florida stacks up.
July 31, 1998... Palm Beach construction rises 12 fold in one year Office construction has jumped more rapidly in Palm Beach County than anywhere else in the state, but Broward and Miami-Dade have lower vacancy rates in existing offices, according to a report...

PGA National starts $3 million room makeover.
July 31, 1998... Luxury resort market heating up in South Florida The PGA National Resort and Spa, one of the largest resorts in South Florida and a well-known name nationally in golfing circles, is teeing off a top-to-bottom renovation of its 339 guest rooms...

Stiles continues to expand in Palm Beach County.
July 31, 1998... Developer to open offices in Palm Beach Gardens Stiles Corp., one of South Florida's largest developers, is stepping up its presence in Palm Beach County by opening an office and hiring a former competitor to run it. The Fort...

Peregrine heats up operations. (Peregrine Industries)
July 31, 1998... Deerfield Beach-based company's device manages home energy flow Only 3 years old, Peregrine Industries of Deerfield Beach has reached $10 million in sales and made a $1 million private placement. The placement was underwritten by Boca...

Many banks opting for Internet transactions. (Independent Community Banks Inc)
July 31, 1998... With an eye toward costs and portability, Independent Community Bank, a start-up headquartered in Tequesta, will provide its customers with Internet banking when it opens in September. Independent Community appears to be one of a just a handful...

Professional group seeks new members. (Turnaround Management Association)
July 31, 1998... A closed society was never the intention when a small group of executives and corporate attorneys banded together in 1994 to form the South Florida chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. But four years later, with its ranks limited...

Small agents bond to survive. (Cypress Insurance Group)
July 31, 1998... Hurricane Andrew was the final blow for many South Florida insurance agencies already struggling against a national tide of industry consolidations. Insurance providers, overwhelmed with losses totaling $15 billion, began pulling back their...