South Florida Business Journal articles from May 1995

South Florida Business Journal archives from May 1995

L.A. store targets South Florida. (Smart & Final Inc.)
May 12, 1995... MIAMI - Smart & Final, a Los Angeles-based chain of warehouse supermarkets, will open its first Florida store this winter at an inner-city shopping center in Miami. The company has leased 22,600 square feet at Biscayne Plaza, a...

GameTek chair sells, steps down. (Irwin H. Schwartz)
May 12, 1995... NORTH MIAMI - GameTek Inc., the North Miami publisher of software games, has a new majority stock owner as the company's founder and chairman sells out and steps down. Irwin H. Schwartz has sold 2.7 million shares of common stock to Bill B....

Neiman to open Sawgrass store. (Neiman-Marcus; Sawgrass Mills, Florida)
May 12, 1995... SUNRISE - Neiman-Marcus, one of the nation's toniest department stores, will open a discount outlet at Sawgrass Mills in November. Tentatively dubbed Last Call from Neiman-Marcus, the 25,000-square-foot store will be among the largest tenants...

Lettuce on aisle 1, loans on 2: more banks shop for customers at supermarkets.
May 12, 1995... Cross selling, the latest banking buzzword, takes on new meaning when it comes to supermarket branching. Like persuading those looking for lettuce they need loans. Signs urge shoppers in the produce section to "Go bananas with a home equity...

Channel hops on Latin bandwagon. (Travel Channel Latin America)
May 12, 1995... MIAMI - The world's first 24-hour, Spanish-language channel to offer travel-related programming for Latin America is scheduled to launch from Miami this October. "We think Miami is the key city for Latin America because of its rich, growing...

Trustee: Solar can stay open. (Solar Financial Services Inc.)
May 12, 1995... MIAMI - A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee believes Solar Financial Services Inc. should stay in business, even though the company is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and plagued by auditing problems and shareholder...

Like father, like daughter. (Lovell Cos. Pres. Ray Lovell hands over construction business to Rose Ann Lovell)
May 12, 1995... Lovell construction arm bridges generation gap MIAMI - It wasn't exactly the traditional changing of the guard: Developer/contractor Ray Lovell handed over what many consider a man's business to his daughter. Lovell, president of The Lovell...

South Florida service sector growing rapidly.
May 12, 1995... The service sector is the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. economy, and South Florida is home to one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Fort Lauderdale ranks as the fifth fastest-growing metro market in the country in terms of...

Florida hospitals wait for word on double-billing probe.
May 12, 1995... Hospitals across Florida are watching their mail boxes for an unwelcome bit of news: Notice from the U.S. Department of Justice that they are being investigated for double-billing the federal government. "No one has yet reported receiving a...

Nutritional drink gets boost. (Boost from Mead Johnson)
May 12, 1995... Pharmaceutical giant Mead Johnson is launching its nutritional supplement drink this week throughout Florida. The state, which served as a test market for the drink along with California, is the first to receive the product that cost Mead...

Biz loans get Barnett focus. (Barnett Bank of South Florida N.A.)
May 12, 1995... MIAMI - Barnett Bank of South Florida plans to use credit scoring for small business loans by summer. That will allow the bank to process the loans faster and more cheaply than traditional credit analysis, said Evan Rees, senior vice president...

American Ophthalmic eyes initial public offering.
May 12, 1995... WINTER PARK - Rapidly growing American Ophthalmic Inc., plans to arm itself for additional acquisitions by making an initial public offering of stock in the third quarter of this year. "We are consolidating the largest surgery clinics and...

So-so first quarter for South Florida health care stocks.
May 12, 1995... Health care is South Florida's largest industry, and it is likely to play an even more important part in the regional economy in the years ahead. And more and more people are investing in health care companies - including those that are...

Doctors eyeing leases on local operating rooms.
May 12, 1995... Hallandale - Local physician groups are leasing unused surgical space in South Florida to keep some of the money they might have lost this year because of conflict-of-interest laws. At least one local physician group is approaching Dade and...

Swiss advisers studying J.I. Kislak. (J.I. Kislak Inc. may sell mortgage business)
May 12, 1995... Miami Lakes - J.I. Kislak Inc., which failed to complete a reverse merger last year, has hired a Swiss investment banking firm to look at the company's options. The move may signal Kislak may be putting its mortgage business on the selling...

Exec's record: bankruptcy, theft. (Mishka C. Jett, chairman of Vivante Internationale Inc.)(includes related article)
May 19, 1995... Investors in skincare company not told full story Founders of a Boca Raton skin-care company are using financial and academic resumes filled with inaccuracies, omissions and exaggerated claims to solicit investors for a venture they say is...

F. Lee Bailey sued; malpractice is issue.
May 19, 1995... Prominent West Palm Beach attorney F. Lee Bailey has been sued for legal malpractice. Fort Lauderdale resident Judy Jones sued Bailey and his law firm in Broward County Circuit Court this week, charging that they mishandled her sexual...

Pursuing the sweet life. (Ken Shapiro, owner of Sincerely Gourment Chocolates)
May 19, 1995... FORT LAUDERDALE - It's been a year since Ken Shapiro left his lucrative law practice for a career in chocolate. And the 38-year-old entrepreneur says life has never been sweeter. Once a name partner with a Fort Lauderdale law firm, Shapiro now...

Bank first rejected deal. (First Union Corp.'s acquisition of American Savings of Florida F.S.B.)
May 19, 1995... MIAMI - American Savings of Florida stock traded wildly last fall, jumping from $17 to $21 a share on takeover speculation. And in December, the Miami-based thrift agreed to merge with First Union Corp. at $21 per American Savings share. That...

Researcher's role overstated. (James E. Fulton, Jr., former student researcher who studied Retin-A compounds)(includes related article)
May 19, 1995... As a student researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. James E. Fulton Jr. studied under dermatologist Dr. Albert Kligman. Kligman said he directed Fulton and another student to research chemical compounds that became Retin-A. Kligman...

Capital infusion fuels TresCom expansion efforts. (TresCom International)(Technology Quarterly)
May 19, 1995... FORT LAUDERDALE - TresCom International is no ordinary start-up company. First of all, it has a major venture capitalist behind it. Although in business less than two years, the long distance carrier is emerging as a major competitor to AT&T,...

Troubled bank signs agreement with Fed. (Southern Security Bank Corporation Inc.)
May 19, 1995... A troubled bank holding company in Deerfield Beach has signed an agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank to shore up its financial condition. Southern Security Bank Corp. Inc., which owns Southern Security Bank in Hollywood, agreed not to pay...

Defunct schemes in Chapter 7. (Gemco Oil Development Inc.; General Minerals Corp.)
May 19, 1995... MIAMI - Gemco Oil Development Inc. and General Minerals Corp., two now-defunct ponzi schemes based in Olney, Ill., have been forced into bankruptcy court in Miami. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the companies and their...

Doc group forming network. (Primus Medical Care Network)
May 19, 1995... MIAMI - Yet another group of physicians is creating a network of health care services. Led by Dr. James R. Jude, a cardiothoracic surgeon who says he is the inventor of CPR, and 27 physicians, the group hopes to have between 500 and 3,500...

'Striptease' to dance in Broward. (movie version of Carl Hiaasen' best-selling novel to do location shooting in Fort Lauderdale, FL)
May 19, 1995... FORT LAUDERDALE - Castle Rock Entertainment's $40 million film Striptease - based on columnist Carl Hiaasen's best-selling novel about politics, corruption and nudie bars in South Florida - is negotiating to use downtown Fort Lauderdale as its...

New owners renaming former Hollywood Hilton. (Manor Care Inc. buys Hollywood Beach Hilton)
May 19, 1995... HOLLYWOOD - Manor Care Inc., the Maryland-based parent of Choice Hotels International, has bought the former Hollywood Beach Hilton and will turn it into a Clarion Hotel. Manor Care declined to disclose a purchase price for the 22-year-old...

Sensormatic sells to a 'family of sponsors.' (Sensormatic Electronics Corp. signs up as a sponsor of 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games)(Technology Quarterly)
May 19, 1995... DEERFIELD BEACH - By securing athletes, coaches and staff at the 1996 Olympics, Sensormatic Electronics Corp. hopes a sponsorship with the games will secure the company a place in the minds of corporate America. The Deerfield Beach-based...

Boom over, but rates again dropping. (southern Florida's single-family housing market)(Industry Overview)
May 19, 1995... The residential market boom from Hurricane Andrew is over, but dipping interest rates are expected to boost home purchases in the area. That's according to Tom Byrne, president of Byrne-Rinehart and Company in Miami and next in line to head the...

Madison Group to buy snowboard firm. (Madison Sports and Entertainment Group Inc.; Bizarre Snowboards Inc.)
May 19, 1995... OAKLAND PARK - Madison Sports & Entertainment Group Inc., a publicly held company traded on Nasdaq under the symbol MSET, has signed an agreement to acquire Bizarre Snowboards Inc., a snowboard manufacturer. Madison is a five-year-old...

SEC suit alleges CD music fraud.
May 26, 1995... Two Broward County men peddling securities in a company that allegedly claimed it was the "Blockbuster Video" of compact discs have been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Projecting profits of $20 million a year by...

We're packed with small firms. (South Florida)
May 26, 1995... Small business leaders Small Total number businesses of small per 100,000 businesses ...

IBM's space now subject of speculation. (office space)
May 26, 1995... What will computer giant do with its excess office space? Lease, sell, vacate. Those are among the options International Business Machine Corp. is considering for much of its giant 608-acre campus in Boca Raton, as well as 300,000 square...

Bank's stock in demand: fund takes stake in Republic Security. (Republic Security Financial Corp.)
May 26, 1995... Trading volume in Republic Security Financial Corp. shares was extremely heavy last week, with more than 200,000 shares traded on several days. Normal trading volume is well under 10,000 shares. And the share price hit a 52-week high of $5.375...

'Natural' marketing needed more. (Goodebodies USA Inc.)
May 26, 1995... MIAMI - The bloom is off the rose for Miami-based Goodebodies, a retailer of "natural" cosmetics that closed shop last month after six years of unprofitable operations. All 10 company-owned Goodebodies stores have shut down since April,...

Disclosures prompt skin-care chairman to step aside. (Vivante International Chairman Mishka C. Jett)
May 26, 1995... BOCA RATON - Mishka C. Jett has taken a leave of absence from Vivante Internationale Inc., four days after South Florida Business Journal detailed his troubled financial past and reported that he had not fully disclosed that history to the...

First Union will close 22 offices in Gables deal. (First Union Corp.; Coral Gables Fedcorp Inc.)
May 26, 1995... CORAL GABLES - First Union Corp.'s acquisition of Coral Gables Fedcorp Inc. is set to close next month. And First Union is planning to take over the Coral Gables Fed headquarters building in the heart of the Gables. The lease on First Union's...

Carrier shuffles management; chairman steps down. (Arrow Air Inc.)
May 26, 1995... MIAMI - Less than two weeks after Arrow Air settled a safety dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration, Jon D. Batchelor has replaced his father, George, as chairman of Miami's largest cargo carrier. In addition, the company has...