The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) articles from August 1992

The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) archives from August 1992

Project's troubles reach far & wide. (BayCare Services Inc.'s refusal to pay contractor due to equipment damages)
August 28, 1992... Call it the ugly side of the trickle-down theory. A dispute over a Pinellas Park laundry facility financed by four Bay Area hospitals has left a sour taste in the mouths of some subcontractors who worked on the job. The facility, BayCare,...

Southeast Bank: asset liquidation prompts probe. (Southeast Banking Corp.)
August 28, 1992... Squall lines again are forming over Miami, but it's not Hurricane Andrew coming back for another pass. This time, it's the stormy bankruptcy liquidation of Southeast Banking Corp., the parent company of the failed Southeast Bank. Southeast,...

Venture offers downtown revival. (Clearwater Public/Private Associates)
August 28, 1992... While downtown Clearwater continues to struggle with 27% office vacancy rates and companies moving to the suburbs, a group of developers is betting a joint proposal will turn those trends around. Clearwater Public/Private Associates -- made...

Open for trading: newly modified foreign trade zones attract corporate activity.
August 28, 1992... After sitting idle for more than 11 years, two newly modified foreign trade zones--one at Tampa International Airport and the other at 41 Industrial Center in east Tampa -- are open for business. More important, both are being used by local...

Pinellas pushing European charter flights.
August 28, 1992... A summertime German charter is helping bring passengers through St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, and Pinellas travel promoters see it as a portent of more visitors in the months ahead. The charter, a team effort among German...

Empire of Carolina. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
August 28, 1992... 441 S. Federal Highway, Deerfield Beach (305) 428-9001 TRADED AMEX-EMP Empire of Carolina owns several consumer products operations, including Clearwater-based Isaly Klondike, an ice cream manufacturer. Annual Meeting: May 28, 1992...

Apartment market turnaround hinges on economics, wide open spaces. (Real Estate Month) (Industry Overview)
August 28, 1992... Tampa Bay's apartment market is turning around, but factors outside supply and demand may hinder prospects for new construction. Slower population growth, a lack of financing and the region's ever-present impact fees are keeping new...

Business park activity extremely encouraging. (interview with Grady Pridgen, president of Barger Realty & Property Management Corp.) (Interview)
August 28, 1992... Grady Pridgen is president of Barger Realty & Property Management Co. in St. Petersburg. Barger Realty is a full-service commercial real estate marketing and management firm specializing in industrial properties. Pridgen joined Barger...

Bay Area absorbing more industrial space.
August 28, 1992... The Tampa Bay business and industrial park market is firmer than last quarter, but vacancies in some submarkets show more work is needed to spur greater market optimism, leasing agents say. Absorption for the entire Bay Area, which includes...

Lincoln redux: after restructuring, developer once again aims to be big player. (Lincoln Property Co.) (Company Profile)
August 28, 1992... While most developers are patiently awaiting the revival of the depressed real estate market, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. is seizing the opportunity to position itself for the future. Although the privately held company has developed...

Companies tap into sports' marketing power.
August 28, 1992... In the sporting world today, it's sometimes difficult to separate the sports from the marketing. And even though it's tough to prove that dollars spent on sports promotions contribute to the bottom line, companies nationwide continue to pump...

Football, baseball, hockey or soccer ... whatever the sport, it's big Bay Area business. (Industry Overview)
August 28, 1992... Tampa Bay loves its teams. Win, lose or draw. But it's the corporate support that area teams have to count on -- support that helps determine which teams will be playing in years to come. The key to a team's success, as outlined by James...

Good sports: here's how four companies are cashing in on Tampa Bay's love affair with sports. (Allsports Collectibles Inc.; Champions; Advanced Promotional Concepts Inc.; The Sports Authority)
August 28, 1992... Sports is big business and an intricate part of Tampa Bay's economy. Simply consider the growth of Nutmeg Industries, a sportswear manufacturer whose deals with college and professional sports leagues, as well as ABC Sports, have made it one of...

St. Petersburg carves niche as sporting hub.
August 28, 1992... If Major League Baseball does, indeed, come to town, it should finally win St. Petersburg big-time recognition as a sporting city. Still, despite its lingering image as a sleepy retirement haven, St. Pete offers plenty of year-round sports...

Centurion does 'lunch'; new owner would take hospital out of chapter 11. (Centurion Hospital of Carrollwood; Louisiana Upgrading of Nutrition for Children's Health Inc.; Carrolllwood Health Foundation)
August 21, 1992... If a bond offering is completed and a reorganization plan approved, Centurion Hospital of Carrollwood soon could emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by selling its assets to a newly created entity called Carrollwood Health Foundation. The...

Business lessons lie in broken restaurant chain. (bankruptcy of Fraternity House)
August 21, 1992... On Fourth Street in St. Petersburg stands a stark, white, colonial-style building that once was a Fraternity House restaurant. It sits vacant, a remnant of one local restaurant group's failed attempts to grow its business by franchising...

Pru to begin auction arm in niche race. (Prudential Florida Realty Inc. establishes Auction Division)
August 21, 1992... In an effort to better market hard-to-sell properties, The Prudential Florida Realty is adding another market niche to its Florida operations. This one's called the Auction Division. The new Boca Raton-based program is a working agreement...

Nicholas Data pins hopes on cars, bugs & Vancouver. (Nicholas Data Services Inc.'s finance; Vancouver Stock Exchange)
August 21, 1992... Shareholders attending Nicholas Data Services Ltd.'s Wednesday (Aug. 26) annual meeting will be anything but bored. The Clearwater company has a penchant for the unusual. Its two lines of business, computer services and consumer finance,...

Britton banks on theater for image makeover. (redevelopment of Britton Plaza's Britton Theater)
August 21, 1992... Eight-plex Glitz Coming soon to the Britton Plaza shopping center in south Tampa is a $1-million, state-of-the-art, eight-screen movie theater that's promising to fill the parking lot with new customers. Muvico Theaters, creator of North...

AMI price lists unlikely to save patients bucks. (American Medical International Inc. educates patients on hospital charges)
August 21, 1992... The new medical menus in the works at American Medical International's five Florida hospitals won't help patients save money on their hospital bills. Rather, the lists -- which will show average charges for the 300 most frequent inpatient...

Jury still out on effects of new fee scale. (implementation of scale for Medicare reimbursements) (Focus: Retirement)
August 21, 1992... When Florida physicians had to face the music of a new Medicare reimbursement schedule last January, some warned they might reconsider taking Medicare patients at all. Now, eight months later, it's still not clear if the new fees are...

Who'd be Giants' radio, TV home? (Tampa Bay radio, television stations bid for rights to broadcasts San Francisco Giants 1993 season games)
August 14, 1992... The deal that would bring the San Francisco Giants to Tampa Bay is far from signed and sealed, but area radio and television stations already are planning, speculating and jockeying for rights to broadcast the Tampa Bay Giants' 1993 season....

Tampa attorney faces mounting legal troubles. (Edward B. Rood)
August 14, 1992... Legal troubles continue to mount for Edward B. Rood, a 72-year-old prominent Tampa attorney who is appealing two, one-year suspensions by the Florida Bar. Rood and associate Fritz Gray recently were sued for malpractice in Hillsborough...

Coastland recycling company philosophy. (Coastland Corporation of Florida)
August 14, 1992... Dust To Dollars? A Tampa company that has lost money the past five years is banking on garbage to turn it around. Coastland Corp. of Florida is concentrating almost exclusively on Amerecycle, a subsidiary that recycles and composts...

Intermedia Communications. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
August 14, 1992... 9280 Bay Plaza Blvd., Suite 720 Tampa 33619 (813) 621-0011 TRADED NASDAQ-ICIX Intermedia Communications provides alternative access local telephone service in Florida, using digital, fiber optic networks to connect businesses to major long...

A special place for children. (Tampa General Hospital Children's Medical Center) (Special Report: Tampa General Hospital Children's Medical Center)
August 14, 1992... "The walls would be real tall and have lots of cute designs... There'd be a lot of colors... and places for the kids to play and stuff." "The food should be ice cream" ".... pizza" ".... spaghetti, pasta and macaroni and cheese"...

Ticket sales make, break Lightning. (hockey team Tampa Bay Lightning)
August 7, 1992... The Tampa Coliseum Group needs only to average about 7,000 screaming hockey fans at each Tampa Bay Lightning game to qualify for a total $60 million in state funds to help build or finance its 20,000-seat facility. Those kinds of attendance...

Reality tempers Morton Plant expansion. (Morton Plant Hospital)
August 7, 1992... Morton Plant Hospital is ready to start expanding into south Pasco County, but south Pasco may not be ready for Morton Plant. The Clearwater hospital recently announced plans to build a medical complex at the Trinity community just north of...

Bank merger opening door for Midwest data crunchers. (proposed merger of Barnett Banks Inc. and First Florida Bank N.A.)
August 7, 1992... Unless they've been in hiding, most local bankers at one time or another have been approached by FIserv Tampa's aggressive marketers. And the company, part of Milwaukee-based FIserv, isn't letting up. The pending merger between Barnett Bank...

Threat of regs have cellular carriers up in arms. (GTE Mobilnet Inc.; Cellular One Inc.)
August 7, 1992... Pop the champagne corks. The Bay Area's cellular carriers, GTE Mobilnet and Cellular One, have found some common ground. The rivals have expressed similar reactions to the congressional battle brewing between resellers and carriers. Both...

Kaydon Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
August 7, 1992... TRADED NASDAQ-KDON Arbor Shoreline Office Park, 19329 U.S. 19 N., Suite 101 Clearwater (813) 531-1101 Kaydon Corp. designs, manufactures and sells bearings, filters, rings and other industrial equipment used in aerospace, instrumentation,...