The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) articles from August 1995

The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) archives from August 1995

MCI to hire 100 customer service reps. (MCI Communications Corp.'s MCI Business Services)
August 25, 1995... MCI Business Markets, a division of the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, is expanding its operations in Pinellas County. The Atlanta-based company, which markets MCI Corp.'s new products and services, is hiring more than 100 new...

Hot on mercury. (Tampa Bay Area-based entrepreneur Charles Cannon)
August 25, 1995... A fluorescent bulb recycling network is launched What is believed to be the nation's first fluorescent bulb disposal network has been established in the Bay Area by a Seminole building contractor. Charles "Bob" Cannon's fledgling network,...

Mall developer mired by pond woes. (Petrie, Dierman and Kughn)
August 25, 1995... After years of delays, construction on the proposed Great Mall of Tampa Bay is now still at least one more year off, thanks to what the developer claims has turned out to be its greatest obstacle: a stormwater retention pond. Phil Ross, vice...

As profits drop, up go bank fees, survey finds. (Tampa Bay Area)
August 25, 1995... Some of the Bay Area's worst-performing community banks, seeking to bolster their bottom lines, have been charging among the highest service fees around. On the other hand, banks that have been on a growth binge are tending to charge their...

TGH, via USF, contracts with Columbia. (Tampa General Hospital; University of South Florida College of Medicine; Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
August 25, 1995... Tampa General Hospital, thanks to a subcontract with the University of South Florida College of Medicine, is now treating members of a Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.-owned preferred provider organization. The deal - struck quickly and quietly...

Four more bidders may jump on board rapid rail. (Florida's high-speed rail project)
August 25, 1995... Competition to build and operate Florida's high-speed rail project is heating up with less than 10 weeks and counting until the Oct. 31 deadline for proposals. Four more bidders have now indicated that they are considering submitting...

Builders say models make the difference in sales. (home builders)
August 25, 1995... Big investment may reap big rewards, but not all builders agree they're worth the expense Although expensive to build and maintain, model homes are increasingly becoming a standard tool in the home-building business. With them, builders...

Brandon, East Tampa commercial space demand high. (Tampa Bay Area)
August 25, 1995... Rising rents, falling vacancies may spur building in corridor While the Brandon Town Center may be the most visible sign of a burgeoning retail climate just east of Tampa, a commercial use of a different nature is cresting there as well....

Space crunch keeps parking lot, garage builders busy. (Tampa Bay Area)
August 25, 1995... New buildings, expansions require more spaces Parking has become a hassle throughout the Bay Area. But even in this time of parking famine, there is an upside: parking engineers remain busy. There are more parking structures being...

Wall Street finds itself getting hooked on Eckerd. (Eckerd Corp.)
August 18, 1995... Two years after Eckerd Corp. reemerged as a public company to just mildly enthusiastic reviews, the drag store retailer has become a hot ticket on Wall Street. The Largo company's popularity was especially evident in a just-concluded...

Printers press on despite rise in paper prices.(Printing & Media Ad Agencies)
August 18, 1995... Costs rose sharply from 1994, but experts say they may be stabilizing After skyrocketing for the past year or so, paper prices have begun to stabilize. The Bay Area's commercial printing companies, however, are still experiencing the...

New rules may further drain pool of radio owners.(Printing & Media Ad Agencies)
August 18, 1995... Will the Bay Area radio market become a land of the giants? No one knows the answer for sure. But all indications are that the five major players in the local radio market - those with between two and four radio properties in the Bay Area -...

With some saavy, reinvestment, luck, Tyler Retail succeeds. (Tyler Retail Systems)(Small Business Enterprise)
August 18, 1995... Brothers built firm after selling TV chain For the Tyler brothers - Craig, Tim and Scott - making a profit as software developers is a numbers game. Tyler Retail Systems struggled during its early years as it tried to balance the cost of...

Nashville may court Panthers. (Nashville, Tennessee; Florida Panthers hockey club)
August 11, 1995... Country music city offers big incentives to sports teams seeking new arena FORT LAUDERDALE - Nashville has extended an open invitation to any hockey or basketball team owner who would like to move his team to the city - including the Florida...

Tripping all the way to the bank: local dealers are ecstatic over herb high. (Herbal Ecstacy)
August 11, 1995... The latest craze in South Beach and other trendy locales is a pill that's supposed to incite high spirits, sexual arousal and the varoom to dance all night. And get this - it's legal. Herbal Ecstacy, an organic alternative to manmade drugs...

Servico looking for suitors. (Servico Inc.)
August 11, 1995... WEST PALM BEACH - For sale: West Palm Beach hotel company with assets of nearly $250 million and an inventory of 8,900 hotel rooms in the United States and Puerto Rico. Servico Inc., a 39-year-old company that emerged from Chapter 11...

AeroService triples size of operations. (AeroService Aviation Center)
August 11, 1995... MIAMI - AeroService Aviation Center, a 20-year-old flight crew training company, is moving to a new location, tripling the size of its operations, and is hiring at least 15 more employees. Currently operating out of two separate facilities at...

Men's Health Centers making affiliations with urologists.
August 11, 1995... BOCA RATON - Most men who suffer from impotence don't seek help for as long as five years after the problem begins. When they do, most go to their urologist. What they don't know is that many urologists have little or no experience treating...

Columbia/HCA launches new network. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.)
August 11, 1995... Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., this week rolled out its Chest Pain Network. The first hospitals went online in Dade County; the next group, in Broward, will have their centers operational by September. By Nov. 1, all 14 of Columbia's South...

Shipbuilding firm to seek federal funds. (Delphi American Maritime Inc.)
August 4, 1995... Delphi American Maritime Inc., the company acquiring Tampa Shipyards, is considering asking for federal grant dollars to help it revive the shipbuilding company. No application has yet been filed, but company executives and a Port of Tampa...

West Shore Plaza vies to sharpen image. (Tampa Bay Area shopping mall)
August 4, 1995... Six months after the splash opening of the Brandon Town Center, West Shore Plaza is doing all it can to bolster its image as an upscale shopping destination. Management at the mall acknowledges that the move has been prompted at least in...

Peoples vs. Peoples: a bank story. (former president of Peoples State Bank in New Port Richey to open new Peoples Bank in Pasco County, FL)
August 4, 1995... Did SunBank commit an oversight in its $18 million deal to purchase Peoples State Bank in New Port Richey? The former president of the bank certainly thinks so. SunBank of thc Gulf Coast slapped a non-compete clause on Peoples State's...

Developer's woes leave future uncertain for North Port. (Atlantic Gulf Communities Corp.)
August 4, 1995... Atlantic Gulf Communities Corp., the ailing South Florida real estate developer, may be doing all it can to turn itself around, but the city of North Port is nevertheless preparing for the worst. Basing its projections on the possibility -...

Ex-partner sues owner over company's breakup. (Richard Moore; Marshall Jones; Basetec Business Systems Inc.)
August 4, 1995... 'Decision-maker' was demoted and later fired from Basetec A former principal in Basetec Business Systems Inc., a computer products firm, is seeking $1 million from the majority owner of the business in a dispute over the firm's restructuring....

Utilities seen as power behind development efforts. (TECO Energy Inc; Florida Progress Corp.)(Focus Section: Economic Development)
August 4, 1995... Size of service areas help shape goals for TECO, Florida Progress Once part of the same county, the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg divorced each other in 1911 and have been squabbling over economic development issues ever since. They...

Partnership moves forward as it stands on its own. (Tampa Bay Partnership)(Focus Section: Economic Development)
August 4, 1995... Unified market seen giving lead ratio a boost A year after a shakeup within the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce nudged the Tampa Bay Partnership out of the nest and onto its own, the fledgling economic development organization has taken...

Operating on the bottom line. (Ideas for Medicine Inc.)(Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... Dr. J. Crayton Pruitt's company, Ideas for Medicine Inc., developed around a single medical product: a shunt used in vascular surgery. Today, the Clearwater-based company employs 92 people and reported 1994 sales of about $6 million....

Translating passions into business opportunities. (pottery firm Seibert and Rice)(Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... Many times, a personal passion translates into small business success. This is true for Mara Seibert and Lenore Rice, two former Wall Street professionals who traded in their briefcases for a New Jersey warehouse filled with handmade Italian...

Rules on getting value from the yellow pages.(Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... The yellow pages is unquestionably one of the best known advertising media of all time. Research says that nearly every adult is familiar with the yellow pages, more than three out of four customers refer to the familiar yellow hook each month...

What to do when answers are elusive.(Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... Don't know the answer to a question? Turn it into a sale! When a prospect asks a question, and you don't know the answer, there is a universal look of terror that comes over a salesperson's face. Right? Take heart - if you don't know all the...

Keeping track of overseas payments. (Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... How do I get my money?" That seems to be the first question to pop up when one's presented a foreign sales opportunity. The standard invoice practice of an open account in the United States does not carry the same weight internationally. An...

Windows 95: the good, bad and the ugly.(Small Business Enterprise)(Evaluation)
August 4, 1995... In less than a month anyone with purchasing authority for their company's DOS-based personal computers is going to be under tremendous pressure to jump on the Windows 95 bandwagon. To help you stay your ground or at least jump in with your...

Drive is on to repeal nation's prevailing wage law. (Davis-Bacon Act)(Small Business Enterprise)
August 4, 1995... Early this summer, the National Policy Forum, a Washington-based Republican think tank, held a press conference to release its "Agenda for Small Business," a seven-point plan to ensure the vitality and prosperity of the small-business,...