The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) articles from January 1998

The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) archives from January 1998

Health care costs may again be on the rise.
January 30, 1998... After negligible increases since 1993, health care costs are poised to rise faster in 1998 and 1999 than they have in several years, perhaps tripling the overall inflation rate, experts warn. That has Bay Area employers bracing for a return...

Industry leaders out to lure back black tourists. (Florida's travel industry)
January 30, 1998... Florida tourism figures may be hitting record numbers, but don't count black vacationers prominently within that mix of good news. According to a recent study by Tallahassee-based Visit - Florida also known as the Florida Industry Tourism...

Promoter goes to prison for Ponzi scheme. (Robert Colgin Wilson; conspiracy to commit wire fraud)
January 30, 1998... Investment scam resulted in demise of Sarasota-based self-insurance fund The central figure in an investment scheme that led to the collapse of a Sarasota-based insurance company has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to...

Shopping centers sold in Land O'Lakes, New Tampa.
January 30, 1998... Two real estate companies - one a veteran of Bay Area business, the other a newcomer from the North - recently purchased two local shopping centers. And both companies say they're hungry for more. The newcomer is Ramco-Gershenson...

H&K merger creates Jacksonville's largest law firm. (Holland and Knight's planned merger with Gabel and Hair and Kirschner Main Graham Tanner and Demont)
January 30, 1998... JACKSONVILLE - Holland & Knight has plans to merge with two Jacksonville law firms, in a move that will make it the largest and most broad-based practice in the Jacksonville market. Gabel & Hair, one of Jacksonville's oldest firms, and...

Office buildings hot commodities: Calif. company buys 3 from Opus. (Opus South Corp.; Glenborough Realty Trust Inc.)
January 23, 1998... Three Opus buildings in Tampa have been sold to a California-based real estate investment trust and a fourth property - Westshore Place III, where Opus South Corp. has its headquarters - is under contract to an undisclosed buyer. The three...

Chicago firm now owns both Urban Centres. (LaSalle Advisors)(Office Buildings Hot Commodities)
January 23, 1998... LaSalle Advisors now holds a pair of aces in the high-stakes poker game of Westshore real estate. A Florida subsidiary of the Chicago real estate giant has bought Two Urban Centre, a 271,000-square-foot office building in the Westshore...

Downtown land-use rules may be eased. (Tampa Bay Area)
January 23, 1998... Development in downtown Tampa may get a boost from dozens of smaller property owners if a plan to relax building regulations is approved. An effort to modify the city's downtown land-use ordinance is aimed at eliminating mandates on owners of...

Jobless tax drops across Florida.
January 23, 1998... TALLAHASSEE - Florida businesses will save $162 million this year thanks to a cut in the state's unemployment tax. A bill passed during the 1997 legislative session cuts the amount businesses must pay into a state unemployment trust fund,...

Taking on its new image. (St. Petersburg, Florida's economic development)
January 23, 1998... As the Devil Rays get set to play ball in Tropicana Field, other big-name players have juggled the lineup of businesses that call downtown St. Petersburg home. Sleepy and folksy. People once chose these words to describe downtown St....

Polk industrial growth takes, north, east track. (Polk County, Florida)
January 23, 1998... New toll highway to channel development away from Lakeland The geographic center of Central Florida, Polk County has grown into a prime location for the distribution of goods to many parts of Florida and the Southeast. But as the county...

Anne Hill. (Hill Associates CEO and president)
January 23, 1998... PERSONAL INFORMATION Name: Anne Hill. Title: President, Hill Associates (Bay Area franchisee for Todays Temporary). Education: Bachelor's degree in advertising, Texas Tech University. Home: Tampa. BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY...

Budget's business programs get boost. (Florida)
January 16, 1998... TALLAHASSEE - Children's health took top billing, but Gov. Lawton Chiles boosted spending on tourism, trade and other parts of the state's economic engine in his proposed $44 billion budget released this week. Bolstered by an estimated $1...

Independents' fight with chains hits apex. (restaurant chains in Florida)
January 16, 1998... Changing drinking habits and a chance to make more money convinced Danny Youness to convert Clancy's, a restaurant, bar and rockn-roll club in St. Petersburg, to a full-fledged restaurant called B.F. Good Ribs. After remodeling inside and...

Sarasota, St. Petersburg turn to bond fund for downtowns. (Florida)
January 16, 1998... The $1.5 million the city of Sarasota is borrowing this year from a state bond financing pool will help complete some of finishing work needed to further the community's downtown renaissance. And the $4.2 million the city of St. Petersburg is...

Housing authority to issue $25M in bonds. (Pinellas County Housing Finance Authority)
January 16, 1998... Hough & Co. gets back into municipal bond business Municipal bond buyers are anxiously awaiting the sale of about $25 million in high-grade housing bonds that Pinellas County is issuing this month. Nearly $15 million of these AAA-rated,...

Hops brewpub chain launches first image advertising campaign. (Hops, Restaurant, Bar and Brewery)
January 16, 1998... Hops Restaurant, Bar & Brewery, a Tampa-based chain of casual restaurants, launched a new campaign this month to build the company's image with consumers. The promotion, engineered by Tampa's Lipphardt Agency, is designed to promote Hops'...

Property manager loses Met Life. (Daniel Management Co.; Metropolitan Life)
January 16, 1998... Daniel Management Co., an Alabama property management group with a Bay Area presence, is losing more than three-fourths of its portfolio in Tampa. The company, part of Birmingham's Daniel Corp., will no longer manage 1.6 million square feet...

Ex-owners of hospital challenge tax decision.
January 16, 1998... WASHINGTON - An Internal Revenue Service ruling could throw the owners of a financially troubled Tampa hospital for a multimilliondollar loss. Centurion Health of Carrollwood Inc., which was bought four years ago by University Community...

3 Times Mirror units consolidate in Tampa. (Florida)
January 16, 1998... A subsidiary of news and mformation giant Times Mirror has dubbed Tampa its official headquarters and has changed its name. AchieveGlobal, formerly known as Times MirrorTraining, also has consolidated three corporate divisions. The company...

Pair offer advice to build wealth for entrepreneurs.
January 16, 1998... Constant tax laws changes keep financial planners occupied It's not often that you hear someone mention the words "tax code" and "fun" in the same breath. For two Bay Area finance veterans, though, there's enough enjoyment in guiding others...

Mortgage broker stays off the buyout bandwagon.
January 16, 1998... Market Street Mortgage seeks family atmosphere,' despite corporate roots, commitment to growth In the world of mortgage financing, large institutions are acquiring smaller ones at an alarming rate. As a result, the practice of lending people...

On the road to the pinnacle of success.
January 16, 1998... Used car business owner is driven to fulfill demand You could say Leon Kreisler had to succeed. With $80 in his pocket and a one-way plane ticket, the then-21-year-old emigrated to Florida's east coast from his native Israel nearly three...

Health powers do battle. (Morton Plant Mease Health Care; Diagnostic Clinic)
January 9, 1998... Morton Plant, Diagnostic Clinic in contract dispute A corporate affiliate of powerhouse Morton Plant Mease Health Care is taking on 120-doctor Diagnostic Clinic of Largo in a major Bay Area medical business dispute. At issue are services...

College, creditors at odds over debt. (University of Sarasota Inc. sued by creditors)
January 9, 1998... A Sarasota educational institution with an unusual corporate mission and a controversial history faces a review of its academic accreditation as a federal bankruptcy judge considers claims that the school's current owner has failed to make...

Manager acquires 18 local practices. (PhyCor Inc. to acquire First Physician Care Inc.)
January 9, 1998... More than 50 doctors who practice at 18 Bay Area locations should soon have a new manager, one that plans to become the largest physician practice manager in the world. PhyCor Inc. of Nashville, Tenn. announced plans in late December to...

New rules would limit growth: future property values at issue. (Hillsborough County Planning Commission's development plan for the Alafia River; Florida)
January 9, 1998... Joe and Danny Aprile didn't buy their second dairy farm about two weeks ago in south Hillsborough County to sell it anytime soon. But the sons of a long-established local dairy farming family are wondering whether they'll have that option now...

Bay Area stocks rally at '98's onset. (Tampa Bay Area)
January 9, 1998... Bay Area stocks started the new year with a bang, as double-digit gains in several issues helped them outperform their peers nationally by a wide margin. The Business Journal's Bay Area 50 regional stock average soared 4.37 percent during...

Big-name, big-space tenants may be on the move. (Tampa Bay Area office leases)
January 9, 1998... Region faces abundance of lease expirations During the next two years, one out of every five companies leasing office space in the Bay Area will be forced to decide whether it will renew its lease or seek office space elsewhere - a situation...

Public projects to keep contractors busy during '98. (contract construction)
January 9, 1998... School, Community Investment Tax projects to bolster government spending on construction If you drive through the Bay Area this year, expect to see construction signs. Public construction projects in the six-county area of Hillsborough,...

Women make inroads in construction industry. (Tampa Bay Area)
January 9, 1998... Four of five women find jobs in support, management roles Bay Area women are advancing into the construction industry's male-dominated ranks, pulling their own weight and gaining respect, despite challenges in the trades, local female...

Good things can come in small packages. (First Commercial Bank of Tampa Inc.)
January 9, 1998... Bank prospers by serving a base of smaller customers In this era of megabanks and megamergers, there are still a lot of small-business borrowers who prefer their lender to be a small business, too - enough of them, at any rate, to help First...

Bucs still rank low in fan survey. (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
January 2, 1998... This year's winning performance by the Buccaneers aside, professional football fans in the Bay Area have once again ranked among the worst in the nation when it comes to reaching into their pockets to support the home-town team. In the...

Mortgage bankers hit by consolidation craze.
January 2, 1998... The mortgage banking industry, for years a highly fragmented business, has seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions recently, many involving Bay Area companies. According to industry insiders, there's more to come. "It's huge," said T....

Citizens' stock buyback offer is too little for some. (Citizens Holding Corp.)
January 2, 1998... Unlocking shareholder value? Recent Book value Price/book price per share ratio American Bancshares $13.13 $5.05 2.60 Gulf West Banks 6...

Fingerprint company awash in red ink. (National Registry Inc.'s declining stock price)
January 2, 1998... The coming year may be the end for National Registry Inc. Having lost money since it went public five years ago, the Tampa company appears to be careening to its worst year yet. It lost a whopping $5.5 million in the first nine months of 1997...

Pa. firm to expand, rehab Mango center. (Pennsylvania-based Stoltz Brothers Ltd.)
January 2, 1998... A Pennsylvania company has bought a 180,000-square-foot shopping center in Mango, and is now planning to upgrade and expand the property. Stoltz Brothers Ltd., based in the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd, paid $7.85 minion for the...

Family traditions equal tools of survival; cigar company still owned by its founding family. (J.C. Newman Cigar Co.)(Small Business Enterprises)(Company Profile)
January 2, 1998... Cigar company still owned by its founding family Surviving for more than 100 years in the highly competitive cigar manufacturing market is an accomplishment in itself, but surviving the dynamics of a family-ran business for three generations...

CEO profile. (Provident Bank of Sarasota, Florida Pres. and CEO Stephen E. Kunk)
January 2, 1998... PERSONAL INFORMATION Name: Stephen E. Kunk Title: President and CEO, Provident Bank of Florida, Sarasota Education: Bachelor's degree, Ohio State University; Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Residence: Sarasota BUSINESS...