The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) articles from July 1999

The Business Journal (Serving Greater Tampa Bay) archives from July 1999

Medical firm to relocate plant.(Sterile Recoveries Inc.)
July 30, 1999... EXPANSION: Assembly facility will bring 30 jobs to Plant City Sterile Recoveries Inc. is expanding in the Tampa Bay area. The 7-year-old company, headquartered in Clearwater, is closing its Orlando facility to open a disposable...

WAGES coalition rescinds contract.(Work to Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency; Goodwill Industries Inc.)
July 30, 1999... PROTEST: Rejected bidder gets second chance A hotly contested welfare-to-work contract in Hillsborough County is being rebid. Responding to a bid protest, the Hillsborough County WAGES (Work to Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency)...

Columbia Bank to remain independent - for now.
July 30, 1999... Columbia Bank, an Ybor City landmark for nearly 76 years, intends to be around through the turn of the century. How much longer it will continue beyond 2000 is still up in the air. Amid rumors of a pending merger with another...

Lerner on board as Advantis branches out.
July 30, 1999... Advantis, the new real estate company born of Tampa-based Florida Real Estate Advisors and Atlanta's Goodman Segar GVA, recently added Michael Lerner to its investment and institutional sales team. Lerner, formerly a broker with the...

Page turns with First Security.(First Security Bank Pres. and COO Donald R. Page)
July 30, 1999... OPPORTUNITY: Tampa banker takes new post as upstart prepares to expand After several years of bank turnarounds, Donald R. Page says he is ready to have some fun with a new bank. The 30-year banking veteran was recently named...

Ipaxs' technology opens local phone market.
July 30, 1999... COMMUNICATION: Local engineers tackle own product The owners of Ipaxs, an 18-month-old Tampa firm that builds Internet protocol telephony equipment, have brought to market a series of virtual telephony products that act as fully...

Time, exemption cap rises for sales tax-free period.(Florida Residents' Tax Relief Act of 1999)
July 30, 1999... The competition could heat up this year as local and state sales taxes are lifted on clothing and certain accessories when the Florida Residents' Tax Relief Act of 1999 goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. July 31. While retailers are...

Lightning seeks car maker to sponsor luxury suites.(Tampa Bay Lightning; Palace Sports and Entertainment)
July 30, 1999... BRANDING: Nameplate would adorn club levels The Tampa Bay Lightning's new owners want to draw a parallel between the Ice Palace's private suites and fine luxury cars, literally as well as figuratively. Palace Sports & Entertainment...

Merger talks good for Rudnick & Wolfe.(law firm)
July 30, 1999... The Tampa Bay area office of Rudnick & Wolfe could soon become the Southeastern headquarters for the Baltimore law firm Piper & Marbury. "We're having serious merger discussions with Piper & Marbury and have been having them for some...

Opus South sees big demand in Miami Airport market.(Opus South Corp.)
July 30, 1999... Opus South Corp. is sweeping into Miami's Airport West market with plans for up to 700,000 square feet of Class A offices. The developer, a division of Minneapolis-based Opus Corp., will start construction on its first 240,000-square-foot...

From sea to shining sea: Tampa Bay area attorneys catch the developing wave of maritime cases.
July 30, 1999... Red flags appeared quickly in the minds of Tampa attorneys Carl R. Nelson and Margaret D. Mathews during a recent visit to the Port of Tampa. There was no doubt these two experienced maritime attorneys were observing a potential for...

Goldenbergs find their golden opportunity.(Trucks and Parts of Tampa Inc.)(Company Profile)
July 30, 1999... EARTHY: Garbage trucks are their bread and butter Lex Goldenberg, president of Trucks & Parts of Tampa Inc., acknowledges an obvious aspect of his line of work. Selling garbage tracks is "not what you'd call a glamorous business,"...

IRS drops Raymond James claim.(charge that Raymond James and Associates Inc. cheated on municipal bond refinancing rescinded)
July 23, 1999... RESULT: Action hints at possible global settlement The Internal Revenue Service has rescinded a claim that Raymond James & Associates Inc. cheated Port Orange out of $385,522 on a 1993 municipal bond refinancing. Correspondence...

Bond dealer accepts fine, suspension from SEC.(Peter Zent, former employee of defunct investment banking firm Kidder Peabody and Co.)
July 23, 1999... TERMS: Peter Zent agrees to $20,000 fine The primary broker in a 1993 municipal bond profit-making scheme in Tampa, which netted $3.5 million in wrongful proceeds, has agreed to an administrative settlement with the Securities and...

Banker quietly invests.(David A. Straz, Jr., chairman of Southern Exchange Bank)
July 23, 1999... This year has been particularly interesting for David A. Straz Jr. The longtime Tampa resident and Milwaukee native merged City First Bank into Southern Exchange Bank and bought a sizable chunk of PowerCerv Corp., a Tampa software...

Carrollwood park lures Liberty Mutual.(Florida; Liberty Mutual Insurance)
July 23, 1999... Liberty Mutual Insurance recently signed on for a 27,000-square-foot lease at Premier Corporate Centre, Ciminelli Development Co.'s growing business park in the Carrollwood area. Liberty is leasing space in Corporate Centre II, a...

PricewaterhouseCoopers merger benefits Bay area.(Tampa Bay, Florida)
July 23, 1999... GROWTH: One year later, firm plans more expansion Mergermania has had a pleasantly opposite effect on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, according to its executives in the Tampa Bay area. Instead of cutting jobs, the world's largest...

Dealers sign up to sell Italy's Aprilia motorcycles.
July 23, 1999... HIGH-END: Top of the line RSV Mille lists for $13,500 One of Europe's best-selling motorcycle makers, Aprilia, has signed deals with nine existing Florida dealerships to sell its exotic brand. Ducati of Tampa Bay in Clearwater and...

Hospitals take proposed office surgery rule to court.
July 23, 1999... A major medical turf battle over who will control the lucrative dollars that flow from cosmetic surgery patients continues to brew - and now hospitals have joined the fray against plastic surgeons. Three Florida hospital trade...

Pinellas packs it in.(Pinellas County, Florida's economic growth sparked by high-technology companies)
July 23, 1999... High-tech companies spark economic growth in densely populated Pinellas County You would expect Pinellas County economic development officials to be a bit envious. After all, their peers across Tampa Bay are racking up one...

Downtown Tampa envisioned to hum around the clock.(moves underway to transform Tampa, Florida to a 24-hour-a-day living city)
July 23, 1999... PARTNERSHIP: Developers, others join forces for change The Tampa Downtown Partnership is putting its muscle behind a handful of initiatives that it hopes will transform downtown Tampa from a 9-to-5 business district into a 24-hour-a-day...

Strong economy fuels staff growth at local companies.
July 23, 1999... THE LIST: Employee counts change ranking on the top 25 The booming economy in the Tampa Bay area and nationwide led most of the region's largest private-sector employers to boost their payrolls during the past two years, in some cases by...

Homebuilder adds her own touch to the construction business.(Lori Waters, president of Classic Homes by Lori)
July 23, 1999... SUCCESS: Woman-owned firm known for details As a child tagging along after her father, a California builder, Loft Waters saw something unusual: a woman on a construction site. "The comment was, 'Ladies don't really do that,'" she...

Court reinstates $100 million suit.(Taj Global Equities Inc. owner Wilber G. Jurdine's case reinstated)
July 16, 1999... * ALLEGATION: Brokerage made unauthorized trades A $100 million lawsuit has been reinstated against a recently disbarred securities dealer who operated a Tampa brokerage throughout most of the 1990s. Wilber G. Jurdine had prevailed...

TIA seeks early takeoff for $400 million upgrade.(Tampa International Airport)
July 16, 1999... Frequent business traveler Randy James can attest to what Tampa International Airport's chief executive officer, Louis Miller, knows: Flights are starting to get crowded. Faced with an average 7 percent increase in passenger traffic,...

Tampa PPO acquired by Maryland network.(preferred provider organization; Florida Health LC acquired by United Payors & United Providers Inc.)
July 16, 1999... Tampa-based Florida Health LC, a statewide preferred provider organization, has been acquired by a Nasdaq-traded company based in Rockville, Md., called United Payors & United Providers Inc. Florida Health, which before the deal was owned...

Warring pharmacy chains pay to enlist banks as new allies.
July 16, 1999... Eckerd Drugs wanted a prime corner in Bradenton so badly that it agreed to build a new bank branch there and give the bank an undisclosed amount of cash for the location. Walgreens wanted the same real estate. But St. Petersburg-based...

Plasma Therm takes lead on Army contract.
July 16, 1999... * BID: Deal with research lab could bring company a multimillion-dollar contract Not much competition exists when it comes to the high-tech cluster tools manufactured by Plasma Therm Inc. (Nasdaq: PTIS). The cluster depositing...

Hockey team pledges no hiding inside the Ice Palace.(Tampa Bay Lightning; Ice Palace, Tampa, Florida)
July 16, 1999... * VISIBILITY: Lightning's new owners pledge greater involvement, communication The new owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning are attempting to win back sponsors and season ticket holders the best way they know how - by talking to them, one...

Crescent's Westshore project on time for fall opening.(Crescent Resources Inc.)
July 16, 1999... The area's most anticipated new office building is on schedule to open this fall. Joe Taggart, the regional vice president for Crescent Resources Inc., said his company's new Westshore building, Corporate Center One at International...

Inteledigm turns expertise toward technology marketing.
July 16, 1999... * ALLIANCE: Tampa firm is agency for new software A local computer integrator has made new - and influential - friends. Inteledigm Communication, a software and hardware integrator in Tampa, secured an agreement with Integrated...

Poorly designed Web sites can be bad for business.
July 16, 1999... * IMAGE: An overstocked Web site drives away customers David Chapman, owner of American Speed Racing School in Lakeland, may be the only person on the planet publicly admitting that his Web site has not worked. The day it went up, he...

Local Microsoft office targets small businesses, piracy.
July 16, 1999... * TECH: Software giant puts district headquarters here Microsoft lives among us. The world's most successful software firm has made Tampa its Gulf State District headquarters. The low-key move allows Microsoft to support its sales...

No time for revolving doors: community banks use mergers to attract small business accounts.
July 16, 1999... Community banks use mergers to attract small business accounts Bank hopping is a familiar concept to Al Karnavicius. He has changed banks four times in the last seven years. It wasn't because he was chasing a better interest rate, or...

TGH, county battle over rates.(Tampa General Hospital, Florida)
July 9, 1999... SPLIT UP? Indigent health contract in doubt Since Hillsborough County's Health Care Plan for the medically indigent started in 1993, Tampa General Hospital has been paid more for inpatient care than other area hospitals. For...

Tampa to be regional HQ for Internet provider.(Tampa, Florida as headquarter for PSINet Inc.)
July 9, 1999... REORGANIZATION: PSI-Net creates four regions One of the country's largest and possibly most aggressive commercial Internet service providers will make Tampa its Southeast headquarters. PSINet Inc., a publicly traded international...

Duke-Weeks merger has powerhouse potential.(Duke Realty Corp.)
July 9, 1999... Weeks Corp., the Atlanta-based developer that entered the Tampa Bay market in 1995, tied the knot last week with Midwestern real estate giant Duke Realty Corp. Expect a beck of a honeymoon. The merger puts the new real estate...

Buy Bay area hotels, experts recommend.(Tampa Bay Area)
July 9, 1999... Eighteen months ago, retired veterinarian Ram Prasad bought the Best Western Mirage in St. Petersburg's business district, recognizing that the 180-room hotel needed quite a bit of fixing. Prasad's theory is to put $1.25 million into...

Devil Rays sponsors sticking by home team.
July 9, 1999... TICKETS: New packages, pricing aimed at puttings fans in Tropicana Field seats Nothing else is likely to get as much attention from baseball fans as a giant outfield billboard. Advertising's axiom still applies, however: It's only as...

Standard Motor close to shutting Bradenton plant.(Standard Motor Products Inc., Florida)
July 9, 1999... Time is waning for about 80 workers who make spark plug wire sets at a Bradenton car-parts plant. It is a near certainty that Standard Motor Products Inc., a publicly traded company based in New Jersey, will shut down its Filko...

Career Options decides not to bid on WAGES contract.(Work to Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency)
July 9, 1999... Career Options Inc., a nonprofit administrative and fiscal support firm in Clearwater, will not bid on a proposed joint contract to merge welfare-to-work services in Pinellas County. "We've made a (voluntary) decision not to bid," said...

Prostate cancer stamp sparks controversy over message.
July 9, 1999... On the surface, a U.S. Postal Service stamp promoting prostate cancer awareness seems like a simple, good idea. However, in the 1990s, nothing is easy - not even a stamp to promote cancer awareness, apparently. The 33-cent stamp was...

Epcot to receive facelift for turn of millennium.
July 9, 1999... CHANGE: Disney to update aging tourist attraction For years, Epcot has played second fiddle at Walt Disney World. Based on tomorrow's technology, the attraction has struggled to remain on the cutting edge of today's fast-paced...

At 72, Ruth's Chris leader keeps competitive fire.(Ruth's Chris Steak House president Ruth Fertel)
July 9, 1999... Ruth Fertel is the kind of woman who doesn't pay attention to the odds. She doesn't worry about what everyone else is doing. She doesn't take no for an answer. And she doesn't rest on her laurels. At 72, the president and chief...