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

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

Ailing bank dismisses two of its top execs. (Central Bank of Tampa)
May 26, 1995... It now considers cuts in staff in a bid to shore up profits TAMPA The Central Bank of Tampa has fired its president and executive vice president and has reduced the size of its board of directors from 11 to eight. These moves come after...

Aetna weighs unloading Rocky Point property. (Aetna Life and Casualty Co.; Florida; office building)
May 26, 1995... TAMPA Rocky Point's premier office tower, The Pointe, is up for sale - sort of. Aetna Insurance, the owner of the 10-story office building, has hired Cushman & Wakefield of Florida to market the property but has not actually made up its...

State seizes self-insured workers' comp fund. (Florida Department of Insurance; United States Employers Consumer Self Insurers Fund)
May 26, 1995... SARASOTA The state Department of Insurance has seized Sarasota-based United States Employers Consumer Self Insurers Fund and is investigating charges of fraud at the non-profit organization. The fund, which provides workers' compensation...

Rising loan costs threaten bank earnings. (Tampa Bay Area banking industry)
May 26, 1995... In a move that could take a toll on their profits, many of the Bay Area's regional and community banks have been turning to more expensive "noncore" deposits such as CDs to meet rising loan demand. Although there's some debate over what...

Franklin Street renaissance leaders have lofty goals. (Tampa, Florida; residential development)
May 26, 1995... A plan has been created to bring residential developers to the downtown district TAMPA The drive to resurrect the Franklin Street corridor in downtown Tampa has taken a twist. Instead of marketing the area as yet another collection of...

City loan program draws little interest. (Tampa, Florida loan program to revitalize Franklin Street Mall)
May 26, 1995... TAMPA A $10 million, low-interest, city-backed loan program aimed at revitalizing the Franklin Street Mall has failed to make a single loan since its inception in January. What's more, only five businesses in the Franklin Street district...

Outback gives Carrabba's a taste of family values. (Outback Steakhouse Inc.; Carraba's Italian Grill; Tampa Bay Area)
May 26, 1995... TAMPA Pasta Weesie will remain on the menu. Manicotti will be added. Shrimp Damian has been scratched. Prices will be lower, and the servers are shedding their ties. These are among the changes being rolled out at Carrabba's Italian Grill...

Fielding a new team at Grubb & Ellis. (Grubb and Ellis of Florida Inc.)(Real Estate Monthly)
May 26, 1995... It works to get back on track after a tumultuous year TAMPA It wasn't pretty. A strong team, suddenly shaken by the loss of three star players and the abrupt departure of its coach, appeared on the verge of crisis. That was the...

Home builders miss out on Polk County's boom. (Florida; residential development)(Real Estate Monthly)
May 26, 1995... New-job wages keep houses beyond reach It would seem logical. As the state's leader in the creation of manufacturing jobs, homebuilders and residential developers should be cashing in on Polk County's boom. Problem is, many aren't....

TransCor Waste Services Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
May 26, 1995... (TRCW - Nasdaq) 1502 Second Ave. E., Tampa 33605 (813) 248-5885 TransCor Waste Services is a full-service solid waste management company serving commercial, industrial, municipal and residential customers. Its services are conducted...

Doing their part ... and doing it right! (Tampa Bay Area businesses)(Water Conservation at Work)
May 26, 1995... Behind each act of courage you will find an unbreakable will. - Unknown Businesses encounter challenges each day. There are challenges to increasing profit margins and challenges in motivating employees. Balancing the scales of legal and...

Bay Area hospitals post anemic occupancy rates. (Tampa Bay Area)
May 19, 1995... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] With too many beds, six of the 10 largest post declines The Bay Area's nearly 60 hospitals, squeezed by an unrelenting trend in their industry, saw their occupancy rates fall last year to an average of 49 percent,...

Amphitheater financing may now hinge on port bonds. (Tampa Bay, Florida; Tampa Port Authority)
May 19, 1995... TAMPA The developers of a $30-million entertainment complex proposed for Tampa's waterfront are preparing to ask the Tampa Port Authority to issue bonds to finance the stalled project. The plan was disclosed by Grant Weyman of Pyramid...

130-room hotel may be built in Ybor. (Ybor City, Florida)
May 19, 1995... Radiant Oil owner could be the developer TAMPA A Tampa businessman with major land holdings in Ybor City is considering building a 130-room hotel along the historic district's main thoroughfare. Joe Capitano Sr., president of Radiant...

With interest rates higher, banks now hang on SBA loans. (Tampa Bay Area; Small Business Administration)
May 19, 1995... Some of the Bay Area's regional and local banks, hoping for fatter profits down the road, have been holding onto their SBA loans instead of selling them on the secondary markets. First Union National Bank of Florida, SouthTrust Bank of West...

Computer consultant doubling ranks. (Computerpeople/DCI)
May 19, 1995... The firm will grow to 130 by year's end TAMPA Computerpeople/DCI is more than doubling the number of employees who work at its Tampa office, thanks to $6 million in new contracts with GTE Corp. subsidiaries in Tampa and Dallas. The St....

Ride simulation company heads to California. (Iwerks Entertainment Inc.)
May 19, 1995... SARASOTA A decades-old, 45-employee south Sarasota company that makes film-and-ride simulators is being moved by its parent to California. The parent, Iwerks Entertaimnent Inc., a publicly held company, will continue to operate a sales...

Water districts likely due for more oversight. (Florida; legislative oversight)
May 19, 1995... Florida's water management districts are undergoing their first comprehensive overhaul since they were created in 1975, and the head of the review commission says "everything's on the table." Phil Lewis, chairman of the Water Management...

Supplies distributor fills a need - and its pockets. (Bernd Group Inc.)(Small Business Enterprise)
May 19, 1995... Putting brooms, switches and other hardware on CD-ROM DUNEDIN Bernd Group Inc.'s first business transaction came in 1989. Pilar Bernd, then not just the company's president but its sole employee, drove from her Dunedin garage-office to...

Toxic cleanup rule changes alter priorities. (Florida)(Focus: Environment)
May 19, 1995... After years of trying to clean up their acts, the owners of toxic-laced sites in the Bay Area and elsewhere in Florida have suddenly found themselves in limbo. That's because the rules that govern the state's amnesty program to clean up...

Moratorium leaves site still in need of cleanup. (moratorium on cleanup work on contaminated sites in Hillsborough County, Florida)(Focus: Environment)
May 19, 1995... TAMPA There's a sign off State Road 60 about five miles east of downtown Tampa. Vegetation has grown around it, and the sign is partially hidden. Its red letters, however, are still discernible. It reads: "Warning. No trespassing....

Protecting Hillsborough: keeping resource fit. (Hillsborough River, Florida)(Focus: Environment)
May 19, 1995... To many, the Hillsborough River represents the lifeblood of much of Hillsborough County. It is from the river's more pristine and fresh upper portions that the city of Tampa draws some 75 percent of its drinking water, and it is in the...

SunTrust Banks Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
May 19, 1995... (STI, NYSE) 25 Park Place N.E., Atlanta, Ga. 30303 (404) 588-7711 SunTrust Banks is a banking and financial services company. Its three principal subsidiaries are SunBanks Inc., Trust Company of Georgia and Third National Corp....

City's bid for plant sparks conflict. (city government offers to purchase facility formerly owned by Piper Aircraft Corp. in Lakeland, FL)
May 12, 1995... Critics say Lakeland would be competing with private industry Lakeland Plant in transition Major tenants Quality Products Inc. 100,000 sq. ft. Aviation Career Academy 75,000...

TGH examines potential alliance with managed care company. (Tampa General Healthcare; CareFirst Health Network Inc.)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Tampa General Healthcare is quietly exploring an alliance with CareFirst Health Network Inc., a managed care company owned by a group of seven large Bay Area not-for-profit hospital corporations. A deal with CareFirst would provide...

Hilton named as likely hotel developer. (Hilton Hotels Corp.)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Hilton Hotels Corp. has emerged as a frontrunner among probable developers of Tampa's proposed downtown convention hotel, according to hospitality sources. The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hotel company had been part of a group that...

Northeast Tampa community banks plan merger. (Terrace Bank of Florida; University State Bank)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Terrace Bank of Florida and University State Bank, both located within blocks of each other along Fowler Avenue in Tampa, plan to merge. The deal involves a stock and cash swap that should amount to about $3.4 million. The combined...

Tritons may roll out of Bay Area, take stab at Big Apple. (Tampa Bay Tritons)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Are the Tampa Bay Tritons moving to New York? Roller Hockey International sources said they were told at league meetings in recent months that the fledgling Tritons, who are on a one-year hiatus, would consider playing in Madison...

Plans for a flight museum take off in Lakeland.
May 12, 1995... Lakeland Two Lakeland organizations which host one of the largest aviation conventions in the world are revving up to build a $6 million air museum near Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. Plans for the initial phase of the project call for...

St. Joe's changes its plans for new children's hospital. (St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa, FL)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Fund-raising efforts for an $8 million children's hospital at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa have begun, but design plans have changed just weeks after they were announced. St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation has hired Sarasota-based...

Medicaid fraud unit puts Bay Area on front burner. (Tampa Bay Area)
May 12, 1995... Tampa The state's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is stepping up its enforcement efforts in the Bay Area in a move that includes the relocation of its regional director from Orlando to Tampa. "We want to get ahead of the curve" before Medicaid...

Jay Wolfson: in health care, he's everything but shy. (Tampa General Hospital trustee)(Health Care Monthly)
May 12, 1995... Tampa Jay Wolfson is a public health doctor, professor, lawyer, Tampa General Hospital trustee, Fulbright scholar, researcher, consultant and unquestionably a major player in the Bay Area health care community. He can also be a combative...

Medicare HMOs gain momentum across Bay Area. (Tampa Bay Area)(Health Care Monthly)
May 12, 1995... Profit potential, seniors' acceptance and political pressure foster their growth The debate over cutting costs for Medicare will help make for a long, hot summer in Washington, with enormous implications for health care providers in the Bay...

No longer men's shame, impotence care booming. (includes related article)(Health Care Monthly)
May 12, 1995... When Dr. Lawrence Grey began specializing in potency-related disorders about a decade ago, his patients often would arrive at the clinic's back door, demanding private entry. Today, impotency and its treatment may not yet be as openly...