Sacramento Business Journal articles from August 1997

Sacramento Business Journal archives from August 1997

Feds OK a new bank; suit lingers. (Jack Briner still faces lawsuit from Westamerica Bancorp but gets federal approval to start Auburn National Bank)
August 29, 1997... Veteran Placer County banker Jack Briner has won regulatory approval to start Auburn National Bank. Briner still faces Westamerica Bancorp's attempt to stop him with a lawsuit that alleges he is using confidential information. And he must...

Calgene eyes a move onto UCD. (Calgene Inc. plans relocation to University of California at Davis)
August 29, 1997... Monsanto Co. is negotiating to shift its recently acquired Davis biotech firm, Calgene Inc., to a new center on the campus of University of California at Davis. Monsanto is weighing whether to build a lab, greenhouse and office complex to...

West Sac offices are sold. (TA Associates Realty buys office space at Riverside Center business park in West Sacramento, CA)
August 29, 1997... An East Coast pension fund is buying West Sacramento's only office campus for approximately $26 million. The buyer plans to more than double the amount of office space that it's buying in Riverside Center business park. That would drive its...

Landmark to be a chiropractic HMO. (Landmark Healthcare Inc. to get license as health maintenance organization)
August 29, 1997... A rapidly growing Sacramento company that specializes in chiropractic and accupunture services hopes to hear any day now if it will get a license as a health maintenance organization. Landmark Healthcare Inc. hopes to ride a wave of interest...

Microtel plans to open three new hotels. (Microtel Inn and Suites)
August 29, 1997... Microtel Inn & Suites, a fast-growing hotel chain, plans to open three new franchises in the Sacramento area. The hotels are to be built in Rocklin, Folsom and West Sacramento, roughly following the spate of recent hotel development along...

Supermail bleeds more red ink; plans new venture. (Supermail International Inc.)
August 29, 1997... Supermail International Inc., a publicly traded check-cashing company, lost nearly $600,000 in the first haft of this year. Despite an eight-year flow of red ink which has grown to $14.7 million, Supermail intends to expand its offerings,...

Siskon Gold totters on edge of mining precipice. (Siskon Gold Corp seeks merger)
August 29, 1997... Siskon Gold Corp. has stopped work at its San Juan gold mine northeast of Nevada City and is selling off assets. The company - hit by falling gold prices, debt and legal actions - is seeking a merger or joint venture to stay in business....

Clean equals green for firms working overseas. (environmental firms cater to developing countries)
August 29, 1997... Pollution fills the rivers and chokes the air of China's large cities today, but its government has set a goal to clean up the country's act by 2010. For McLaren/Hart Environmental Engineering, based in Rancho Cordova, that represents a...

What's in store. (shopping mall expansion in Greater Sacramento)
August 29, 1997... An uplift in the economy has meant a face-lift for some of the region's older shopping malls. A storm of grocery store expansions has triggered a near tidal wave of shopping center remodeling throughout Greater Sacramento. This enthusiasm...

Heart of the city: midtown's Metro Square. (housing development)
August 29, 1997... Metro Square is the first single-family detached homing subdivision to be built in the downtown/midtown area during the past two decades. As such, it sports a style all its own. "I tried to take the context of the central city and merge it...

Sutter shuts an ICU in Roseville. (Sutter Roseville Medical Center)
August 22, 1997... Sutter Roseville Medical Center has shut down its primary intensive-care unit because the hospital doesn't have enough trained nurses to staff it. Scrambling to recruit additional nurses so it can reopen the unit, Sutter has raised starting...

Money Store expands. (Money Store Inc.)
August 22, 1997... Outgrows building before it's open Four months before The Money Store Inc. expects to move into its flashy new pyramid on the banks of the Sacramento River, the company has already outgrown the building. Seeking still more space, The Money...

Kaiser plans call center; larger decisions ahead. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.)
August 22, 1997... Kaiser Permanente will open a new regional call center near Cal Expo early next year, employing 300 people. The center will be close to a new medical office building that Kaiser plans to open on Nov. 17. Both moves reflect the giant health...

Executives arrive in Folsom to oversee new electricity market. (Folsom, CA)
August 22, 1997... California is hurtling toward its January deadline for deregulation of the electricity industry - a move that the business world hopes will bring down rates and raise up profit. For the city of Folsom, however, deregulation already is...

For him, a city runs through the river. (Sacramento riverboat Captain John Hardin)
August 22, 1997... Captain John Hardin is about as close to the Sacramento River as you can get without getting wet. He deftly pilots the river's only true steam-powered paddle-wheeler, the 150-foot-long Elizabeth Louise. Up and down the river, he's been...

Sacramento hotel goes begging at bargain price. (selling price of South Pointe Inn)
August 22, 1997... While developers are scrambling to build more than a dozen new hotels locally, one of the area's larger lodgings is on the market at a bargain price - and so far, there have been no takers. The 152-room South Pointe Inn at 47th Avenue and...

Recycling company buys wood-waste processor. (Waste Management Collection and Recycling Inc.'s acquisition of Sierra Pine Ltd.'s plant)
August 22, 1997... Sacramento's Waste Management Collection and Recycling Inc. has purchased the Hayward plant of Sierra Pine Ltd., a wood-waste processor, for more than $1 million. The deal closed Aug. 1. Waste Management Collection and Recycling is a...

RMI sells to Illinois firm for $82 million. (Resource Management International Inc.)
August 15, 1997... Resource Management International Inc., Sacramento's largest engineering firm, has been purchased by an Illinois company in a deal valued at approximately $82 million. The Metzler Group Inc., a publicly traded company in Deerfield, Ill., and...

Microbrews feel breath of Goliath. (distribution of microbrewery-produced beers)
August 15, 1997... When Mike Meyers and his family opened the Red Tomato Brewery Oven and Grill last year, they decided from the start that they wouldn't even bother trying to sell their beer in stores or anywhere else but their own brewpub. The reason?...

Level One goes to market for $100 mil. (Level One Communications Inc.)
August 15, 1997... Level One Communications Inc. plans to raise $100 million through a private securities offering. The company expects the offering, aimed at institutional and foreign investors, to close in two weeks. It will consist of convertible...

No layoffs, says USCS. (USCS International Inc.)
August 15, 1997... But teeth chatter over meaning of lost pact USCS International Inc.'s loss this week of its contract with the nation's biggest cable television company will shear its profits by 2 percent this year and 7 percent next year, analysts predict....

Jones Electronics adding new production lines. (Jones Electronics Manufacturing Services Inc.)
August 15, 1997... Jones Electronics Manufacturing Services Inc. is putting a new circuit-board assembly line in its Rocklin plant and has plans to add three or four more, possibly by year's end. The high-speed, automated line will triple the current...

MCI loses lease case. (MCI Telecommunications Co.)
August 15, 1997... When MCI Telecommunications Co. suspected it was paying too much to lease a building in South Natomas, in 1995 it hired a lease-auditing company. And sure enough, the auditor discovered a major goof in the amount of space MCI was actually...

Independent banks boost earnings 170%. (Sacramento, California)
August 15, 1997... Earnings at the area's 11 independent banks powered ahead for the first half this year, climbing 170 percent above earnings for the same time last year. And for the first time since 1991, no bank posted a quarterly loss. The 11 banks...

Doctors report income up 8 percent. (Sacramento, California)
August 15, 1997... Doctors' incomes in the Sacramento area jumped an average of almost 8 percent between 1994 and 1996. Expenses were up, but so was revenue from professional fees. The 60 physicians who responded to a survey by the Sacramento accounting firm...

Sutter specialists feel left out. (doctors with Sutter Health System left out of Sutter Physicians Alliance)
August 15, 1997... About 15 percent of the 660 specialists affiliated with Sutter Health are likely to be left out of a doctors' panel being formed to handle managed-care pacts. A core group of 213 primary-care physicians already has been selected for the...

Self-storage units make a comeback.
August 15, 1997... When contractor Tom Smith moved here from Orange County six years ago, he made a poor career choice. In the midst of the recession, he started building high-end homes, eking out at most an 8 percent profit. Last year, Smith made a better...

Urgent-care firm reopens clinics closed by FPA. (Med 7; FPA Medical Management Inc.)
August 15, 1997... Med 7, a Carmichael-based firm, has reopened two urgent-care units shut down by FPA Medical Management Inc. in January. Med 7 has signed 14-year leases at neighborhood clinics in Roseville and Campus Commons. But the firm will have to work...

UPS strike a pain even for competition. (United Parcel Service of America Inc.)
August 15, 1997... The United Parcel Service strike is proving a headache for local businesses - including the freight firms picking up the extra work. "It actually is an opportunity to grow my business, which I welcome," said Tracy Calvillo, owner of Capital...

Developer set to build Folsom hotel. (Stefan Manolakas of Palisades Properties Inc.)
August 15, 1997... Developer Stefan Manolakas will start building a 76-suite hotel just off Highway 50 in Folsom within a month. Manolakas, principal of Palisades Properties Inc. in Folsom, kept the project hush-hush to get a jump on possible competitors....

Nut Tree sale collapses as group fails to make deposit.
August 15, 1997... The pending sale of the Nut Tree complex in Vacaville has fallen apart after the San Francisco group interested in buying the land for a theme park failed to put down a large, nonrefundable deposit. The group was made up of two firms, the...

Access capital conference returns. (conferences on capital venture)
August 15, 1997... From 1990 to 1994, emerging companies hungry for capital in Sacramento had a chance each year to show off their business plans in front of venture capitalists and investment bankers. But the event - known simply as "Access" - died at the bottom...

Institute tries to get new inventions to market. (Emerging Technologies Institute)
August 15, 1997... Inch by inch, Sacramento's new Emerging Technologies Institute is coming to life. The institute, whose mission is to help home-grown companies pull together business plans and financing, hopes a $1 million federal grant will soon provide a...

Natomas habitat plan gets OK, but faces tests.
August 15, 1997... The city of Sacramento approved a habitat conservation plan for North Natomas last week, lowering one more hurdle to development in the huge basin. Developers such as Phil Angelides, Angelo Tsakopoulos and Winncrest Homes Inc., anticipating...

Medical savings accounts sell.
August 15, 1997... But the buyers are a more diverse group than thought Consumers have been slow to buy medical savings accounts, a new form of tax-deductible health insurance. But those who have purchased them are a more diverse group than expected....

Store-fixtures firm hangs its hat at twin stores. (Continental Display Inc.)
August 15, 1997... New and used store fixtures have gone their separate ways on Auburn Boulevard. Continental Display Inc., which had operated Nearly New Store Fixtures under the same roof at 2324 Auburn Blvd., has opened a new shop up the road for used...

Thompson Meade law firm slates diversification. (Thompson Meade & Nielsen)
August 15, 1997... The Sacramento law firm of Thompson Meade & Nielsen has added a new partner and two new associates to meet clients' demand for a wider range of legal services. Jim Rushford joined the firm as a partner July 1, along with associates Alvin...

Tax relief arrives for small businesses - at a price.
August 15, 1997... The federal tax bill recently signed into law offers long-awaited tax relief for small businesses. But it could be expensive for taxpayers: Tax cuts aimed at small businesses will cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $30 billion over the next 10...

A little extra effort cleared way for screen printer's growth. (The Screenprint Connection)
August 15, 1997... Rapid growth is great - if you have the resources to handle it. For The Screenprint Connection, those resources were pushed to the limit this year. And unless the company got into a bigger building, it risked losing most of its business....

The 2000 nightmare. (Year 2000 transition for banks)
August 15, 1997... Are banks' computers going to go KABLOOEY at the arrival of the millennium? Despite dire predictions, computer mavens within banks believe they'll dodge disaster At 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, millions of people worldwide will sip champagne,...

Views and practices on insider lending vary widely.
August 15, 1997... Most local banks make loans to their own executives or directors, but such insider lending can raise a key question: Who's in charge of the bank? The bank's president and officers - along with loan committees - decide who gets credit. The...

Quiet boom in financing: bundled commercial debt.
August 15, 1997... Northern California financial institutions are in the forefront of a financing innovation that has quietly swept into commercial real estate. "Securitization" - the selling of commercial mortgage-backed securities - has grown to $35 billion a...

Richard Seeba. (interview with Rosenville 1st National Bank Pres and CEO)(Interview)
August 15, 1997... Richard Seeba, 58 is a longtime banker and current president and chief executive officer of the rapidly growing Roseville 1st National Bank. When Seeba took over what was then Countryside Thrift & Loan in mid-1990, it had just $7.17 million in...

RMI embroiled in noncompete suit with former employee. (Resource Management International)
August 15, 1997... As Resource Management International expands its horizons nationally, it remains embroiled in a turf war locally. The firm is suing a former employee, Dean Carrier, for allegedly taking some of its clients. RMI charges that Carrier, while...

Another seniors' project planned. (U.S. Home Corp.'s plan to build a senior citizens' community)
August 8, 1997... U.S. Home zones in on Placer U.S. Home Corp., the country's fifth-largest homebuilder, plans to build a large senior citizens' community near Lincoln. It would pete with Sun City, Del Webb Corp.'s project in Roseville. After scouring...

New Aphton deal bets on racehorses getting ulcers. (Aphton Corp.'s alliance with Schering-Plough Animal Health to get drugs into the marketplace)
August 8, 1997... Racehorses have a high-stress job. It gives them ulcers - so many ulcers, in fact, that their owners spend at least $75 million a year buying stomach medicine. That's why the world's sixth-largest animal health company has placed its bets on...

Radio shake-out: three players control the market. (Chancellor Broadcasting; American Radio Systems Corp.; Entertainment Communications Inc.)
August 8, 1997... Three radio chains have emerged with the lion's share of Sacramento's radio market following a year of frenzied sales and swapping of stations. The shake-out was spurred by looser federal rules on how many stations can be owned in an area....

Old crops give way to cotton. (increasing popularity of cotton at the expense of tomatoes and rice)(Industry Overview)
August 8, 1997... There's a new crop in town - cotton. The farm acreage planted in cotton doubled in Northern California this year. And it's expected to increase by an additional 50 percent next year. Cotton's growing popularity comes at the expense of...

County will offer loan to lure Kistler. (Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency; Kistler Aerospace Corp.)
August 8, 1997... The effort by Kistler Aerospace Corp. to build satellite, launching missiles at Mather Field will be offered a $1.5 million boost from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. And that deal could send Mather rocketing toward becoming...

McClellan bids: moment of truth approaches. (McClellan Air Force Base)
August 8, 1997... Early next month, a prized part of Sacramento's economy will be forced into a high-stakes game. On Sept. 8, the Air Force will publish a request for proposals, seeking bidders for about $220 million in government contracts now handled at...

Borrower sues over B&P Bank screw-up on proxy statement. (Dale and Rowanda Montgomery; Business and Professional Bank)
August 8, 1997... An Elk Grove accountant and his wife have sued Business & Professional Bank for allegedly disclosing confidential financial information during the bank's acquisition by U.S. Bancorp earlier this year. The suit, filed by Dale and Rowanda...

Two bid to take over state small-business health insurance pool. (Provider Choice Inc.; Institute for Health Futures)
August 8, 1997... Two nonprofit corporations - one of them based in Sacramento - are vying to take over the nation's first state-sponsored healthcare purchasing pool for small business. Last year there were no takers when the state asked for proposals to...

Six offices planned in Folsom across street from Intel site. (Capital Builders Inc.)
August 8, 1997... Another developer has snapped upland in Folsom to build a high-tech business park. Capital Builders Inc. has purchased 16.4 acres on Iron Point Road, directly across from Intel Corp. The developer plans to construct a six-building business...

Cardinal building Laguna warehouse. (Cardinal Health Inc.; Laguna West)
August 8, 1997... An Ohio pharmaceuticals distributor will more than double its space locally next year with a new center in Laguna West. Cardinal Health Inc. expects to break ground soon on the 140,000-square-foot distribution center, said Robin Martial, head...

EndoSonics expands as its first profits continue. (merger with Cardiometrics Inc.)
August 8, 1997... EndoSonics Corp., a Rancho Cordova-based medical technology company, is expanding locally following its $67 million merger on July 24 with Cardiometrics Inc. of Mountain View. The firm has leased 13,000 additional square feet at its...

Valley Record chooses Kentucky for expansion. (Valley Record Distributors Inc.; Louisville, Kentucky)
August 8, 1997... Woodland company's record, video sales at $600 million Valley Record Distributors, an audio and video distribution firm in Woodland, plans to spend $10 million opening its second distribution center, this one in Louisville, Ky. The...

Hertz back in car sales. (Hertz Corp.'s Rent A Car Division)
August 8, 1997... Thrifty Rent-A-Car may soon follow back into market Hertz Rent A Car has re-entered the auto sales market in Sacramento, and Thrifty Rent-A-Car System Inc. may follow suit. Hertz opened in June at the former Holiday Oldsmobile-GMC-Mazda...

Hertz Equipment Rental rides industry boom with second store. (Hertz Equipment and Rental Division)
August 8, 1997... Benefiting from a boom in the equipment rental business, industry giant Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. has opened a second location locally. Operating out of West Sacramento since 1987, it added a 12,000-square-foot Rocklin outlet on July 21....

Personal bankruptcy imperils sale of sports center. (Spike City)
August 8, 1997... The owner of Spike City, an indoor volleyball and basketball center in South Sacramento, plans to sell the business as part of his personal bankruptcy reorganization plan. There's a problem, however: The individual planning to buy the...

Steele set for reprise of Rancho Cordova high-rise. (developer Chris Steele)
August 8, 1997... Developer Chris Steele is planning a sequel to his Aetna office in Prospect Business Park in Rancho Cordova. Built in 1987 and rising six stories near the intersection of Highway 50 and Zinfandel Road, Aetna was the first high-rise on the 50...

Home sales show strong gains in second quarter. (Sacramento, California)
August 8, 1997... Home sales in the Sacramento area have risen this year, and even if the rate is less spectacular than once hoped for, industry observers are still smiling. A survey completed this week by The Meyers Group shows a 7.1 percent hike. Meyers,...

Money Store dips gingerly into '125 percent' loans. (Money Store Inc.; second mortgage loans)
August 8, 1997... The Money Store Inc. has moved gingerly into one of the mortgage industry's most daring types of loans. The company began in the second quarter making so-called "125 percent" loans - that is, second mortgage loans for up to 25 percent more...

Baby boomers on Harleys. (Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealers build larger facilities)
August 8, 1997... Two area dealerships expand as sales rise The popularity of Harley-Davidson motorcycles is revving to new levels, prompting one area dealer to build a larger facility and another to expand. Harley-Davidson of Citrus Heights has bought 2...

Prune swoon gives Yuba bank first loss. (Feather River State Bank)
August 8, 1997... For the first time since its founding in 1977, Feather River State Bank had a quarterly loss. The Yuba City bank suffered a second-quarter loss of $1.2 million, after adding $3.3 million to its reserve for loan losses. Bank executives...

July's rising tide lifts all boats in BJ's Stock Challenge. (Business Journal)
August 8, 1997... The Dow Jones industrial average roared past the 8000 mark in July, taking contestants in the Business Journal's Stock Challenge along for the ride. The Challenge pits the fantasy portfolios of 954 "investors" in a race for the greatest gain...

Big navy contract for fast-growing firm. (Composite Engineering Inc.)
August 8, 1997... Composite Engineering Inc. has won a $13.6 million contract with the U.S. Navy that will more than double the manufacturer's current revenue for the next five years. Some of the credit may be due to U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui. The company put...

Apple Hill growers hope to head off federal regs. (orchards)(Industry Overview)
August 8, 1997... While the fruit juice industry awaits new federal safety policies flowing from last year's Odwalla contamination case, orchard owners in El Dorado County's Apple Hill are doing their own thing. Apple Hill wants to prove that its own new...

Aerospace firm wants to move into Mather. (Kistler Aerospace Corp plans to open shop at Mather Field, in Sacramento, California)
August 1, 1997... A company that aims to bring the high cost of launching satellites back down to earth is negotiating to set up shop at Mather Field. Kistler Aerospace Corp. wants to open a rocket assembly and maintenance center at Mather by the end of the...

Radisson plans big expansion. (Radisson Hotel Sacramento)
August 1, 1997... The owners of the Radisson Hotel Sacramento are planning to build a six-story addition to their popular gathering place just north of downtown. It would add 120 luxury rooms - the first significant batch of luxury rooms built locally this...

Nursing scramble: were hospital RN cuts too deep? (Sacramento, California, hospitals recruit more nurses)
August 1, 1997... Area hospitals are trying to recruit at least 400 registered nurses, reversing a flurry of layoffs in recent years. After restructuring and reducing their staffs to adjust to the managed-care money squeeze, the hospitals are finding...

Bank loses $4m suit; FBI probing. (Stockton, California, loan office of Commerce Security Bank)
August 1, 1997... When a jury awarded $4 million to a former manager in a wrongful termination suit last week, it may have just been the tip of an iceberg of trouble surrounding the Stockton loan office of Commerce Security Bank. The Federal Bureau of...

Rising price of rice hulls starts hubbub. (legal dispute between Farmers' Rice Cooperative and Wadham Energy Limited Partnership over sale of rice hulls in open market)
August 1, 1997... When Farmers' Rice Cooperative signed a deal to allow a biomass company in Williams to convert its old rice hulls into energy, the rice hulls were nothing but a nuisance. You couldn't give the dog-gone things away. That was then. Now,...

United set to launch more Shuttles from Sacramento. (United Airlines)
August 1, 1997... United Airlines is planning to haunch more shuttle flights from Sacramento over the next two years. United hopes the move will win passengers from rival Southwest Airlines Co., the dominant player in California's high-volume, low-fare...

Granite Regional Park to get Sutter Health lease. (commercial complex in Sacramento, California)
August 1, 1997... Sutter Health will be the first tenant in Granite Regional Park, the huge project off Howe Avenue that will use office development to help pay for a new regional park. The healthcare company has signed the first letter of intent to lease...

Record revenue gives Level One a lift. (Level One Communications Inc.)
August 1, 1997... Level One Communications Inc., which just posted record second-quarter figures, is on track for a 26 percent jump in revenue by year's end. And the Sacramento company is set for another 38 percent jump next year, analysts say. With the...

Lenders fall over one another to enter real estate. (real estate investment grows)
August 1, 1997... Easier financing is likely to spark a jump in local construction. Lenders, in turn, will increasingly demand shares of ownership or joint-venture roles in the offices, shopping centers, warehouses and apartments they are financing. "As the...

Nando: a hit on the Net; McClatchy finally scores electronically. (McClatchy Newspapers Inc's successful Internet service provider nando.net)
August 1, 1997... McClatchy Newspapers Inc., owner of The Sacramento Bee, has been trying to succeed in the electronic news business since the 1970s. It may have finally found the right stuff in Raleigh, N.C. Nando.net, an Internet service provider that came...

Another apartment buy: Interland buys in Point West, plans another by Intel.
August 1, 1997... A San Mateo investment firm is putting almost $50 million into Sacramento's apartment market. Interland Corp. is buying a prominent apartment complex on Exposition Boulevard for nearly $21 million from Stockton's A.G, Spanos Inc. The...

Manufacturers battle in name game. (two firms fight over 'All Weather Covers' name)
August 1, 1997... All Weather Covers may not be a famous name, but it's coveted enough to spark a battle between two local business owners over the right to use it. The reason, as one might expect, is money. One company has seen orders for All Weather Covers...

Tom Eccleston. (interview with C&K Systems Inc.'s president)(Interview)
August 1, 1997... Tom Eccleston is president of C&K Systems Inc., a Folsom firm that designs and manufactures products for the security industry. With revenue last year of $120 million, the Folsom company employs 190 locally and 2,000 worldwide. Eccleston...

Mather pipeline speeds up refueling. (new fuel pipeline accelerates refueling of planes in Sacramento's Mather Airport)
August 1, 1997... After waiting eight months for final approvals, Mather Airport's fuel pipeline is up and running at last. The $200,000 pipeline triples the speed of refueling planes at Mather and cuts the cost of bringing fuel into the former Air Force base...