Sacramento Business Journal articles from August 2000

Sacramento Business Journal archives from August 2000

A rising tide of costs for waterfront hotel in city.
August 25, 2000... Squeezed by scarce labor in a booming economy, the developers of the proposed waterfront Embassy Suites hotel want an extra $2.9 million subsidy from the city of Sacramento. The odds are they'll get it. John Kehriotis and his...

Serrano owner buys Marble Valley.
August 25, 2000... With Serrano running short on lots for custom homes in El Dorado Hills, the community's developer is buying a 2,418-acre project a few miles away. Bill Parker will now be the developer of Marble Valley, just across Highway 50 from...

Dodging the toxic plume.
August 25, 2000... Who will pay for new water in wake of Cordova contamination? There's plenty of water under the Sunrise-Douglas area, but not a drop to drink. While Sacramento County searches for a way to replace drinking water wells that once...

R.H. Phillips winery may be acquired.
August 25, 2000... Yolo County winery R.H. Phillips Inc. is expected to wrap up confidential talks with a possible buyer today. The winery, with a market capitalization of $30 million, said last week that it had begun discussions regarding the purchase of...

New bank's prez leaves a week after grand opening.
August 25, 2000... Only a week after the official grand opening, Bob Mulder is out as president of Five Star Bank in Rocklin. Mulder started with the bank while it was information in July of last year, and he opened its temporary offices in January. No...

Town's birthday party next week.
August 25, 2000... Sacramento will celebrate its 150th birthday with a big shebang in Old Sac over labor Day weekend. The streets will be closed to cars. Workers will spread 134 tons of decomposed granite over the asphalt and pile 370 hay bales around the...

Calling all money seekers.
August 25, 2000... Golden State Capital Network is still taking applications for its next Entrepreneurs Grill, Sept 12 at the Pyramid Alehouse in Berkeley. The deadline, for Northern California companies to get in the running is Sept. 1. A 40-person...

New bird coming to the cage?
August 25, 2000... Best Buy Co. says it might open one of its big-box stores at Birdcage Town Centre in Citrus Heights, but no lease has been signed. Last week, either in error or in haste, a company rep said Best Buy was coming. Birdcage tenants, hearing...

Action! Casting call in Hangtown.
August 25, 2000... An independent flick is to be filmed in September, and Media Casting and the El Dorado Film Commission are staging a casting call for extras. It'll be from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at Theatre El Dorado on the El Dorado Fair...

AgraQuest scores grant.
August 25, 2000... AgraQuest Inc. of Davis and the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest, National Laboratory have nailed a $430,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a two-year study to find a biological control for nematodes. They're the...

Nursing shortage a critical hospital issue.
August 25, 2000... More proposals are coming in on how hospitals are to meet California's new nurse staffing law, setting up a brawl over which one to use. The proposals seek to satisfy safety law that could hike nurse-patient staffing ratios at California...

B Street eyes midtown.
August 25, 2000... The B Street Theatre may have found a new home in midtown Sacramento, but closing the real estate deal has proved to be a three-year ordeal -- and it's not over yet The theater company started by brothers Timothy and Buck Busfield is...

Florin Road loses its champion.
August 25, 2000... Seann Rooney, 31, admits he has done some weird stuff as executive director of the Florin Road Partnership. He's not referring to all the administrative chores and cheerleading he's done for the perception-challenged Florin business...

Tower Books drops Florin.
August 25, 2000... Another big-name retailer leaving Florin Road -- sort of. Tower Records is keeping it music store on the ambiguous retail corridor, but has shuttered its bookstore because it was "only marginally profitable," said Tower spokeswoman Louis...

Heilig-Meyers gives up on its three area stores.
August 25, 2000... Heilig-Meyers Co., the nation's largest retailer of home furnishings, and related items, is closing its only three area stores. It's part of a bankruptcy reorganization plan that includes the shuttering of 302 stores and layoff of 4,400...

WNBA to spend off-season on marketing and ticket sales.
August 25, 2000... The WNBA plans to spend its off-season focusing on increased marketing, ticket sales and Internet activity in an effort to reverse its falling attendance. Average attendance for the 2000 season dropped about 11 percent to 9,072 a game;...

Hyatt plans grander entrance on K Street.
August 25, 2000... The Hyatt Regency Sacramento is preparing to open a large new entrance on the K Street Mall. The creation of a grand entryway on the K Street side is a vote of confidence that K Street is springing back to life. The new entry, built at a...

CORRECTIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS.
August 25, 2000... Yolo Community Bank The Aug. 11 story "Another strong quarter" incorrectly said Yolo Community Bank had used brokered deposits to fund some of its loans. The new bank used Federal Home Loan Bank overnight borrowing to fund some of its...

Expensive-car mall proposed for Rocklin.
August 25, 2000... A small auto mall that would sell expensive new cars has been proposed for Granite Drive at Interstate 80 in Rocklin. Niello Land Rover is the first intended dealership. Von Housen Motors, owned by George Grinzewitsch Jr., has also talked...

Schachter Kristoff closing local law office.
August 25, 2000... The San Francisco law firm of Schachter, Kristoff, Orenstein & Berkowitz will close Sept. 15, a victim of the competitive legal market, rising rent and growing demand for high salaries in the Bay Area. The firm's three-attorney Sacramento...

Powerhouse PM Realty sets up regional headquarters.
August 25, 2000... PM Realty Group, a high-powered property management company that specializes in corporate properties, is establishing its Northwest regional office in Sacramento. The company has hired local property management guru Scott Kuklish to head...

Sac County nears plan for Spending tobacco money.
August 25, 2000... Sacramento County will take final action next month on how to spend, the $214.8 million it expects to reap over the next 15 years in tobacco settlement funds. More than half of the money would go toward the county's healthcare needs, in...

El Dorado board angles for control of tobacco windfall.
August 25, 2000... The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to put an initiative on the March 2002 ballot that would channel some of the county's $47 million tobacco litigation windfall into healthcare services. And then the board directed...

Senior-care referral service fights ex-franchisee.
August 25, 2000... Two companies that refer senior citizens to board-and-care homes are going at each other in court. Respect Your Elders Inc., a Sacramento placement service for senior citizens, is suing a former franchisee for alleged breach of contract...

Sold! One town, to the Sac redevelopment agency.
August 25, 2000... The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency has signed a deal to buy the land beneath the picturesque town of Locke. It may be the most peculiar property purchase ever contemplated locally. It may also be the only way to save the...

Mansour seeks developer for El Dorado Hills hotel.
August 25, 2000... A study by a hotel consultant told Tony Mansour earlier this year that there was demand for a 100-room hotel in his Town Center development in El Dorado Hills. But no one took him up on the project when he tried to get it built. He...

El Dorado County sues to block vehicle-fee diversion.
August 25, 2000... Measure H orders spending on roads El Dorado County has filed a lawsuit to shoot down a ballot initiative backed by the county's real estate industry. The initiative, already on the county ballot for November, would force the county...

Darkroom offers snapshot of past.
August 25, 2000... Classes bring in new customers Greg Bumgarner reads Playboy for the pictures. He admits this freely, since photography is the business that Bumgarner is in, although typically not in the Playboy vein. Bumgarner is co-owner of The...

Incorporating may be profitable first step.
August 25, 2000... Telephones, business cards, computers... these are the typical must-have purchases you need when starting a business. But incorporating is often the true launching pad for any businesses. Why would you want to incorporate? For...

What's a little contamination when land prices surge?
August 25, 2000... Contaminated land is a scourge in many urban areas, but in the booming south San Francisco Bay Area it's often more than worth the trouble of cleaning it up. "Demand is so huge," said real estate broker John Troughton of Cushman &...

Auctions a growing option in marketing property.
August 25, 2000... Auctions used to be a last resort if there were no other way for a seller to liquidate a property. Not anymore. The value of all real estate sold at auction grew from $10 billion in 1981 to more than $40 billion in 1996, according to...

All in the same boat.
August 25, 2000... Commercial real estate brokers learn the advantages of teams When Bill Palmer, one of the star brokers at GB Richard Ellis' Sacramento office, began putting commercial real estate brokers into teams in the late 1980s, no one doubted he...

Bay Area office space still among world's most expensive.
August 25, 2000... San Francisco remains the most expensive U.S. market for office space and one of the most expensive in the world, according to a report by CB Richard Ellis. Global Research & Consulting. The firm's semiannual global market report shows the...

'Lone ranger' brokers pick up on team structure's advantages.
August 25, 2000... In 1996, when CB Richard Ellis Inc. introduced the idea of broker teams to the Bay Area, a large number of CB brokers left the company. But four years later, CB has regrouped and captured some of the most recognized deals in the Bay Area....

Real estate women find strength in numbers.
August 25, 2000... "How do you do it all?" That is a question that working women have faced since the 1970s, when more women took to the workplace. Now Julien J. Studley Inc., based in New York City, has published a survey of members of the National...

Online listings can give Web-savvy brokers an edge.
August 25, 2000... John Peckman, owner of a one-man brokerage, house and executive director of the Real Estate Cyber Space Society, based in Newton, Mass., sold $41 million in real estate last year solely by displaying his listings on the Internet. ...

Casino boom goes bust despite Proposition 1A.
August 25, 2000... Most planned construction was already in the works Although some predicted an Indian casino building boom after the passage of Proposition 1A this year, tribes have not flocked to archiects, contractors and planning departments. So...

Wiring drives the deals in modern buildings.
August 25, 2000... You're only as smart as your building. That's the word from owners, developers and leasing agents today regarding "smart" buildings. It comes down to this: A building without the latest varieties of wiring is as good as a building...

Studying failures helps designers do better job.
August 25, 2000... Before the screams, there was a muted pop. Those who were there, like brothers Alexi and Matt Watson from Rock Hill, N.C., recall a pause just long enough for them to glance at each other in fear. Beneath them, half-inch steel cables,...

As population climbs, churches join building boom.
August 25, 2000... Typically, Roseville-based Sierra View Construction Co. builds a church about every other year. "But we have three under construction this year," says owner Mark Davis. Sierra View, which has made a niche for itself in building...

Rich Wood / Mark Rodgers.
August 25, 2000... Movies: "Casablanca" (Wood); "The Blues Brothers" (Rodgers) Quotes: "Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while"; "Women: can't live with 'em, pass the nachos." -- Norm Peterson ("Cheers") Books: "The Beach," by Alex Garland;...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
August 25, 2000... ACCOUNTING Todd Thompson was promoted to audit manager in the education practice at Perry-Smith LLP and is responsible for management of audits of school districts, colleges, joint powers authorities and other governmental clients....

The Electric Page.
August 25, 2000... Sacramento-based The Electric Page, a printing company, has purchased Prime Colour of Walnut Creek. Prime Colour will change its name to The Electric Page but maintain, its existing staff and be backed by an extensive support staff in...

The Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Awards.
August 25, 2000... The Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Awards is accepting applications. The program acknowledges the accomplishments and leadership of individuals, organizations and companies in the state whose efforts enhance resource...

California Regulatory Notice Register.
August 25, 2000... The California Regulatory Notice Register, a source for keeping businesses up to date on state agency regulatory actions, has gone online at the Office of State Printing's Web site. The register can be accessed at www.osp.dgs.ca.gov, at...

Robert K. Puglia Award.
August 25, 2000... Chris Kinsey, baseball player at Laguna Creek High School, and Amber Rhinehart, softball player at Casa Roble High School, were the winners of the Robert K. Puglia Award. A donation from the River Cats Foundation will he given to their high...

1999 award for Outstanding Course Materials.
August 25, 2000... Hal Bartholomew was honored by the California Certified Public Accountant Education Foundation with the 1999 award for Outstanding Course Materials. Bartholomew received the award for his contributions in developing course work for the...

Gold Quill Award of Excellence.
August 25, 2000... The corporate communication department of Adventist Health won a Gold Quill Award of Excellence from the international Association of Business Communicators for its 1998 Community Benefits Report.

The California Forest Products Commission.
August 25, 2000... The California Forest Products Commission was honored with the Golden Bear Award. The award is given in recognition of efforts on behalf of The California Exposition and State Fair during the past year.

GenCorp Inc.
August 25, 2000... The name Aerojet has been important to the Sacramento economy since 1951. In October 1999, Sacramento became the headquarters of Aerojet's parent company, GenCorp. Last fall GenCorp split off two units as a separate publicly traded...

Tobacco choices.
August 25, 2000... THE ISSUE: Two counties set their courses on how to spend tobacco settlement money OUR POSITION: One county sought solutions while the other looked for a fight Two of the four counties in the Sacramento region have moved toward some...

Robert Doyle.
August 25, 2000... Robert L. Doyle, who died this week, was more responsible for the prosperity Roseville enjoys today than its newest workers and citizens are likely to comprehend. Bob Doyle was more than the man who built his father's struggling...

The world in a plastic silver box.
August 25, 2000... Our nearly 9-year-old daughter got her first stereo the other day, which means our lives have changed for keeps. So has hers. The stereo -- a plastic silver Sony boom box with detachable speakers, dual tape deck, CD player and remote, for...

The Silicon Valley moves in on Sacramento.
August 25, 2000... Is there a downside to the Silicon Valley's migration to Greater Sacramento? We emailed this question to more than 1,000 readers. Here's what some of them said: Yes, there is, and it's huge. Imagine: your alarm goes off at 3 aim., you...

Commercial real estate brokerages.
August 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST.
August 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Downtown lights up.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... Faith in Central city inspires wealth of private investment The downtown Sacramento skyline is changing again. From nightlife and entertainment to office and housing construction, downtown hasn't seen this much action since its...

City tired of Globe Mills.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... City officials say they might buy the derelict Globe Mills at 12th and C streets in downtown Sacramento, then find a developer to turn it into something useful. They're getting tired of waiting for others to act. Century-old Globe...

Fall of workers' comp insurer could mean surcharge on business.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... California employers will be assessed a 1 percent surcharge on their workers' compensation policies beginning next year if a major workers' comp carrier is declared insolvent as expected. This would mark the first time in a decade that a...

Tobacco cash has counties battling.(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... When the tobacco industry settled a lawsuit with 46 states in 1998, it looked like a windfall for the Sacramento area's four counties. They would get up to $559.3 million with no strings attached. Therein lies the rub. With no...

Firm moving to Hangtown evokes Vanna's name.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... A company that claims TV celebrity Vanna White as a major shareholder says it's moving to Placerville soon from Grand Island, N.Y. Oxford-Knight International traded on the pink sheets as OKTI, specializes in mergers and acquisitions,...

Ex-Hyatt boss to run Sheraton?(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... Gunter Stannius, the longtime general manager of the Hyatt Regency Sacramento who left Sacramento in March to run a hotel in Arlington, Va., is being rumored as top candidate for general manager duties at the new Sacramento Sheraton Hotel....

Satellite TV cutting into cable.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... A lofty source in the broadcast business tells us that Comcast, the cable TV provider in Sacramento, is losing about 450 subscribers a month to satellite TV services. That number was "probably accurate" in February and March, says Russ...

Waste Connections wants not.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... Waste Connections Inc., the waste-hauling firm based in Folsom, raised $76 million this week in a stock offering meant to fund more acquisitions and pay off some of its debt. The Company offered 3.85 million shares of common stock at...

A face on workers' comp fight.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... With a bill to increase workers' comp benefits being considered by the Legislature, attorneys who represent injured workers have begun a TV campaign featuring Steve Duncan, a Livermore man who was severely injured in the Tosco refinery fire....

Payne to step down from Blue Diamond.
August 18, 2000... Walt Payne first came into contact with Blue Diamond almonds back in the 1950s while loading 100-pound bags onto pallets for a longshoreman job at the Port of Stockton before he started college. In January, Payne plans to step down as...

Wine crop up 20%, cutting into prices.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
August 18, 2000... With harvest a week or two away, winegrape growers in the region expect to get lower prices again as vineyard production rises sharply statewide for the second year in a row. The state Department of Food and Agriculture predicts a...

TASQ Technologies sees more change at the top.(seeks new chief executive officer)(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... TASQ Technologies, a $90. million Rocklin company, is looking for a new chief executive officer as it continues to revamp its management team. Denis Calvert, hired as CEO last year, quietly left the company on July 15. Efforts to reach...

No. 2 jewelry chain plans to open two superstores.(Sterling Jewelers Inc. to open Jared The Galleria of Jewelry stores)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... A division of the nation's second-largest jewelry chain will enter the California market late this year by opening two jewelry superstores. One will be across the street from the Galleria at Roseville mall, and the other is across from...

Search for a used piano prompted a dot-com startup.(PianoQuest.com)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... John Tennant wanted to surprise his wife, Catherine, by upgrading her old upright to a grand piano. But it was Tennant who wound up being surprised by the sticker prices at local piano shops. Tennant, an Intel Corp. manager, went online...

Envisioning buildout, Intel plans roads for 10,000.
August 18, 2000... Intel Corp. is working with Folsom on carrying out a traffic plan that can handle 10,000 employees and 8,000 cars a day. That's the volume Intel expects at its 214-acre campus once it finishes its last two office buildings, FM 8 and FM 9,...

CORRECTIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS.(August 11 and July 21, 2000 issues)(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... Pacific Jets at McClellan * The Aug. 11 story "Corporate air service lands at McClellan" said that Pacific Jets won't provide service for Lear or Citation jets. In fact, it will service all corporate jets. Mercy Home Health ...

Big government rule change to keep accountants busy.
August 18, 2000... A looming change in government financial reporting standards is creating more business for local accounting firms as they help government entities gear up for the changes. The quasi-public organization that sets accounting standards has...

Roseville to get another two hotels.(Tharaldson Development Co.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... Tharaldson Development Co. plans to spend another $20 million to build two more hotels in Roseville. The North Dakota company already spent $20 million three years ago to build three Marriott Hotels Corp. franchised hotels at Taylor Road...

Large business lender to open office in Sacramento.(Comerica Bank-California)(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... Comerica Bank-California, the subsidiary of a Michigan banking company that is one of the nation's largest business lenders, plans to open a lending office in Sacramento by November. "We'd like to get it open sooner, if possible," said...

Walgreens eyes another location on Broadway.(Sacramento, edge of Land Park neighborhood)(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... Walgreens, a fast-growing drugstore chain, is proposing to set up shop in a key block near Tower Theater at the edge of the Land Park neighborhood. Walgreens wants to build on the site of a closed McDonald's on Broadway and 15th Street....

Flowmaster hiring 130 in West Sac.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... Flowmaster, the Santa Rosa exhaust system manufacturer that set up operations in West Sacramento in January, is expanding its local staff by 130. The bigger payroll will double the plant's manufacturing capacity, and is scheduled to be...

Two local medical societies merge to seek more clout.
August 18, 2000... Two local medical societies are merging to create a more powerful voice for their physician members. The 113-member Yolo County Medical Society voted last month to join forces with the 1,180-member Sacramento-El Dorado Medical Society....

Election to decide who will call shots on taxes.(chairmanship of House Ways and Means Committee)(Brief Article)
August 18, 2000... When the 107th Congress convenes next year, its most powerful committee likely will be headed by a 70-year-old U.S. Army veteran entering his fourth decade of service in the House. This description fits both of the leading contenders for...

Beware of companies stuck in Web-only mode.(using multiple channels for sales success)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
August 18, 2000... If you were to walk up to your average technology investor these days and say something like, "Gee, the Web is becoming pervasive," you might elicit a response on the order of, "duh." That's old news. The new news, according to FAC...

Louie helps clown score drive-through in Tahoe Park.(Frank Louie to open Jack in the Box restaurant in Sacramento, California)(Abstract)
August 18, 2000... The first new drive-through restaurant to be built in six years in the city of Sacramento is under way on Broadway. The Jack in the Box is being built because Broadway restaurateur Frank Louie pounded the pavement and worked the phones...

Elections might determine fate of tort reform.
August 18, 2000... The jury is still out on tort reform in the Senate, but the final verdict on changing America's civil justice system maybe rendered by voters in November. If Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush is elected and Republicans...

Largest property/casualty brokers.(in Sacramento, California area, ranked by total volume)(Statistical Data Included)
August 18, 2000... Largest property/casualty brokers (Ranked by local property/casualty premium volume for 1999) Local ...

Widowed owner learns as she leads.
August 18, 2000... The last two years of Donna Anderson's life have been characterized by rapid, unexpected and dramatic change. First, her husband, Howard Anderson, bought out his longtime business partner Charles Fries last year and the couple prepared...