Sacramento Business Journal articles from October 1998

Sacramento Business Journal archives from October 1998

Health systems struggle to maintain financial health; Mercy losing money, facing big expenses. (Mercy Healthcare Sacramento)
October 30, 1998... Mercy Healthcare Sacramento - a system of seven local hospitals that controls one-third of the healthcare in the area - is losing $2.5 million a month. The red ink showed up in unaudited first-quarter results, and is likely to get worse...

UCD Primary Care fires 100 specialists. (UC Davis Primary Care Network)(Health Systems Struggle to Maintain Financial Health)
October 30, 1998... The UC Davis Primary Care Network has fired about 100. specialist physicians, the first mass termination of Sacramento-area doctors in almost four years. The terminations take effect Dec. 16. The medical group is cutting its specialists by...

Local NEC exec gets the hatchet. (NEC Electronics Inc.'s Roseville, CA, plant VP for Operations Russell Childs)
October 30, 1998... Two administrators also ousted Russell Childs, the high-profile vice president of operations at the NEC Electronics Inc. plant in Roseville, was terminated on Oct. 20 along with two unidentified administrators at the site. Childs and the...

Who's on first? Baseball war heats up after team purchased. (Sacramento, CA, sports executive buys Vancouver Canadians)
October 30, 1998... Art Savage is frustrated. He said he'd bring a Triple-A baseball team to West Sacramento. No one believed him, even if he is the former president of the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks. Then on Tuesday, Savage announced he had...

Third-quarter loss puts Kaiser in record territory. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.)
October 30, 1998... Kaiser Permanente will announce a "significant" loss for the third quarter today - an amount that could drive the company's annual loss far above the record $270 million it lost last year. A report in the Oct. 12 issue of Modern Healthcare,...

Florin Mall owners offer their interest in property. (Sacramento, CA, building)
October 30, 1998... Part of Florin Mall is being put up for sale with a price tag of $20 million. The part that's on the selling block is that owned by the mall's original developers. The James J. Cordano Co. and its partner in the mall, the Cohen family, plan...

Fast-rising Sente Corp. flames out. (Sente Financial Corp.)
October 30, 1998... The area's 11th fastest-growing company last year, Sente Financial Corp., will go out of business this weekend, the victim of investor anxiety on Wall Street. The mortgage banking company has let its 30 employees go and will close its doors...

Davis looks at launching a citywide electric district. (Davis, CA)
October 30, 1998... The city of Davis is studying the possibility of forming an electric municipal utility district. A grassroots group proposes to collect signatures and get an initiative on the November 1999 ballot. In the meantime, the city has appointed a...

Cresleigh buys 800 lots in Rocklin; will sell half. (Cresleigh Homes Corp.; Rocklin, CA)
October 30, 1998... Cresleigh Homes Corp. has purchased about 800 lots in Rocklin's Sunset West area for approximately $16 million. The purchase is considered to be a smart move for San Francisco-based Cresleigh. Sunset West, with 901 acres, is just off Highway...

Apple adds 200 jobs, plans new call center. (Apple Computer)
October 30, 1998... The iMac wave is washing over Apple Computer Inc.'s Laguna West plant. The company has added 200 factory employees to keep up with record-setting sales of the iMac. And Apple has shelved its effort to sell a vacant building in Laguna...

Level One cashes in on 'fast ethernet' dominance. (Level One Communications Inc.)
October 30, 1998... Level One Communications Inc. posted blistering third-quarter numbers last week, more than doubling its nine-month net income from a year ago. The Sacramento company, whose integrated circuits speed up data flow for computer networks and...

Siemens in line for 54-car order. (Siemens Transportation Systems Inc)
October 23, 1998... The new light-rail lines that Sacramento Regional Transit hopes to build to the south area and Folsom could be carrying some big money for a local manufacturer. Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. intends to be front and center in the...

No titles, no license. (closure of used-car dealership Car Store in Sacramento, California)
October 23, 1998... Car Store closes as DMV probes A used-car dealership that had lofty expansion plans has closed down and come under investigation for alleged fraud. The California Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed it is investigating The Car Store and...

Strip club's owner files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. (Tail Feathers of Sacramento, California)
October 23, 1998... The attorney who owned the Tail Feathers striptease club next to Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova has filed for personal and business bankruptcy. Carmichael attorney Ellen Dove also is president and - according to the county - a shareholder of...

Molina not appealing sanction. (Molina Medical Centers in Long Beach, California)
October 23, 1998... Molina Medical Centers, sanctioned by the state in July for illegal marketing activities, has withdrawn its appeal of that sanction just weeks before a hearing was scheduled on the matter. The Long Beach company has agreed to pay a $6,000...

Manufacturer scouts Roseville, Rocklin. (Cool-It Manufacturing Co)
October 23, 1998... A Carson-based company that makes and applies fireproof and insulation coatings is scouting Roseville and Rocklin for a plant that would employ 15 people to start. Cool-It Manufacturing Co., which is planning to expand despite a lousy sales...

Zurich Financial expands. (Zurich Financial Services Group)
October 23, 1998... New digs for insurer formerly called Maryland Casualty Zurich Financial Services Group, whose local operations were once known as Maryland Casualty, has leased 50,000 square feet in Rancho Cordova's Capital Center business park. Zurich is...

Maita Toyota pays fine over misleading mailer.
October 23, 1998... Maita Toyota of Sacramento, one of the area's largest new-car dealers, has paid a $15,000 fine to settle a suit by the district attorney that claimed the dealer's advertising was potentially misleading. Paying the fine is not an admission...

Citation comes at bad time for Sutter Santa Rosa. (Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa, California)
October 23, 1998... Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, a 175-bed hospital vying for a contract to run a trauma center in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, has been cited by regulators for not having enough nurses on duty and for flawed record keeping. The...

FirstPlus lays off half of in-house advertising staff. (FirstPlus Financial Corp)
October 23, 1998... About half of the 40 well-paid employees at Strat-Im Advertising Corp. in Sacramento have been laid off, victims of a 3,000-job cutback at Dallas-based FirstPlus Financial Corp. Strat-Im is the in-house advertising agency of FirstPlus, a...

PUC staff: don't let Pac Bell into long-distance yet. (California Public Utilities Commission; Pacific Bell)
October 23, 1998... After years of trying to convince California regulators that it allows enough competition for local phone service to earn a crack at the long-distance market, Pacific Bell has been dealt another setback. The staff of the state Public...

Retail center to start in Folsom. (California)
October 16, 1998... A $60 million "power center" that's was first proposed nearly a decade ago for Folsom's Broadstone community could be under construction before the end of the year. Opus Southwest Corp. plans to have its long-proposed "discount-oriented...

Sewing biotech seed: new UCD seed center proposed. (University of California at Davis)
October 16, 1998... Local seed companies, industry groups and the University of California at Davis are forging a partnership to build a UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center. The proposed $1.5 million center is meant to serve the rapidly growing market emerging...

Three buildings to sell at Mather. (Mather Field in Sacramento County, CA)
October 16, 1998... Sacramento County is negotiating its first building sales at Mather Field in three separate deals. In one transaction, a San Francisco firm would be the first company to purchase property at Mather purely as an investment. The firm, Plant...

A flurry in Folsom: apartment developers swarming. (California)
October 16, 1998... Apartments are suddenly so hot in Folsom that they could some day represent 20 percent of the city's total housing stock. Developers are building or plan to build 4,134 apartments there, investing more than $280 million. A Bay Area...

Downtown hotel clock still ticking. (plans for construction of hotels in Sacramento, CA)
October 16, 1998... Developer David Taylor is still scurrying to put together a deal to build a downtown convention hotel, even though his exclusive negotiating period with the city of Sacramento lapsed for the second time last month. The city's risk now is...

Moody's marks down Catholic Healthcare West. (Moody's Investors Service Inc.)
October 16, 1998... The bond rating of Catholic Healthcare West - parent company of Mercy Healthcare Sacramento - has been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service Inc. Moody's said CHW's operating cash flow, which was unprofitable a year ago, will be even worse...

Federal Express tripling size of its sorting plant.
October 16, 1998... Federal Express Corp. plans to triple the size of its parcel sorting plant on Richards Boulevard, a signal the company might someday direct a piece of its growing local business to Mather Airport. In January, the Memphis, Tenn.-based air...

Hotelier aims to soar after colorful $5 million revamp. (Sacramento's Winship Properties)
October 16, 1998... Sacramento's Winship Properties has temporarily closed the Holiday Inn Northeast as it works through a $5.5 million renovation and builds a mock airport control tower out front. The hotel had been expected to stay open during the rehab, which...

George Fraser. (general manager of Northern California Power Agency)(Interview)
October 16, 1998... George Fraser is the new general manager of the Northern California Power Agency, a 30-year-old, nonprofit joint-action agency that provides economies of scale for its members in buying, generating, pooling and conserving electricity. Members...

Housing proposed downtown. (Sacramento, California)
October 9, 1998... Sotiris Kolokotronis plans to build 140 apartments next year on a vacant lot that has been one of downtown Sacramento's biggest eyesores. It would be downtown's first large apartment project since 1979 and another sign of demand for homes in...

Roseville trash firm piles it on. (Waste Connections Inc.)(California)
October 9, 1998... Waste Connections Inc., a fast-growing waste hauling firm, is adding more companies and cash to its rolls. Barely more than a year old, the Roseville firm has purchased 14 more companies during the past three months worth about $17 million in...

ADTech needs savior to make water out of brine. (Advanced Distillation Technology)
October 9, 1998... Advanced Distillation Technology, which has developed a new way to take the salt out of saltwater, says it will have to close its doors if it can't raise $5 million to $10 million in the next two weeks. The 7-year-old Rancho Cordova company...

Airport gets ready to open terminal after raising parking rates. (Sacramento International Airport, California)
October 9, 1998... Sacramento International Airport and three airlines are gearing up for Oct. 26, when the airport's $270 million second terminal opens for business. The finishing touches will take place Sunday night, Oct. 25. Jets from Southwest Airlines...

Asian flu hits TV tech firm. (Tektronix Inc)
October 9, 1998... The Asian economic crisis has pounded the Nevada City video and networking division of Tektronix Inc., contributing to a 41 percent plunge in its first-quarter sales. None of the 400 local employees of Grass Valley Products has lost their...

A recovery in Roseville. (California)(economic development efforts)
October 9, 1998... City, private efforts pay off downtown Five years ago Becki Carlson was operating a florist business out of her home in Sacramento. Wanting to open a store, she visited a vacant florist shop in downtown Roseville. The area was a bit...

Roseville prepares to try again for center. (California)(convention center)
October 9, 1998... Developers are showing great interest in building a small convention center for Roseville even though the city hasn't asked for proposals yet. Roseville, where two previous efforts to open a center failed, is expected to request proposals in...

Solano closure costs local tomato growers a cannery. (Solano County, California)(International Home Foods)
October 9, 1998... International Home Foods will close its Vacaville tomato processing plant by the end of the year, leaving some local growers wondering if they should plant fewer tomatoes next year for scarcity of places to can them. "It represents a good...

Nevada County company plans move to Foresthill. (Blaylock's Inc)(California)
October 9, 1998... Blaylock's Inc., which makes wiring harnesses used in mass-transit vehicles and slot machines, will move from Nevada County to what might become its own $5 million business park in Foresthill. The firm hasn't sent building plans to Placer...

Oates' sell-off continues. (Buzz Oates' selling of warehouses to Meridian Industrial Trust Inc)
October 9, 1998... Sale of four warehouses to bring $35 million Buzz Oates is selling four warehouses to a huge real estate investment trust in San Francisco for $35 million. Meridian Industrial Trust Inc. will pick up 1.13 million square feet of space. And...