Business Courier Serving Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky articles from April 2000

Business Courier Serving Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky archives from April 2000

Convention center fights back.
April 7, 2000... Boosters, hotels target other cities in region Tired of watching Cinicinnati conventions get snapped up by cities with larger facilities, local convention boosters have launched a new sales effort that targets towns with smaller centers....

Art dealer ready to sell new Pokemon.
April 7, 2000... PARENTS, KEEP YOUR WALLETS OUT. A local art gallery is hoping to hit it big with a new 'Digimon' collectibles line. Move over, Pokemon. There's a new product line at Toon Art Inc. that the company expects to sweep through the bedrooms...

Local hospital execs: 'We need more money'.
April 7, 2000... Health systems squeezed by low reimbursements For the first time, local hospital leaders are joining to send a dire message to the community: Unless Tri-State businesses and managed care plans change the status quo, financial problems...

Downtown's hotels bet on Sabin's future.
April 7, 2000... Downtown Cincinnati's hotel market is about to get a capital infusion, as construction begins this summer on a 152-room Hawthorn Inn & Suites and the new owners of the Regal Cincinnati Hotel study upgrades for downtown's largest hotel property....

Ohio Casualty loses another senior executive.
April 7, 2000... Thatcher exits insurer for East Coast position Another senior executive has left the Ohio Casualty stable for greener pastures. Dale Thatcher, the Fairfield-based insurer's chief accounting officer and director of investor relations,...

Summit forms 'social' fund.
April 7, 2000... Mutual fund will rate business practices Summit Investment Partners, the money management unit of Union Central Life Insurance Co., is creating a mutual fund with a unique twist on socially responsible investing. The Summit Total...

New name, new game for local printer.
April 7, 2000... SIDNEY PRINTING WORKS, SOON TO become SpringDot Inc., will serve as a Web-based 'message-delivery consultant' for its customers. Sidney Deutsch was 16 years old in 1902 when he boarded a boat for America. Within a year, the Austrian...

Ad-Ex picks Woodlawn for new headquarters.
April 7, 2000... Trade show display firm to consolidate three operations The new owners of Ad-Ex International Inc. of Woodlawn searched all over the Tri-State before deciding home is where their new headquarters will be. President Tim Murphy and his...

Roly Poly opens in Symmes Township.
April 7, 2000... Restaurateur Barry Elkus hopes to sate the appetites of Symmes Township when his new Roly Poly rolled sandwich shop opens on April 10. Located at 12082 Montgomery Road, just south of Fields Ertel Road in a new Hills Development outbuilding, the...

River Cities funds Columbus Net firms.
April 7, 2000... River Cities Capital Funds has invested $4.25 million in two Columbus e-commerce companies. The first $2 million investment in Foresight Corp. closed March 27. Foresight makes software that integrates new Web applications with older computer...

Libby Perszyk nabs three new accounts.
April 7, 2000... Cincinnati-based Libby Perszyk Kathman, an independent brand identity and package design firm, has clinched a trio of major branding assignments, including a contract with Hallmark Cards Inc. to develop branding strategies for the card...

Reynolds DeWitt invests in Tennessee telecom firm.
April 7, 2000... Cincinnati-based Reynolds DeWitt Securities has invested in a Tennessee telecommunications companies that plans to go public later this year. NextLec, based in Nashville, has developed a 10,000-mile national private fiber network that...

City of Cincinnati completes first bond sale via Internet.
April 7, 2000... The city of Cincinnati has completed the first electronic bond sale in Ohio, by soliciting bids on the Web. Seven syndicates representing about 30 investment banks bid on the underwriting opportunity. The winner, Salomon Smith Barney, will...

Giage will offer new software remotely.
April 7, 2000... Company also will market to Internet portals With an updated product, fresh venture capital and a new business plan, officials at Giage Ltd. say they are not just software developers anymore. They are reaching out to major Internet...

Ashland lands $12M Cintas plant, 250 jobs.
April 7, 2000... Five counties teamed to lure uniform maker Mason uniform maker Cintas Corp. is opening a $12 million manufacturing facility in Eastern Kentucky that will create more than 250 jobs within three years of its opening, scheduled for this fall....

NationalChildSupport.com seeks funds for campaign.
April 7, 2000... Blue Ash firm locates, duns deadbeat parents A Blue Ash company that collects child support from deadbeat Parents is looking for a $15 million equity investment to help fund a national marketing campaign. NationalChildSupport.com,...

Enable growing cardiovascular device line.
April 7, 2000... Biomedical firm adds to board; mulls IPO Enable Medical Corp. is gearing up for a major push into the cardiovascular market in hopes of adding to the success of its surgical division. The West Chester medical device maker also is...

Clermont bank selling two branches.
April 7, 2000... In a move to refocus on its home market, Clermont Savings Bank is selling two of its supermarket branches outside its core market to Warren County-based 1st National Bank. The two branches, in Bigg's supermarkets on Montgomery Road in...

Texas agency snags P&G media contract.
April 7, 2000... Bromley to make Hispanic buys for all brands Procter & Gamble Co. recently hired a San Antonio, Texas-based ad agency, Bromley Communications, to buy Hispanic media for all of its active brands. Jessica Pantanini, vice president/media...

Women's tennis tour rejects Cincinnati venue for now.
April 7, 2000... Tour directors angered by lack of open bidding The Sanex WTA Tour backed away from a deal to bring a major women's tennis event to Cincinnati, after roughly 25 of its tournament directors seriously criticized the plan. Having a women's...

Online venture offers Web auction feedback.
April 7, 2000... On the increasingly crowded Internet, where competitors are just a mouse-click away, dot.coms are constantly adding customer services simply to survive. In fact, 78 percent of more than 400 technology executives recently surveyed by...

Heinz & Associates debuts journal on e-publishing.
April 7, 2000... Another company giving its customers more to keep them happy is Florence-based Heinz & Associates, an information technology and Internet solutions provider with a focus on-electronic publishing. It just debuted an e-publishing trade...

Cincom Systems Inc.
April 7, 2000... Cincom Systems Inc. struck a partnership on April 4 that will help food service providers roll out the dough and make more money. Together with the Growth Alliance, a national group that provides revenue-enhancing strategies for the food...

Application Service Provider Group.
April 7, 2000... These services will help food distributors, producers and operators track sales and order information, manage customers and store data. Through its Application Service Provider Group, CinAPPS, Cincom can offer customers the latest technology...

Growth Alliance.
April 7, 2000... "(This) has the ability to help businesses in the food service industry begin gathering and then successfully leveraging customer information to generate revenue growth at an acceptable cost," said Growth Alliance managing partner Tom Schram....

SBA: Award more federal contracts to women.
April 7, 2000... Women business owners have a source of income that few of them have tapped so far -- federal contracts. That's the message from Aida Alvarez, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Alvarez marked National Women's History...

Angelou keynote speaker for YWCA awards lunch.
April 7, 2000... Poet, author, actress and Renaissance woman Maya Angelou will be the keynote speaker at the annual YWCA Career Women of Achievement luncheon May 3, at the Cincinnati Convention Center. This year's honorees include: Susan Arnold, Procter &...

'Take Our Daughters to Work' features workshop.
April 7, 2000... 'Take Our Daughters to Work" day, April 27, involves more than letting kids wander around the office. This year, you can spend the morning with your daughter at a workshop and luncheon featuring topics aimed at building young girls' bodies,...

Cathleen Matchinga.
April 7, 2000... * Two Tri-State women are finalists in the national Working Women Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards, sponsored by Bank One Corp. and Working Women magazine. Cathleen Matchinga of Hebron-based ValAir Parking, and Maura Isaacs of Qfact Marketing...

Reds announce new Web site.
April 7, 2000... The Cincinnati Reds relaunched their Web site on Opening Day, April 3. The new version of www.cincinnatireds.com, which was first launched three years ago, will include 11 different sections including "Cinergy Field," "Game Day,"...

New N. Ky. area code debuts.
April 7, 2000... Cincinnati Bell announced that Northern Kentucky's new 859 area code took effect April 1. Cincinnati Bell is allowing a six-month period in which customers can use either the new area code or the old 606 area code. Also starting in April,...

P&G plans seven new products.
April 7, 2000... Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. announced plans to introduce seven products across its North American fabric and home care category by late summer. The company will introduce a stain removal product called TideKick, a powder detergent...

Taft announces technology grants.
April 7, 2000... Ohio Gov. Bob Taft announced that Ohio's Technology Action Board has approved $14.2 million in grants to 22 Ohio organizations. The grants, provided through the state's Technology Action Fund, are expected to support statewide entrepreneurial...

Economic expansion eases locally.
April 7, 2000... The local economy has returned to a more moderate rate of expansion compared to February, according to the Greater Cincinnati Report on Business conducted by the National Association of Purchasing Management. Commodity prices are at their...

UC law school ranked No. 49.
April 7, 2000... The University of Cincinnati's College of Law was recently ranked No. 49 in the country by the U.S. News & World Report. A total of 174 law schools were ranked by the magazine, which also recognized three programs at the UC Medical Center. The...

Food for THOUGHT.
April 7, 2000... Healthy Alternative makes sure its employees know what they're talking about. Tony Hause is a big fan of the educational process. The business plan that Hause has hatched at Healthy Alternative, a chain of health food and nutritional...

Congress likely to overturn stock option ruling.
April 7, 2000... Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman traveled to Capitol Hill to endorse legislation that would overturn her department's ruling that profits from stock options must be included when calculating overtime pay for rank-and-file employees. Many...

Bill gives small companies tax break for software.
April 7, 2000... Small businesses could immediately deduct the full cost of software instead of writing it off over three years under legislation introduced by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif. Current law governing software purchases requires businesses to...

More businesses may get interest on checking.
April 7, 2000... Banks would be allowed to pay interest on business checking accounts under legislation passed by the House Banking Committee. Small business groups and community banks wanted to repeal the prohibition on interest-bearing business checking...

Armey: Ask workers to support China trade deal.
April 7, 2000... House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, said small manufacturers need to enlist their employees in the lobbying effort for permanent normal trading relations with China. It would be particularly helpful to "have your unionized...

No slowdown in sight for construction company.
April 7, 2000... Creekwood busy with three hotel projects After four years in business, Creekwood Construction Inc. of Loveland has evolved from a relative "babe in the woods" to a full-fledged competitor in the local construction industry. Doug...

Vacation is time to relax, not worry about work.
April 7, 2000... Enjoying time off is an art to be mastered I just came back to my office after seven glorious days on vacation. The interesting thing about this vacation has nothing to do with the fact that we were on vacation. I've written before how...

Today's workplace has little room for manners.
April 7, 2000... As we get more casual, we're less respectful Because our typical workweek frequently involves travel, my husband and I try to make Saturday nights quiet, private and strictly a family affair. With family chores out of the way, we sometimes...

Freelancers find rich source of jobs on Internet.
April 7, 2000... Online firms match prospects with work Not too long ago, a freelancer was looked upon with pity and disdain because others had a "real" job. But today, more than 20 million of the 131 million workers in the U.S. civilian labor force have...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
April 7, 2000... Sara Brockman has joined Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens LLC as a business and financial consultant. ACCOUNTING Olive LLP has appointed Kathy Murphy to head the nonprofit services division for the Cincinnati region. ...

Pomeroy performance, outlook lauded by national newsletter.
April 7, 2000... Already enjoying a strong runup this year, shares in Pomeroy Computer Resources Inc. may get a further boost from the recommendation of a noted investing newsletter. In its April edition, The Low Priced Stock Survey added Hebron-based...

Large-cap Riverfront fund moves up rung on Morningstar ladder.
April 7, 2000... One more star can mean a lot. And you thought gold stars only paid in grade school. The Riverfront Large Company Select Fund recently received an upgrade from rating company Morningstar Inc., which now calls it a four-star fund. That...

CNB deal brings Fifth Third clients option to invest in value stocks.
April 7, 2000... Clients of Fifth Third Bancorp's trust division have, for the first time, the option to put some of their money in value stocks following the banks acquisition of CNB Bancshares Inc. That deal brought Fifth Third a $70 million value stock...

STOCK PICKS STRUGGLE.
April 7, 2000... The first quarter was not kind to many of the participants in the Courier's stock-picking contest. Leading the way was Jim Strauss' choice of Convergys, which also gained 37 percent in 1999. De Lombaerde covers investing for the Courier.

LBOs regaining allure for undervalued firms.
April 7, 2000... In the 1980s, Wall Street discovered the leveraged buyout as a way to unlock the true value of many companies whose market value dropped to significant discounts to the private market value. This gap was huge because inflation caused P/E...

Alan Greenspan.
April 7, 2000... In the good old days, the stock market and the economy would respond correctly whenever the Fed raised or lowered interest rates. Nowadays, the markets don't seem to move that way anymore. People are wondering how much more the Fed is going...

Raw material prices augur hard year at AK Steel.
April 7, 2000... Armco purchase to bring savings As the cost for raw materials continues to go up, so does the cost of doing business for Middletown-based AK Steel Holding Corp. Whether 2000 turns out to be a good year or not essentially hangs on the prices...

Overbuilding can be good for future business.
April 7, 2000... Most companies don't consider themselves to be in the commercial real estate business. But any company that builds or buys a building to use for office, warehouse, manufacturing, retail or some combination thereof is in effect a property...

CUBICLE FARMS ON THE WAY OUT.
April 7, 2000... Rows of tiny, identical walled desks are no longer the norm in office design In the hands of a skilled designer with an adequate amount of money to spend, an office cubicle does not need to be a jail cell. Unfortunately, some companies...

Architects fire up workers with greater light.
April 7, 2000... Better illumination keeps workers happy Are they visionaries of design -- or luminaries lighting the way to office productivity? Today's architects and designers are challenged to use light not just for ambiance, but to stimulate...

Proposed OSHA rules could be expensive surprise.
April 7, 2000... Ergonomic standards are all-encompassing Faster than a speeding train, able to leap scores of concerned and protesting citizens in a single bound, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is hurtling ahead in its mission to put...

Tech companies look for chic office space.
April 7, 2000... ECitySuites.com offers state-of-the-art facilities Entrepreneur Joe Martin thinks the staid old executive office suite needs an overhaul for the new millennium. His solution: High-speed Internet access lines, glass and steel desks,...

Estimators can make or break big projects.
April 7, 2000... Bidding process is mix of excitement, anxiety Four years. 29 prime contractors, 44,000 cubic yards of concrete, 8,700 tons of structural steel, 750,000 masonry blocks, 2 million hours of labor. Three large "oopses." The first was...

Staubach ushers Prism into Tri-State, Indy markets.
April 7, 2000... A pair of brokers from the Tri-State office of Cincinnati sports legend Roger Staubach's commercial real estate company have paved the way for a unique Internet player, Prism Communication Services Inc. of New York, to crack the local and...

Bunnell Hill Construction Inc.
April 7, 2000... * Bunnell Hill Construction Inc. recently broke ground for a $2.5 million administration building for fast-growing Hamilton Township in Warren County. The 24,000-square-foot facility at a 10-acre Ohio Route 48 site was designed by ATA...

DEAL OF THE WEEK.
April 7, 2000... DEAL OF THE WEEK examines a recent noteworthy lease or sale of local commercial property and/or a residential sale; the transaction must exceed $1 million THIS WEEK'S DEAL: Southport's Tulloch brokers $3.6M Blue Ash deal for Duke's...

Richard Bauer.
April 7, 2000... Richard Bauer of Sibey Cline Realtors has been awarded the Accredited Buyer Representation (ABR) designation by the Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council of the National Association of Realtors.

Judith Gibbons.
April 7, 2000... Three local citizens will be the recipients of the Ninth Annual Northern Kentucky University Lincoln Award to be held on April 18 at the Clarion Hotel Riverview, Covington. They are: Judith Gibbons, vice president of community affairs, Lee...

KZF Inc.
April 7, 2000... KZF Inc. was named winner of one of the two Honor Awards for Design given nationally by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the biennial Chief of Engineers Design and Environmental Awards Program 2000. The award recognized the 910th Wing...

City of Cincinnati.
April 7, 2000... U.S. Department of Labor has awarded the City of Cincinnati a $500,000 demonstration grant to help workers seek job training.

Otto M. Budig Family Foundation.
April 7, 2000... Otto M. Budig Family Foundation has awarded WCET48 a leadership grant for the "Campaign for WCET."

Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
April 7, 2000... Greater Cincinnati Foundation has awarded grants to four neighborhoods in an eight-county service area to help improve and strengthen each community. They are: Carthage Civic League, Cincinnati; Covington Community Center, Covington;...

Scripps Howard Foundation.
April 7, 2000... Scripps Howard Foundation has committed S2.3 million to be distributed over five years for the development of the journalism and communications program at Hampton University, Hampton, Va.

ASK THE CEO.
April 7, 2000... ASK THE CEO is a continuing series in which we ask important-to-the-region questions of corporate leaders. THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Did Procter & Gamble's stock drop change your approach to investing? Alex Warm Belvedere Corp. ...

Children's sweet song lacks corporate sponsor.
April 7, 2000... When 200 children from around the world touch down at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport this summer, they will bring something very special with them. Within each heart -- a message of friendship. A message that...

Many left out of Cincinnati's economic boom.
April 7, 2000... As we embark upon the greatest economic journey ever experienced by Cincinnatians, it is sad to think that behind our progressive facade, many of our citizens are left out. It is disturbing to see flow hard we are working to bring guests to our...

Painful times for hospitals.
April 7, 2000... If the health care system looks to you like an impenetrable thicket, you can appreciate where hospital officials now find themselves. A group of them recently visited the Courier to ask the support of the business community. Hospitals,...

Today's kids miss joy of being broke.
April 7, 2000... Kids these days. I'll tell ya. I'm 35, not that old, but when I think of the difference between teenagers now and when I had pimples in the early 1980s, I feel downright paleolithic. The clothes, the hair, the worldiness. Teenagers today...

Analysts: Earnings may return to forefront.
April 7, 2000... This year's money managers forum took on added significance in the wake of the drastic market fluctuations so far in 2000. With large local firms like Procter & Gamble and Kroger suffering through a stock price downturn, what does this say...

CINCINNATIANS SPEND ONE-THIRD OF INCOME ON HOUSING.
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COURIER RATE BAROMETER.
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STOCK STATS.
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MORNINGSTAR MUTUAL FUNDS.
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INSIDER TRADING RECAP.
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MONEY MARKETS.
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INSIDER TRADING.
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EARNINGS.
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DIVIDENDS.
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THE NUMBERS.
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