The Business Journal Serving Metropolitan Kansas City articles from February 2001

The Business Journal Serving Metropolitan Kansas City archives from February 2001

Birch has another round of layoffs.
February 23, 2001... Birch Telecom announced that it is laying off 300-plus employees on Feb. 22 and must severely curtail its expansion plans. The moves come after the company's layoff of 138 employees in November. Birch President and CEO David Scott said...

In the red.
February 23, 2001... Regulations and market take toll on blood center The Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City is bleeding dollars. Since 1997, the nonprofit organization that provides nearly 98 percent of the blood products used in area hospitals...

GEAR to buy Champion product line.
February 23, 2001... GEAR for Sports, a leading manufacturer of logoed sports wear for the collegiate bookstore market, is counting on its recent purchase of Champion USA's college bookstore business to help its revenues grow by $100 million during the next five...

KC presses to land NAIA, free dates for 2002 b-ball tourney.
February 23, 2001... Kansas City officials are going into overtime to resolve a scheduling conflict that could scuttle their bid to land the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, whose plans to select a new headquarters this week have been postponed...

March madness hits Kansas City as bridge players invade the area.
February 23, 2001... On March 15, Kansas City will be invaded by frenzied fans. The kind of fans who will sit all day absorbed in the sport they love. The kind of fans who would travel around the world for... the Spring North American Bridge Championships....

Caught in the cross hairs.
February 23, 2001... Kansas City Aviation Department spokesman Joe McBride was afraid legions of armed hunters would be waiting at Kansas City International Airport on Monday, Feb. 19, to help the airport limit its deer population. Luckily, that didn't...

Earnhardt remembered.
February 23, 2001... Dale Earnhardt's death rocked the world of auto racing. Motorsport Marketing, a Grandview company that sells motorsports products under the name GoMotorsports.com, observed a day of mourning for the fallen racer on Monday by not selling any...

Free coffee Friday.
February 23, 2001... Ann Willoughby has worked with Einstein Bros. Bagels since the Bagel & Bagel days. Willoughby, who is head of the local Willoughby Design Group, designed the logo for the bagel chain's new Bohemian Blend coffee flavor, which Einstein...

Kroh Bros. bankruptcy is winding up.
February 23, 2001... One of Kansas City's most notorious bankruptcy cases is entering its final stage. A trustee is notifying unsecured creditors of Kroh Bros. Development Co. of a coming dispersal of assets. Kroh Bros. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

'Consumers at the center'.
February 23, 2001... Gordon Harton President, Lee Co. In big American business, where some CEOs are larger than life with egos to match, Lee Co. President Gordon Harton may seem somewhat of an anomaly. He is quite, unassuming and more interested in...

BY THE NUMBERS.
February 23, 2001... BY THE NUMBERS SOARING PASSENGERS - The 1999-2000 fiscal year saw an increase in passenger service at Kansas City International Airport, with 11,674,114 passengers. The total passengers for fiscal years 1995-2000 at KCI (in millions):...

Right-of-way issues raise ire of telecom firms.
February 23, 2001... Telecommunications heavyweights have thrown down the gauntlet in the Kansas and Missouri legislatures, asking that cities looking to make a profit off franchise agreements be stopped. In Kansas and Missouri, Sprint Corp., Southwestern...

New entry in JoCo hopes its star shines in banking universe.
February 23, 2001... Johnson County, already the most intensely competitive banking market in the area, will gain another entrant early in the spring, when Prairie Star Bank opens in Olathe. Bob Wiley, the new bank's president, said he hopes to claim a stake...

Tech investment bill would ease budget bite.
February 23, 2001... A bill that would use state tax credits to spark more private investment in Kansas technology companies has been toned down by supporters in recent weeks to make it more palatable to legislators in a tight budget year. If approved, the...

Local tech firm lays off most its staff, seeks financing to reopen.
February 23, 2001... Global Enterprise Solutions Inc. has laid off 40 employees at its location near Kansas City International Airport. The layoffs, which occurred Jan. 31, represent practically all of GESi's work force, company President and CEO Brian Unger...

Blue Springs hopes shops spur redevelopment along Missouri 7.
February 23, 2001... A small strip shopping center proposed for a site now occupied by an aging Ramada Limited motel could lead to redevelopment of the busy Missouri Highway 7 corridor in Blue Springs and serve as a model for similar improvements in other Kansas...

Sisters of Charity looks to Lenexa for site of data processing center.
February 23, 2001... Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System will consolidate its data processing systems this spring in Lenexa at Renner Ridge Corporate Center. Bill Murray, the organization's president, said the location will consolidate operations...

Cramer Products nearing start of another race to retail market.
February 23, 2001... When a New York Giant's player sprained his ankle during an NFL playoff game with the Philadelphia Eagles, officials of Cramer Products Inc. cheered. But not because they are Eagles fans. As television cameras focused on efforts to tape...

Open spectrum lets new technology try to make waves.
February 23, 2001... In the big business of auctioning wireless spectrum, companies such as Voicestream and Winstar pay big bucks to own the air. But without deep pockets, how do smaller companies compete? Use the unlicensed spectrum, of course. The...

It's a wired, wired world.
February 23, 2001... On March 21, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's World Trade Center will present Wired World, a one-day conference at Johnson County Community College that focuses on the role of high technology in international business. The...

It's a green, green world.
February 23, 2001... The Enterprise Center of Johnson County (ECJC) reported that Kansas City-area companies received dramatically more venture capital in 2000 than in previous years. The study found that metro-area companies received about $382 million in...

Construction will start in Olathe on big rooftops-to-retail project.
February 23, 2001... Construction could start as soon as June on houses in western Olathe that will lead construction of a massive mixed use project along 119th Street just east of Kansas Highway 7. Doug Clements' Heritage Development of Kansas Inc. plans 622...

Missouri lawmakers' bill revisits writing prompt-pay prescription for providers.
February 23, 2001... Missouri lawmakers once again are considering legislation that would require the prompt payment of insurance claims by managed-care organizations. A number of measures are circulating, including a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Harlan,...

County should clear path for Oz project.
February 23, 2001... Developers of the Wonderful World of Oz theme park must feel as though they are perpetually harassed by flying monkeys. Developers again face a crucial vote sometime in March -- by the Johnson County Commission on whether they can....

Here's some free PR advice from us to you.
February 23, 2001... I would be terrible at public relations I'm sure everything has a good side, but sometimes you're talking about a two-dimensional situation, sometimes a dodecahedron (12 sides, I looked it up). I can give some valuable advice on getting...

COLLECTIVE EFFORTS.
February 23, 2001... Cytek Corp. finds that four heads are better than one in consulting In drumming up business throughout Kansas City for his technology consulting company, Rick Bernauer kept hearing good things about a new competitor, Jody Tucker of Tucker...

If you don't feel like working today, invest in your future and goof off.
February 23, 2001... I don't feel like writing this column today. Now, don't get me wrong. I love writing this column. I'm jazzed to have the opportunity to share my ideas and strategies with you. But today, I'm just not in the mood. We all have times...

BEST BUSINESS DECISION.
February 23, 2001... Charging what you're worth sounds simple -- it's not. One of our best, decisions was to not lower our level of service to be price competitive. It wasn't easy. My dad used to tell the story of a businessman who -- when asked how his...

Market model can offer map for nonprofits in fund-raising wilderness.
February 23, 2001... As the nation officially enters the new millennium, daunting challenges and exciting opportunities are emerging to confront its nonprofit sector. None is more challenging and presents greater opportunities than nonprofits that are...

DRAFTING AHEAD.
February 23, 2001... Effort and more than 4 feet of aggregate and asphalt go into making Kansas Speedway the racing circuit's jewel When 75,000 race fans visit the Kansas Speedway, they'll be wowed by the speed, the noise, the views and the celebrities. The...

Stowers, KU collaboration get ball rolling for Life Sciences Initiative.
February 23, 2001... By pooling financial resources, personnel and a pledge to become a mecca for biomedical research, Kansas City scientists and medical professionals operating under the umbrella of the Kansas City Life Sciences Institute Inc. look to become a...

LIFE SCIENCES INITIATIVE IN KANSAS CITY.
February 23, 2001... $50 million - Enabling technologies $125 million - People $125 million - Facilities Annual research expenditures for infectious disease, aging, heart, brain and cancer research (predicted in millions): RESEARCH 2002 $100...

WEB WORKS.
February 23, 2001... Useful research and development Web sites: * The University of Kansas www.research.ukans.edu * Link to other useful sites from KU site: www.research.ukans.edu/other.html The National Human Genome Research Institute ...

'Blowing in the wind'.
February 23, 2001... Three-quarters of New York's electric power is generated from imported natural gas and aging coal and nuclear plants. Natural gas spot prices have tripled in the past year. Electric prices rose dramatically last summer. So what is a fossil...

Clean e-commerce.
February 23, 2001... Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University weren't convinced that e-commerce was as environmentally friendly as Internet retailers were touting it to be. So the researchers, part of CMU's Green Design Initiative, decided to take a look at...

Testing the elements.
February 23, 2001... Several Louisville-area laboratories have built a business on monitoring and analyzing pollutants in water, soil and air. In the early 1990s, the number of such laboratories nationwide reached about 2,500 as environmental concerns grew,...

University partnerships relieve companies of some research costs.
February 23, 2001... Chemists doing research for Bayer Corp.'s Agriculture Division in Kansas City test 25,000 new compounds a year related to crop protection. Yet only one compound in 40,000 ever reaches the market for consumers. Although the process may...

It's a small -- as in microscopic -- world at DOE's Kansas City Plant.
February 23, 2001... The U.S. Department of Energy's Kansas City Plant is working on the next little thing. And by that they mean microscopic. The Kansas City Plant, run by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, is working with Sandia National...

Academic biomedical research gets a crash course in business practices.
February 23, 2001... The unprecedented explosion of financing for biomedical research since the end of the ColdWar has brought with it a whole new culture for academic biomedical research centers. In the past, the pure search for knowledge through basic...

TOP 25 AREA BANKS.
February 23, 2001... TOP 25 AREA BANKS (ranked by 2000 year-andassets) Bank 2001 2000 Address 2000 Assets Rank Rank Phone/Fax/Web site (000's omitted) 1. 2. Commerce Bank, N. A. ...

TOP 25 AREA BANKS.
February 23, 2001... TOP 25 AREA BANKS (out-district banks ranked by 2000 year-end assets) Bank 2001 2000 Address 2000 Assets Rank Rank Phone/Fax/Web site (000's omitted) 1. 1. Bank of America ...

TOP AREA SAVINGS AND LOANS.
February 23, 2001... TOP AREA SAVINGS AND LOANS (ranked by 2000 assets) Firm name 2001 Address 2000 Assets 2000 Net income Ranks Phone/Fax/Web site (000's omitted) (000's omitted) 1. North American...

TOP AREA SAVINGS AND LOANS.
February 23, 2001... TOP AREA SAVINGS AND LOANS (out-district savings institutions ranked by 2000 assets) Firm name 2001 Address 2000 Assets 2000 Net income Rank Phone/Fax (000's omitted) (000's omitted)...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
February 23, 2001... ADVERTISING Barkley Evergreen & Partners Inc. has hired the following people: Carrie Bredeman is creative team coordinator. Bredeman was previously an assistant teacher. Jennifer Crouch is an assistant, media planner. Sharon Handley was...