The Business Journal Serving Metropolitan Kansas City articles from January 2001

The Business Journal Serving Metropolitan Kansas City archives from January 2001

Recruiting a fact of life for life sciences effort.
January 19, 2001... Heart Institute pumping up research For more than 20 years, the Mid America Heart Institute has earned a reputation for high-quality cardiac care and cutting-edge clinical research. Now, the institute is looking to become a leader in...

Recruiting a fact of life for life sciences effort.
January 19, 2001... Departure pushes search for director The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute is scrambling to find an interim director just as the search for a permanent director is about to begin in earnest. Bill Brundage, who had filled the...

MGE gambles, loses on hedge.
January 19, 2001... The cold reality of a huge wintertime gas price increase for Missouri Gas Energy customers has its beginnings in the heat of the summer. Missouri Gas Energy asked the Missouri Public Service Commission for a 44 percent rate increase last...

Pen-Tab closes Stuart Hall site, plans 195 layoffs.
January 19, 2001... The last chapter may have been written in Kansas City for Stuart Hall Co. Inc., a stationery, office and school supply producer that once was among the area's most prominent companies. Pen-Tab Industries Inc., which bought Stuart Hall in...

Propane-powered convoy ready to roll into the Kansas City area.
January 19, 2001... It appears all roads lead to Kansas City - at least all roads being traveled by propane-powered vehicles. The Propane Vehicle Road Rally will roll into Kansas City Feb. 5 to coincide with the fifth annual Propane Vehicle Conference and...

Toilet humor and the devil.
January 19, 2001... Humor hardly is the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of the freight industry. But Internet freight logistics company FreightPro.com is trying to change that perception with a series of wacky print ads that feature, among...

Insert lawyer joke here.
January 19, 2001... Speaking of marketing, law firm Lathrop Gage has been recognized nationally for its advertising strategy. The Wall Street Journal last week featured the firm in a story on law firm advertising. The article described Lathrop & Gage ads,...

Holocaust history.
January 19, 2001... In collaboration with the Holocaust exhibit that Union Station is housing until March 18, three related feature films are being shown. Scheduled this week is "The Photographer," a documentary focusing on several hundred color slides in...

Opus plans new office park in Northland.
January 19, 2001... Officials of Opus Northwest expect, to apply by Jan. 26 for zoning to begin developing a large parcel near Kansas City International Airport. Dave Harrison, who runs Opus' Kansas City-area office, said the 156-acre project, to be called...

'I just want to do it right'.
January 19, 2001... Nate Accardo Shortly after Nate Accardo moved Custom Color Corp. in 1975 to its present address at 300 W. 19th Terrace in Kansas City, he got a call from a confused customer who couldn't find the photo processor's laboratory along...

Finances spur close exam of Bethany center.
January 19, 2001... Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System is studying its Kansas City-area hospitals to decide what to do with financially troubled Bethany Medical Center. The feasibility assessment is expected to take close to 90 days and will be...

Trend spotter keeps Hallmark ahead of slippery retail curve.
January 19, 2001... Marita Wesely-Clough spends hours reading books and magazines. She travels. She rides public buses, eavesdropping on people's conversations. This isn't what she does after work. This is her work. Wesely-Clough is Hallmark Card Inc.'s...

Lighton sites on College Blvd. on sale, may raise bar on prices.
January 19, 2001... The Lighton complex on College Boulevard in Overland Park, one of the metropolitan area's prime trophy properties, this month began to be offered for sale by its Dallas-based owner, which hopes to score a fast gain less than two years after...

Free Health Clinic will move to its own building.
January 19, 2001... The Kansas City Free Health Clinic will move its midtown Kansas City office to a now-vacant office Building the organization bought at 3515 Broadway. The move is to take place by early fall. SheriWood, the clinic's executive director,...

Out of its infancy, Indigo Wild looks for good, clean growth.
January 19, 2001... Five years ago, Emily Voth was in charge o client services for a local video production company, but she spent her lunch at the library researching soap-making and her time off in her herb garden. She worked to develop a line of herbal...

Wal-Mart will add supercenters in next two years.
January 19, 2001... Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will convert its traditional stores in Lee's Summit, Liberty and Olathe to supercenters in 2001, bringing the number of supercenters in the Kansas City metro area to nine. In 2002, the retailer plans to build five new...

Brokers: Market will tighten, not collapse in 2001.
January 19, 2001... Brokers with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker predict that the local commercial real estate market's historic stability bodes, well for the coming year, when the dot-com shakeout most likely will buffet more tech-reliant areas. Debora...

Parkville considers TIF plan to brace for population boom.
January 19, 2001... Parkville officials are starting to consider the Northland city's first tax increment financing district. The plan would renovate an aging strip shopping center and build a community center to serve the area's growing population. TIF...

Local stadium design firms score big with Big 12 sports projects.
January 19, 2001... Area architecture firms are cashing in on the Big 12's need for sports facility improvements, including renovations to national champion Oklahoma's football stadium. HOK Sports Facilities Group won a $50 million contract for improvements...

Vendor, bank add to PVI concerns by filing lawsuits.
January 19, 2001... One of Peripheral Vision Infosystems Inc.'s business partners filed suit this week against the Overland Park technology company for an unpaid bill totaling more that $2.7 million. Ingram Micro Inc., a worldwide distributor of computers...

Firm tries to sell microbrewers on macro benefits.
January 19, 2001... As director of operations for Breckenridge Brewery in Colorado in the mid-'90s, Robert Eilert struggled to increase his margins in the face of high inventory and material costs. What he needed was a group of other small breweries to band...

Lighthouse unveils Internet app.
January 19, 2001... Lighthouse Communications Inc., a Des Moines-based broadband Internet access provider with a large presence in Kansas City, on Tuesday unveiled a service that provides clients a high-performance wide area networking (WAN) solution for...

Sprint picks leader of consumer group.
January 19, 2001... Kansas City-based telecommunications provider Sprint Corp. has announced that Timothy Kelly, a former vice president of marketing for the company, has been named as president of the National Consumer Organization, effective Jan. 15. ...

Birch will expand into Southeast.
January 19, 2001... Birch Telecom Inc. of Kansas City announced Wednesday that it will enter the Southeast after completing an interconnection agreement with BellSouth Corp. and receiving certification from nine states to offer telecommunications service to...

Sprint starts ads for Net solutions.
January 19, 2001... As part of its strategy to provide full Internet services for business customers, Sprint Corp. is launching a new advertising campaign for Sprint E/Solutions. Formed late last year along with an aggressive data center expansion strategy,...

.BY THE NUMBERS: Kansas City-area banks.
January 19, 2001... BY THE NUMBERS Kansas City-area banks' earnings stayed strong in the third quarter of 2000, but their performance cooled along with the economy. In- district banks are chartered in Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Platte or Wyandotte counties....

Strong third quarter aside, softness could make 2001 a hard year.
January 19, 2001... Kansas City-area banks' earnings stayed healthy in the third quarter, outperforming national averages, but the outlook for future months is growing increasingly guarded as. concerns mount about an economic slowdown. "There are some signs...

Users shouldn't pay for MGE's mistake.
January 19, 2001... When things go wrong, it's natural to look for someone toblame, especially when money is involved. There's been a lot of looking around in Kansas City lately after Missouri Gas Energy asked the Missouri Public Service Commission last week for...

Bistate 2 promises to be an important tilt.
January 19, 2001... Imagine the Chiefs hosting the Rams in front of a crowd 10 times the capacity of Arrowhead Stadium. A proportionately equivalent mass gathered a little more than six years ago in Cashmere, Wash., in the north-central part of that state for a...

NURSING GROWTH.
January 19, 2001... Staffing agency Integral Care Provider improve its fitness with high quality hires, intensive interviews When Jason and Gigi Mateo came to Kansas City, they never imagined they would become business owners. The Mateos, both...

Generational friction can be wicked (not the cool kind).
January 19, 2001... The director of marketing left her monthly staff meeting angry and frustrated. Once again, her staff -- most of whom are 20 years her junior -- had shown little. interest in her carefully arranged agenda with 10 minutes for "comments and...

In pursuit of big dreams, don't let dissatisfaction obscure life's wonders.
January 19, 2001... How satisfied are you with your life? After I finish writing this column, my husband and I are headed to a funeral. Steve's grandmother died this weekend, and we're going to Nebraska to say goodbye. My thoughts during the last day have...

Share your best decisions.
January 19, 2001... Every business owner makes decisions he or she is proud of, happy about or grateful for. The Business Journal is starting a weekly feature -- called Best Business Decisions -- in the Growth Strategies section that will explore some of...

PUMPED UP.
January 19, 2001... Low unemployment keeps perks weighty to retain, recruit employees --for now In the past few years, companies have gone to great lengths to recruit and retain employees. Some firms paid the leases on luxury cars for new employees. Others...

HERE'S TO YOUR HEALTH.
January 19, 2001... * In 1999, 82.5 percent of Americans younger than 65 were covered by some form of health insurance. * Americans with public-program health insurance: more than 34 million * Americans who bought insurance from an insurer: 15.8 million...

Goodbye cubicles.
January 19, 2001... 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. Fortunately, "cube farms" -- floors of identical office systems packed into the minimum amount of space --...

Pleasant perks.
January 19, 2001... Not only are workers benefiting from a tight labor market but also companies that contract with employers to offer discounted services in the workplace. In addition to health insurance and retirement plans, Denver-area employers are...

Recruit and retain.
January 19, 2001... Don't obsess over the fancy job perks. That's the conclusion of Aon Consulting's fourth annual United States@Work study, which surveyed 1,800 workers. Along with a safe workplace and competitive compensation, the Aon study identified...

KID is family-friendly for kids by allowing babies at office.
January 19, 2001... Brian Moline wasn't too sure about allowing babies in the office. But he didn't have much choice when the Kansas Insurance Department (KID) began allowing parents to bring their newborns to work. "They announced this 'thing;' I...

Companies can gain hiring edge with voluntary benefits package.
January 19, 2001... The most important assets in the 21st century workplace are human assets. Business today is built on a foundation of information technology and customer service, and it takes talented, committed people to build and maintain that foundation....

Level playing field.
January 19, 2001... Start-ups and smaller businesses used to be at a disadvantage in competing for employees who demanded comprehensive benefits. When smaller employers were able to compete on salary, economies of scale historically enabled big companies to...

Dental coverage.
January 19, 2001... Dental coverage often is the key to both perceptions. Unless dental is part of the voluntary benefit package mix, the package runs the risk of being viewed by prospective, employees as either not comprehensive enough or not flexible enough....

Tax code and attitudes hinder benefits for unmarried partners.
January 19, 2001... The number of households with unmarried partners continues to increase more rapidly than married households. But even at a time when employers have rolled out a variety of new benefits to attract talented workers, coverage of unmarried...

Language classes help employers get last word with their workers.
January 19, 2001... In an already tight job market, companies in Kansas City, and throughout the country, are struggling to entice job applicants with foreign language skills, offering bonuses and higher hourly wages for those who are bilingual and offering free...

TOP 25 AREA COMMERCIAL LENDING BANKS.
January 19, 2001... TOP 25 AREA COMMERCIAL LENDING BANKS (ranked by total commercial loans through Dec. 31, 2000) Lender name Dec. 31 2000 2001 2000 Address Commercial loans Rank Rank Phone/Fax...

TOP 25 AREA COMMERCIAL LENDING BANKS.
January 19, 2001... TOP 25 AREA COMMERCIAL LENDING BANKS (ranked by 2000 year-end loan-to-deposit ratio) Lender name Dec. 31, 2000 Dec. 31, 2000 2001 Address Loan-to-Deposit Bank Deposits Rank...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
January 19, 2001... FINANCIAL SERVICES American Century Investments announces the following new hires and promotions: Justin Brown has joined the company as an investment analyst. He will work on the investment team that oversees the American Century Growth...

BY THE NUMBERS: SHOW ME THE MONEY.
January 19, 2001... BY THE NUMBERS SHOW ME THE MONEY--Total personal income for the state of Kansas increased by $20.4 billion, up 44 percent, from 1991 to 1998, the most recent year for which personal income data is available. Several counties in and...

Bioterrorism.
January 12, 2001... Government, business plan for unthinkable A middle-aged man dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase enters a busy terminal at Chicago's O'Hare airport. As the man walks through the packed terminal, he surreptitiously sprays...

PVI saga continues with a new round of layoffs.
January 12, 2001... Overland Park technology company Peripheral Vision Infosystems Inc. laid off 12 to 15 of its employees on Thursday, sources confirmed to The Business Journal. Three sources close to the company said PVI officials announced the layoffs...

Risque business.
January 12, 2001... Olathe residents who are looking for more variety in their adult-product selection are going to have to wait a little longer. Or shop somewhere else. A moratorium on the opening and expansion of adult businesses in Olathe, which has...

Group sells Burns & Mac HQ complex.
January 12, 2001... The Ward Parkway complex housing Burns & McDonnell's headquarters is expected to sell this month for almost $73 million to a large Hawaiian property owner. The price -- $150 a square foot -- is one of the highest ever for a commercial...

Local techies hope capital is winning venture in Topeka.
January 12, 2001... Factors such as a vibrant work force and plentiful office space led John Esau to start his nonprofit business, TiesThatBind.com, in Lawrence in 1999. But he thought long and hard about starting his company in California's Bay Area, which...

Texas-sized ticket giveaway leaves latecomers grounded.
January 12, 2001... Apparently, everything really is bigger in Texas. Including Vanguard Airlines' 1,000-ticket giveaway in Austin. Kansas City-based Vanguard, which was in Austin this week to celebrate its inaugural flight on the Austin to Kansas City...

Olathe officials pumped about landing Grundfos.
January 12, 2001... Olathe's credibility as a corporate address got another endorsement this week when Grundfos Inc. announced plans to bring its North American headquarters and operations center to the I-35/119th St. Technology Park. Tim McKee, the Olathe...

Challenges and changes.
January 12, 2001... Jay Kayne You would think Jay Kayne would be disappointed. He had always dreamed of working on Capitol Hill. Instead, he landed in Kansas City. But in lieu of disappointment, Kayne has found an enriching fob that stretches him...

Housing plans need revision, new incentives.
January 12, 2001... Downtown housing advocates said they agree they'll need more help from City Hall to meet Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes' call for 10,000 new urban-core housing units in the next decade. George Birt, whose BBL Real Estate Services Group is a...

BY THE NUMBERS.
January 12, 2001... BY THE NUMBERS A STUDY IN RESOURCES -- School districts in the Kansas City area have wide differences in the property tax bases they have available for financing. The following lists total assessed property value for the 2000-2001...

Contract with training firm will add lift to Propeller's sales.
January 12, 2001... Local Web design firm Propeller has secured a contract with a California technology training company that will generate more than $1 million in gross billings for the Overland Park company during the next year. Propeller will develop a...

New school at UMKC will address need for tech, bioscience workers.
January 12, 2001... The University of Missouri-Kansas City announced this week that it is creating a new School of Interdisciplinary Computing and Engineering. University and community leaders lauded the move as a away for the university to better serve the...

CORRECTION & CLARIFICATION.
January 12, 2001... * A story in the Dec. 29-Jan. 4 edition of The Business Journal misidentified the president of the Gemological Institute of America. He is William Boyajian. * A story in the Jan. 5-11 edition of The Business Journal misstated Security...

Developer plans shopping center for site of old State Line Airport.
January 12, 2001... A Wisconsin-based developer wants to build a shopping center in Leawood on the west side of State Line Road along 135th Street, adding momentum to a corridor that is becoming the next retail frontier in Johnson County. Continental...

Though not a lump of coal, KC retailers don't get what they wanted for holidays.
January 12, 2001... Kansas City retailers fared slightly better this holiday season. than many of their counterparts throughout the country, but sales still were lower than what they and analysts had expected. Retail sales here were up 3 percent in December...

Teaney is joining Cohen-Esrey after years of competing with it.
January 12, 2001... Veteran real estate executive Reid Teaney will start work Jan. 15 at Cohen-Esrey Real Estate Services Inc., where he'll lead the sales effort and help with business development Teaney, 54, said he expects to work in all areas of real...

Inter-Tel says Lenexa operation will remain intact after purchase.
January 12, 2001... Inter-Tel Inc., which recently agreed to acquire Convergent Communications Inc.'s voice systems business, plans to retain employees in Convergent's Lenexa office. Convergent announced last week its voice key systems and PBX operations...

St. Louis opposition will drive the annual TIF tiff in Jefferson City.
January 12, 2001... TIF bashing, a favorite wintertime sport a state legislators in Jefferson City, will become even more extreme during this session as opponents of tax increment financing take aim at the tool that Kansas City has used to keep its downtown from...

Short circuit in California may pull plug on deregulation this session.
January 12, 2001... With all the bad publicity electricity deregulation received this summer in California, local utilities aren't holding their breath for local competition. Bernard Beaudoin, president and CEO of Kansas City Power & Light, thinks this will...

Missouri bills would establish a 'tax holiday' on clothing sales.
January 12, 2001... A tax break on clothing sold by Missouri retailers would enable stores to better compete with catalogs and the Internet and give consumers much-needed tax relief, proponents said. But opponents said the sales tax exemption could leave...

Kansas-chartered banks plan to fight for public deposits.
January 12, 2001... Deposit-starved Kansas bankers will fight this year to retain a state law that nourishes them with public money. Chuck Stones, senior vice president of the Kansas Bankers Association in Topeka, said the group wants to preserve a...

Tobacco money burning hole in Missouri budget.
January 12, 2001... Missouri legislators once again are poised to decide how to spend the nearly $6.7 billion the state will receive through 25 years as its share of the national settlement with tobacco companies. But some lawmakers fear that game playing and...

Programs hope to win Kansas' legislative lottery.
January 12, 2001... As the 2001 legislative season opens, technology and education are two issues being put together in bills waiting to be heard on both sides of the state line. In Kansas, the renewal of the state lottery has become a big issue because the...

States hope DUT bills will free construction money.
January 12, 2001... The Missouri and Kansas departments of transportation are looking to toughen their states' stance on driving under the influence in the 2001.legislative session. Failure to pass certain drunken driving-related measures have limited both...

Customers hold firms' success in palm of their hands.
January 12, 2001... Four Kansas City technology companies are banking that the increasing demand for hand-held devices will spell success for their businesses. Kansas City-based HANDMARK and Overland Park-based WIRCA are creating software for consumers....

Lawrence tech group will meet.
January 12, 2001... The Lawrence Technology Association will have its first meeting Jan. 22, featuring Rich Bendis, president and CEO of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., as a guest speaker. The association was formed last year by three Lawrence-based...

Euronet will run Prague bank's ATMs.
January 12, 2001... Leawood-based Euronet Worldwide has been selected to operate Prague-based Bank Austria Creditanstalt's ATM network in the Czech Republic. The agreement provides outsourcing services that include ATM installation, monitoring, dispatch,...

OP firm signs reseller deal.
January 12, 2001... Overland Park-based Computer Instruments Inc. has become a reseller for communications provider Avaya, based in Basking Ridge, N.J. The agreement allows Avaya's direct sales force and reseller channel to offer Computer Instruments' e-IVR...

Chamber has friends, wields influence.
January 12, 2001... We would like to thank The Business Journal for its recent editorial urging Kansas City business leaders to "stay on Jeff City's mind." You correctly stated the need for business leadership here to "mobilize and caravan to Jefferson City" in...

NO COUCH POTATOES.
January 12, 2001... Team Office relies on speed, efficiency to make its one-stop office furniture shop work As evidenced by the high-energy dance music wafting through its headquarters' openly designed interior, Team Office tries to keep things moving. ...

Redesigned Web site will click better if you look at basics.
January 12, 2001... The Yankee Group predicts that 2001 will be the year that a great many small to medium-sized businesses redesign their Web sites for greater functionality. "Brochure-ware" is out. What's in is a Web site that expands your company's...

Tell readers about your best business decisions.
January 12, 2001... Every business owner makes decisions he or she is proud of, happy about or grateful for. The Business Journal is starting a weekly feature -- called Best Business Decisions -- in the Growth Strategies section that will explore some of...

Do your part for employees: Remove obstacles to success.
January 12, 2001... Your employees will make or break you this year. What have you done to prepare them for success? As a business owner or leader, it's easy for you to get caught up in believing that your success all up to you. You're the one who put your...

SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN.
January 12, 2001... High marks for state-run college savings programs give parents multiple choices for answering ever-rising costs Carol Lorel is investing for her daughters' college educations, and it's a good thing she's doing it now. If the three of...

Recruiting 101.
January 12, 2001... Universities stretching to find qualified leaders are turning to established business practices to help them land candidates. A tight job market and attractive perks being offered are forcing college administrators to look at new ways to...

Minority managers wanted.
January 12, 2001... For a growing number of minority students nationwide, the first step up the corporate ladder is found in St. Louis. at the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. The consortium is a partnership involving a dozen graduate schools of...