Wednesday, May 14, 2008
BUSINESS
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has secured nearly $30 million in financing that the company will use to refinance debt and free up cash flow.
Developer John “Pete” Clements unveiled details Tuesday of River Park, his planned $600 million mixed-use development on 36 acres near Hollywood Casino on the north side of downtown.
Baton Rouge will soon embark on the second part of the planning effort credited with kick-starting the resurgence of its downtown a decade ago.
LSU has its first minority business dean in Eli Jones from the University of Houston. LSU Provost Astrid Merget made the announcement Tuesday that Jones will take over the E.J. Ourso College of Business on July 1, pending June approval from the LSU Board of Supervisors.
Donnie Jarreau Cos. sold a 30,000-square-foot tract on Coursey Boulevard last week to Gulf Coast Bank for $480,000.
The Metro Council will consider funding a second phase of the Plan Baton Rouge process credited with playing a major role in kick-starting the rejuvenation of downtown 10 years ago.
The median home price in Baton Rouge fell 3.6 percent in the first quarter from a year ago to $169,200, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
Donnie Jarreau Companies says it sold a 30,000-square-foot out-parcel on Coursey Boulevard last week to Gulf Coast Bank for $480,000.
NEW ORLEANS — The owner and the chief financial officer of The Oath for Louisiana were convicted Monday on federal fraud charges relating to their operation of the now-defunct health insurance company, the state’s third-largest HMO at the time of its failure.
Around 21,000 homeowners forced to buy wind damage protection from Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. lack an important layer of protection: money for living expenses if their homes become uninhabitable.
Haspel, the Louisiana-rooted menswear brand that originated the seersucker suit, is going worldwide. Company President Laurie Haspel Aronson said Monday that Haspel Worldwide will debut in July as it begins transitioning to a lifestyle brand, similar to Polo or Tommy Hilfiger.
A North Carolina division of The Shaw Group Inc. has been hired to build a 620-megawatt power plant for Duke Energy Carolinas, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Duke.
A North Carolina division of The Shaw Group Inc. has been hired to build a 620-megawatt power plant for Duke Energy Carolinas, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Duke.
Little Rock, Ark.-based Pulaski Bank and Trust Co., owned by Lafayette’s Iberiabank Corp., has filed papers with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to buy ANB Financial N.A. out of receivership.
A Dallas partnership said today that a planned 119-room SpringHill Suites at Howell Place in north Baton Rouge will open in early 2009.
Changes long in the works are beginning to take place on a vibrant stretch of Baton Rouge road less than a mile long.
Florida Parishes Bank has named Hart Bordelon as vice president in the lending division; Derek Shants as a vice president working with loan reviews, internal audits and credit analysis; and Stephen Pepitone as collections administrator. Bordelon is a certified public accountant and contractor in private practice. Shants was chief financial officer of Central Progressive Bank. Pepitone is a recent graduate of LSU. Florida Parishes Bank has offices in Hammond and Ponchatoula.
Joseph B. Zanco has been named chief financial officer at Home Bank in Lafayette. He was executive vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer for Iberiabank.
Dr. Robert D. Westerman has been named recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the Louisiana Dental Association. The award is presented to members who exemplify the highest standards of professional conduct in dentistry and have made extraordinary contributions to organized dentistry and their community.
Betty Fomby-White, a Southern University School of Nursing associate professor, has been named winner of the Helen Johnson Creemens Excellence in Teaching Award by the Baton Rouge District Nurses Association. The award is given to a nurse educator who teaches full time in East Baton Rouge; promotes the professional nursing values of caring, compassion, understanding, kindness, respect and dignity; displays a professional image of nursing; and serves in roles to advance professional nurses and nursing practice in Louisiana.
Savanna Christina Ordoyne has been named recipient of the Greater Baton Rouge Society for Human Resource Management’s spring scholarship. Ordoyne is a human resource management senior in LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business and a native of Thibodaux. The $1,000 scholarship is warded each fall and spring semester to the human resource management student graduating with the highest grade point average.
EXECUTIVE WOMEN INTERNATIONAL, BATON ROUGE CHAPTER
- WHEN: Tuesday, 6 p.m.
- WHERE: DeAngelo’s Italian Dining, 7970 Jefferson Highway
- EVENT: Scholarship Award
- COST: $25
- RESERVATIONS: Rose Wilson, (225) 923-0653, Ext. 4, or rwilson@ymcabatonrouge.org
Health care expo
Spurning his self-described status as Louisiana’s most boring governor, Bobby Jindal took a walk on the wild side Friday: He swilled Diet Coke for breakfast.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California must increase tax incentives to movie and television studios as a way to keep them from moving their productions out of state.
Baton Rouge’s HOPE VI, which has been upgrading public housing in Old South Baton Rouge, says construction work will begin Monday at the corner of Highland Road and Mary Street, the vacant lot across from WBRZ.
Chevron Corp.'s new Gulf exploration headquarters in St. Tammany Parish has won Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification and is the first gold certified LEED building in the state.
The Louisiana Public Facilities Authority said Thursday it completed a $50 million bond sale this week for developer Mike Wampold’s proposed upscale hotel project on Bluebonnet Boulevard, which is now set to open by early 2010.
Eleven years after it bought a refinery in Krotz Springs, Valero Energy Corp. will sell the 85,000-barrel-per-day site for $333 million to Alon USA Energy Inc., an independent oil company based in Dallas.
Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services Inc. reported a 17 percent growth in sales to $246 million in the first quarter, but its net income dropped 16 percent to $10.2 million.
Universal health coverage will be necessary if Louisiana and the United States want to achieve meaningful health-care reform, a health insurance industry lobbyist said Thursday.
CARLYSS — Global Industries Ltd., which builds offshore structures for the petroleum industry, saw its first-quarter earnings more than halved as post-hurricane repair work in the Gulf of Mexico ended, the company reported.
Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services Inc. reported 17 percent growth in sales to $246 million in the first quarter, but its net income dropped 16 percent to $10.2 million.
Tipitina's Music Office Co-Op on Government Street will hold a “street party” at noon Tuesday to celebrate its recent opening.
Valero Energy Corp. sold its Krotz Springs refinery today to Alon USA Energy Inc. of Dallas for $333 million and a portion of future earnings valued in excess of $100 million.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Chevron Corp. has vacated its downtown New Orleans building to take up new quarters near Covington.
Rising expenses and flat revenue drove Lamar Advertising Co. to a first-quarter loss that still beat analysts’ forecast.
A private investment group headed by Baton Rouge developer Tom Nolan Sr. could be within a few months of breaking ground on “Frogland USA,” a proposed Acadia Parish water theme park based on the annual frog festival in Rayne.
Pinnacle Entertainment, the gambling casino operator developing a new casino in Baton Rouge, reported $5.1 million in 2008 first-quarter earnings, up from $2.9 million in the same 2007 quarter.
Rising expenses and falling revenue drove Lamar Advertising Co. to a first-quarter loss.
An investment group headed by Baton Rouge developer Tommy Noland has proposed “Frogland USA,” an Acadia Parish water theme park based on the annual frog festival in Rayne.
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber today backed several initiatives of the Jindal administration to ramp up state economic development efforts, including requests for $307 million more in big project deal-making money and a nearly $8 million increase to the governor’s Rapid Response Fund.
Tropicana Entertainment, the parent company of the Belle of Baton Rouge casino and the downtown Sheraton hotel, says that despite filing for bankruptcy, it plans to continue its U.S. operations and leave current staffing levels unchanged.
The state Bond Commission on Tuesday approved a $1 billion loan — along with a new funding approach — to repay Entergy Corp. for restoring power after the 2005 hurricanes.
Mark Rohr, the chief executive and president of Albemarle Corp., will become chairman of the specialty chemicals maker in August, the company’s board of directors announced Tuesday.
The parent company of Tropicana casinos, the properties of which includes the Belle of Baton Rouge and the downtown Sheraton hotel, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, several months after gambling regulators in New Jersey stripped the famed Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City of its license.
Construction crews will begin work on the former Perkins Road Hardware building in the next few weeks, beginning its transformation into a mixed-use development anchored by a new concept by a New Orleans-area restaurant, a local gourmet pizzeria and four apartment units.
One barometer of the Gulf South retail economy — appliance retailer Conn’s Inc. — shows a modest increase in quarterly sales for the three months ending in April.
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