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BEST AND WORST OF THE BUSINESS YEAR

By D Magazine |

Uncanny Coincidence

The week that the sale of the North City News was announced, a large “For Sale” sign appeared on the cover of the newspaper. Actually, the cover story dealt with a North Dallas neighborhood that was for sale. A heckuva coincidence, but wait. It gets worse. The week the newspaper was finally shut down, the cover story (on stress) posed the question, “Are you at the end of your rope?” On the cover was a noose large enough to fit around the neck of the doomed weekly.



Continuing Crisis

Poor “Sakowitz” Village. It just can’t seem to find an anchor tenant to give it a name other than (your name here) Village on the Parkway. That’s enough to sink anyone. But then mere are so many tenants of “anchor” magnitude on the Parkway already- Neiman’s, Sanger’s, Marshall Field’s, Saks, Macy’s. Who’s left to come to the rescue? Maybe the owners should just plow it under and make a sorely needed North Dallas Park. If they charged admission, they’d make a fortune.



Putting It To Work

Guaranty Federal Savings had the best return on assets of a Dallas S&L with a 3.92 rate of return. Western Savings had the worst with a 2.41 rate of return.

(The above figures are current as of September 1985, according to the Home Loan Board.)



Ode To Ingenuity

The best new product we’ve seen is USA WET, a sports drink that’s not only made in the USA, it’s made in Texas. The isotonic big gulp is another drink created to replace water, potassium, and other minerals lost when you sweat. Made by Texas Wet, Inc., which is headed by Dallasites Gail and Duane Houy, USA WET plans to give those other sports drinks (Gatorade being the granddaddy) a run for their money. USA Wet took the first big steps toward that finish line when it was named the official thirst quencher of the most recent Azalea Run and the courtside drink of the WCT finals. It tastes good, even after it goes down, and that goes for all three flavors: lemon-lime, orange, and fruit punch.

And this must be the worst: it’s washable. It’s adjustable. It lets you carry your dog just like a purse or briefcase. It’s the Doggie Bag, a product of Dallas’s M.D. Smith & Associates, Inc. Talk about an embarrassing experience for a dog. How would you like to be suspended from sturdy polypropylene webbing attached to a heavy-duty handle and then carried around like a shopping bag? The veterinarians and trainers who “verified’-not endorsed-Doggie Bag may think that picking dogs up with your hands can make them uncomfortable, but what about canine pride? You’d never catch a cat in one of these things.



So Much For Show Biz

Even Jumpin’ Jerry Rucker couldn’t save this one: when the League of Women Voters persuaded Heritage Cable Company to televise a day of the titillating deliberations of the Dallas City Council, only thirty-four viewers tuned in.

Money in the Bank, or Not

RepublicBank Oak Cliff had the best loan portfolio performance of a Dallas holding company bank with a mere .56 percent of its loans in the “non-performing” category.

InterFirst Bank Dallas had the poorest performing loan portfolio of a Dallas holding company bank: 7.26 percent of its total loans are non-performers. And the deadbeat goes on.

Calling a Spade a Spade

So-called “vulture” funds always thrive when real estate markets are down, swallowing up dying properties for low prices. But such partnerships are usually discreet, shadowy enterprises. Not so with Dallas businessman H.R. “Bum” Bright, who created a partnership early this year to buy distressed real estate properties-and candidly called it Vulture One. By the way. Vulture One was created to prey on properties owned by Bright Banc Savings Association and Dallas Federal Savings & Loan Association, Bum’s own companies. Pretty clever, Bum, to create a hand to wash your other hand.



Born to Overrun

Woe to the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The Dallas City Council voted another $3 million to I.M. Pei and Partners for work on the new symphony center. That’s over and above the previous $5.7 million allocated.

When Opportunity Knocks

At Beaird and Beaird, Inc., Tom and Gene Beaird are playing doctor to distressed properties, and in a real estate economy like this one, they aren’t lacking for patients. The Beairds run the numbers on troubled real estate properties through a sophisticated computer analysis to determine the best disposition. Sometimes their advice is blunt: dump it. But more often, they suggest a way to make the property work.

We’d Rather Be Fishing

Why did Al Casey, former CEO of American Airlines, a rational and highly talented man, emerge from retirement to head the U.S. Postal Service? Hard to believe even Ronald Reagan could be that persuasive.

But here’s a sunset story that’s even worse. Ex-U.S, Rep. Jim Collins, best known for repeatedly pushing school prayer during his fourteen years in Congress, says he is thinking about running for Mayor of Dallas as the “anti-establishment” candidate. The what?!



Accounts Inconceivable

If you love Dallas as it is, or at least don’t want to see it get any worse, sometimes you just can’t let bottom-line thinking rule. The following, we find unthinkable: plans to turn the downstairs portion of Highland Park Village Theatre into retail space, leaving only the upstairs for theater use; plans to make yet another Lower Greenville Avenue bistro out of the Granada Theatre; adding any other airlines to Love Field traffic; allowing any more high-rise structures on Oak Lawn Avenue.



Act of God Clause

It’s not a “sale,” it’s just an “exchange agreement,” says pastor Mike Renquist of NorthPark Presbyterian Church about the congregation’s sweet deal with the Robert M. Bass Group of Fort Worth to swap the 9.2 acres where the church stands at 9009 North Central Expressway for 6 acres a few blocks north at Walnut Hill Lane and I $5.5 million-plus a share of the proceeds earned I on a portion of the commercial development on the old church property. Someone up there must I like Presbyterians.



Oil Baron’s Bust

It seemed like a great idea at the time. In the depths of the energy crisis, Southland Corporation bought its own oil refining operation so its thousands of 7-Elevens would never run out of gas. Unfortunately for Southland, plummeting oil prices have left the otherwise healthy company with a very big millstone around its corporate neck and no relief in sight.



The Check’s in the Mail

Lamas & Nettleton paid the highest dividend- at $2.45 a share-of a Dallas company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Earning Power

Gibraltar Savings had the top earnings performance of a Dallas savings and loan at $76,543,000.

Dallas Federal Savings ranked last among Dallas S&Ls at $9,293,000.



Music To Get Rich By

“Success in D Major” by the Concorde Financial Corporation is to be sung “triumphantly” and without the bouncing ball to lead you: “Against uncertain winds of change and envy of the fallen/ In whatever exchange of fortune one chord rings true/ Planning and investments in profits do abide/ Sing long the happy song, with Concorde we thrive,” (Appeared in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Stagebill.)

Bar-Hopping

We know the Hotel Crescent Court’s grand architecture and fabulous finish-out has been applauded by one and all in this town. But they did make one tiny mistake. The newsstand at the end of the registration desk is a beauty of polished marble and brass. Unfortunately, no one bothered to cut a door into the counter. A couple of times a day, you can see a hotel employee vault over the counter.



Joseph McCarthy Memoriam

A story on “The KGB in Texas,” Texas Business, October 1985, puts new tailspin on business journalism. But surely a state that’s just two days’ march from Sandimsta territory has more to worry about than a few Ruskie moles.



Bull [S-] Market Leader

Has to be Craig Hall. He came out of nowhere, and now that’s probably where he wishes he could go. As the bankruptcies roll in on Hall’s real estate limited partnerships, the self-created media darling has more to keep him busy than interviews for PR glory stories.



Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

For a long time, the old Zale Building at 3000 Diamond Park on the west side of Stemmons Freeway has been one of the most unsightly buildings around, flinging its terrible gold reflection down at squinting commuters. Then renovation efforts began, bringing a glimmer of hope. It was snuffed out when die ugly gold panels were l replaced with-ugly silver panels.

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