Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 23

ALL EDITIONS The Arizona Republic SECTION OBITUARIESC7 THURSDAY AUGUST 2, 1990 News Briefs Growth Business 11 1 i 1 i' Dow slips 5.94 a -m. a'-ixa gauge; Zero on economy Recession fears greet key report i ti.y,,,.,.,,,,,,,.. i Photos by Christine KeithThe Arizona Republic Two 1 8-story towers mark the Flamingo Hilton, the newest hotel and casino in Laughlin, across the Colorado River from Bullhead City. At 2,000 it is the largest hotel and casino in the fast-growing gambling town, which now has 7,250 rooms. 'THE BIG SHOW The stock market recorded spotty losses Wednesday as investors studied new signs of sluggishness in business activity.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials slid 5.94, to 2,899.26. Further details appear in chart at bottom of page. Complete story on Page C4. Credit crunch widespread One of every five businesses seeking credit in the past six months had trouble borrowing funds, according to a survey released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of "The credit crunch on business is more serious and more widespread than previously has been acknowledged," Chamber Vice President Richard W.

Rahn said in releasing the poll of 8,190 businesses. He attributed the situation to the economic slowdown, increased bank regulation and the effects of the thrift-industry bailout. By region, the worst crunch was in the Northeast, where 26.2 percent of the respondents reported having trouble, and in the West, where 24.6 percent experienced it. 1 jp IBM plans subsidiary jg Computer giant International Busi-' ncss Machines Corp. said Wednesday that it will form a subsidiary for its U.S.

typewriter, keyboard and some printer businesses, and that it intends to have the buy-out firm of Clayton Dubilier Inc. become the unit's majority owner. IBM also said it is studying a plan to include the remainder of its business in the alliance with Clayton Dubilier. IBM refused to disclose financial details and said an agreement could be concluded by December. Mortgage index declines The cost-of-funds index decreased slightly in June in the 11th District of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.

The agency said Wednesday that the funds rate, the most popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 8.086 percent, from 8.171 percent in May. The index reflects the interest rates paid by savings institutions in Arizona, California and Nevada on their sources of mortgage money. Oil price soars The contract for September delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the bench-mark grade of U.S. crude, settled Wednesday at $21.54 per 42-gallon barrel, up 85 cents on the day and bringing its gain for the past two sessions to $1.33. Contracts for delivery from October through December also advanced strongly.

Hilton opens Laughlin's largest hotel-casino By John D. McClain The Associated Press WASHINGTON The government's main economic-forecasting gauge failed to budge in June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in a report analysts said portended a listless economy in the months ahead. The department's Index of Leading Economic Indicators, designed to forecast economic activity six to nine months in advance, was unchanged for the second month this year. It had risen in March and May and fallen in February and April, If the index were to fall for three straight months, it could signal a forthcoming recession. "This meandering is consistent with what is happening in the economy," said economist Darryl Delano of Cahners Economics in Newton, Mass.

"It all nets out to basically nothing." David Berson, chief economist with the Federal National Mortgage Association, agreed. "Basically, what we've seen over this year is small increases, small decreases, with everything averaging around zero," Berson said. "The economy is going to continue in its slow-growth path." But other analysts expressed deeper concern. "What we have got is an economy that is slowly sinking into possibly a mild recession by either late this year or early next," said David an economist with New York securities dealer Aubrey G. Lanston Co.

Sec U.S. ECONOMY, page C6 By Bill Goodykoontz The Arizona Republic LAUGHLIN, Nev. With a last name like theirs, Peter and Louise Casino couldn't resist attending the opening of the Flamingo Hilton here Wednesday. "We had to see the big show," Louise Casino said as she and her husband, who Mohave Valley residents Bill Gosser and Betty Morris were among the first to try their luck on the slot machines just after the Flamingo Hilton opened. live across the Colorado River in Bullhead City, waited for a spot at one of the Flamingo's occupied 950 slot machines.

The "show" included fireworks, the release of 30,000 hot-pink balloons and one free pull of any slot-machine handle. Thousands of people descended upon the $190 million hotel, most of them hoping to strike it rich in the casino. At 2,000 rodms, the Flamingo Hilton is the largest hotel and casino in Laughlin, which now has about 7,250 hotel rooms nearly one-tenth the total in Las Vegas. The Flamingo Hilton's twin towers are 18 stories tall and decorated with copper-pink reflective windows and pink-neon piping. The hotel is the largest ever built by the Hilton Hotels although several of its other purchased properties are larger.

The Flamingo represents another giant step in Laughlin's phenomenal growth, from 94 residents in 1980 to 4,437 in 1989, and in Bullhead City's swelling during the same time, from around 10,000 to an estimated population of more than 25,000. The hotel has created more than 1,900 GM reorganizes Chairman Robert C. Stempel of General Motors Corp. charged into his first day on the job Wednesday by announcing a reorganization of the giant automaker. GM will reduce the layers of GM management and shift more responsibility for cars and trucks from upper management to the eight GM divisions.

Stempel said the moves will allow GM to compete better in the 1990s by focusing on improving vehicle quality and increasing sagging market share. 71 assets of to be sold a dog in the casino. Those were the days." Sprigg was outside the Flamingo Hilton on Wednesday waiting for the glass doors to swing open about 9:45 a.m. Charles Monti, 69, had been there since 8 a.m. "I feel lucky," said Monti, who lives in St.

Louis but travels to Laughlin about once a month to gamble. Jesse Brittain, 64, from Los Lunas, N.M., said gambling in a brand-new casino is supposed to bring good luck. "It's the grand opening, and I want to win some money," she said. As the crowd waited in the Laughlin heat, Nevada Gov. Bob Miller and Barron See HILTON, page C2 account for a population increase of 4,420 in the area.

Annual gambling revenue for the Flamingo is expected to be $155 million, Finneran said. The Flamingo Hilton stands only a parking lot away from Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort and Casino. The unincorporated town had its genesis 24 years ago when Laughlin bought a bar with 12 slot machines in a remote spot along the river. Anna Sprigg, 71, of Kingman, remembers the early days. "We used to come to the Riverside when there weren't enough slots," Sprigg said as she played two slots at once.

"We used to stand in line. "Don's kids were young, and there was Robert C. Stempel Begins GM job on the run. jobs, according to Ted Finneran, executive Scripps Howard WASHINGTON If you need an office building in Arizona, a golf course in Texas or a shopping center in Florida, the government is getting ready to conduct a clearance sale you might not be able to resist. Details were announced Wednes director of the Laughlin Chamber of Commerce.

Mohave County, planners said the hotel will create 650 spinoff jobs and Builders triple-teaming 450-home project Stockbroker banned A Phoenix stockbroker on Wednesday was banned from the industry and fined $50,000 by the National Association of Securities Dealers. The association said that Mark E. Frost was penalized for forging customers' names on forms to withdraw money from accounts, using some of the funds as his own, and falsifying company books and records by forging customers' initials on an annuity application. Construction spending steady Construction spending was flat in June after two consecutive monthly declines, the government said Wednesday in a report pointing to further evidence of weakness in the building industry. The Commerce Department reported that residential, non-residential and government construction spending totaled a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $447.5 billion.

Despite the weakness, June's spending was 3.7 percent more than that of June 1989, when it totaled $431.6 billion. Financial markets The dollar regained some ground Wednesday, rising to 147.30 Japanese yen in New York from 145.835 on Tuesday, and to 1.5888 German marks from 1.5855. Gold rose in New York, closing at $373.30 a troy ounce, up $3.30 from Tuesday, and silver picked up 3.5 cents to close at $4,822. The federal-funds market rate, the interest rate on overnight interbank loans, ended Wednesday at 8.06 percent, up from Tuesday's 8 percent. day on a previously announced Nov.

15 auction of at least 71 commercial properties in seven states. The sale is part of an effort by federal regulators to clean up the wreckage of hundreds of failed savings and loan associations. Wednesday's announcement was made by L. William Seidnian, chairman of the Resolution Trust the agency charged with selling the assets of insolvent taken over by the government. The 71 properties are appraised at nearly $337 million.

No property is valued at less than $1 million, and several are in the $15 million to $20 million range, according to Jon Karlson, the RTC's assistant director for real-estate marketing. Sec COMMERCIAL, page C6 By Terry McDonnell The Arizona Republic Three Valley home builders have joined forces to purchase a parcel in south Phoenix and develop a master plan for 450 lesidences. Continental Homes Homes by Polygon and Knoell Homes are under contract to purchase a 1 10-acre site south of Ahwatukee from a private trust. The price of the land was not available. The property is bounded on the east by 48th Street, on the west by 44th Street and on the north by the Galveston Street alignment.

The southern boundary is just north of Chandler Boulevard. Continental Homes Vice President Garth Wicgcr said the group decided to work its models in three to four months, after completion of a site plan and closing of escrow on the acreage. Polygon, based in Laguna Hills, Calif, expects to have its first residences finished by January. Phil Miller, executive vice president at Polygon, said the company will build 180 homes on its portion of the land. This will be Polygon's fifth subdivision in the Phoenix area since entering the market in late 1989.

Knoell Homes intends to build 110 residences on lots. Linda Nyborg, Knocll's director of planning, said the company will start construction by the end of the year. together rather than separately in trying to zone and purchase the acreage. The zoning was approved recently by Phoenix. "We all had the same motivation," Wieger said.

"We all liked the area, so we thought it would be good to get together on the zoning." Wieger said that Continental and Polygon figure to each get 40 acres and that Knoell will build on the remaining 30 acres. Although the home prices and sizes have not been determined, the lots will range from 5,000 to 8,000 square feet. Wieger said the builders will market homes in different sizes and price ranges. Continental plans to begin construction of Compiled from reports by The Arizona Republic and The Associated Press. Development adviser to lead ASU plan THE MARKETS Trading activity for Wednesday.

trr iVi iTfti TfWMMttriirf mi Dow Jones Industrial average TH 3,050 3,000 2,9503 NAAMAN NICKELL The Arizona Republic rt4 NYSE Composite volume 216,027,550 Issues traded 2,034 Advanced 733 Declined 777 Unchanged 524 New highs 39 New lows 74 time since the second quarter of 1988 that Tucson had experienced deflation, said Nat de Gennaro, economic-research specialist at the University of Arizona. And on a 12-month basis, Tucson's cost-of-living increase was 1.8 percent. I Things weren't quite as bright in Phoenix. "Overall price levels fell 0.3 percent during the -second quarter," said Tom Rex, research manager for the Center for Business Research at Arizona State University. "But this followed an unusually large increase of 2.7 percent during the first quarter." Also, for the 12-month period Phoenix's Consumer Price Index was up 4.7 percent.

Rex said he expects Phoenix's inflation rate to continue at about a 5 percent rate of increase in the months ahead. economic development, international development, downtown redevelopment, the environment, intergovernmental relations and education. She also served as a senior policy analyst for economy and trade under Gov. Bruce Babbitt. "It's a great opportunity because there is so much to be done," said Howard, who will start her job on Aug.

20. "It's also going to be nice to be in a support role and not in the middle of the competition for who does what and where in economic development." ASU's entry into economic development should prove extremely beneficial to the state because the school has vast resources that largely had been unvailable in the past. Dillard's picks site Dillard Department Stores will build its Western regional distribution center on 30 acres of land it has purchased in Gilbert. The company is building a building to replace its current distribution center at 1616 S. Priest Drive in Tempe, said Paul Sic-czkowski of Lyon Commercial Brokerage who represented Dillard's in the transaction.

The purchase price of the land was $1.3 million, Sieczkowski said. No estimate was available on the cost of construction for the distribution center. Cost of living dips You may not really have noticed it, but it cost a tad less to live in Phoenix and Tucson in the second quarter of this year. Tucson's rate turned downward by 2 percent in comparison with the previous quarter. It was the first Arizona State University's economic-development program is taking clearer shape with the hiring of Gail Howard as director of the program.

When Lattie Coor took over as president of ASU last fall, he assured the business community that the school would play a much more prominent role in economic development. And he added that to other responsibilities handled by Allan Price, assistant vice president for community relations and economic development. Price has been formulating plans for the kinds of things he believes ASU can do best to aid economic development, and now, he has the person he needs to carry out those plans. Howard has been assistant to the mayor of Phoenix since April 1987, serving as an adviser and liaison in 2,900 2,850 2,800 2,899.26 6.94 High Close 2,750 3 25 26 27 30 31 1 July August Amex NYSE Comp. ran -r30 0.63 to to W2 355.52 353.30 38 The Arizona Republic.