The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 30

SB THE PALM BEACH POST TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2000 Jewelry buyers can purchase in private BJoomberg-Palm Beach Post Index 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 102- i i i i 4 i I i i i I i i i i At 47,000 square feet, the Palm Beach store is nearly half the size ofNeiman's next-smallest outlet, 90,000 square feet in Denver. As a result, this store, which will employ 130 people, has no children's department or restaurant and only a limited intimate-apparel section. taurant and only a limited intimate-apparel section. West Palm Beach developer Murray Goodman built the store, which is across from the Esplanade shopping plaza he put up in 1979. The town of Palm Beach granted Goodman an exception to a rule banning building on Worth Avenue during the winter so the store could open this year instead of next.

"I think Murray felt the avenue needed a little rejuvenation," said John Dowd, Goodman's senior vice president of development. "One way to do that is to attract a high-end store like Nei-man Marcus." Staff writer Staci Sturrock contributed to this story. paulowerspbpost.com NEIMAN MARCUS From 7B pensive, too, and people still shop there." The two-level store, across from Saks Fifth Avenue, is a tribute to South Florida architect Addison Mizner, with Mediterranean-style columns and arches. The "island-sand" stucco and red-clay roof blend in with the rest of Worth Avenue. The modernist interior includes glass panels in the walls meant to emulate the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as colorful plaster panels designed to give the menswear department a yacht-like atmosphere.

There are two luxury treat- 7-M 7-27 S-7 5-16 S-2S 9-5 9-14 Base value: 100 December 29, 1995 The Bloomberg-Palm Beach Post Index is a measure the performance of companies in Coast. The 45 companies in the index are Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties. Dycom leads Local stocks fell Monday, led by Dycom Industries and Ameripath Inc. The Bloomberg-fam Beach Post index, a price-weighted list of companies with operations in the region, fell 2.01 to 109.69.

Dycom Industries (NYSE: DY) fell $2.44 to FPL spreads out fuel surcharge, waives interest ment rooms for makeovers, and in the jewelry department, there's a back room where the customer and sales clerk can complete a transaction so "the world doesn't have to know what you're doing," Downing said. If ever there was a department store meant for Palm Beach, this is it. "This is designed to cater to for the $518 million over two years. The company also agreed not to collect interest of about $33 million. Customers will also get a one-time credit in June of about $12 on a 1,000 kilowatt-hour bill.

The $75 million to $100 million credit is based on a rate-reduction agreement reached in April 1999 with the PSC and the state Office of Public Counsel. Vicki Gordon Kaufman, attorney for the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, said the overall increase is still too high, and asked the PSC to spread out payments for the $518 million over three years. the community here," Downing said. "We expect to get customers from all over, but this store really is for this community." At 47,000 square feet, the Palm Beach store is nearly half the size of Neiman's next-smallest outlet, 90,000 square feet in Denver. As a result, this store, which will employ 130 people, has no children's department or res But Korel Dubin, FPL's manager of regulatory issues, said three years is too long.

There's an awful lot of uncertainty in the fuel market. I don't think it's reasonable to extend it out further than two years," Dubin said. Commissioners agreed, saying FPL had not yet considered whether it would waive interest costs in the event of a three-year payback. "It looks like we're looking a gift horse in the mouth," said Commissioner Braulio Baez. Commissioner Leon Jacobs said fuel prices are too uncertain Embraer asking county to pay $100,000 job grant to warrant stretching out the cost recovery.

"I don't think this trend is anywhere close to being over," Jacobs said. "We are going to probably see another year of high fuel." The commission also approved a request by Florida Pub- -lie Utilities to increase the maxK mum price it can charge custom-; ers for natural gas starting in January to 84.78 cents a therm from 70.38 cents. The West Palm Beach-based company had in- creased the rates for November and December from 50.05 cents a therm. deborahcircellipbpost.com FPL From 7B FPL, a subsidiary of Juno Beach-based FPL Group (NYSE: FPL, will have to pay an estimated $2.57 billion for fuel in 2001, up from $2.2 billion this year and $1.6 billion in 1999. The higher bills also will pay the company back for the $518 million extra it spent this year to cover unexpected spikes in oil and natural gas prices.

Officials with FPL, which has 3.8 million customers in Florida, said they tried to soften the blow by spreading out the payments After 30 years Turn GREEN From 7B sign operation to Connecticut. "While it's not nearly the same number of jobs that we're losing, if a positive because it represents new, high-paying jobs coming in," said Gary Hines, senior vice president of the county's Business Development Board. Pratt expects to complete the move by the end of December, leaving 1,150 space propulsion and engine testing employees at its plant in northwestern Palm Beach County. Pratt won't say how many engineers accepted offers to move to its headquarters and chief manufacturing plant in East Hartford. Employees say 800 have moved and 200 to 300 others are expected to leave by the end of the year.

The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County has been wooing Embraer for more than four months. Company and county officials first met through Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development arm. The company will go before the county commission today to seek approval for a $100,000 job growth incentive grant, or $1,000 for each job. your retirement savings into income. retirement, now you need income.

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Ameripath (Nasdaq: PATH) fell $2.13 to $15.94. In the broader market, the Standard Poor's 500 Index fell 1.84 percent to 1,342.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.57 percent to 10,462.65. Embraer had considered expanding an operation in Dallas but chose Palm Beach County instead. "I think they felt this was an area where they could find qualified engineers to fill job openings for this (office)," Hines said.

Embraer joins a growing number of aerospace engineering firms in northern Palm Beach County, With Pratt's layoffs during the 1990s and its decision to move its military jet engineers this year, several engineering services firms sprouted there to lure ex-Pratt employees. They include Agilis Group in Palm Beach Gardens, Pegasus Engineering Services Inc. in Juno Beach, Siemens-Westinghouse in Jupiter, East-West Technologies in northwestern Palm Beach County and Competitive Design Co. of Juno Beach. "We've identified aerospace as a target industry for Palm Beach County," Hines said.

"If you go back 30 years when Pratt made its decision to base its operation here, (the area) has become a sort of magnet for aviation-related industries." stephenpoundspbpost.com alexandracloughpbpost.com ed lower, most likely on concerns about loan volume and defaults in a slowing economy. Banker J.P. Morgan slipped $4.06 to $142.06. Japan's Nikkei index fell 0.09 percent. Germany's DAX index fell 2.1 percent, Britain's FT-SE 100 lost 1.5 percent, and France's CAC-40 was off 2.3 percent.

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But they were more uneasy about profit prospects and an economic slowdown than the election's outcome, analysts said. "We have a very serious problem with earnings outlooks," said Edward Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Morgan Gren-fell. "There is a perception that U.S. economic growth is getting depressed by high oil prices and a very strong dollar, which makes our exports more expensive overseas." Gainers included Quaker Oats, which rose $5.19 to $95.50 on news reports the food maker's board is considering a buyout by Coca-Cola. Two weeks ago, Quaker, whose most valuable brand is Gatorade, rejected an offer from PepsiCo.

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