The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 26

pi HI MM 91 The Palm Beach Post SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1997 PAGE 7B Codes for 24-hour financial updates Page 8B son Catalfumo sells Office Depot building A. LintonBlvd. yj tm Delray 2 Beach I C-15 canal 1-40 canal Clint Moore RdJ 1Mlle I II table with package deals," for several buildings in different locations, he said. Having cash available allows the company to begin construction before going through the sometimes lengthy commercial loan process, Catalfumo said. With an in-house construction arm, the company has become known for "fast-tracking" projects, such as the Cheney Brothers distribution building completed in months.

Catalfumo, which secured a 15-year lease from Office Depot, said the contract was never in jeopardy despite a nine-month fight for a merger with Staples. The merger fell apart in July when a federal regulator denied it on antitrust grounds. Uncertainty of the merger had caused a previous negotiation for sale of the building to fall apart. Catalfumo was in another closing most of Friday to dispose of three additional properties. The sales provide a slew of cash for Catalfumo to begin a new round of projects, company officials said Friday.

"We're just gearing up to buy a lot more land," Catalfumo said. "Our projects are getting larger." Among the projects Catalfumo built in Palm Beach County last year were: an Office Depot building, which recently opened at Congress Avenue and Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach, and Cheney Brothers warehouse and distribution plant in Riviera Beach. Spokesman Randall Greene said this is the year Catalfumo Cos. ventures out of state. The company is looking at building office towers for single users in the West and North.

"A lot of tenants are coming to the The building, under construction during merger talks, sells for $24 million. By Angie Francalancia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer DELRAY BEACH The Office Depot building under construction the entire time the company considered merging with Staples was sold this week for more than $24 million. Catalfumo Companies sold the building to a Manhattan real estate investment trust, President Dan Catalfumo said Friday. He would not name the trust. The transaction is part of a selling spree begun this summer by Catalfumo Cos.

It also has sold partnership interests in four medical buildings; a retail site in Palm Beach Gardens, Prosperity Centre; and three corporate offices. STAFF GRAPHIC festinghouse buy includes local stations Mrs. Limbaugh refuses to 4ent' about her mag By Kris Hudson Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH With a name like Vent and a publisher named limbaugh, you'd think the creator of West Palm Beach's newest magazine would have a lot to say. But it's not so. Marta Limbaugh, the third wife of bombastic talk show host and part-time Palm Beach resident Rush Limbaugh, isn't talking when it comes to her newest venture, a magazine reportedly targeted at 18-to 24-year-olds.

"No, we are not putting anything out just now," Marta Limbaugh said Friday from Vent's third-floor office in the Esperante building. She said the magazine should publish its first edition "really soon," then she hung up the phone. Not many others seem to have the skinny on the Limbaugh publication. And those who do have been squelched. "It's a general interest magazine," former Vent Managing Editor Steven Biller said, declining to comment further because of confidentiality agreements he and another editor signed upon leaving the magazine a week ago.

Both cited troubles with the magazine's "environment." A spokesman for Rush Limbaugh could not say Friday whether the conservative broadcaster will contribute to Vent. Limbaugh did not work Friday, leaving The Rush Limbaugh Show to a guest host. Talk in publishing circles has Marta Limbaugh distributing her magazine nationwide on a monthly basis, targeting men and women. Other than that, speculation about Vent' bent is as loud as the ties Marta designed to be marketed under Rush's name. "I'd be surprised if a magazine coming from the wife of Rush Limbaugh would do anything else but reflect a certain ideology," said Samir Husni, a professor heading the magazine department at the University of Mississippi at Oxford.

"Otherwise, the audience would feel cheated." If Vent makes its rumored March publication target, Husni said it will join more than 1,000 new magazines launched in 1998. Less than half typically survive their first year. In brief Toll-free line expedites tips, inquiries on health providers The state has just made it easier for you to investigate your doctor, hospital and HMO, file a complaint against a health-care provider and leave a tip about possible health-care fraud. Just call (888) 419-3456, and you will be connected to the Agency for Health Care Administra-tioa The service officially starts Oct. 1 but is already operating.

"We are trying to give consumers better access to obtain health information," said agency spokeswoman Colleen David. Although the agency has always released various information about health providers, the new service marks the first time it is all available from the same toll-free number. The information service is mostly automated, but callers can still talk to an agency representative during daily business hours. The agency receives 13,000 calls a month from people trying to get information about their health-care provider or health-maintenance organization, David said. The agency expects the number of calls to double because of the toll-free line.

Phil Galewitz Boca Hospital sets forum on its future BOCA RATON Residents will have an opportunity to give their ideas and opinions about the future of Boca Raton Community Hospital at a forum Thursday, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m at the hospital's Dawson Theater. The forum is part of hospital officials' self-examination to assess the facility's position as an independent, not-for- profit institution. The hospital this summer retained Deloitte Touche consulting group to help chart its course. The hospital put itself up for sale last year but decided against selling to another group of not-for-profits after a community uproar.

American Radio Systems will sell WIRK-FM and WEAT-FM as part of a $2.6 billion deal. By Julie Waresh Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Broadcasting giant Westinghouse Electric Corp. said Friday it will buy the radio properties of American Radio Systems Corp. for $2.6 billion. Westinghouse, which owns the CBS television network and 77 radio stations across the nation, said it will pay $1.6 billion in cash for the Boston-based company's 98 stations and assume $1 billion in debt.

The sale means local radio workers, whose employers have been sold and swapped multiple times since the federal government loosened limits on station ownership last year, face yet another ownership change. "They've all been through it before," said Lee Strasser, vice president and market general manager for American Radio Systems in West Palm -Beach. The company (NYSE: AFM: $47.94) owns WIRK-FM 107.9 and WEAT-FM 104.3 and is in the process of selling WBZT-AM 1290, WEAT-AM 850, WKGR-FM 98.7 and WOLL-FM 94.3 to West Palm Beach-based Paxson Communications Corp. Paxson already has agreed to sell those stations, along with its 42 other radio stations, to Clear Channel Communications Inc. of San Antonio.

While the ownership changes create uncertain- ty for workers, some in the industry say the move of giant broadcasting firms such as Clear Channel and New York-based Westinghouse into the market is a good thing. David D'Eugenio, general manager of the four stations American Radio Systems is selling to Paxson, said it means local stations will have more resources and more products available, such as syn-. Please see RADIO1 7B THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFILE PHOTO HAPPIER DAYS: Al Dunlap, Sunbeam's chief executive officer (left), and Dr. P. John Seward, executive vice president of the AMA, with a product the AMA endorsed.

Seward kept his job. AMA fires 3 for violation of ethics in Sunbeam deal the AMA board, in announcing the firings. The board is reaffirming its commitment to the AMA values of professionalism, advocacy for the highest ethics and preservation of the patient-physician relationship." Ousted were Kenneth E. Monroe, deputy executive vice president; James F. Rappel, group vice president for business and management services; and Larry Jellen, vice president for marketing.

The firings were announced Friday after the stock market closed. Delray Beach-based Sunbeam (NYSE: SOC: $44) closed up 19 cents. The AMA-Sunbeam deal, made public Aug. 12, would have brought the AMA millions of dollars in royalties, but immediately triggered criticism from consumer advocates who accused the nation's largest doctors' group of auctioning its logo. The AMA renounced the deal less than two weeks later and is trying cancel it.

Sunbeam is suing to enforce the agreement or collect damages it says could top $20 million. The trustees said Thursday the AMA has a responsibility to make sure that any deals are in accordance with the organization's standards and that certain plans are approved by the board before, they are implemented. They said that did not happen with the Sunbeam deal. They said no more deals will be made until new guidelines are in place, including full disclosure of the terms of the agreement and advance approval by the board. Nearly half of the nation's 650,000 physicians belong to the 150-year-old, Chicago-based nonprofit group.

Consumer advocates had accused the doctors' group of auctioning its logo. Tlie Associated Press CHICAGO The American Medical Association fired three top executives Friday after an embarrassing flap over an agreement to endorse a line of Sunbeam Corp. home health products. AMA trustees said after a daylong meeting on Thursday that they would discipline those responsible for the deal to endorse such products as humidifiers and blood pressure monitors because it was in violation of its ethical policy. "This will send a clear message that the AMA's values must be the moral compass for our actions," Dr.

Thomas R. Reardon, chairman of Publix sticking with Barnett deal Market closed at: 7,917.27, up 5.45 Minute by minute 7930 i i Inn i Neither rain can delay e-mail, just an upgrade The mail server for CyberGate, which serves 27,000 in South Florida, was down for 2-3 hours. By Stephen Pounds Palm Beach Post Staff Writer DEERFIELD BEACH Electronic mail, the lifeblood of the Internet for many users, was interrupted and then delayed for two to three hours over the past two days for about 27,000 South Floridians. The problem occurred when the state's largest Internet service company, Deerfield Beach-based CyberGate, took down its electronic-mail system to upgrade equipment. CyberGate began an upgrade Thursday of its mail server a computer that feeds electronic files or programs to smaller computers called clients.

CyberGate took its mail server down for 2-3 hours to install a 100-megabit network card, or circuit board. The new card would have made Cyber-Gate's network faster but it had a problem, and CyberGate had to return to the old system, said Chief Operating Officer Jeff Rubenstein. By the time it did, mail had backed up. "We had to go back to our original system and a tremendous amount of mail back-logged," Rubenstein said. CyberGate learned about the backlog from its customers and began to add hardware to catch up, doubling the mail system's capacity.

"There was nothing lost. It was just a delay in trying to get to (the mail). The first priority in the process is to accept mail. It is now being specifically routed to the mailboxes" of Cy-berGate's 27,000 users, Rubenstein said. This news (the merger) is new to everyone, including JENNIFER BUSH Publix spokeswoman nounced in November 1995 that they expected to test a plan, and later said they would put banks in as many of Publix's 450 Florida grocery stores as possible.

Publix planned to be opening 80 in-store branches a year by 1999. NationsBank said Friday it has proceeded as usual with its Winn-Dixie stores and now has 58 in-store branches in Florida. Winn-Dixie spokesman Mickey Clerc said, "We're dealing with NationsBank, and we don't anticipate any change." Barnett will have 52 stores open in Publix locations when it completes its Palm Beach and Broward stores. By the end of 1997, it plans to open three in Boca Raton, two each in Boynton Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, and one each in Lantana, Palm Springs and West Palm Beach. NationsBank spokesman Ellison Clary said it is too early to talk about what will happen with the Barnett-Publix deal.

"We're still in the assessment stage right now." The bank's pending merger had held up plans for branches in the supermarkets. By Marguerite M. Plunkett Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Publix said Friday it will proceed with the openings of 22 Barnett Bank branches in its grocery stores in Palm Beach and Broward counties plans that have been frozen since Barnett's proposed merger with NationsBank was revealed last month. The Lakeland-based grocery store chain will open 10 branches in Palm Beach County and 12 in Broward in November and December, said Publix spokeswoman Jennifer Bush. "We put them on hold temporarily, but decided to go forward with those counties," Bush said.

Barnett and Publix still must talk about what happens beyond 1997, Bush said. "This news (the 7920 -i vw 7870 7860-1 1 1 i 1 1 I 10 11 12 1 2 3 a.m. pm. Dow: week by week 8300 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8200 AJA 7600 1 1 I 1 1 merger) is new to everyone, including Publix. There are still a lot of unanswered questions." Barnett of Jacksonville and NationsBank of Charlotte, N.C., announced Aug.

30 that they would merge. The surprise marriage announcement left many loose ends, including what would become of the banks' separate plans to blanket Florida with branches in grocery stores. NationsBank announced its deal with the Winn-Dixie chain in April 1996, ultimately hoping to put 240 branches in Winn-Dixie stores over four years. Barnett and Publix an 9-1 9-15 e-23 7-7 7-21 8-4 8-18 Breaks indicate market holidays. i ifc ifc ifc la ifr a A ill, ii rfY, ifc tf.

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