Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 23

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Coming Thursday: Wal-Mart opens its Carson City SuperCenter. CONTACT BUSINESS EDITOR Edward H. Siiur 775.788.6428 BUSINESSRGJ.COM Wednesday, October 26, 2005 RGJ.combusiness Eldorado Casino Shreveport shuts to begin changeover SECTION ON THE WEB ELDORADO CASINO SHREVEPORT: www.eldoradoshreveport.com -Lff Kmltm miss. i New'', I Shreveport i DETAIL BY CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ businessrgj.com SHREVEPORT, La. Tuesday was the last day to gamble with Hollywood Casino chips in Shreveport, La.

The newly named Eldorado Casino, bought by the Carano family of Reno, closed about 4:30 this morning and will stay shut until about 6 p.m. tonight as it changes out Hollywood details, including chips, uniforms and the layout of games. The riverboat casino in downtown Shreveport is the second fully owned property of Eldorado Resorts, which has operated its Reno casino since 1973. It purchased the bankrupt Hollywood Casino from Perm National Gaming in July. Eldorado also owns half the Silver Legacy Resort Casino next to its namesake casino in downtown Reno.

Renovation of the riverboat, lobby and restaurants will take months. The company is spending $18 million, including $8 want to be No. 1. We didn't come from Reno to be No. 2.

We're going to do our best with all this money involved." Today, crews began work on the riverboat. All table games will be moved to the first floor, so most slots will be on the second and third floors. This will be more convenient for both table players and efficient for workers, he said. Construction begins Monday, when the left side of the first deck will be shut down. Crews will expand the high-limit blackjack room, change the carpet and put in a new ceiling.

The second side will be shut down after that, and the finished product with 63-inch plasma screens is expected to emerge by Christmas week, Whitemaine said. Work on the second floor starts after New Year's and is expected to be complete six weeks later. Next week, Penn National will see CASINO on 3D Consumers uneasy, holiday shopping outlook worsens Home sales steady on demand from post-hurricane homeless million on slot machines. Gaming space will not increase. "Now and a month from now, you'll see a whole different property," said Mike Whitemaine, the casino's general manager.

"The sky's the limit," said Whitemaine, who's been with Eldorado for 24 years and moved to Shreveport in mid-July. "We to add jit, haini "fit I If I'lri Oil I i RENO GAZETTE-JOURNALGNS Consumer confidence The Consumer Confidence Index from a survey of 5,000 U.S. households: Seasonally adjusted, 1985 100 One month ago 86.6 84 NDJFMAMJJASO 2004 2005 SOURCE: The Conference Board AP about rising prices across the economy, and Federal Reserve officials have said more interest rate hikes are in the offing to keep inflation in check. And while the national job market did not suffer as devastating a blow from hurricanes Katrina and Rita as economists feared, it did lose momentum. Retailers are already preparing for a difficult holiday season.

Although gasoline prices have slipped back from recent weeks, they still are quite high, and home heating costs are expected to soar this fall and winter, forcing many consumers to budget carefully for the holidays. "Consumers are fairly worried about the economy. I think the holiday season is going to be ho-hum," said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. Patrick Fearon, senior economist at A.G. Edwards Sons Inc.

believes all the political uncertainty is also taking a toll. "There is certainly more going on than just hurricanes and a resulting spike in gasoline prices," said Fearon. He noted President Bush's drop in approval ratings, SEE ECONOMY ON 3D capability changes otherwise seen with CT alone. By registering both images for a complete pathology picture in a single exam, Infinia helps physicians eliminate guesswork, increase diagnostic confidence and enable better patient treatment plans, officials said. THE NATION BAIlVtLERCHRYSLER The auto-maker reported $91 0 million profit for the third quarter, a 21 percent drop from last year.

60 One year ago 92.9. 5.0 95 I 1 i I Vi 85 Northern Nevada could have its first Spicy Pickle, shown here in Poway, as soon as March 2006. Spicy Pickle is a non-traditional sandwich shop" that caters to the white-collar lunch crowd. Sandwich shop called fast-casual' BRIEFLY Prototype of new Port of Subs stores opens in Reno The grand opening of the new prototype Port of Subs store was Friday at 750 S. Meadows Parkway, Reno.

The newly designed store reflects a complete store change for Port of Subs for the first time in more than 30 years. The first Port of Subs restaurant opened in Reno in 1972. Port of Subs Corp. Inc. has locations in six Western states and has been serving sandwiches for more than 30 years.

Coach Association to hold monthly meetings in Reno The Nevada Professional Coach Association meeting will be from 1 1 :30 a.m. to 1 p.m. the first Wednesday of every month at Beaujolais Bistro, 130 West Reno. The meeting provides an opportunity for business and personal life coaches to meet colleagues, address coaching issues, and enhance professional development. The meeting is free, but attendees pay for food.

For details or reservations, contact at 324-51 51 orKPrendergastOC areerConnectionsSN.com. Vail Resorts chief to sell stock for new home The chief of Vail Resorts owner of Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe plans to sell some stock in the company to help finance his new home, a $4.6 million condominium being built in Vail, Colo. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, Adam Aran said he will exercise 640,000 stock options and then sell the acquired stock to raise the money. A broker will exercise the options sometime between Dec. 12 and July 20,2007.

The chief executive officer plans to retain 145,000 shares in Vail Resorts and an additional 675,000 stock options, according to the filing. The decision marks the first time that Aron has exercised any of his options since he joined Vail Resorts nine years ago. "I trust I am expressing both my strong confidence and commitment here, by retaining a sizable personal investment in Vail Resorts and also by using the proceeds of this envisioned option exercise to acquire a new residence in Vail for my long-term personal use," he said in a statement. In April, Aron put a $690,000 deposit on a condominium unit in Arrabelle at Vail Square, a $250 million hotel and condominium project that Vail Resorts is developing, according to the company's annual report. Vail Resorts' stock held at $33.45 a share in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition to Heavenly on the Nevada-California state line, the Avon-based the company owns and operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge ski areas in Colorado and California, and Grand Teton Lodge Co. in Jackson, Wyo. Staff and wire report BIZ POLL What do you think about Washoe County's first monthly drop in median home prices in a year? 2D since I 1 I I ttmmmJj mm "4 PROVIDED BY SPICY PICKLE of the year," Marc Geman, managing partner of Spicy Pickle, said from the company's Denver headquarters. "Then it's a 12-week build out time." People in the Silver State could be munching on one of the sandwiches by March. Geman joined Spicy pickle in SEE SPICY ON 3D ment across a range of common pathologies, including heart disease, prostate cancer and thyroid cancer, hospital officials said.

"The future of nuclear medicine lies at the intersection of SPECT and CT technologies," said Director of Diagnostic Imaging Tim Stephens. SILVER $7,787 i i i 1 Ffj BY THE NUMBERS Founded in 1999 by two chefs in Denver. More than 1 7,000 sandwich combinations. Restaurants in Colorado, California, Kentucky; Oregon opening this fall; Nevada and Texas soon; looking at the Washington, D.C., area. 21 sandwich toppings.

About $5.5 million in sales in 2004. Mediterranean-style pizzas to be added to menu this year. www.spicypickle.com. ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK The outlook for the holiday shopping season darkened Tuesday as the latest consumer confidence reading showed Americans even more pessimistic about the economy during October. Hurricanes, surging gasoline prices and worries about the job market took a further toll on consumer psyches.

A separate report on home sales during September also pointed to consumers' growing uneasiness. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 85 in October, the lowest level since October 2003 and down from September's revised reading of 87.5, which had been the sharpest drop in 15 years. Analysts expected an October reading of 88 for the index, which is compiled from a survey of U.S. household. "Much of the decline in confidence over the past two months can be attributed to the recent hurricanes, (gas) pump shock and a weakening labor market," Lynn Franco, director of the private research group's Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.

She said the "degree of pessimism, in conjunction with the anticipation of much higher home heating bills this winter, may take some cheer out of the upcoming holiday season." The drop in confidence contributed to a decline on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.13 points or 0.07 percent, to 10,377.87, having lost more than 68 points earlier in the session. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of previously owned homes were unchanged in September at the second-highest level on record. However, the Realtors said sales would have fallen without an increase in demand among people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. The latest snapshot on consumer confidence comes at a challenging time for the U.S. economy.

There are worries "Infinia- Hawkeye does that by providing form and function, and detection and precise localization of disease, thus boosting diagnostic confidence and improving outcomes for patients." Images focus on metabolic abnormalities that are present earlier than the anatomical THE WEST WORKER STRIKE Hundreds of northern San Joaquin Valley workers at Foster Farms went on strike Tuesday. 50 BY KATHRYN REED businessrgj.com Painting nails has lost its luster for Jackie Steelman. So she and three partners are going to do something they've never done open a restaurant. It's a chain, but it's a chain that will be new to the state. Spicy Pickle is a non-traditional sandwich shop that caters to the white-collar lunch crowd.

It's fast food without the grease. It's a sit-down restaurant without the necessary investment in time. It's quality ingredients without eating like "a rabbit. They call it fast-casual. Steelman gave notice the last week of September at the nail shop she works at.

Soon she will be the general manager of Reno's first Spicy Pickle. Some formalities need to be worked out like securing a plot of land that will hold the eatery that will seat about 40. "We anticipate finding a location between now and the end neered by General Electric in 1999, uses GE's Hawkeye single-photo emission computed tomography imaging to help physicians more precisely diagnose and locate disease. Recent clinical studies have shown that the use of the GE Hawkeye system significantly improved patient manage- Banner hospital in Fallon has improved X-ray STAFF REPORT Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon has begun offering the Infinia Hawk-eye, a state-of-the-art combined nuclear medicinecomputed tomography system. Infinia Hawkeye's integrated CT solution, first pio- THE WEST CCND0-CASIN9 Work has started on the $1 .8 billion Cosmopolitan Resort Casino in Las Vegas.

5D THE MARKETS: 4D DOW JONES NASDAQ GOLD $472.80 10377.87 2,109.45 1,196.54 1 1.