Northwest Herald from Woodstock, Illinois • Page 29

Market Report Nasdaq S5P Cose: A Close: 2,106.64 1,210.20 Section Dow Close: 10,378.03 Thursday September 22, 2005 NORTHWEST HERALD USINESS Business desk: 815.459.4122 ext. 4509 4 Business Briefs Lake in the Hills Kerasotes sells interest in theater Chicago's Kerasotes Showplace Theatres LLC is selling 17 movie theaters Verizon lines up stations Phone company gets ESPN, MTV for cable battles BLOOMBERG NEWS across the Midwest to Realty Ryan Rayburn Northwest Herald Farmer Eric Svenson displays a damaged ear of corn on his Ringwood farm. Svenson's farm, along with many others in McHenry and Kane counties, has been hurt this summer by the region's drought. Local farmers hope soybean yields are better than corn "The beans might be better than anticipated because we got some late rains. But with corn, once it pollinates, it pollinates." Income a Caluornia-based real-estate investment trust, for about $200 million, and then plans to lease them back and continue running the theaters, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

The properties include Lake in the Hills 12 Theater, and are scattered across Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Missouri. The deal leaves Kerasotes, the nation's eighth-largest theater chain, with 77 theaters with 613 movie screens in six Midwestern states. Algonquin FurnitureKidz has 2nd anniversary Children's furniture retailer FurnitureKidz is celebrating its second anniversary. Owners Robert and Marcia Gilbreth said they credited the success of FurnitureKidz to hard work and a commitment to the community. FurnitureKidz, inside the Ryan Place strip center off Route 62 on Algonquin's east side, serves customers from the northwest suburbs to Aurora, Rockford, and Wisconsin.

McHenry Coggin hired by Smith Engineering Smith Engineering Consultants Inc. has added Ed Coggin to its McHenry office. Coggin will serve as senior civil engineer in the water and wastewater engineering department. He has more than 24 years' experience, including struc- tural engineering and focused mostly on water and wastewater engineering work. Smith Engineering is a civilengineering and surveying firm specializing in municipal, transporta-tion, water and wastewater engineering.

The company has offices in McHenry, New Lenox, Peoria, Yorkville and Texas. Lake in the Hills Construction group opens HQ Construction Solution Services has opened its new headquarters. The building, which is 1,000 square feet, includes three private offices, a conference room, and a reception area. It is off Pyott Road, behind the Illinois State Bank building. From local reports Harry Alten Harvard farmer Verizon Communications Inc.

is adding Walt Disney ESPN and Viacom MTV channels to its new video service that will compete cable TV providers, Verizon Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg said. "We've got all the programming done," Seidenberg said in an interview Wednesday about the company's forth-coming fiber-optic video serv- Wtl3t it ice. He said details of means the Viacom Verizon is agreement trying to gain would be TV subscri-made pub- bers for its lie today, fiber-optic The Disney video service, agreement The video ser-with the vice would largest U.S. compete local phone against local company cable was an- companies, nounced Wednesday in a joint statement. Verizon will carry 12 of Disney's channels, including ESPN, Toon Disney, ABC Family, Disney Channel and SOAPnet, and Viacom channels such as MTV VH1 and Comedy Central.

Verizon is adding content providers to its video offering, called FiOS, so it can compete with cable and satellite TV services. "This is premier content," said Daniela Spassova of Principal Global Investors. "It's a good step but they have a big war to win." Verizon is testing the FiOS TV service in Keller, Texas, near Dallas, and will begin full commercial service today, said Sharon Cohen-Hagar, a Veri-' zon spokeswoman. In Keller there are 8,800 households who could subscribe to FiOS, Cohen-Hagar said. The company will expand the service in parts of 15 states after it obtains required licenses in those areas, she said.

"We're going to probably market video into 50 to 100 communities before the end of the year," Seidenberg said. Earlier this year, Verizon signed agreements with programmers including General Electric NBC Universal, Discovery Communications Television Networks, and Liberty Media Starz, Cohen-Hagar said. Their content might help Verizon build a base for the new business. "The telephone companies are "playing catch-up," Spassova said. "The major competitive threat is from satellite and cable." he is holding out hope for a decent soybean crop.

"The beans might be better than anticipated because we got late rains," Alten said. "They regrew some. But with corn, once it pollinates, it pollinates. Whatever was there when it pollinated is going to be there when we harvest." "August rains will help the beans," Chambers added. "But the bugs were really bad this year, which will hurt the beans.

Optimism is in my nature. I am hoping to do better than 30 bushels per acre." Like most farmers, Alten owns crop insurance and will use it to help him recoup some of his losses this year. However, he stresses, crop insurance has its limitations. "Crop insurance does not give you a profit," he said. "It just helps keep you in business.

It is like having car insurance. You do not make a profit when you get in a car accident." Despite the problems he has dealt with Chambers is certain he will be planting crops again in the spring. "Oh yeah, there is no doubt I will be here next year," he said. "This is what I do." By MICHAEL GIBBS michaelgibbsnwherald.com Ringwood farmer Scott Chambers has battled growing seasons filled with warm and dry weather, bugs and high energy But the veteran farmer, who farms 2,000 acres of corn and 1,000 acres of beans with his partner Eric Svenson, said a severe combination of all these negative factors had combined to make the 2005 growing season the worst he ever had experienced. "Things are looking bad," said Chambers, who began harvesting soybeans this week and will start harvesting corn in about three weeks.

"Not only did the drought wreck a lot of the crops, but energy prices that were high to begin with soared after Hurricane Katrina. Heating oil, fuel, propane and natural gas all are very high right now. It is going to cost a lot to dry the corn, run our equipment, and transport our crop." Chambers and farmers across McHenry and northern Kane counties are entering the harvest knowing their yields most likely will be well below average because of the drought that has battered the region and most of the state. Harry Alten, who along with his brother, Dennis, farms 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans in Harvard, said McHenry County farms Usually yielded on average between 130 bushels and 140 bushels of corn per acre, and between 35 bushels and 45 bushels of Soybeans per acre. Alten said corn yields this year definitely would be lower than average.

But Neon to finish Belvidere production Civic and Toyota Corolla. "I think the Neon was a fantastic car for its day," said Andre Tadros, general manager of Northwestern Dodge in Ferndale, Mich. "It was a really beautiful car when it first came out. It got great mileage. People just aren't that excited about it anymore." Neon sales reached 1.5 million by the time the car was redesigned in 2000, but customers began to tire of the vehicle.

Sales also took a hit when Plymouth stopped producing its version of the Neon can build multiple models, including the Dodge Caliber, which will replace the Neon. The Caliber is expected to go on sale early next year. The Neon was introduced in January 1994 as a 1995 model, in Dodge and Plymouth versions. It quickly became a favorite among young buyers for its styling and quirky marketing, including ads that said simply "Hi." With a starting price around, $14,000, it competed directly with popular Asian models such as the Honda in 2001. Neon sales fell by a third between 2000 and 2004, to 113,476.

Tom Libby, senior director of analysis for the Power Information Network, said U.S. automakers had a tougher time making money on small vehicles than their Asian rivals because they had such high fixed labor costs. Libby said it made sense for Chrysler to put more money into minivans and trucks, where it could make much higher margins, than to spend more on boosting the Neon. The ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT After 1 1 years, Chrysler Group plans to end production of its spunky, low-priced Dodge Neon this week to make way for a sleek replacement, The last Neon is scheduled to roll off the line with little fanfare Friday at Chrysler's plant in Belvidere, company spokesman Ed Saenz said. Chrysler, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, is spending $419 million to revamp the Belvidere production line so it Celebrities helping Las Vegas lure residents I 1 Yi it? own a piece of Sin Jity's nrtinn But like everything Vegas does, this building bonanza comes with an extra helping of glitz: Developers are using Holly- the Icon Las Vegas, proved to be particularly sensitive to tml am sure tliesQmarkeWgy-rationssaidpelores celebrities are get- Conway, a University of Southern ting very good California real-estate economist, said Peter Las Vegas is not the only town Dennehy, senior that is going vertical.

High-rise liv- vice president of ing, a long-standing tradition in New Sullivan Group York, has spread to the likes of Real Estate Ad- Boston, Denver, Miami, San visors in San Diego. Francisco and Kansas City, Mo. At "It is a marketing least half a dozen new Southern I T. Maguire thine. People want booming in city By JERRY HIRSCH Los Angeles Times LAS VEGAS The boom in high-rise condo projects in Las Vegas' canyon of casinos known as the Strip has spawned its own new status symbol the celebrity resident.

About 8,000 condominium units are under construction or about to start, according to SalesTraq, a Las Vegas real-estate information company. It's a building explosion fueled in part by speculators in, the torrid real-estate market and the desire of buyers from California and Asia to 1 'f II 1 I I California condo towers are planned for the Los Angeles area. Nationally, the number of condominium and town-home development construction starts jumped 38 percent to 120,000 last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And that came on top of a 23-per-.

cent gain in the previous year. their projects stand UllapriO put from the more than 100 residential skyscrapers proposed for Las Vegas. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have bought units at the Panorama Towers complex. Jessica Simpson has reserved a unit at Palms Place, the 50-story high-rise planned at the Palms Hotel and Casino. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson has snagged a spot at to live near the stars." But some analysts wonder whether the market will be left with a Las Vegas-sized hangover in the form of a real-estate bubble fueled by the large number of speculators, estimated to be as high as 40 percent, who never intend to live in the units they are buying.

The high-rise condo market has Isaac Brekken Los Angeles Times Workers leave the first building in the. Panorama Towers complex in Las Vegas, where professional poker player Barry Greenstein paid $1.2 million for a unit. See VEGAS, page 2D.