Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 15

BUSINESS Lincoln Journal Star fl Wednesday, March 27, 1996 la Page design: Mike Lai-sen Business briefs Lincoln landmark will be razed; facade will live on BY ED RUSSO Lincoln Journal Star the College of Hair Design, 11th and streets, or a location in the Haymarket, Smith said. "We prefer to move it to the Haymarket, but we are having difficulty finding a vacant lot on which to construct a building," he said. Constructed in 1888, the Townsend building served as a home for the photography studio until 1973. Townsend Studio, which still houses many rare historical photographs and negatives, has a -studio at 1400 S. 58th St.

and a sales office at 3201 S. 33rd St. The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of the city's few remaining examples of Romanesque Revival architecture, popular in the 1880s and 1890s Only 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep, the two-story building also is a rare example of the smaller commercial structures popular in early Lincoln, said city preservation planner Ed Zimmer. When built, the Townsend structure was one of many similar buildings located next to each other along 11th Street. But the building has been without ad acent neighbors or many years, Zimmer said, and looks.

isolated. "I think it's a gem, but It's a gem that has lost its setting," he said. "I very much hope that the facade stays visible in Lincoln. It would be better attached to a larger building. It wasn't built to stand alone, but to be part of a block of buildings." The facade deserves to be preserved -because of its elaborate design, including a curved cornice or top, fluted pilasters "and one of the spif fiest date stones of any building I know," Zimmer said.

The second story has been covered with white paint and the first story is covered with black paint. "We hope to take it back to its original, unpainted condition," Smith said. "We will work with the city and historic preservation committee to ensure a healthy and accurate facade." The plans for the building were revealed Tuesday at presentation of the St. Paul United Methodist Church expansion project to the Downtown Lincoln Association. The former Christiansen Appliance building, next to the Townsend building, also will be razed to make room for the project.

Construction at the church, 1144 is scheduled to start in spring 1997. The foot addition, will include, among other things, a high-school size gymnasium, classrooms for children and adults, and ground-level and underground parking for about 50 cars. The Rev. Rex Bevins told DLA members that the congregation decided to expand downtown instead of building elsewhere because it wanted to help keep downtown vibrant. "We think the soul of Lincoln is downtown," he said.

"Once downtown deteriorates, Lincoln will have lost its soul." DLA President Roger Larson said the group appreciated the church's commitment to downtown. "It's so easy for churches to abandon their heritage and move out to the suburbs," he said. The owners of a Lincoln landmark have given it away but plan on preserving the -historically significant facade at another downtown location. Members of the D. William Smith family of Lincoln donated the former Townsend Studios building at 226 S.

11th St. to adjacent St. Paul United Methodist Church to help make way for the church's $3.5 million expansion next year. The 108-year-old building, last used as a House of Flowers eight years ago, will be razed but its brick and stone facade will be dismantled and moved, said Clay Smith, a partner in the family's Partnership. "The Townsend building will live beyond 1997," he said.

Potential new homes for the facade could be a yet-to-be-constructed commercial building on'what is now a parking lot next to Greenspan breezes through 5 Senate confirmation hearing Survey says women own lh of businesses BY JOHN D. McCLAIN Associated Press would act this week, Greenspan, 70, was first selected as Fed chairman by Ronald Reagan in 1987, renominated by George Bush in 1992 and then by President Clinton last month. While the hearing was under way, the Fed announced that central bank policymakers had decided to leave interest rates unchanged after cutting them at their previous two meetings in December and January. Financial markets took the news in stride with the Dow Jones indus-; trial average finishing the day up 26.74 points at 5,670.60. The Fed had been widely expected to stand pat after a March 8 showed the unemployment rate dropping to 5.5 percent from 5.8 percent.

Analysts said the Fed's decision to leave interest rates unchanged and the optimistic comments by Greenspan, Rivlin and Meyer oh Tuesday could be signaling a pnv-longed period when the Fed leaves policy unchanged. "The economy seems at this stage to be running at a reasonably good clip," Greenspan told the commit' tee. Only a month ago, he had worried about a "dismal" start to the year. "In general, Greenspan gave a remarkably upbeat assessment of ea nomic prospects," said David Jones, chief economist at Aubrey G. Lan-ston Co.

in New York, Jones said the Fed may be content to leave rates alone until after the November election. After Republicans took control of the Senate in 1994, Clinton never seriously considered anyone other than the Republican Greenspan for the chairman's post. BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press WASHINGTON Alan Green-span breezed through his confirmation hearing for a third term as Federal Reserve chairman, with senators raising few questions about an audit criticizing Fed finances or the central bank's decision Tuesday not to lower interest rates. Greenspan and two other nominees, White House budget director Alice Rivlin and St. Louis economist Laurence Meyer, were praised extensively during the four-hour hearing by both Republicans and Democrats for their qualifications to be on the Fed board.

After the hearing, Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D'nmato, who called Greenspan the "world's preeminent central banker," said his panel would vote on the nominations today. He predicted the full Senate. Entrepreneurship meeting April 13 The findings closely parallel those of a 1995 foundation study by Dun Bradstreet Information Services based on information on the 1991-94 period from the Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and Information Services. The report showed the number of companies owned by women is increasing in every state, led by Nevada with a growth rate of 130 percent since 1987. Other increases included Georgia, up 112 percent; New Mexico, up 108 percent; Florida, up 106 percent; and Idaho, up 104 percent.

"The growth in the number of women-owned businesses continues to be dramatic across the nation," Weeks said. "Even in the state with the lowest growth rate, North Dakota, the number of women-owned firms grew nearly 40 percent." California has the largest number of women-owned businesses, 1.082 million. Texas was second with 552,000, New York third with 527,000, Florida fourth with 497,000 and Illinois fifth with 337,000. North.Dakota and the District of Columbia had the fewest, 19,000 each. Not surprisingly, the largest i share of companies owned by women 52 percent was in the service sector, the report said.

An additional 19 percent was in retail trade and 10 percent was in finance, insurance or real estate. But the report also said the most explosive growth was in nbntraditional industries. The number of women-owned construction companies, for instance, jumped 171 percent between 1987 and 1996, to 324,000. The wholesale trade sector saw a 157 percent gain in women-owned firms, to 293,000. Other major advances were in transportation and communications, up 140 percent to 225,000 agriculture, up 130 percent to 118.000; and manufacturing, up H2 percent to 25 WOO.

Patriarch Packard, 83, dies SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)-David Packard, a patriarch of American business and co- founder of Silicon Valley electronics pioneer Packard is dead at 83. Packard died Tuesday morning of pneumonia at Stanford University Hospital, company spokeswoman Mary Lou Simmermacher said. Packard with partner William Hewlett, founded the company in a garage with a borrowed $538 and guided it into a $31 billion international business. Confidence changes little NEW YORK (AP)-Consumer confidence was little changed in March after a sharp rise the month before amid recent indications that the economy is gaining steam.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its index of consumer confidence was 97.7 for March, slightly below February's revised reading of 98.0 but well above the 88.4 it hit in January. Wall Street analysts had expected the index to be unchanged to slightly higher. OPEC makes target price LONDON (AP)-After years of trying vainly to hit its target price for oil, OPEC achieved what analysts call a dubious success. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries confirmed Tuesday that its average price for a barrel of crude oil rose above $21 per barrel this week. It's the first time that OPEC has gotten its target price since Oct.

21, 1991. Analysts suggested the price-rise was a short-term gain brought on by the combination of extremely cold weather and low oil supplies in the United States factors outside OPEC's control. Real estate company biggest INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Simon Property Group and DeBartolo Realty Corp. agreed to a $3 billion deal that will create North America's largest real estate company by joining two of the pioneers of regional shopping malls. Simon Property Group, which manages the sprawling Mall of America in Bloomington, will acquire Youngstown, Ohio-based DeBartolo for $1 .5 billion in stock and will assume $1.5 billion in DeBartolo's debt.

The new Indianapolis-based company, Simon DeBartolo Group, will own 110 million square feet in retail space more than twice as much as any other company and have a total market value of $7.5 billion, the companies said Tuesday. Safety labels for cars sought WASHINGTON AP) The National Research Council wants new cars to have safety labels similar to the fuel-economy stickers they now carry. The standardized safety ratings should be required on all new cars, light trucks and vans by 2000, the council said in a report released Tuesday. "Under our proposal, a label on each new vehicle would include a safety score of crashworthiness compared to other vehicles, plus a list of crash-avoidance features," said M. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University, who headed the committee that prepared the report.

WASHINGTON r- One out of every four American workers is employed by a business owned by a woman, a women's group says, and women own more than one-third of all businesses in the nation. The National Foundation for Women Business Owners said Tuesday there now are 7.95 million companies owned by women, up from 4.48 million in 1987. The 78 percent growth dwarfs the 47 percent rate of increase for all U.S. firms. As a result, sales have jumped 236 percent, to $2.28 trillion from $681 billion in 1987.

Employment shot up to 18.5 million workers 26 percent of the U.S. work force from nearly 6.6 million nine years ago. "The sheer strength of the numbers reaffirms that women business owners are powerful catalysts for promoting the health of our economy," said Susan Peterson, foundation chairwoman and owner of a Washington production firm. Julie Weeks, foundation research director, attributed the rapid growth partly to the steady increase of working women since World War II. "After such a long time, women are moving into ownership," she said, adding that some women start their own businesses when they find "they have advanced as far as they can go." "Also, you have younger women in business school or seeking some other professional degree thinking of entrepreneurship right off the bat.

And some daughters are inheriting businesses from their parents," who in previous generations would pass them on to sons instead. The report, "1996 Facts on Women-Owned Businesses," was based on new data from the Census Bureau. serving as judges, review written business plans prior to the contest, then the contestants present, their plans and have a question and answer 'period with the judges. The winners will be announced along with the Nebraska Entrepreneurs of the Year and other award winners at a 12:25 p.m. luncheon that closes the conference.

Gov. Ben Nelson will present the awards and the featured speaker at the luncheon will be John Hughes of the Coleman Foundation. There is a $60 registration fee for the conference and reservations must be made by April 5 through the Center for Entrepreneurship at (402)472-3353. Legge's address will be followed by five breakout sessions. Topics will include: cash flow, developing talented entrepreneurs, finding niches in the global community, effective teams in family business, and making technology work for you.

Another feature of the conference will be the eighth annual International Business Plan Competition in which teams from 18 colleges and universities from the United States and Canada will compete for $5,500 in prize money in the graduate and undergraduate divisions. Robin Anderson, director of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneur-ship, said the competition judges -new venture ideas based on their viability. Prominent business people, The 11th Nebraska Conference on Entrepreneurship will be April 13 at the Cornhusker Hotel and Convention Center in Lincoln. The conference, "Seven Secrets to Becoming No. 1: Starting and Building a Winning Business," is coordinated by the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Business Administration.

It will begin with an 8 a.m. keynote address by Peter Legge, president and chief executive officer of Canada Wide Magazines and Communications Ltd. Legge is an award-winning speaker and the author of three Canadian best-sellers, "How to Soar with the Eagles" (1991), "You Can If You Believe You Can" (1994) and "It Begins with a Dream" (1996). DaVincf Restaurant founder honored jectives of enhancing the quality, service and visibility of Nebraska's restaurant and hos-p i a 1 i industries. The award given to Knudson the Mary Lutz Trophy Award commemo Texas railroad group opposed to Southern, Union Pacific merger day, there are seven daVinci's five in Lincoln, one in Omaha and one in Ames, Iowa.

Knudson, an ordained minister, has held an annual free Easter dinner for low-income people and those who are alone on the holiday. The restaurant also supports numerous community and civic organizations. Knudson attributes the restaurant's success to the strong family ownership, Christian values, warm atmosphere and friendly staff. Cash-Wa Distributing Co. was founded in 1934 and serves a large Midwestern region with 10,000 food service products.

A ft The Nebraska Restaurant Association presented its annual Restaurateur of the Year Award Monday night to Kalmer Knudson, founder of da Vinci's Restaurant. Also honored at the association's annual "Taste of Nebraska" 1996 food fare was the Henning family, which owns Cash-Wa Distributing Co. in Kearney. The Hennings were selected as Associate of the Year, while Jerry Barnes of The Cornhusker in Lincoln was honored with the Nebraska Restaurant Association Lodging Award of the Year. The awards are presented each year to industry professionals who best exemplify the association's ob- KNUDSON family ownership rates its namesake, a woman who spent a lifetime in the food service industry.

Knudson opened his first restaurant, Pontillo's Pizzeria, in 1978. To AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The three-member Texas Railroad Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose a proposed merger between Union Pacific Corp. and Southern Pacific Rail Corp. The commissioners said the merger as proposed would hurt Texas consumers and rail shippers. But they agreed to support a merger between the rail lines if changes were made to the agreement, including divestiture of certain lines by Southern Pacific and guarantees that competitors will have easy access to abandoned lines.

"This merger, as it is proposed, is not beneficial for the state of Texas," said Railroad Commissioner Carole Keeton Rylander. Union Pacific Vice President Jack Kyle III said divestitures would punch holes in the proposed agreement. He said Omaha-based Union Pacific was disappointed with the decision, but will have to see how much weight the vote carries. Texas and other states are presenting their positions on the merger to a federal transportation panel that will decide the merger later this year. The Texas commission's decision is consistent with a report from the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas.

The report, ordered by the commission, laid out a mix of pros and cons that concludes the merger would be detrimental to Texas. Fort Worth is home to the headquarters of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. -i its 1 KmnjiJf A GUIDE TO GARDENING HOME LIFE FREE quotes on stocks, updated continually throughout the day, and mutual fund closing prices, Here's how. I Dial 473-7123 from a touch-tone phone to access the Journal Star's InftTouch At the prompt, dial 1000 Using the code below, enter the stock's ticker symbol, then press t. Press again following a quote to receive its volume, high and low.

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