The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 17

The LlljW Mh 11. 1986 Departing Bell boss says road's clear to sustain Dade rebound 5 uyusw uuiiiysu- CBS Magazines open; JIM STEINBERG Miami Ntwt Rtporttr Pavilion switching name to Inter-Continental Miami MERWIN SIGALE Mliml Mm tuilnm IdlMr muutmmmmm 1 r. mi i i W' i vak fMW Citing figures that show an Increase in the number of telephone hookups last year, Southern Bell's top Florida executive said, "Dade County and Miami are being rediscovered." "People realize they can buy into a quality of life here that is not easy to find elsewhere," said Walter H. Alford, vice president in charge of Florida operations for Southern Bell. Alford is about to leave the Miami life for a new job in Atlanta, where he will be vice president and corporate counsel for BellSouth Southern Bell's parent.

The move is effective April 1. Alford's replacement will be H.C. "Buddy" Henry now the top Southern Bell executive in South Carolina. In a telephone interview yesterday, Alford noted that it is no longer difficult to recruit new employees to this area. Three years ago, that was not the case, he noted.

Declining housing prices are helping Dade rebound from image problems born in the drug problems and civil disturbances of the early 1980s, he said. Last year, the number of new telephone hookups in Dade and Monroe counties grew by 25,655, compared with increases of 17,438 in 1984 and 15,677 in 1983. said Southern Bell spokeswoman Stephanie Huntsinger. The increases have been primarily in Dade County, she said. "The Miami area has so many things going for it that it makes me reluctant to go somewhere else," Alford said.

Alford has been active in a variety of civic groups, including Miami Citizens Against Crime, Florida Citizens Against Crime, the South Florida Coordinating Council, the Florida Council on Education and The Florida Council of 100. In the interview, Alford said Dade citizens need to address a variety of issues, including: Dealing with the drug-abuse problem by paying extra attention to drug usage. Combining marketing and planning efforts in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties as a single South Florida effort. Considering the "privatization" of Metrorail and bus services as well as the expansion of the county's east-west traffic routes. Considering the unification of independent municipalities.

Guarding against environmental pollution. Although Dade County's image has improved from that of the early 1980s, said Alford, "we still can't let our eyes drift from concentrating on crime." While praising such organiza- Intercontinental Motels Corp. has obtained a long-term management contract for the 34-story Pavilion Hotel in downtown Miami and will rename it Hotel Inter-Continental Miami. Michael Cairns, the company's Washington-based chief executive for North America, confirmed the moves last night shortly after he arrived In Miami to host a press conference this afternoon. Cairns would not discuss other details, but another source, who asked not to be Identified, said Intercontinental plans to hire a firm to redesign the spacious but largely unfurnished lobby and other areas of the hotel.

The Pavilion, sheathed in travertine marble, stands at the mouth of the Miami River on Ball Point near the southern edge of Bayfront Park. It has 610 rooms, 36 suites, four restaurants, 20,000 square feet of meeting space and a ballroom that can accommodate 2,700 people. Its lobby is dominated by a marble sculpture, "The Spindle," by Henry Moore. Last October, a group of banks led by the Bank of New York took control of the Pavilion and the adjacent Edward Ball Office Building in a foreclosure action against developer Theodore Gould. Intercontinental was brought in to manage the hotel on a short-term basis.

In December, Pavilion General Manager Christopher Mander said Intercontinental was "positive" about the Miami market and had begun to negotiate for a long-term management contract. The Pavilion has suffered from low occupancy rates since it opened In 1983, but Mander said in mid-December that occupancy had Improved to 22 percent since Intercontinental took over management. This will be the second hotel to be called Hotel Inter-Continental Miami, using the hyphen that Intercontinental Hotels Corp. omits from its corporate name. The first was the former Sheraton Four Ambassadors Hotel at 801 S.

Bayshore Drive, which Intercontinental managed from early 1973 to late 1980. At the time, the hotel was controlled by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance with Intercontinental holding a minority Interest. Miami developers Jerry A. Gross and Laurans A. Mendelson then bought the property and restored the Four Ambassadors name.

They have since bowed out, and the apartment complex is no longer a hotel. Intercontinental, headquartered in New York, operates 96 hotels in. 46 countries. It is a subsidiary of Grand Metropolitan PLC of Great Britain. aw ss am mt mt ws xm i mt am st.

5 Walter H. Alford tions as Miami Citizens Against Crime and neighborhood crime-watch groups, Alford said more attention should be focused on the prevention of drug use with special efforts directed toward children. "We need to spend some resources so that people understand the grave consequences of drug use," Alford said. "We need to try and look at South Florida as a region and package it as a product," he said. "We have some real synergies between Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties." Another issue that citizens "should look at critically is the privatization of the Metrorail," Alford said.

"We need to start looking at the barriers and the costs of who would benefit and who would lose." If it Is not feasible or desirable to move whole public transportation systems into the private sector, Alford said, thought should be given to contracting out maintenance services to private companies. He said user taxes should be considered to pay for road improvements for major east-west thoroughfares in Dade. Alford also said it would also be important to consider consolidation of the "30 or so municipalities" in Dade to bring in "new technologies to focus on problems in an entirely different way." He said it is important to "guard against polluting our bay. We need to protect against the dumping of polluted materials on the Biscayne Aquifer and protect our high-quality air. These are a couple of things human beings can't do without, and we need to jealously protect them." Alford called the forthcoming referendum on casino gambling "a short-term fix" for the development of tourism that would "benefit a small group of hotel owners and landowners." "Gambling doesn't seem to come to an area without significant social costs in its wake," he said.

I nJ I 2 mi -fmt 4 1 1 5 1 tr a. Miami marketing office CBS Magazines, a division of CBS has formed CBS Magazines Travel Marketing at 8725 N.W. 18th Terrace In Miami. The new office is responsible for marketing CBS publications within the travel and leisure industries. Vice President Malcolm Wolff said the office, which opened Feb.

17, has seven full-time employees and plans to double that number within a year. Wolff said CBS has invested $500,000 in the operation. In addition, Wolff said, advertising representatives have been hired in Atlanta and Dallas and there are plans to hire more in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and California. Wolff said Miami was selected for the office because it is the center of the travel industry for the Southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. CBS magazines to be marketed by the new office include American Photographer, Audio, Backpacker, Boating, Car and Driver, Cycle, Cycle World, Flying, Home Mechanix, Popular Photography, Road Track, Skiing, Stereo Review, The Runner, Woman's Day, Woman's Day Specials and Yachting.

ALM resuming Haiti flights ALM Antillean Airlines has received permission from Haiti's new government to resume flights between Miami and Port-au-Prince and will begin to fiy the route April 1, company officials said yesterday. The administration of deposed President Jean-Claude Duvalier halted ALM's Haiti service last year, said ALM general manager Randy Burton. Service initially will be twice weekly using 1 13-passenger DC-9 jets, and it will expand to three days a week on April 27, Burton said. Twice-weekly flights will depart Tuesday and Wednesday. On April 27, the schedule switches to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

No merger for Gull Air Gull Air, which operates a commuter service from bases in West Palm Beach and Hyannis, has abandoned its plans to merge with a Washington-based holding company affiliated with Presidential Air and has opted, instead, to serve as a contract commuter with Continental Airlines and New York Air. Presidential said yesterday the merger deal ended because of a dispute over certain financial data required from Gull. New York Air and Continental are subsidiaries of Texas Air which has entered into an agreement to acquire Eastern Airlines. Gull serves 15 cities in Florida, the Massachusetts coastal area and the Bahamas. The commuting agreement, which calls for joint marketing, baggage handling and coordinated connection services, is expected to take effect by May 1.

TWA, attendants to talk again Trans World Airlines and union representatives for 6,000 flight attendants who struck last week have agreed to return to the bargaining table. A spokesman for the National Mediation Board said yesterday that both sides agreed to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Philadelphia for the first time since the attendants walked off their jobs shortly after midnight Thursday. The strike over pay and work-rule concessions sought by the financially troubled carrier has idled close to half of its normally scheduled 612 flights daily for the last four days. 1 GM laying off 1 1,700 workers General Motors Corp.

says it plans to temporarily lay off 11,700 autoworkers because of slow sales of several car lines, despite buying incentives such as cut-rate financing. The move announced yesterday wasn't unexpected, because GM for several months has been building cars in much greater quantities than its dealers can sell them. Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. said they have no present plans to lay off workers to adjust inventories.

GM dealers have more than a million cars on hand, or an average 78-day supply, compared with the desired 60-day supply, according to the trade journal Automotive News. T-bill rates down sharply Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell sharply in yesterday's auction, with the rate on six-month bills dropping to its lowest level in more than eight years. The Treasury Department sold $6.8 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 6.55 percent, down from 6.92 percent last week. Another $6.8 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 6.54 percent, down from 6.87 percent last week. The rates were the lowest since three-month bills averaged 6.37 percent on June 16, 1980, and six-month bills sold for 6.42 percent on Dec.

30, 1977. The new rates understate the actual return to investors 6.75 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,834.40, and 6.86 percent for six-month bills selling for $9.669.40. Dollar rises; gold falls The dollar rose broadly In worldwide trading yesterday amid perceptions that the United States and other major governments want the American currency to stabilize near recent levels. In London, the British pound fell to $1.4425 from $1.4610 late Friday. Later, in New York, sterling fetched $1.4475, down from $1.45525 Friday.

The price of gold fell in world bullion markets. In Zurich, gold bullion fell to $340 an ounce, down from $343 late Friday. In London, the metal fell to $342 an ounce, down from $342.25 late Friday. Republic National Bank of New York quoted gold at $341.75 an ounce, down $2.25. On the Commodity Exchange In New York, gold bullion closed at $34 1.90 an ounce, down $2.40.

Tht Miami Nw The Pavilion Hotel Jane Bryant Quinn Pitfalls and advantages of a self-directed IRA NEW YORK This is the year of the do-it-your self Individual Retirement Account. Instead of put' I it ting IKA money directly into a mutual fund, growing numbers of investors are taking charge of all of the investment decisions themselves. You do it by opening a "self-directed IRA," whose chief advantage is its investment flexibility. But it can cost you extra money, so there's no point start single account, and you're in charge of inv esting it. Does the self-directed IRA make sense? Yes, in some cases.

No, in many others. Here's how I'd play it: Yes, open a self-directed account if you're a proven, successful investor who loves to play the market. You'll be able to move money quickly from one investment to another and can choose exactly which stocks to buy. Set up an IRA through a discount stockbroker who charges low sales commissions for each transaction. You will not obtain any investment advice from a discount broker, but as a top investor, you won't need it.

Two institutions that offer self-directed IRAs with no set-up or annual administration fees are Security Pacific Brokers, a division of Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles, and the discount broker Charles Schwab. Yes, open a self-directed account if you have a stockbroker or investment adviser with whom you've worked for a long time and who has a history of investing money at a profit. He, or she will help you manage your iRA funds. You will pay more for this account, in higher transaction fees, brokerage commissions, set-up costs and annual trustee's fees. Some institutions also charge a termination fee if you close the account.

But if your broker advises you well, his or her fees will be insignificant. Yes, open a self-directed IRA if you already have a lot of money invested in CDs, blue-chip stocks or mutual funds and want to try something riskier. For the investor interested in an IRA limited partnership, self-directed accounts are the only vehicle you can use. Consider this investment only if you have a substantial net worth. Most limited partnerships are a crapshoot; you hope for double-digit returns but could wind up with a total failure.

You also need a self-directed account to invest in zero-coupon bonds. The principal in your zero is safe if you hold it to maturity. But if your IRA has a set-up or administration cost, it would reduce the Try to buy zeros only through no-fee accounts. No, stay away from a self-directed account if you mean to invest all of your money in CDs, or in a single mutual fund that you expect to hold for the long term. You can usually do that more cheaply by buying the funds and CDs directly.

The Fidelity mutual-fund group's annual administration fee is $10 per fund for a regular IRA, $20 for a self-directed IRA. (But note that the latter would be cheaper if you wanted to spread the IRA investment across several Fidelity funds.) Paul OXeary of Fidelity says that investors can switch easily from fund to fund with either type of account. The self-directed account, he says, is chiefly for those who want to branch out Into individual stocks and bonds. Ditto for bank. and credit-union self-directed accounts that might have small set-up and annual administration fees.

No. stay away from a self-directed IRA if you know little about investing or if you have made a lot of mistakes in the market. And stay away if your assets are modest, because you don't need a limited partnership. You're better off stashing money safely in a CD or giving it to a mutual fund and forgetting about it. tMngall Writer) Gru ing one unless you re sure that Quinn it's exactly what you need.

Here's how to tell whether a self-directed IRA is for you: Let's say that you have been putting $2,000 a year into an IRA every year since 1982. In the first year, you bought a bank certificate of deposit. In the second year, you bought a CD from a high-paying savings and loan association. In the third year, you went to a bond mutual fund. In the fourth year, you picked a stock fund.

Technically, you own four separate IRAs and might receive statements from four separate IRA trustees. Another way to make the same investments is to open a single self-directed IRA. Every year, you add $2,000 to the account and can put it into any IRA investment you want. You can still own your CDs and mutual funds; you can also diversify Into individual stocks and bonds, zero-coupon bonds and limited partnerships. So Instead of owning several IRAs, you would own only one.

All of the IRA money is pooled in a Dipping rates on bonds fail to excite market r(mB DE3. mmm Tmim Hrw ianric People in business Stvn C. Silbr was appointed vice president of Ronald Levitt Associates a Coral Gables rnMi ra iti-re firm tacf consuls .0 e. jtlSsl in NEW YORK Prices rose moderately on Wall Street yesterday as the stock market, already too rich for many investors tastes, failed to respond to further declines in interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 3 12 points to close at 1.702.95.

lifting it above the 1.700 milestone for the first time this month. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange dipped to 129 9 million shares, making it the slowest session in a month. Interest rates continued to decline in the bond market as speculation grew that the nation's economy was probably weak enough to warrant some additional loosening in the credit markets by the Federal Reserve Board. The stock market, which has been moving in conjunction with bonds for monthh, however, did not respond forcefully to the lower rates. Analysts said In-estors were becoming concerned the economic weakness might soon begin to hurt corporate profits Michael Met of Oppenheimer It Co.

said the economy had caused at least a temporary change in the market's psychology, with investors "looking fur defensive growth sKK ks Such stocks include Pil'sbury. up 1 to 69'. nl American Brands, up 3 IJ. to 77 uyw i vuuui 14 in it i iww tor Rivera was promoted to executive vice president cf Florida International Dank in Pernne David L. Epattir.

was named vice president of production for Florida Fulfillment Lee Spiegel-man, founder and president of Florida Fidelity financial, a M.arrti mortgage brokerage i-J Jhsh iatMt drm. is assuming the position of chairman of the board. Marjorie Weber, formerfy executive vice president, was named president and chief executive officer..