Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412220038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MARTINSVILLE - Henry County economic development officials have turned a negative into a positive for the third time in two months.
The Patrick Henry Development Council said Tuesday that Vision Development Corp. will begin operations in a business development center, or "incubator," using a plant that was shut down earlier this year by the Sara Lee Corp.
Sara Lee donated the building on Adele Street in Martinsville to the Partnership for Progress, a private economic development foundation, and the partnership transferred ownership to Vision Development. The idea of a business incubator - a facility that houses expanding businesses and provides the framework for them to flourish - has been planned for several months, according to Frank Novakowski, executive directory of the development council.
George Li, Vision's vice chairman and chief executive, retired from the DuPont Corp. in 1985 and began a new career as an entrepreneur, according to the development council. In 1975, he founded an import and manufacturing firm, Cosmopolitan Inc. Vision is the third company since early November to move into existing industrial space in Martinsville and Collinsville.
Asmore Sportwear, a Lancaster, Pa.-based t-shirt manufacturer, is putting a plant expansion into a vacant building on U.S. Route 220 in Collinsville. Three days later, Innovative Yarns of Eden, N.C. announced it was moving its operations to another Martinsville Sara Lee plant donated by the company after a large wave of job cuts.
Ashmore will employ 150 and Innovative Yarns will employ 50. Both companies hope to expand those workforces in 1995, Novakowski said.
-TODD JACKSON\ Roanoke Gas rate hearing delayed
A hearing on Roanoke Gas Co.'s request for a $1.3 million rate increase was postponed Tuesday until Jan. 30. The hearing had been scheduled by a State Corporation Commission hearing examiner in Richmond.
The company was allowed to put higher rates in effect Nov. 13 on an interim basis. The increase added 2.4 percent to the company's operating revenues and raised the average bill of a residential customer using 8,500 cubic feet of gas per month by $1.64, from $57.58 to $59.22 per month.
If the SCC does not approve the entire increase, the company will have to refund the excessive amount collected under the interim rate, with interest.
-Staff report
Briefly ...
First Union Corp., Charlotte, N.C., parent of First Union National Bank of Virginia, said Tuesday it will redeem all of the 6.3 million outstanding shares of its Series 1990 Cumulative Perpetual Adjustable Rate Preferred Stock on March 31 at $51.50 per share.
The Federal Reserve decided Tuesday against a seventh increase in interest rates this year, but analysts predicted quick action in 1995. Given the economy's strength and the risk of inflation, private economists said another round of rate increases is almost certain early in the new year.
by CNB