Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 10, 1995                   TAG: 9502100104
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

Rocky Mount businesses have pledged nearly $15,000 to the town's ongoing economic development campaign, a spokesman for the fund-raising effort said Thursday.

The Community Partnership for Revitalization, a group of business, citizen and government representatives, hopes to raise $35,000 by Feb. 17. The money will be combined with $25,000 from local governments to oversee a program aimed at filling empty stores, beautifying the community and cutting traffic.

The fund-raiser, which began Jan. 17, has pledges of $14,695, task force member Kevin Flora said.

- Staff report

Real estate firm opens at Townside

RE/MAX 3000 Inc., a new real estate firm, has opened in Roanoke with longtime area resident and multimillion-dollar producer Spring Cho as broker and owner.

Cho, who is active in the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors, has had nearly 10 years of real estate experience. She has received the association's Diamond Award for the past six years and has closed home sales valued at more than $50 million.

The new office, at Townside Festival shopping center on Franklin Road, will specialize in residential property sales in the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas.

The firm is a member of the RE/MAX Central Atlantic Region, with offices in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. The region is affiliated with RE/MAX International, a franchiser headquartered in Denver, Colo.

RE/MAX was considered nontraditional when it began in 1973 offering agents 100 percent sales commissions, while agents paid brokers monthly fees for office space and other services. Traditional agencies call for agents to split commissions with brokers.

- Staff report

Briefly ...

Dominion Resources Inc., Richmond parent of Virginia Power, said Thursday it will hold its annual meeting at 9:30 a.m. April 21 at The Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel/Waterside Convention Center, Norfolk. On alternate years, the company schedules the annual meeting outside of its Richmond corporate headquarters.

The Journal of Commerce Inc., publisher of America's oldest business newspaper, will be sold to The Economist magazine of Britain for $115 million, owner Knight-Ridder Inc. of Miami and The Economist Group said Thursday. The sale is expected to be completed on April 1. The Journal of Commerce was founded in 1827 by Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the Morse Code.

American Safety Razor, Verona-based razor maker, said it will pay $10.3 million for Sterile Products Corp. of Valley Park, Mo., which makes cotton squares, balls and puffs. It is American Safety Razor's second acquisition of a cotton company in a year. In June, it bought Megas Beauty Care Inc. of Cleveland. Sterile Products Corp. also is known as the Absorbent Cotton Co., or ACCO.