THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407160166
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BUSINESS WEEKLY STAFF
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Nucor Corp. has narrowed its search for a site to build a $500 million sheet-steel mill to two sites in eastern Virginia and one in the Charleston area of South Carolina, Nucor's chairman said.
The minimill, expected to employ about 600 people in mostly high-wage jobs, would represent a major economic development coup for the state that lands the fast-growing steel-maker.
Nucor Chairman F. Kenneth Iverson identified the two areas under consideration in Virginia as a site on the north side of the James River between Newport News and Richmond, and a site in the West Point area.
Two stalwarts of downtown Norfolk will move to new headquarters to make room for the city's proposed MacArthur mall.
S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., a commercial real estate firm, and Goodman & Co., a regional accounting firm, will move from the Maritime Tower to the 21-floor NationsBank Center within the next year.
The leases in the Maritime Tower expire in 1995.
Designs for the $270 million mall include the land now occupied by the SMA Center, where the two firms' office tower is now.
``As far as we know, the building as we know it won't be here,'' said Donald M. Dale, managing director of Goodman & Co.
Home Quarters Inc., the Virginia Beach-based home improvement store chain, signed a 20-year lease for a new store at Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk.
Construction will begin in a few weeks, HQ President Frank Doczi said. The store should open early next spring.
The 151,415-square-foot Janaf site will replace HQ's Wards Corner location in Norfolk. The building will be 117,516 square feet; the remaining space will be used for a garden and greenhouse area.
Armada/Hoffler Enterprises Inc. has been hired to build HQ's Janaf store.
Lillian Vernon Inc., the mail-order retailer, is adding a distribution warehouse in Virginia Beach to support its booming catalog outlet store sales.
``The new facility will be an annex to handle our present growth,'' said David Hochberg, vice president of public affairs for the New Rochelle, N.Y.-based retailer.
The 154,000-square-foot warehouse will be used to store bulk items and to distribute inventory. About 25 employees will operate the facility.
The purchase of the building will be completed on Sept. 7. Lillian Vernon should move into the warehouse a month from the sales closing date, Hochberg said.
In the latest consolidation of Hampton Roads financial institutions, the parent of TideMark Bank said it will buy $74 million of deposits, eight branches and certain other assets from the parent of Bay Savings Bank, another Newport News thrift.
The addition of these deposits will increase TideMark's deposit base by almost one-third and reduce its reliance on borrowed funds, said Robert N. Springer, president and chief executive officer of Tidemark and its parent, TideMark Bancorp Inc.
TideMark officers said they expect to complete the purchase in November or December.
After five years of helping the city grow, Virginia Beach's director of economic development, Andrew Burke, resigned to become senior vice president of the Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma City.
Burke is a Texas native who worked in the electric utility business in Dallas before coming to Hampton Roads in 1989.
Virginia Beach now must attract a top-flight economic director to an area facing not only an impending water shortage but also the specter of more defense cutbacks. City Manager James K. Spore said officials would spend the next few weeks planning their next move.
NationsBank Corp., whose card-processing operations in Norfolk employ more than 1,300 people, has teamed up with magazine publisher Southern Progress Corp. to offer a Southern Living Visa card.
The credit card will provide users with discounts on magazine subscriptions, books, house plans and certain travel services offered by Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Progress.
The Southern Living-NationsBank partnership will generate jobs at the banking company's card-processing facility in Norfolk, said William L. Glascock, a senior vice president at NationsBank Card Services.
The merger between R.H. Macy & Co. Inc. and Federated Department Stores Inc. has put plans for a new Macy department store in downtown Norfolk on hold, at least until next month, a company spokeswoman said.
Macy and Federated will file a join reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court by next month. At that point, business strategy teams from both companies will assess the future growth and expansion of their stores. by CNB