THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140281
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Direct Marketing Enterprises intends to build a $10 million warehouse and office in Portsmouth, city officials said Monday.
The New York mail-order company would bring as many as 300 new jobs and pay $200,000 in local taxes on its proposed site near the Downtown Tunnel. The city has proposed investing $565,000 to improve the site in Portsmouth's PortCentre Commerce Park.
One of the larger mail-order businesses in New York, Direct Marketing has had brushes in recent years with the New York attorney general and the New York Better Business Bureau regarding deceptive advertising.
``I'm comfortable that they'll be good corporate citizens in this community,'' Portsmouth City Manager V. Wayne Orton said. ``I've been very pleased with them in my personal dealings.''
Orton said Monday afternoon that he was unaware of any complaints about the company.
The Portsmouth City Council is scheduled to consider an agreement between the city and Direct Marketing tonight. Under the agreement, the city would invest $565,000 to improve the land for the company, according to city records.
In recent months, the City Council has authorized those expenditures, contingent on a contract. Work at the site would begin as soon as the agreement is signed.
Direct Marketing would purchase the 23 acres from the city for about $230,000. The company plans to complete construction this fall, city officials said.
Direct Marketing would be the first company since 1986 to build inthe PortCentre Commerce Park.
``It's a great opportunity for our city,'' Orton said. ``We had to compete with some other states. . . . We competed locally with other cities in Hampton Roads. I think it demonstrates that we have a good product and can put a good package together.''
The company's officials are expected to unveil their plans at the 7 p.m. council meeting. They declined to comment on the deal before the council vote.
According to city officials, the company plans to build a 200,000-square-foot warehouse and a 30,000-square-foot office complex adjacent to the WAVY-TV studios.
Direct Marketing Enterprises would buy enough land to later expand its warehouse by 200,000 square feet.
In 1987, the New York attorney general brought action against Raffoler Ltd. which was doing business as Direct Marketing Enterprises. The case was settled in 1992 when the company signed a consent decree which prohibited the firm from ``engaging in certain deceptive mail-order and advertising practices.'' The company admitted no wrongdoing.
In 1991, the New York Better Business Bureau said that Direct Marketing and four other New York mail-order firms together accounted for 4,800 complaints, or 16 percent of all Better Business Bureau mail-order complaints filed throughout the nation in 1990, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Thea Martin, a spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau in New York, said that complaints filed with the bureau allege ``nondelivery of merchandise; dissatisfaction with merchandise and failure to provide refunds or adjustments.''
Company officials could not be reached for comment on the complaints. In the past, they have blamed complaints on the operation's ``exceptionally high'' sales volume, saying that the number of complaints is miniscule compared with sales. by CNB