FIRMS SELL LOCAL SHOPPING CENTERS<\/p>\n
Hallmark Partners of Jacksonville and Stiles Corp. of Fort Lauderdale are selling two First Coast shopping centers that they own jointly, Deerwood Lake Commons at Southside Boulevard and Touchton Road and St. Johns Commons at 2220 County Road 210 W. in northern St. Johns Counties.<\/p>\n
Prudential Real Estate Investors is purchasing those two properties, which Hallmark will continue to manage and lease.<\/p>\n
Prudential is also buying three other centers that Stiles solely owns, properties in Ocala, Coconut Creek and Miramar. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
OHIO INSURER OPENING LOCAL OFFICE<\/p>\n
Westfield Group, a large nationwide property and casualty insurer, is opening a Jacksonville office in December, spokeswoman Terri Grimm said. The regional office will handle the needs related to its Jacksonville and Savannah markets.<\/p>\n
Lang Tarrant of Steinemann & Co. represented the insurer in the deal and said the company is leasing nearly 6,000 square feet of space in Centurion Plaza for its service center.<\/p>\n
The Ohio-based company will have seven employees to do marketing, underwriting, loss control, financial and customer service. Westfield relocated two of its existing employees and has hired two of the five other staff members needed, Grimm said. The company plans on growing its business with commercial entities and may hire more employees if business grows.<\/p>\n
FLORIDA BANKS DELAYS STOCK OFFER<\/p>\n
Florida Banks Inc. said yesterday that it is postponing its secondary offering of 2 million shares of common stock.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville-based banking company said that in the current economy Florida Banks expects to achieve higher returns on assets and equity with its existing capital than it would by raising more capital. “Changing market conditions made it clear that the cost of new capital at this time justifies neither the return we can expect nor the risk involved in deploying that new capital,” said a statement by President and CEO Charles Hughes Jr.<\/p>\n
Hughes reiterated Florida Banks’ earnings forecast of about 60 cents a share this year, up from 20 cents a share in 2002.<\/p>\n
NATION<\/p>\n
HEDGE FUND BROKER PLEADS GUILTY<\/p>\n
A former broker with Millennium Partners hedge fund pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony charge for illegal late trading of mutual fund shares, part of a quickly broadening investigation that has touched many of the best-known names in the business.<\/p>\n
Steven Markovitz, 41, admitted that he and other traders “intentionally engaged in fraud, deception [and] concealment” to buy and sell mutual fund shares at the closing price after the New York market closed. His plea requires him to cooperate with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s sweeping investigation of the mutual fund industry that has cast a shadow over a main investment vehicle for many Americans.<\/p>\n
Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, trades made after 4 p.m. Eastern must be sold at the next day’s price, set at market close.<\/p>\n
PHILIP MORRIS SETTLES TEXAS CASE<\/p>\n
Philip Morris USA has agreed to pay more than $2 million in the case of a toddler severely burned in a fire blamed on a cigarette left in a car — the first time the nation’s No. 1 tobacco company has ever settled a personal injury suit.<\/p>\n
The settlement was reached in May and was first reported this week by the Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n
Shannon Moore, now 13, was 21 months old at the time of the blaze 11 years ago. She was asleep in her car seat when her mother got out for a quick stop at her grandparents’ Fort Worth house and left a burning cigarette between the car’s two front seats. After about 10 minutes the car was in flames, searing her face, ears, torso and hands — more than three-fourths of her small body.<\/p>\n
Philip Morris has a history of fighting lawsuits vigorously but settled this case because it was “unique, isolated and not likely to be replicated,” said John Sorrells, a spokesman for Altria Group Inc., the parent of Philip Morris USA.<\/p>\n
— From staff, news services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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