Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, June 3, 1996

Molokai, Big Isle
to get phone service upgrade

GTE Hawaiian Tel's customers on Molokai and on the eastern side of the Big Island will be having their calls handled by the latest digital equipment within a couple of years, bringing them new services already enjoyed elsewhere in the state.

Northern Telecom, an equipment company based in North Carolina, said it has signed contracts worth $8.1 million to supply the isle utility with new switching technology that will improve service and bring those areas new features such as call forwarding, call waiting and caller identification.

Installation at all four switching centers on Molokai and the switch serving the Papaikou to Naalehu area of the Big Island is set for completion in 1998.


Barnwell unit's plans for project advance

Honolulu-based Barnwell Industries Inc. said its 50.1 percent-owned resort partnership, Kaupulehu Developments, has received state Land Use Commission approval for resort and residential development of about 1,000 acres of Big Island oceanfront land.

The company said the urban land use classification is an important first step toward getting residential development going on the property adjacent to the 650-acre Hualalai Resort, where a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course opened four months ago and where a Four Seasons Hotel is being built.

Barnwell, an oil and gas exploration company traded on the American Stock Exchange, said the partnership's development plans still require county zoning approval.


Clear Channel to buy out Heftel Broadcasting

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Clear Channel Communications Inc. has agreed to pay about $200 million, or $23 a share, for Heftel Broadcasting Corp., the nation's largest Spanish-language radio company founded by former Hawaii congressman Cecil Heftel.

Clear Channel already owns a 21 percent stake in the Las Vegas-based company, which has 17 stations in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas.

Heftel Broadcasting was started in Hawaii by Heftel in 1965 with the purchase of KGMB-TV and KGMB-Radio (now KSSK-AM/FM Radio). Heftel subsequently sold the local stations and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1976 to 1986 as a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

He resigned from Congress in 1986 to run unsuccessfully for governor of Hawaii.

Heftel refocused the broadcasting unit on Spanish radio on the mainland after his failed gubernatorial bid.


Sizzler to close 130 restaurants

LOS ANGELES - Sizzler International Inc. on Monday said that it was closing more than 130 of its restaurants and filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.

Sizzler said it would close 130 company-operated Sizzler restaurants and six Buffalo Ranch Steakhouse restaurants in the United States. It did not say how many jobs might be affected.

A Sizzler spokesman in Los Angeles said the nine Sizzler restaurants in Hawaii, which are operated by a franchise holder, are not affected.

The company said it will take a charge of $108.9 million, or $3.92 a share, for costs associated with the closings and related re-organization.


For more local, national and international business news,
see the Hawaii Inc. section in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.



Text Site Directory:
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Community] [Info] [Stylebook] [Feedback]