Tarrant Business

Dr. Stephen Brotherton elected president of Texas Medical Association

Fort Worth orthopedic surgeon Stephen Brotherton is the new president of the Texas Medical Association, the group announced this weekend. TMA is holding its annual meeting in San Antonio. Brotherton, in a prepared release, said he has three priorities for his term: supporting primary care, ensuring patient safety and boosting TMA's county medical organizations, such as the Tarrant County Medical Society. "Primary care is the essence of medicine, and it is ailing in Texas," he said.

Brotherton is a past-president of the Tarrant County Medical Society, a leader of the TMA's House of Delegates, which sets association policies and legislative action, and a longtime participant in American Medical Association activities. He teaches at Texas Christian University, his alma mater, the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Affiliated Hospitals Orthopedic Residency Program. TMA says it is the largest state medical society in the nation, with more than 47,000 physician and medical student members. It is based in Austin.

-- Jim Fuquay

Alliance leases large warehouse to Saddle Creek Logistics Services

Saddle Creek Logistics Services has leased a large warehouse at Alliance from Hillwood Properties. 

Saddle Creek, a privately-held third-party logistics company based in Lakeland, Fla., has leased 287,000 square feet at 743 Henrietta Creek Road in Roanoke.

The lease brings first quarter leasing activities at Alliance in far north Fort Worth to 1 million square feet, Hillwood said.

“First quarter activity continues to follow 2012’s pace and is a good sign that the industrial market is continuing its rebound,” said Mike Berry, Hillwood Properties president, in a statement. “We believe AllianceTexas is well-positioned to take advantage of these improved market conditions.”

Saddle Creek has leased a portion of a 1-million-square-foot warehouse that is leased by Tom Thumb, said Reid Goetz, marketing manager with Hillwood.

The space has been leased by a number of other tenants, but was available and met Saddle Creek's needs, he said. Saddle Creek will use the space for several of its clients, he said.

Saddle Creek also operates an 860,000-square-foot warehouse at 4600 Railhead Road in Fort Worth. The company’s website said it also operates two Grand Prairie facilities totaling 900,000 square feet.

Saddle Creek took occupancy of the Alliance warehouse in April.

Goetz represented Hillwood Properties in-house. Gary Lindsey with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and Robert Pericht, senior vice president, warehouse operations, represented Saddle Creek Logistics Services. 

“Saddle Creek has experienced strong growth in quite a few markets, and the Dallas-Fort Worth market is certainly one of those,” said Pericht, in a statement. “This new AllianceTexas building puts us in a great spot to continue that growth.”

_ Sandra Baker

Proton therapy facility to break ground in Irving on Wednesday

North Texas' first facility offering proton radiation therapy, a $105 million project that will be located in Irving, will break ground Wednesday morning. The Texas Center for Proton Therapy, first announced in June 2011, will be built by Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System and Texas Oncology, the state's largest cancer physicians group. Gary Barlow, the facility's director, said the 63,000-square-foot project will include three treatment rooms, associated imaging services and labs. He said it is expected to treat its first patients by early 2016. There are currently 11 proton treatment facilities in the United States, he said. The only current Texas facility is at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Dr. Scott Cheek, a radiation oncologist at Texas Oncology-Baylor Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, said a proton beam delivers a more precise dose of radiation than conventional x-ray therapy. It is especially helpful when tumors are near the brain, eyes or spinal cord, or when a tumor is wrapped around a organ, he said. "This is additive, another arrow in our armamentarium" for fighting cancer besides conventional radiation and chemotherapy, Cheek said. The new facility's address is 1501 W. Royal Lane in Irving, which was selected for its proximity to both Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field.

-- Jim Fuquay

 

Atmos says it has reimbursed overcharged customers

Atmos Energy said it reversed more than 39,000 overcharges that hit debit and credit cards of customer accounts on Sunday, who were charged 10 times the actual cost of the bill.

In a statement, Atmos said "the isolated event occurred when a vendor charged a segment of customers who pay their bill by credit or debit card through a recurring automatic draft."

Atmos said it will reimburse affected customers for any fees or charges caused by the mistake. The company said it has contacted the customers who were affected "to reassure them that their bank accounts, debit cards and credit cards will be reimbursed."

The overcharges affected 27,772 customers in North Texas, 2,325 in West Texas and others in six other states. Atmos said it serves more than 3 million customers in eight states.

-- Steve Kaskovich

Fort Worth-Arlington home prices rise nearly 11 percent in March

Fort Worth-Arlington home prices rose 10.9 percent in March compared to a year ago, according the latest monthly CoreLogic Home Price Index released Tuesday.

The prices don't include the sale of distressed properties.

When distressed sales are included, home prices rose 5.8 percent compared to March 2012.

On a month-over-month basis, excluding distressed sales, local home prices increased 3.2 percent in March compared to February.

Including distressed sales, month-over-month prices increased 1.7 percent, CoreLogic said.

Nationwide, excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 10.7 percent in March, and including distressed sales, home prices rose 10.5 percent. The change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since March 2006, CoreLogic said.

March was also the 13th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally, CoreLogic said.

"For the first time since March 2006, both the overall index and the index that excludes distressed sales are above 10 percent year-over-year," said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist in a statement. "The pace of appreciation has been accelerating throughout 2012 and so far in 2013 leading into the home buying season."

Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned transactions.

CoreLogic said it expects home prices to also rise in April.

_ Sandra Baker

 

Goodwill Industries to open Granbury location

Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth will open a new 12,000-square-foot store, donation center and free career center at 1427 South Morgan Street (Hwy 144) in Granbury’s Port Brazos Center.

The store, which opens at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 10, is the 20^th location in the greater Fort Worth area.

The public is invited to an opening ceremony at 9 a.m.

"Every retail store that Goodwill is able to open means more revenue to support our job training and placement programs for individuals with disabilities and other barriers to employment," said David Cox, president and CEO.

Goodwill said it is expanding to reach as many residents in Weatherford, Cleburne, Denton, Fort Worth and surrounding areas as possible.

The career center inside the Granbury location will provide Hood County residents with free access to job-search experts, computers, Internet and telephones. The career center will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Granbury location will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday – Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Goodwill is a non-profit leader in providing education, training and career services for people with disabilities.

_ Sandra Baker

Fort Worth firm TTI to host job fair for sales professionals

Global electronic components distributor, TTI, Inc. in Fort Worth, will host a job fair Thursday, May 16 for sales professionals.

The job fair will run from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 2441 Northeast Parkway.

The company said it has multiple openings for on its team of inside sales specialists.

TTI distributes to industrial, military, aerospace and consumer electronics manufacturers worldwide.

Applicants will be pre-screened prior to the event. Applicants should submit a resume plus salary requirements to human.resources@ttiinc.com

TTI along with its subsidiary Mouser Electronics employs more than 3,500 with over 100 locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information about TTI go online to www.ttiinc.com

_ Sandra Baker

GM Financial earns $106 million in first quarter

Fort Worth-based GM Financial, formerly AmeriCredit, earned $106 million in the year's first quarter, compared to $112 million the same period a year earlier. The auto lender wrote $1.4 billion in vehicle loans and leases, about the same as a year earlier, and income from outstanding loans jumped 25 percent, to $540 million. But expenses also rose, including a 93 percent increase in its provision for loan losses. It also reported $6.4 million in expenses related to its acquisition of Ally Financial assets. During the quarter GM Financial averaged outstanding loan and lease balances of $13.7 billion, up from  $10.8 billion a year earlier. The company is headquartered in downtown Fort Worth and has a large Arlington call center.

-- Jim Fuquay

Energy Future holdings loses $569 million in first quarter

Energy Future Holdings lost $569 million in the year’s first three months, as slightly higher revenues were more than offset by the Dallas-based power company’s high interest costs and other charges. At the same time, the company said its cash on hand rose to $2.3 billion and said it should be able to meet debt obligations until October 2014. The former TXU Corp. has been in restructuring talks with creditors and has disclosed the possibility it could seek a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.

The company sold slightly less electricity overall. Its number of residential power customers slipped 3.6 percent to just over 1.5 million, a long-term trend that its retail arm, TXU Energy, has fought to reverse.

-- Jim Fuquay

Texas electric supply tight but improving

The state's largest power grid says electricity supplies could be tight during hot summer weather, but it also said its longer-term outlook is improving. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves about 85 percent of the state's electricity demand, said in its final summer forecast that it could initiate  calls for conservation on the hottest days. "We are expecting above-normal temperatures throughout summer in most areas," said Kent Saathoff, an ERCOT executive advisor.

ERCOT said it expects a peak power demand of 68,383 megawatts, just slightly more than the existing record of 68,305 megawatts. A megawatt is enough to power about 200 Texas homes during the hottest afternoons, when air conditioners are blasting. Power generation available to meet that demand is estimated at 74,438 megawatts, which includes 925 megawatts of new capacity from a McLennan County coal-fired facility and 700 megawatts in new wind power capacity. The state's ongoing drought isn't expected to create problems, which can result if cooling water for power plants is restricted.

ERCOT's summer 2014 outlook calls for a reserve margin of 13.8 percent, right at the grid's preferred minimum of 13.75 percent. The reserve margin is the excess of estimated capacity over estimated peak demand. That's up from ERCOT's December estimate of 10.9 percent. The margin was boosted by additions of more than 1,500 megawatts of gas-fired, solar and wind capacity expected to come online by next summer, plus the earlier start-up of two new gas-fired plants previously announced by Panda Power.

-- Jim Fuquay