Familiar Name
Padres fans taking in spring training games in Yuma can spot a familiar sight--a FedMart discount store, open and thriving. The outlet, once owned by San Diego-based FedMart, is now leased to Sergio Enterprises Inc., headed by former FedMart executive Sergio Farias. Farias also operates a FedMart in Calexico; another outlet is run in Tucson by Tom Riches, also a former FedMart vice president.
FedMart, founded in San Diego by retailer Sol Price and taken over by German businessman Hugo Mann in the late 1970s, closed shop in San Diego in 1982. The company was renamed Sunbelt Realty and retained land title to the 46 FedMart sites.
Executive on Market
The Executive Hotel complex will go on the selling block sometime in the next 30 days, according to Dennis Schmucker, the court-appointed receiver of the limited partnership that owns the landmark downtown facility. Schmucker, who is capping a $4 million renovation project, said he has been “under siege” from potential buyers.
The would-be purchasers “all say they’re locked in a phone booth, with their Rolls Royces waiting, and they’ve got to buy the place right now,” said Schmucker. “But when they show up they’re driving a rented Toyota and have holes in their shoes.”
Schmucker won’t disclose the asking price for the complex, which includes the fabled 100-year-old Cuyamaca Club, a 102-room hotel, a 25-story office building and an 11-story parking garage. But insiders predict the market price will exceed $45 million. More than $26 million is owed in first and second trust deeds.
The complex is owned by a partnership that was managed by a San Bernardino developer who has been accused by state regulators of securities violations.
Strode’s Strides
Jan Strode, the Great American First Savings Bank public relations chief, is slated to become the first woman on the cover of U.S. Banker magazine in June. A photographer and writer from the magazine are scheduled to follow her for a day later this month. Strode, a former PR staffer at Firestone when its “500” tires were recalled, will be depicted as a woman in senior management who’s responsible for the image of a large savings and loan.
