Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Business today

Wyndham Westshore sold to Calif. investor

By Times Staff
Published April 4, 2006

One of Tampa's most prominent hotels, the 322-room Wyndham Westshore, was sold Friday to a California investor that will renovate the 22-year-old property with new marble, stone, linens and carpeting. Lowe Enterprises Investors, not to be confused with a similarly named hotel chain, bought the 11-story hotel from Goldman Sachs Highgate Holdings. A price wasn't available, but renovations will cost $21-million. The hotel at 4860 W Kennedy Blvd., 3 miles from Tampa International Airport, is home to Shula's Steakhouse.

Port Richey insurance agent loses license

A Port Richey insurance agent who authorities say used radio ads and seminars to lure senior citizens into buying needless annuities that cost them thousands of dollars in penalties had his license revoked and is banned from selling insurance in Florida. The Florida Department of Financial Services said Monday that Bijan Razdar, 52, who operated American Independent Financial Services at 10633 U.S. 19 N, made his radio ads sound like a financial advice show.

First Advantage Corp. of St. Petersburg has added Frank McMahon to its board, bringing its number of directors to 11. McMahon is the new chief financial officer of First American Corp., which owns 77 percent of First Advantage. McMahon was previously with Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, advising on mergers and acquisitions. First Advantage's board chairman, Parker S. Kennedy, said McMahon's background will be helpful as First Advantage, a business solutions provider, pursues its growth strategy.

A federal judge in Tampa has dismissed a securities class-action lawsuit four shareholders filed against TECO Energy Inc. in 2004. The plaintiffs, who sought to represent investors who bought the Tampa utility company's stock between Oct. 30, 2001, and Feb. 4, 2003, alleged that TECO had fraudulently misrepresented its financial condition to inflate its stock price. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore dismissed the case without prejudice, saying "the plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged that defendant's fraud, as opposed to poor market conditions" caused TECO's stock price decline.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction, with six-month bills climbing to the highest level in more than five years. The Treasury Department auctioned $15-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.535 percent, up from 4.495 percent last week. An additional $14-billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.670 percent, up from 4.600 percent last week.

[Last modified April 4, 2006, 03:00:35]