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Show Page Dentists have a good bite on development by Milt Policzer Enterprise Staff Writer When you sit in the modern reception room of Dr. Keith Lignell waiting to have your cavities filled, you might want to read something to soothe your nerves. Now in most dentists offices, you might find such exciting time-passe- as rs Molar Digest or Today's Decay, but in Lignell's office the array of reading matter provided for patients is of quite a different nature. Before you, neatly arranged on a low table you will see the Wall Street Jounral Fortune, and Architectural Digest, among other things. Well, according to Lignell, they sort of fell into it. Todd and Lignell, both reared in Utah, established their practices together here in 1952 after meeting at dental school at the University of California in San Francisco. After four years, they decided to buy some land and build their own offices at 223 S. 7th East. That cost them about $11,000 for the land and $60,000 for construction, which turned out to be a bargain when they learned soon after that a new highway would be built alongside. Then they bought the property next door, built an apartment building, and struck success again. Albertsons earnings gain Albertons Inc. announced much as 75 to 80 percent of their time (50 percent during regular work hours) on real estate projects, Lignell said, although he still considers dentistry to be his principal profession. According to Lignell, he and Todd dont get into a lot of phases other developers do. Planning, construction, leasing and management are all left to hired experts. But Lignell doesn't believe that lessens their profit. "Experts more than pay for themselves," he said. "Inefficiency caused by doing things you don't know' about can cost you dearly." Why practice? themselves and its during that phase of the project that theyre most busy. So if theyre so successful and busy at developing, why keep up a general dentistry practice at all? "Sometimes it makes you wonder," Lignell said, but you spend so much of your life preparing and training." "I enjoy doing it. I think both of us enjoy doing it." thats not all that unusual once you realize Lignell, along with his partner and fellow dentist Burton Todd, are among the more successful land developers in town and are now involved in putting together a $39 million complex in downtown Salt Lake City. hotel-office-shoppi- ng The partalso owns the Incline nership n Terrace Apartments, Estates in Midway, e McBride Park Farms (a fruit farm in Orem, being It started out as our own annuity type of plan,'' Lignell told the Enterprise last week so they could have some kind of security when their eyesight began to fail and their hands to shake. But they kept getting better and better as devel- opers. Todd-Ligne- ll 110-acr- held for future develop- ment if the city doesn't condemn it for a golf course) a large parcel of ground at 10th East and 4th South, and miscellaneous other small properties. They've also developed a number of other projects that have since been sold, including the Stansbury Apartments, Canyon Road Towers, and student housing in Cedar City at the College of Southern Utah. How do dentists get into e development? big-tim- 1977. Warren E. McCain, chairman of the board of the food-dru- g e chain, announced sales for the six months ended July 30, 1977, totaled $834,569 compared to $705,704,454 for the same period last year, an increase of 18 percent. Earn294-stor- 26-we- ek for the ings half first amounted to $11,396,340 or $1.50 per share, a 32 percent increase over the $8,614,911, or $1.14 per share reported a year ago. Sales for the quarter ended July 30, 1977, amounted to $437,832,248, an increase of 19 percent over 13-we- ek years $368,732,957. Earnings for the quarter totaled $6,206,192 or 82 cents per share as compared to $4,923,916 or 65 cents per share, an increase of 26 percent. McCain also reported sales from the Albertsons Southco Division which opcom- erates the Company's y units bination formerly operated by the drug-grocer- partnership, totaled $188,698,419 for the first six months, as compared to the companys 50 Skaggs-Albertson- s Small business chief signals S.O.S. Though he is "euphoric over support" from President Carter, the director of the federal Small Business Administration believes small business is"near crisis "and could be extinct within five years unless legislation is formulated to protect small enterprise. Couldnt pass up For Sale Speaking at a press conference in Salt Lake City "Every time wed see a "for sale" sign come up on a piece of property around here, wed just buy it," Lignell said. Property development got "a little bit easier" each time they did it. "It just kind of grew this way," he said. Lignell said they recognized the area between downtown and 13th East and South Temple to Fourth South as being ripe for redevelopment and they confined most of their purchases to it. "We feel strongly about this area," Lignell said. As successful developers, the dentists now spend as before his appearance at the Utah Economic Development Conference last week, A. Vernon Weaver advocated a small business lobby to combat "bit business encroachment." Most people are too busy pumping life into their businesses to spend time soliciting help from the government, he said. Weaver has compiled a package of about 20 reforms for congressional consideration to help small business, hoping to eliminate "paper- Inter-lacke- continued record sales and earnings growth for the interim period ended July 30, last Todd and Lignell do put the financial deals together Of course work jungles" in SBA loan applications and to reform tax laws. Weaver says $49 million was loaned through the SBA last year, and the national loss ratio averages 5 5 percent on these loans. Utah is at the bottom of the risk list with a one percent loss ratio, he said. He attributed the low figure to high ethics of Utah businesspeople and efficient staff at the local SBA offices. percent share of the partnership's sales last year of $137,389,459, an increase of 37 percent. Earnings after taxes from the Southco Division for the six months amounted to $2,988,642, an increase of 26 percent over the 50 percent partnership share of $2,373,135 reported last year. Southco s sales for the quarter increased 35 percent over last year to $98,471,879 as compared to $72,956,088 and earnings after taxes for the quarter totaled $1,319,735 as compared to last year's These Southco $1,188,856. in the included arc amounts Albertson's totals. The company has opened six new' Albertson's units in California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington, and five Southco combination units in Florida and Alabama during the first six months. Twelve additional Albertsons supermarkets and two Southco combination units arc scheduled to open during the second half. Jobless rate rises slightly The unemployment rate in Utah for the week ending Aug. 25 increased slightly to 5.3 percent from the previous weeks figure of 5.2 percent. Nonetheless, the rate is a significant improvement over the rate of 5.6 to 5.7 percent prevalent during April, May, and June. The rate posted twro weeks ago of 5.2 percent represented the lowest rate this year. The 5.3 percent unemployment rate is the second lowest figure, and is tied only by the same rate reported three weeks ago. Weekly Unemployment Rate Utah April July 1977 Weaver became director of the SBA in April, moving from his position as president of the Union Life Insurance Co. of Little Rock, Ark. Working with President Carter, Weaver has instituted several changes at the SBA since becoming director. His goal is to stop smaller loans, which merely fund a business into bankruptcy, he says. He has instituted a counseling program which offers more management assistance to businesses that apply for loans or arc looking for accounting assistance. Percent 5.7 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.3 5.2 Source: Utah State Dept of Employment Security v 1 RESULTS. !P &E31 364-07- Hinckley Aclvertisingjnc. 300-Kearns Building Salt lake City, Utah 84101 2 Telephone 364-Full Service Agency All Media 2 1 1 Member Utah Association of Advertising Agencies 138 EAST 300 SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY. UTAH 84111 88 DECOR & DESIGN STUDIO Convention - Trade shows exhibits - Grand openings - Seasonal trims - Flags - Banners Pennants -- OUR JOB IS MAKING YOU LOOK GOOD! twenty-on-e -- J |