2
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2004
Owner discusses plans for Mexican grill
BY RYAN C. TUCK
CITY EDITOR
The building at the corner of
Franklin and Columbia streets has
housed Spanish tapas and Italian
food but hasn’t found a permanent
tenant.
Starting as early as December, it
will give a Mexican grill a try.
Joe Numberger, operating
partner of Sez-Tec LLC in North
Carolina, said Tuesday that he will
start remodeling 100 W. Franklin
St. for the new Qdoba Mexican
Grill next week.
Billed as a fast, casual restau
rant, Qdoba will offer Southwest
style Mexican food.
Numberger, who owns 12 other
Qdoba restaurants throughout the
state, announced earlier this sum
mer that the Charlotte-based com
Local business appears on cover of Fortune
BY RYAN C. TUCK
CITY EDITOR
Playboy is not the only national
magazine on newsstands that fea
tures a piece of Chapel Hill.
Fortune magazine has listed
Chapel Hill-based Investors Title
Insurance Cos. in its Sept. 6 issue
as one of America’s 100 Fastest
Growing Companies.
J. Allen Fine, chairman and
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pany would open its first Chapel
Hill location in the building across
Columbia Street from Spanky’s.
“We’ve been looking into getting
into a major college campus some
where for a while,” Numberger
said. “We saw that comer space was
available, and to us, it’s like being
on Main and Main Street.”
Despite the property’s high vis
ibility and proximity to bus stops,
more than three businesses have
opened and closed in the location
in the last five years.
Valentino’s, Tlni’s Thpas and Spirits
and Sunny Comer Bar all closed as a
result of fiscal constraints.
Numberger said the Chapel Hill
property will be the most expensive
of any of his locations in the state.
Because the building was built
in 1922 and lacks sufficient air
CEO of Investors Title, said the
group was named the 95th fastest
growing company in the nation
based on its growth in the last four
quarters.
Investors Title, a title insurance
company Fine started in Chapel
Hill in 1972, reported a revenue
growth of SB7-4 million in the past
four quarters.
“We’re very excited,” said Fine,
conditioning, Numberger said
that cost is even more significant.
But he said the benefits from being
a part of a renowned business area
will outweigh the costs.
“Unless you’re living under a rock,
you’ve heard of Chapel Hill,” he said.
“Business owners know about Chapel
Hill all across the country.”
Numberger said the location also
offers his business unprecedented
access to his target audience.
“There aren’t normal business
hours there’s not a lunch hour,”
he said. “We see revenue happen
ing until 3 in the morning.”
Numberger said he has studied a
Qdoba location in Madison, Wise.,
where the University of Wisconsin
is located, to get an idea of what is
different in a college market.
“It’s not a very spread-out mar
who graduated from UNC in 1961.
“It’s a testament to our good peo
ple.”
Fine said representatives from
Fortune called him last week
and sent advanced copies of the
article.
“It’s a real honor,” he said.
Fine said he opened his business
in Chapel Hill because the town
had a strong business environment
News
ket,” he said. “We’re honed in on
who we want here.”
Developer Joe Riddle who
owns the property of the former
Gap, diagonal to where Qdoba will
be— said he thinks Qdoba will do
well but isn’t what the area needs.
“It’s just another restaurant,”
Riddle said. “Downtown is all T
shirt shops and restaurants now.”
Numberger said he will demol
ish the interior of the store and
have to make several renovations
to the building before it can open.
But he said he hopes he can open
for business as soon as possible.
“I start paying rent next month,”
Numberger said. “We want to get it
open more than anybody.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
with a good support system.
The company, which provides a
corporate guarantee for real-estate
titles, has offices statewide, as well
as in 24 states and the District of
Columbia.
It has operated out of its cur
rent downtown location at the
corner of Columbia and Rosemary
streets for more than a decade,
Fine said.
“I love being downtown and
working here,” Fine said.
Fine is also a member of the
newly formed Downtown Economic
Development Corporation and said
his company represents a unique
addition to the business environ
ment downtown.
He said the organization writes
about 25 percent of insurance titles
in Chapel Hill and statewide.
“We bring a lot of customers
downtown,” Fine said.
“We try to do all the work we can
in Chapel Hill.”
For its feature, Fortune looked
at U.S. companies with a minimum
market cap of SSO million.
Investors Title employs more
than 220 people in 28 offices state
wide and is traded on the NASDAQ
national market.
But Fine said Chapel Hill has
always been the focus of his busi
ness.
“I could have opened a business
anywhere,” he said. “I love Chapel
Hill.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
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UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR
I INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
fVri*
JLVr JL International Education Week
November 15-19,2004
Entries Submit a photo to the 4th Annual
International Education Week
Amateur Photography Competition.
Tfltpmatinnal Entries will be judged on ability
llltw I lUUIUIIaI t 0 communicate a cross-cultural
P 1 ,• experience and on artistic merit.
CuUCullOn Prizes awarded to winning entries!
Open to students, faculty and staff!
Week „ Ml . , t .
Entry guidelines and submission
Photography forms available at
7*. www.ucis.unc.edu
Competition
Deadline for Submission: November 5,2004
ANALYSIS
Economy sways
insurance costs
BY INDIA AUTRY
STAFF WRITER
The rising cost of medical mal
practice insurance premiums has
become ammunition for partisan
debate, and a recent study by two
Dartmouth College professors sides
with the Democrats.
The study shows that the rising
costs during the last few years are
more a product of the lagging econ
omy than of an increase in money
awarded in malpractice lawsuits.
Just as individuals buy insur
ance to lessen costs in the event
of property damage, doctors pay
a premium to avoid bearing the
weight of mistakes on the job.
In the last few years, doctors
especially those in high-risk
fields have been forced to slap
more cash on the table to insure
themselves.
This has contributed to the
exodus of a substantial number of
practitioners, and many fear that
some people soon will be with
out access to medical care. The
American Medical Association has
declared North Carolina one of 20
crisis states.
Republicans tend to blame
expensive premiums on the rise of
the amount of money that juries
award to plaintiffs of malpractice
lawsuits.
Richard Burr, North Carolina’s
Republican candidate for the U.S.
Senate, proposed an award limit
of $250,000 for pain-and-suffer
ing damages in malpractice cases.
Economic damages would be paid
dollar for dollar.
Many Republicans say
Democrats object to such caps
because they are funded by the
trial lawyers who profit from big
jury awards.
Burr’s opponent, Erskine
Bowles, is financially supported
by doctors as well as lawyers, said
Bowles spokesman Carlos Monje.
But he said Bowles would only
back caps on pain-and-suffering
awards if they made exceptions for
cases of gross negligence or inten
tional misconduct.
Other Democrats, like vice
presidential candidate Sen. John
Edwards, want to reform the
insurance companies and outlaw
their ability to charge exorbitant
(IV iailg (Tar Brri
amounts to make up for lost invest
ments, said Ron Eckstein, N.C.
communications director for the
Kerry-Edwards campaign.
Both Bowles and Edwards, who
was a trial lawyer before entering
the Senate in 1998, have plans for
keeping illegitimate lawsuits out of
the courtroom.
The hike in jury awards has
not been proportional to the rise
in premium costs, said Katherine
Baicker, a professor in Dartmouth
College’s economics department
and an author of the. study.
“While increasing payouts for
lawsuits have affected malpractice
insurance, it can’t explain most of
the increase in premium costs,” she
said.
Premium costs only rise 25 cents
for every dollar of jury awards that
insurance companies owe, Baicker
said.
She said media hype on higher
jury awards has eclipsed the real
cause of the problem. “It’s the focal
point when it’s not representative
of what’s going on.”
The more likely culprit is a
decrease in the amount of money
insurance companies are making
from investing the premiums they
receive, Baicker said. “It’s not at all
clear that caps would do anything
to premium costs.”
Baicker said insurance companies
look to potential returns on invest
ments to determine the charge for
premiums the lower the yield
from investments, the more they
have to get from premiums.
Stanley Black, a professor in
UNC’s economics department, said
it’s common knowledge that the
state of investment returns depends
on the economy. The U.S. economy
went into a recession a few years ago
about the same time premium
costs started to rise dramatically
—and hasn’t gotten for on the road
to recovery.
AMA Public Information Officer
Robert Mills said only 20 percent of
insurance companies’ investments
can be in the volatile stock market.
But Baicker said other investment
spots can be sensitive to shifts in the
economy as well.
The AMA refutes the assertion
that investment returns cause the
brunt of the damage, said spokes
man Daniel Koen.
He said that premium costs
have risen more than the amount
of money paid out for lawsuits has
because companies are stocking up
for future costs. The absence of caps
make the potential payout amount
practically unlimited.
Contact the State £2 National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
©l|p (Bar Hrrl
P.0.80x3257,Chapel Hill, NC27515
Michelle Jatboe, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising & Business, 962-1163
News, Features, Sports, 962-0245
One copy per person; additional copies may be
purchased at The Daily Tar Heel for (.25 each.
Q 2004 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved
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