News Briefs

ConAgra closing

Ranch Style Beans plant

ConAgra Foods Inc. is closing the company’s Fort Worth plant on El Paso St. and laying off all of the plant’s 121 workers. The 200,000-square-foot building is known to locals as the Ranch Style Beans plant. The property is valued at about $15 million according to the Tarrant Appraisal District.

The plant is expected to close in late February 2010, said Dave Jackson, a ConAgra Foods spokesman.

“The reason the plant is closing is that to maintain it we would need to make a pretty significant investment, around $10 million worth, to modernize it,” he said. “We have our plants elsewhere that have excess capacity, and we can transfer the production of products made in Fort Worth to those

facilities.”

The facilities with excess capacity are located in Newport, Tenn., and Archbold, Ohio, Jackson said. After closing the plant, ConAgra Foods plans to sell the facility and its assets.

– Leslie Wimmer

Southwest Bank to participate in FDIC program extension

Southwest Bank is participating in a six-month extension of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s voluntary Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

The program, which requires banks to pay an increased assessment, insures 100 percent of deposits held in non-interest bearing transaction accounts at Southwest Bank, regardless of dollar amount, through June 30, 2010.

The FDIC created the program in October 2008 to promote liquidity in the United States’ banking system. The unlimited coverage would have expired at the end of 2009. First Command Bank, also based in Fort Worth, told the FDIC it would not participate in the program’s extension.

“On a practical level, this means Southwest Bank is able to offer peace of mind and stability to many Texas businesses that have payroll and other types of accounts with balances exceeding the $250,000 insurance limit set by the FDIC,” said Vernon Bryant, Southwest Bank’s chairman and CEO, in a statement. “We are a very strong, well-capitalized bank, yet we also want to extend to our customers every possible protection offered by the U.S. government at this time in our economy.”

According to FDIC data, Southwest Bank has nine Tarrant County locations, and more than $420 million in deposits in Tarrant County. A new location in south Arlington is set to open early next year.

– Leslie Wimmer

Goff, Barclays Capital

acquire Crescent properties

Fort Worth’s Goff Capital Inc. and Barclays Capital, of London, formed a joint venture to acquire for an undisclosed amount a real estate investment company that owns and manages more than 17 million square feet of office space and investments in other properties.

John C. Goff was appointed chairman and CEO of Crescent Real Estate Equities Limited Partnership, a company he co-founded in the early 1990s before selling it to Morgan Stanley in 2007. Now, Goff Capital and Barclays together will repurchase Crescent, a Fort Worth firm that manages 36 office buildings in Dallas, Houston, Denver and Las Vegas, from Morgan Stanley. The company also has interests in residential developments, hotels and resort spa Canyon Ranch.

“Given his extensive knowledge of the Crescent portfolio, John is well suited to manage the company going forward,” said Haejin Baek, managing director and head of commercial real estate capital markets at Barclays Capital, in a statement.

– John-Laurent Tronche

Area bankers attend D.C. small business forum

Two local bankers that attended a small business financial forum Nov. 18 in Washington, D.C., say the meeting was key to emphasizing the large role small business plays in any continued economic recovery. 

The event, attended by several lenders, business advocates and small business owners, as well as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and SBA Administrator Karen Mills, is part of an Obama administration effort to grow small businesses, create jobs and contribute to the economic recovery.

Dallas-based Greg Clarkson, executive vice president and SBA division manager for BBVA Compass, said officials at the meeting, sponsored by the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration, recognized the importance of small business to the recovery.

“They recognized that small business is a driving force of the economy and cannot be overlooked in being able pull the nation out of the recession we’re in,” he said. “If you’re going to have issues with job creation and consumer spending and the ultimate health of the economy, small business is going to be key.”

Also at the meeting was Cynthia L. Blankenship, vice chairman and COO of Bank of the West in Grapevine, who is also immediate past chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

“America’s small business sector is more important than ever and is a critical component of our country’s economic recovery,” Blankenship said, in a press release. “ICBA appreciates Treasury and the SBA for recognizing that our nation’s more than 8,000 community banks are lending and continue to serve the needs of small businesses within their communities, especially during these challenging economic times.”

At the forum, Geithner called on banks to “get back to the business of lending, helping companies raise capital and investing in the promise of American innovation.”

Clarkson, noting that BBVA Compass has been increasing lending to small business, said banks have to use a different methodology in evaluating loans to small business since the recession began.

“The recession has caused a significant number of negative trends to appear for small businesses and until that trend reverses itself it will be difficult for lenders to apply their historical method of loaning money to these small business,” he said. “So you have to be forward thinking and look at projects and evaluate small businesses on a different methodology and on a different process than in the past.”

The ICBA has asked Congress to support several small business initiatives, such as extending SBA fee reductions and higher guarantee levels through 2011 and increasing the SBA 7(a) loan limit from $2 million to $3 million to $50 million with higher guarantee amounts.

President Obama called for the forum last month when he unveiled a new plan to provide low-cost capital to community banks so they can increase lending to small businesses.

– Robert Francis