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Details emerge in new 52-bed Kindred rehab hospital; Chipotle stock hits 3-year low, and Amazon’s got something unique for all 319 million Americans

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:24 p.m.

Palomar Medical Center
Palomar’s existing Escondido hospital; the new Kindred hospital will be built nearby.

KINDRED‘s just-announced 52-bed rehab hospital planned for southern California will be built by a private investment company, which will then lease it to the joint venture run by Kindred and local partner Palomar Health. Expected to open in 2019, the facility will be built on Palomar’s existing 56-acre campus in Escondido in San Diego County, 103 miles south of Los Angeles. Kindred didn’t detail the construction cost in its late-afternoon announcement yesterday. Escondido has just 149,000 residents, but the county ‘s total population is 3.1 million.

Palomar wants to relocate its existing inpatient rehabilitation program run by Kindred since 2000 at an older Palomar building in downtown Escondido. Palomar’s campus already includes an 11-story, 740,000-square-foot hospital opened in 2012; it has 288 private single-patient rooms, 44 emergency and trauma rooms, and 11 operating rooms (San Diego Union-Tribune). The new facility will be Kindred’s 20th rehab hospital nationwide. The Louisville company also has 95 transitional-care hospitals and 90 nursing centers. Palomar was launched in 1933 by two women — a nurse and a dietician — who used their own money to buy an egg and poultry plant downtown and converted it into a 13-bed hospital.

In Louisville, meanwhile, Kindred is planning a four-story, 114-room nursing home near the Old Brownsboro Crossing development at Chamberlain Lane. That follows the company’s disclosure two weeks ago that it’s closing its nursing and rehabilitation center near Bashford Manor, with 110 residents and 153 employees (Courier-Journal).

Chipolte logoTACO BELL rival Chipotle’s once high-flying shares fell again, closing at $390.31 moments ago, the second consecutive day near three-year lows after a bearish Deutsche Bank report Monday. The stock’s weakness is the latest sign the Mexican food chain is still recovering from a devastating E. Coli outbreak last year; shares had reached an all-time high of $748 last August.

Analyst Brett Levy said Chipotle’s profit margin potential is now highly uncertain as sales continue to decline, and some customers “may be lost for good.” The analyst cut his price target to $340 (KDVR). The Denver-based chain was felled by two E. coli outbreaks starting in late October, forcing the company to shutter all its stores for a day to retrain employees. Chipotle shares have plunged 39% since the first outbreak emerged vs. a 17% gain by Taco Bell parent Yum. The CDC declared the outbreak over in February (CNBC). More about Yum.

AMAZON: A new report may have settled a long-standing question: How many different products does Amazon sell? Answer: 12.2 million on its own. Throw in marketplace sellers, and the number soars to nearly 354 million — enough to supply one different gift to each of the U.S.’s 319 million residents. Both figures exclude books, media, wine, and services, according to the 360pi study (Chain Store Age).

Kansas City, Kan., has emerged as a likely location for one of Amazon’s newest distribution centers, sparking speculation same-day delivery service won’t be far behind; it’s already available in Louisville and 26 other markets. The retailer is already working on a 822,104-square-foot center 37 miles southwest of Kansas City in Egerton, and plans to begin staffing there early next month for the busy third-quarter shipping season (Kansas City Business Journal). Amazon has two centers in the Louisville area with 6,000 employees, and another three elsewhere in Kentucky.

In other news, urban life blog Broken Sidewalk has new drawings of the recently announced six-story, 128-room Cambria Hotel proposed for the former Connection nightclub site on the corner of Market Street and Floyd Street in NuLu.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks opened higher as traders eyed the end of a two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting at 2 p.m. (Google Finance).

Real Estate

So glad it’s not $3,600! How much it costs to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Louisville vs. 49 other cities

Personal finance site GO Banking Rates released a study this week on median rental costs for one-bedroom apartments across the country. The study also included the apartments’ average square footage and monthly utility costs. The median for all 50 cities was $1,234.43 — meaning half were higher, and half lower.

Ranking the 50 cities from least expensive to most, No. 1 Wichita, Kan., was the cheapest: $470.

Baseball bat
Our iconic Slugger Museum.

Louisville ranked No. 13, at $750 a month. (That’s close the the median $713 from the authoritative Census Bureau.)

And the most expensive — hang on to your wallet! — was San Francisco, at a whopping $3,600 a month.

Just two other cities in the region made the list: No. 9 Indianapolis: $732, and No. 35 Nashville, $1,395.

Town & Country magazine has the full list of all 50.

Although Louisville didn’t offer the cheapest one-bedrooms, it did score at the top in two other measures. Apartments were the biggest, averaging 806.62 square feet vs. the average 678 for all those surveyed.

And the city ranked No. 1 in pet-friendly landlords; 51% of rental apartments allow pets. That was nearly double the 26% average.

Photo, top: The Grove at Lyndon apartments at 776 Sunset Drive has one-bedrooms starting at $665, according to Apartments.com. Check out these other listings.

Photo, below: San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge, looking northwest to the city in the distance.

San Francisco, CA, USA

Latest Headlines

Kindred to build 52-bed rehab hospital in southern California; Yum names UBS analyst chief of investor relations and strategy

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 7:42 p.m.

Kindred headquarters
Company headquarters at Fourth and Broadway downtown.

KINDRED: The Louisville-based hospital and nursing giant said it would build the new hospital in a joint venture with Palomar Health in Escondido, a city in north San Diego County. Palomar is the most comprehensive health care delivery system in the northern part of the county.

Kindred said it will own a slight majority of the joint venture and will manage the hospital’s day-to-day operations. It will be built on the campus of Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. Subject to several regulatory and other approvals, Kindred said it expects the hospital to open by the third quarter of 2019 (press release). Kindred shares closed at $11.18, up 1%. More about Kindred.

YUM said UBS restaurant industry analyst Keith Siegner had been named vice president for investor relations and corporate strategy, effective July 11. Siegner, 41, will report to David Gibbs, CFO since April.

c_insidesbux_101106.300w (1)
Siegner as CNBC commentator.

He arrives at Yum at a critical time. The fast-food giant is preparing to spin off its China business by the end of October, and Siegner will have a key role in leading strategy for that, in addition to managing relationships with Wall Street analysts.

Yum didn’t say who he replaced. However, Steve Schmitt’s LinkedIn profile says he’s held the job since February 2013.

He was at UBS three years, as executive director over securities research for restaurant companies including Yum. Before that, he worked at Credit Suisse 12 years covering environmental services and specialty chemicals before assuming lead coverage of the restaurant sector, in 2007 (press release). Yum shares closed at $82.49, unchanged. More about Yum.

Diversions

At the Speed this weekend: Sundance Festival short film tour; here’s the program

The tour’s eight films are being screened at the new Speed Museum Cinema.

Each year, Sundance receives more than 8,000 short film submissions, selecting 60 to 80 to screen during the January festival, with eight picked for the tour traveling to more than 50 cities nationwide. This is one of very few theatrical releases of short films in America. Recommended for audiences over 13 due to thematic elements.

Tickets: $7 for members, $9 for non-members. Buy tickets here. Here’s the lineup: Continue reading “At the Speed this weekend: Sundance Festival short film tour; here’s the program” →

Latest Headlines

Amazon wants Texas tax cut, as Trump slams Bezos anew; Haier paid $125M for Appliance Park, and much ado about new KFC pulled-porker down under in Oz

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 9:34 a.m.

AMAZON is seeking tax breaks for a proposed distribution center in Houston that would lower the retailer’s taxes there to 65% for 10 years, starting Jan. 1; Harris County officials meet today to consider whether to call a public meeting on the company’s request. The $136 million facility would create 1,000 jobs and construction would start in the third quarter (Houston Chronicle). Amazon already has at least one center in Houston; it opened in 2014. In the Louisville area, it employs 6,000 at two distribution centers. What it’s like to work in one of the centers.

Presumptive GOP White House nominee Donald Trump has renewed his attack on The Washington Post and owner Jeff Bezos, after the paper called him out for trying multiple times yesterday to quietly link President Obama to this weekend’s devastating attack in Orlando. Trump has revoked the paper’s press access to his campaign, saying Bezos is using the newspaper as his personal mouthpiece to gain tax advantages for Amazon. Bezos bought the paper from its long-time owners, the Grahams, for $250 million in 2013; he owns it separately from Amazon (The Verge). Also, Amazon is getting ready to roll out its second annual Prime Day, a special 24-hour discount extravaganza for Prime members that last year exceeded its Black Friday results. It was held in July last year; the company hasn’t set a date this year yet (Street Insider).

FORD has been much less visible than competitors in forging deals with Silicon Valley partners, raising questions about whether it’s getting left behind in the race for self-driving cars and other innovations. Talks with Google this year went nowhere, while Fiat Chrysler has already forged a relationship with that technology giant. Meanwhile, Ford’s experiments with on-demand shuttles and e-bikes have been overshadowed by General Motors’ Maven car-sharing and Toyota’s alliance with Uber (Hybrid Cars).

GE: We now know what Haier paid GE’s 61-year-old Appliance Park: $125 million, according to Jefferson County Clerk Office records reviewed by Business First. Overall, Haier paid $5.6 billion for the home appliances division in a deal completed last week.

Pulled Pork Burger
Exhibit A.

KFC: Some customers are confused and angry — and even angry about that anger — after the fast food restaurant famous for fried chicken launched a $6 limited edition burger with that other white meat: pork. The sandwich of pulled pork, coleslaw and barbecue sauce on a brioche bun is available across KFC restaurants in at least Australia starting today for the next four weeks (Emmanorris Blog and EFTM ). The Ozzie KFC division posted that video at the top of this page and the photo on the left.

News about the sandwich is spreading across Twitter, with many outraged or at least annoyed over the outrage:

Boulevard sees the Australian Mafia-of-one at work: Greg Creed has been leading a KFC makeover since become CEO of corporate parent Yum in January 2015.

TACO BELL: Our foreign news story of the day is about the Mexican chain’s move into Brazil next month in the megalopolis of Sao Paulo, just in time for the summer Olympics: “Taco Bell desembarca no Brasil ainda no segundo semestre” (Clica Piaui). For those who don’t speak Portuguese, Google Translate is your friend. Facing an increasingly saturated U.S. fast-food market, the Yum unit is ramping up overseas openings, expanding to 1,000 locations by 2020 from about 280 now (Bloomberg).

PAPA JOHN’S: Three men armed with a gun and a baseball bat robbed a driver at 10 p.m. Sunday night in Magnolia, Del., taking money and his cellphone (Delaware Online).

TEXAS ROADHOUSE is hiring in Knoxville and Alcoa, Tenn., at a job fair today (WVLT).

In other news, the newly opened Speed Cinema this weekend will present this year’s Sundance Short Film Festival Tour (Insider Louisville). And on Wall Street, U.S. stocks traded lower again right after the opening bell (Google Finance).

Latest Headlines

Amazon hit with proposed $350K fine for shipping hazardous package that hurt nine UPS workers

The Federal Aviation Administration’s penalty requested today is the largest the agency has sought against Amazon, which it says has had a series of at least 24 hazardous materials violations in recent years.

Amazing Fire drain cleanerThe FAA claims the retailer sent a UPS package on Oct. 15, 2014, with a one-gallon container of “Amazing! LIQUID FIRE,” a corrosive drain cleaner for transportation by air from Louisville to Boulder, Colo., according to an agency press release. The cleaner contains sulfuric acid, which can cause serious burns, including permanent blindness on contact.

The package leaked and nine UPS employees who came into contact with the cardboard box were treated after feeling a burning sensation, the FAA said. The agency didn’t say where the UPS employees worked, and it didn’t say how the drain cleaner arrived in Louisville. UPS has 22,000 employees in Louisville, making it the area’s single-biggest private employer.

Amazon declined to answer questions about the incident, according to Reuters, and UPS said the workers were fine after treatment.

The FAA said the shipment was improperly packaged, not accompanied by a declaration for dangerous goods, and not properly labeled to indicate the hazardous contents, according to an agency press release.

Boulevard found an identically described product sold by N.J. Wholesale Supply for $102 for a case of 12 32-oz. bottles. The company says in red, capital letters that it can only be shipped by freight. It contains sulfuric acid, according to the site. We also found it on Amazon’s website, but the product description doesn’t mention sulfuric acid. It advises buyers to “read the label for warnings and directions before using.”

In high concentrations, sulfuric acid can cause very serious damage upon contact, including chemical burns, permanent blindness if splashed onto eyes and irreversible damage if swallowed, according to Wikipedia, which cites chemical maker BASF.

The FAA didn’t detail any of the other 24 hazardous materials violations it said Amazon had committed. Amazon has 30 days from receipt of the FAA’s enforcement letter to respond to the agency.