Business briefs

Advertiser Staff

A&B mall in Colorado sold

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said yesterday it sold a 43,000-square-foot Colorado shopping center for an undisclosed price.

Market Square Shopping Center in Greeley was sold to Wheeler Square Associates Inc., an Aspen-based independent real estate investor, said A&B President and CEO Allen Doane.

A&B bought Market Square in June 1995.

Five reach finals in competition

Five teams that drew up business plans for everything from marketing an anti-stroke device to helping shrimp farmers to developing youth golf clubs have made it to the finals of the University of Hawai'i's second annual business plan competition.

The five teams that made it to the finals — Aquatech, EMBA 12, Peletex, PerfectSights and Zoji Golf — were announced last night at the UH College of Business Administration. They'll go on to the final round Saturday. Each team must include at least one UH student.

The top three teams will take home prize money ranging from $25,000 for first place to $10,000 for third.

The UH business plan competition began this year with 46 teams. It's one of several business plan competitions that have popped up recently around Hawai'i trying to spur an entrepreneurial climate. Along with prize money, the teams hope to get a chance to turn their ideas into reality with the help of financial backing.

The College of Business Administration's Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business modeled the competition on others around the country that have led to the creation of hundreds of companies into which investors have poured billions of dollars.