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Paper chase

Communications specialists Elizabeth Deal and Kippin Sanchez used to make their livings writing. Now, they've staked their futures on selling people paper to write on. Deal, former marketing director at the Nasdaq Stock Market, and Sanchez, a journalist who's written for WebMD, the Los Angeles Times and the Dallas Morning News, invested about $45,000 to launch Vellum, a stationery and gift store at 120 W. Monroe Ave. in Kirkwood. In addition to invitations, announcements and thank-you notes, the shop sells jewelry and baby items.

Moving

Rubin Brown Gornstein & Co. will become the largest tenant at Shaw Park Plaza, when the accounting and consulting firm moves to the office tower at Forsyth and Brentwood in mid-November. RBG will lease 50,000 square feet on the 11th and 12th floors, said John Herber, assistant managing partner. Published lease rates range from $27 to $30 a square foot. RBG now occupies five floors at 230 S. Bemiston. Herber said the move allows the company's 240 workers to consolidate on two contiguous floors.

Expanding

A block south on Brentwood at Bonhomme, developer Bob Saur of Conrad Properties spent $240,000 on a redesign of the two-year-old outdoor dining terrace at Clayton on the Park. The terrace, for patrons at Smith & Slay's restaurant, has new landscaping and is covered with a cedar arbor and overhead fans.

Doors closed

The operators of scenic Elijah McLean's Restaurant in Washington, Mo., have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving the fate of the restaurant, which overlooks the Missouri River, up in the air. The restaurant closed shortly after Taylor and Carolyn Strecker of Wildwood filed bankruptcy May 24, estimating assets of $167,521 and liabilities of $498,683. Former operators Dibi and Zinus Khanzada, who still own the building and now live in Colorado, would like to reopen, but said their hands are tied until the bankruptcy court rules.

Corner office

Veteran banker Keith Steinhoff has been named president and chief operating officer at Concord Bank in south St. Louis County. Steinhoff spent 20 years at Mark Twain and Mercantile banks and two years at Midwest BankCentre. Steinhoff will share lending duties with Dennis Geoghegan, who remains chairman and chief executive.

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Smoke stock

A trust controlled by Dr. Francis O'Donnell Jr., founder of the O'Donnell Eye Institute, sold $1.8 million worth of shares of Star Scientific Inc., a Chester, Va.-based company that is developing tobacco products with low levels of carcinogens. The trust sold the stock for $1 a share in two transactions in May, mostly to other Star insiders, in a move to diversify its portfolio, according to a June 26 filing with the SEC. The trust still is one of the largest Star shareholders with 13.4 million shares.

Quick fix

8minuteDating is coming to St. Louis. The Boston-based firm has recruited two local "event organizers" -- Melia Huelsmann and Jennifer Mannion -- who booked gatherings on four consecutive Wednesdays, beginning July 10, at Have a Nice Day Cafe, Bar Italia, Cafe Balaban and Sqwires. Participants pay $28.88 for the night, and are paired up with eight, 8-minute "mini-dates." The firm's concept of helping singles meet has been featured on HBO's "Sex And The City" and in U.S. News & World Report.

Stepping up to the plate

Missouri Baptist Medical Center's Cancer Center profited from a rule at Winghaven Country Club, barring servers from accepting tips over the mandatory 18-percent gratuity charge on each bill. Since Winghaven opened two years ago, the servers have been putting their extra tips into a "charity fund." When the fund reached $2,500, it was donated to the Missouri Baptist Healthcare Foundation for the new cancer center.

mmanning@bizjournals.com