Jim Willman started a new job Monday at Fifth Third Bank of Northern Kentucky. By Tuesday, he was making sales calls.

        Mr. Willman, replaced in October as general manager of the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, is now a corporate new business officer at Greater Cincinnati's largest bank.

        He's working out of the Fifth Third offices at Burlington Pike and Houston Road in Florence. After a horrible year for hotels led to his departure and 100 layoffs at the Drawbridge, he's glad to be in a corporate environment.

        At least for now. The biggest change is that he's wearing a suit to work, he said.

        “Fifth Third has a great name, they're a very profitable company and they're growing,” said Mr. Willman, who will continue as chairman of the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau. “I like the emphasis on selling here. It makes a lot of sense to me.”

Denhart sheds property

        The breakup of Thomas Denhart's Over-the-Rhine apartment empire has started.

        Mr. Denhart is the city's biggest owner of subsidized low-income housing, and his companies are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy because the subsidies are being phased out by federal regulators.

        Mr. Denhart's collection of companies has agreed to sell nine of the apartment buildings, and an auction today will set contracts for a half-dozen more.

        So far, the prices are more than the industry standard of $15,000 an apartment, compared with an assessed tax valuation of about $11,000 an apartment, said Tim Miller, the lawyer representing the Denhart companies. For some more profitable properties, offers of close to $30,000 an apartment have come in.

        Despite a move by local businessman Tom Williams to acquire the entire Denhart portfolio, those talks have not produced a contract, and the strategy still is to “basically shrink the operation down to a size that will produce cash flow,” Mr. Miller said.

        Redevelopment advocates are thirsting after the Denhart properties, hoping to break up what they feel is a solid wall of low-income housing that has thwarted new projects in the neighborhood.

Bankruptcy lawyers thrive

        Chiquita Brands International Inc. may have trouble paying its bills — witness its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week — but it has paid more than $2.2 million to its bankruptcy lawyers during the past year.

        The top lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis, the international firm that is Chiquita's lead bankruptcy counsel, make $680 an hour, Chiquita said in filings with the court last week.

        According to court-watcher Bankruptcy Creditors' Service Inc., Chiquita has paid Kirkland & Ellis more than $2 million and has paid local firm Dinsmore & Shohl almost $300,000 during the last year.

        The top Dinsmore lawyer gets $310 an hour.

        If you have a tip about Greater Cincinnati companies, e-mail Cliff Peale at cpeale@enquirer.com, or call 768-8573.

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