Journal of Business back issues from April 2007:
'City' planned at 49 Degrees North
Apr 05, 2007; ... The owner of 49 Degrees North, a ski operation about 50 miles north of Spokane, plans this month to submit a master planned resort application to Stevens County that could pave the way for construction of a 2,700living-unit, $1 billion development near the ski area. That owner, John ...
Twigs Bistro branches out
Apr 05, 2007; ... Six years ago, Twigs Bistro & Martini Bar opened in an 800-square-foot space in the food court at River Park Square downtown. Today, it has upscale restaurants in North Spokane and on the South Hill, a larger space in the downtown mail, and plans to open a new restaurant soon in the ...
EWU eyes bigger role in Spokane
Apr 05, 2007; ... Eastern Washington University is soliciting offers for its four-story, 67,000-square-foot EWU Spokane Center building downtown, and plans to construct a larger building in the nearby Riverpoint Higher Education Park. That envisioned project, though, is part of a broader strategy-still ...
Dix Corp. hooks $20 million fisheries project
Apr 05, 2007; ... Dix Corp., the longtime Spokane-based specialty contractor, is working with a Montana company on a massive project that's intended to help restore native fish runs to the dam-blocked headwaters of the Deschutes River in central Oregon. The project involves constructing a 270-foot ...
Kuney lands West Side road project
Apr 05, 2007; ... Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, has begun construction on a westbound high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane and other improvements on Interstate 90 east of Seattle in its portion of a Washington state Department of Transportation project. Kuney bid $22.5 million for that contract. The ...
Dealership owner gets Supreme Court nod
Apr 05, 2007; ... The Washington state Supreme Court has ruled that a Spokane heavy-duty truck dealer didn't violate securities laws when he failed to inform two co-founders of the dealership about a big loan the business had guaranteed six months before they repaid him a sizable sum of money to cover their ...
AmericanWest plans center in Salt Lake
Apr 05, 2007; ... Spokane-based AmericanWest Bank plans to open a financial center in downtown Salt Lake City that will serve as the headquarters for its recently acquired Far West Bank branch network in Utah. Renovation work is under way on the project, and AmericanWest hopes to open its Far West ...
Unbridled equine enthusiasm
Apr 05, 2007; ... Susan Rae has found a way to turn her horse sense into living wages. She conceived and created Ride the West Horse & Ranch Expo, the Inland Northwest's biggest annual event dedicated to horses and the people who love them. Rae organizes the event through her company, Susan Rae ...
Collaboration formed here to work on research for ISM
Apr 05, 2007; ... The organization that's working to establish an Institute for Systems Medicine here says a collaboration has been formed to do research on bioinformatics and medical informatics, both of which the institute would use heavily. The organization, the Institute for Systems Medicine Planning ...
Landowners ask Post Falls to annex 96 acres of land
Apr 05, 2007; ... Three companies and nine individual landowners have asked the city of Post Falls to annex 96 acres of land at the southeast corner of state Route 41 and Prairie Avenue and to zone the property for commercial uses. The three companies included with the annexation petition a conceptual ...
GenPrime posts strong sales, gets funds for device
Apr 05, 2007; ... GenPrime Inc., of Spokane, says it posted 25 percent revenue growth last year and also has raised nearly $1.3 million in capital to develop and launch a new medical device it has developed called the BacSTAT. The 10-year-old company, which primarily develops rapid-detection devices for ...
eTrade Plus expands services to focus on business clients
Apr 05, 2007; ... eTrade Plus Inc., a Dalton Gardens, Idaho-based company that sells items on eBay primarily for individual customers, says it's expanding its services to focus more on serving business clients. The 3-year-old company developed its new services, called Business 2 Business (B2B), earlier ...
Batteries Plus franchisees here plan to open Kennewick outlet
Apr 05, 2007; ... Batteries Plus franchisees John Keegan and Doug Lanyon, both of Spokane, plan to open a Batteries Plus store in Kennewick, Wash., later this month. The Tri-Cities store will be their third overall, and Keegan says he and Lanyon still are considering opening a store in Coeur d'Alene, ...
Red Lion hotel in Post Falls adds more boat slips to meet demand
Apr 05, 2007; ... Red Lion Hotels Corp., of Spokane, says it's adding more boat slips at the marina at the Red Lion Templin's Hotel on the River, in Post Falls, to accommodate growing demand. Construction work has started on the project at the hotel, which is located on the north bank of the Spokane River ...
Bank of Fairfield plans Spokane Valley branch
Apr 05, 2007; ... The Bank of Fairfield says it plans to open a branch in Spokane Valley later this year, which would give it two offices in the Spokane area. Construction of the planned 3,300-square-foot branch, to be located at the southeast corner of 32nd Avenue and state Route 27, is expected to start ...
Photo-processing software maker opens office in Sirti's incubator
Apr 05, 2007; ... A startup here that has developed software intended to improve photo-processing efficiency has moved into incubator space at Sirti's main building near downtown. The company, which formally is called Image Science Corp. but does business as Image Science Labs, was formed last October and ...
Rocket Bakery plans outlet at Fairwood
Apr 05, 2007; ... The owners of the Rocket Bakery chain here say they plan to open a new outlet in the Fairwood Shopping Center on Spokane's North Side. The bakery is to be located in a roughly 1,000-square-foot space in the building formerly occupied by Wolffy's Old West Steakhouse, at 319 W. Hastings, ...
Hoteliers say future of industry is brightening here
Apr 05, 2007; ... Spokane's hotel industry, which has seen demand for rooms grow steadily over the last few years, expects that pace to quicken even more as Spokane becomes more well-known to tourists, and the expanded convention center draws larger groups from outside the region. Meanwhile, though, new ...
Generating tourism dollars
Apr 05, 2007; ... An additional per-night room assessment collected by hotel operators here for a tourism promotion effort launched nearly four years ago has generated about $5.5 million so far and is beginning to pay dividends, say tourism officials. Primarily in response to the efforts of the local ...
Form Over Function
Apr 05, 2007; ... A new planning concept, called form-based zoning, is being implemented in Spokane Valley to blend retail, office, and residential uses, be ginning with those on the Sprague-Appleway corridor, while Post Falls is developing a similar zoning method called SmartCode. Unlike conventional ...
Sullivan Road to close at I-90 most of July
Apr 05, 2007; ... The busy two-block section of Sullivan Road that crosses Interstate 90 in Spokane Valley will be closed for three weeks in July while the roadways leading up to both sides of the overpass are replaced with concrete. That project was one of four, altogether valued at more than $7 million, ...
Post Falls to start City Hall project soon
Apr 05, 2007; ... The city of Post Falls plans to build a new City Hall this summer, and has begun contract negotiations with Ginno Construction Co., of Coeur d'Alene, which submitted the lowest bid for the project. The new, two-story, 41,500-square-foot City Hall will be located on a 3.6-acre site at the ...
West Valley plans upgrades at four elementary schools
Apr 05, 2007; ... West Valley School District is seeking bids for the construction of gymnasiums and additional classrooms at each of its four elementary schools. Dave Smith, West Valley's projects manager, says the district plans to award a single contract for all of the work, and bids are to be opened ...
Old downtown hotel structure foreclosed on
Apr 05, 2007; ... A nearly 100-year-old former downtown hotel structure that for years was known as the Watson Co. building has changed hands in a foreclosure. The new owner, AmericanWest Bank, had been owed $770,000 by the former owner, Lorraine LLC, of Spokane. The former Lorraine Hotel, at 308 ...
Clarkston firm submits low bid for a N-S freeway project
Apr 05, 2007; ... Steelman-Duff Inc., of Clarkston, Wash., has submitted the apparent low bid for a contract to build two bridges and to do nearly two miles of grading work on the North Spokane Corridor project, which is often called the north-south freeway. Steelman-Duff bid $10.6 million for the job, ...
Roughly $4.6 million renovation set at K-8 school in Valley, Wash.
Apr 05, 2007; ... The Valley School District, in Valley, Wash., north of Spokane, is planning a roughly $4.6 million renovation of its Valley Elementary and Middle School. Work is wrapping up on a separate expansion project that added 25,000 square feet of floor space to the 23,000-square-foot school ...
Leone & Keeble wins school job in Rathdrum
Apr 05, 2007; ... The Lakeland School District, of Rathdrum, Idaho, has awarded a $4.3 million contract to Leone & Keeble Inc., of Spokane, to expand its Lakeland High School. Construction is under way on the project, which involves adding roughly 30,400 square feet of space to the west side of the ...
Hospice of Spokane begins construction of care facility
Apr 05, 2007; ... Hospice of Spokane has begun construction at 367 E. Seventh of a 12,000-square-foot Hospice House facility for terminally ill patients at 367 E. Seventh. Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, is constructing the $3 million building, which will have 12 patient rooms, each with its own ...
New building for bank rises in the Valley
Apr 05, 2007; ... Sandpoint-based Intermountain Community Bancorp has started work on a new replacement branch for its Spokane Valley office, and the new structure also will become the headquarters for its growing branch network here. The two-level, 16,000-square-foot building is rising at 5211 E ....
Vinyl window manufacturer buys, expands building in East Spokane
Apr 05, 2007; ... VPI Quality Windows Inc., of Spokane Valley, says it has begun expanding a building in East Spokane where it plans to move to accommodate its growing business. The company has bought a 55,000-square-foot warehouse building at 3420 E. Ferry, which is being leased by West Coast Paper Co., ...
Contract for second phase of water-main project let
Apr 05, 2007; ... Red Diamond Construction Inc., of Spokane Valley, has been awarded a contract to lay about 1.5 miles of water main in northeast Spokane. Red Diamond bid $1.5 million to install the new water main mostly in residential streets between the intersection of Division Street and Wellesley ...
Kop gets $2.8 million project to build senior housing here
Apr 05, 2007; ... Kop Construction Inc., of Spokane, plans to begin work soon on a twostory, 20,000-square-foot independentliving facility for low-income seniors in Spokane's East Central neighborhood. Shannon Neagher, a project manager for Kiemle & Hagood Co., of Spokane, which is developing the ...
Eller Corp. submits low bid for Lincoln Heights arterial
Apr 05, 2007; ... Eller Corp., of Newman Lake, is the apparent low bidder for a contract to reconstruct a three-quarter mile stretch of 29th Avenue between Southeast Boulevard and Freya Street, both of which, along with 29th, serve the busy Lincoln Heights shopping district. Eller bid about $1.6 million ...
North Side building to be remodeled for up to three retail, office tenants
Apr 05, 2007; ... A major remodel is planned for a vacant 12,500-square-foot building at 9510 N. Newport Highway on Spokane's North Side, says Spokane real estate broker Marshall Clark, who will be leasing the space in the building. The structure, which is owned by an investment group Clark declines to ...
Airway Heights contractor lands $1.7 million Idaho bridge project
Apr 05, 2007; ... Westway Construction Inc., of Airway Heights, has been awarded a contract by the Idaho state Department of Transportation to replace a bridge on state Route 97, which runs along the eastern shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Westway bid $1.7 million to replace a wooden structure that crosses ...
Lydig lands $7 million job to upgrade WSU Rotunda
Apr 05, 2007; ... Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, has begun a $7 million renovation of the Rotunda Dining Center at the Washington State University campus in Pullman. Richard Condrey, a project manager for Lydig, says the work will include major interior demolition to allow workers to complete ...
Crown West buys complex in Arizona for $14.4 million
Apr 05, 2007; ... Crown West Realty LLC, of Spokane Valley, has bought an office complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., just east of Phoenix, for $14.4 million. The 118,000-square-foot Scottsdale Commerce Center, which Crown West purchased from Pacific Development Partners Inc., of Beverly Hills, Calif., is the ...
WSU-Spokane class crafts Hillyard revitalization plan
Apr 05, 2007; ... Students in Washington State University at Spokane's interior design and architectural landscaping classes here are developing a plan that potentially could help revitalize the Hillyard neighborhood in northeast Spokane by improving connections between residential, business, industrial, and ...
Walker lands work worth total of about $14.5 million
Apr 05, 2007; ... Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, says it has begun work on projects here and in Roslyn, Wash., worth a combined $14.5 million. In the project here, Walker has started renovating the old Borning Building, at 161 S. Adams, in downtown Spokane, and expects to complete work on that ...
EWU to seek tunnel bids, plans Hargreaves remodel
Apr 05, 2007; ... Eastern Washington University expects to seek construction bids next month for a utility tunnel extension that will be the precursor to a major renovation of Hargreaves Hall, likely beginning this fall, on the university's campus in Cheney. EWU estimates the two projects will cost about ...
Project along South Perry geared to attract businesses
Apr 05, 2007; ... Cameron-Reilly LLC, of Airway Heights, was to start work this week on the second phase of a streetenhancement project intended to make the South Perry district more attractive to businesses. The two phases of work along that neighborhood arterial, located on the lower South Hill ...
RAHCO sold to Danish concern
Apr 19, 2007; ... A unit of Danish industrial-equipment manufacturer FLSmidth & Co. A/S has bought the materialshandling business and name of RAHCO international Inc., a longtime Spokane concern, in a transaction the buyer says likely will lead to employment growth here. The acquisition, which was ...
Downtown's nightlife awakens
Apr 19, 2007; ... Downtown Spokane, which used to fall asleep when the sun set, now is staying awake into the wee hours, and doesn't appear to be likely to resume its slumber anytime soon. In recent years, new restaurants and bars, spurred on by development activity in the city's core, have been changing ...
Avista seeks to crank up conservation
Apr 19, 2007; ... Avista Utilities plans to launch new energy-conservation programs for business customers this summer as it moves deeper into a three-year drive to delay the need to develop a thermal generating plant. The effort will include agreements under which Avista will pay manufacturing customers ...
Getronics unit shrinks, stays hungry
Apr 19, 2007; ... The Liberty Lake-based banking software division of Dutch computer-services giant Getronics has shrunk its work force here by more than half over the last four years, to about 80 employees, but is optimistic that its fortunes will improve soon. Art Smalley, the company's top executive ...
Next piece of N-S freeway work to start
Apr 19, 2007; ... Acme Concrete Paving Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder for the next phase of work on Spokane's long-awaited north-south freeway, bidding to put down a rock base on and pave a four-mile stretch of what's formally called the North Spokane Corridor, for $19.5 million. That work, ...
Big WSU project could start this summer
Apr 19, 2007; ... Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, could begin work as soon as July on a $50 million project on the Washington State University campus in Pullman. Lydig already is looking for qualified subcontractors to bid for work on the project, a $50 million Washington State University ...
Ex-Met affiliate plans move to downtown
Apr 19, 2007; ... Western United Life Assurance Co., the former insurance affiliate of once prominent and now bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., of Spokane, says it plans to move from Spokane Valley to smaller quarters in the Big Easy Concert House building downtown. Western United plans ...
Keeping in touch
Apr 19, 2007; ... Cami Rogers believes in the value of keeping in touch. Through her Spokane Valley home-based business, Cami Sends Cards LLC, Rogers provides a unique directmailing service, in which she sends customized greeting cards to clients on behalf of businesspeople. "Sending a greeting ...
Wild Waters park in Cd'A starts $4 million expansion
Apr 19, 2007; ... Wild Waters LLC, of Coeur d'Alene, has started construction on the first phase of a planned two-phase, $4 million expansion of its water-slide park there. The first phase of work involves building a 1,200-footlong "Sunnyside Lazy River" at the west end of the 8acre Wild Waters park, ...
West Plains dealer of heavy equipment plans structure
Apr 19, 2007; ... Rowand Machinery Co., a 46-year-old Spokane-based company that sells and services construction and forestry equipment, plans to build a 12,000 -squarefoot service facility near its West Plains headquarters. Rowand Machinery, which has a branch office in Pasco, Wash., also is looking at ...
Call center to move, expand work force here
Apr 19, 2007; ... Sound Telecom, a Issaquah, Wash.-based call-center operator, plans to move its Spokane operations to the former Columbia Cycle & Hobby location on Monroe Street by summer and to double its Spokane work force by 2012. The company has purchased the 8,600-square-foot building at 1808 N ....
Long-closed Valley store faces foreclosure, auction
Apr 19, 2007; ... More than six years after the HomeBase Inc. store closed in Spokane Valley, the 100,000-square-foot building and the land it sits on is set to be disposed of in a foreclosure action. The property is scheduled to be sold at auction at 10 a.m. May 11 at the Bank of America Financial ...
Appliance parts distributor moves, expands call center
Apr 19, 2007; ... Reliable Parts Inc., a Tukwila, Wash.-based supplier of parts and accessories for household appliances and barbecues, has leased a second space in a North Side business center where it plans to base its national call center. Tim McHenry, branch manager in Spokane, says 12 phone-room ...
Madison Home opens second store just south of North Foothills Drive
Apr 19, 2007; ... Amazing Silks Inc., of Spokane, which operates a Madison Home retail store at the north end of the Division-Ruby couplet in North Spokane, says it has opened a second outlet about a mile to the east to accommodate its growth. The new Madison Home store, which opened last month, is ...
56-lot housing development slated near Pasadena Park
Apr 19, 2007; ... A Spokane land developer is planning a 56-lot subdivision near the Pasadena Park area of Spokane County. The subdivision, to be called Upriver Terrace, will be located on 14 acres of land on the north side of Upriver Drive, west of Farr Road and south of Wellesley Avenue. The property is ...
Riverpoint Pharmacy seeks larger quarters, to leave Sirti
Apr 19, 2007; ... FirstPharma LLC, of Spokane, which operates Riverpoint Pharmacy in Sirti's main building east of downtown, says it's looking to move to a larger space to handle growing demand. The company, which currently leases a 1,500-square-foot space in the Sirti building, at 665 N. Riverpoint ...
State Bank's earnings dip, loans jump
Apr 19, 2007; ... State Bank Northwest, of Spokane Valley, says its net income dipped slightly last year, to $563,000, due to higher taxes, but that it had record pre-tax income of $848,000, and its loans, deposits, and assets all grew by double-digit percentages. The 104-year-old institution converted to ...
SIA perimeter road project nears
Apr 19, 2007; ... Halme Builders Inc., of Davenport, Wash., has submitted the low bid, at about $900,000, to construct a servicevehicle road at Spokane International Airport. Halme Builders' bid is lower than a $1.2 million estimate by Denver-based Carter & Burgess Inc., the engineer on the project, ...
Degerstrom gets $1.4 million job to replace Spokane County bridge
Apr 19, 2007; ... N.A. Degerstrom Inc., of Spokane, has been awarded a contract by Spokane County to raze and replace one of the bridges where Little Spokane Drive crosses the Little Spokane River, north of Spokane. The bridge is located about a half-mile north of where Shady Slope Road connects with ...
North Spokane church set to build Five Mile structure
Apr 19, 2007; ... A 12-year-old North Spokane church that has always leased space for its operations plans to construct a church office building on Five Mile Prairie this year and later expand that structure to accommodate all of its activities. That church, New Horizons Community Church, which is ...
Schimmels Construction awarded INB Performing Arts Center work
Apr 19, 2007; ... Schimmels Construction Development Group Inc., of Spokane, has been awarded a contract to upgrade elevators inside and to make other improvements outside at the INB Performing Arts Center, in downtown Spokane. That work, which will take more than two months to complete, won't stop shows ...
Attorney here defends docs, dentists in disciplinary cases
Apr 19, 2007; ... Spokane attorney Steve Lamberson's legal practice includes a little-known specialty in which he defends physicians and dentists against threats to their careers that he believes are more serious than malpractice lawsuits. Lamberson, a partner in Etter McMahon Lamberson & Clary PC, ...
Preparing for the big game
Apr 19, 2007; ... The attorneys are real, as are the facts of the case. Twelve jurors listen to the arguments, hear from witnesses, and reach a verdict. But these dramas don't unfold in a courthouse. They're staged in a 500-squarefoot office space on West Boone Avenue, and law firms pay Strategic Research ...
Starting pay at firms here lags West Side
Apr 19, 2007; ... Despite reported big hikes in pay for first-year associates in law firms in markets such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York, attorneys here are seeing more moderate salary bumps, Gonzaga University School of Law Dean Earl Martin says. While Spokane-area firms here have been increasing ...