Journal of Business back issues from November 2008:
Intermountain reports earnings fall 91 percent
Nov 06, 2008; ... Intermountain Community Bancorp, of Sandpoint, has reported third-quarter earnings of $226,000, or 3 cents a share, down almost 91 percent from $2.4 million, or 38 cents a- share, in the year-earlier quarter. The company also has had a reduction in force, although it says it isn't ...
Without sales, IPOs, venture capital to slow
Nov 06, 2008; ... Venture capitalists here say that if the companies they invest in don't go public or get acquired with greater frequency than they are today, they could face a drought in available capital to invest in new ventures. That, they say, would be too bad, because entrepreneurial activity here appears ...
Demand said rising here for nontraditional financing
Nov 06, 2008; ... An increasing number of businesses here and nationally are turning to nontraditional sources of financing, such as factoring, to meet critical cash-flow needs as banks constrict credit in the current economic crisis, say industry representatives. In factoring, companies such as AMCI ...
Davidson cuts estimates of Sterling's 2008, 2009 profits
Nov 06, 2008; ... A regional securities brokerage has slashed its estimates for Sterling Financial Corps earnings in 2008 and 2009. The Great Falls, Mont.-based brokerage, D.A. Davidson & Co., says that "subdued" loan growth, pressure on net interest margin, and a higher than expected provision for ...
Deer Park contractor lands two big repair jobs at dams
Nov 06, 2008; ... Knight Construction & Supply Inc., of Deer Park, has landed two dam-repair contracts with a combined value of about $2.6 million. One project is under way to repair damages on a gate on a navigation lock on the John Day Dam on the Columbia River, about 25 miles east of The Dalles, ...
Preaching calm IN CRISIS
Nov 06, 2008; ... As consumers and investors digest a barrage of bad economic news, banks, credit unions, and securities brokerages here are scrambling to reassure their own customers and to pick up new ones who might be fleeing weaker institutions. Industry sources say that a proactive approach, which ...
Developmentally disabled workers show their stuff
Nov 06, 2008; ... More businesses learned about the benefits of employing people with mental and physical developmental disabilities at a recent annual Hire Ability Day event here, conducted the last five years to boost such hiring, the event's primary organizer says. Event participants who have hired ...
Sterling moves past WTB in local deposit market share
Nov 06, 2008; ... Sterling Savings Bank moved ahead of perennial leader Washington Trust Bank in bank deposits in Spokane County over the last year, according to an annual market share report released last month by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Executives from both institutions downplayed the ...
Program for American Indians evolves
Nov 06, 2008; ... Gonzaga University says a graduate-level business program it launched eight years ago to prepare American Indians to teach entrepreneurship at tribal colleges is evolving as it attracts a broader mix of participants and faces funding challenges. The three-year program, which results in a ...
Two Sandpoint real estate offices merge, buy another
Nov 06, 2008; ... RiverStone Real Estate Inc. and Century 21 on the Lake, two Sandpoint real estate brokerages, recently merged to form Century 21 RiverStone, which then bought Lake County Real Estate, yet another brokerage there, says Shawn Taylor, a partner in Century 21 RiverStone. The new company ...
Businesses, property owners divided on Felts Field zoning
Nov 06, 2008; ... Property and home owners who want to develop their land around Felts Field beyond what's possible under current regulations are running into opposition from airport-related businesses concerned that their operations could be jeopardized by such changes. About 30 people attended an Oct ....
Couple converts stores to Mattress Outlets
Nov 06, 2008; ... Ken and Helen Mullinax, who own Mattress Outlet Inc., of Spokane, have converted two Simmons Comfort World stores they y owned, in Spokane Valley and Kennewick, Wash., to Mattress Outlet stores. The Valley store, located in leased space at 15607 E. Broadway, marks the fifth Mattress ...
$5 million road project added to list
Nov 06, 2008; ... A $5 million project to widen a mile-long stretch of Prairie Avenue near Post Falls into a five-lane thoroughfare has been added to a six-year transportation plan by Kootenai County's transportation planning agency. The project, which is being sought by the Post Falls Highway District, ...
Subdivision on Five Mile gets city approval
Nov 06, 2008; ... A Spokane developer has received approval for a 35-lot residential subdivision on Five Mile Prairie, but says he likely won't start work on the project for a year or two due to the slow housing market. The developer, Dennis Trainor, doing business as Sconiers Developments LLC, received ...
Knowledge-transfer strategies help plug generation gaps
Nov 06, 2008; ... As they brace for an expected exodus of baby boomers, some large employers here hope to transfer corporate knowledge to younger employees via methods ranging from internal leadership grooming to posting in-house communications on YouTube. Diane Quincy, director of leadership and ...
Spokane bankers approach U.S. capital program warily
Nov 06, 2008; ... Spokane bankers are eyeing with some skepticism the federal government's offer to provide capital to some U.S. banks by becoming investors in them. As the first deadline approaches on Nov. 14 to apply for the government's so-called Capital Purchase Plan, they're evaluating the offer with ...
Developer plans 116-lot subdivision
Nov 06, 2008; ... A longtime Spokane developer plans to develop 116 residential lots just south of the city of Spokane Valley. The subdivision, to be called Belleaire, would be located on 40 acres north of Daystar road near Apollo Road, says Casey Mason, project manager with the company, Summit Properties ...
Wood products company cuts staff, sells equipment
Nov 06, 2008; ... William Gilcrist, owner of Castle Rock Industries Inc., says he's in the process of selling that Spokane company's production facility, has let go most of its 27 employees, and has sold off the equipment it used to make wood components for other manufacturers. Castle Rock at one time ...
Greening up indoor spaces
Nov 06, 2008; ... Business The Plant Wizard Owner Karen L. Goldberg Location Spokane Employees One Product Indoor plants, gifts, and decor items Moving indoors as winter weather approaches doesn't mean you have to give up being ...
ALSC tabbed for study of 'south block'
Nov 06, 2008; ... The Spokane Public Facilities District has selected ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, to perform a feasibility study of the so-called "south block" property downtown where it hopes to expand. The property, which is bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, Main Avenue, and Washington and Bernard ...
Graham wins $43 million freeway project
Nov 06, 2008; ... Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, has won a $42.8 million contract to lower the grade of U.S. 2 in the vicinity of a planned interchange for the North Spokane Corridor freeway and to construct six bridges associated with the interchange. The interchange will be ...
Potlatch eyes new way to fund spin-off
Nov 06, 2008; ... Potlatch Corp., the .big Spokane-based wood-products concern, says the national credit crisis has forced it to change how it will finance the planned spin-off of its pulp-based operations into a new publicly traded company called Clearwater Paper. Corp. Potlatch announced last spring ...
Mall owner looks to trim big debt load
Nov 06, 2008; ... General Growth Properties Inc., the Chicago-based owner of three of the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area's largest shopping malls, has taken dramatic steps in the last couple of weeks to try to ease a massive debt burden that analysts say is threatening the company. General Growth is the ...
Bank reports give insights into economy
Nov 06, 2008; ... Third-quarter earnings reports from Inland Northwest banks are providing insights into the region's economy. One of the most-watched numbers in bank earnings reports for the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, will be nonperforming assets - and how they've grown amid the nation's ...
CCS projects total $155 million
Nov 06, 2008; ... Community Colleges of Spokane is planning roughly $155 million in construction projects, nearly $100 million of which are scheduled to get under way next year, says Dennis Dunham, director of capital projects at the college district. Although some of the projects have been signaled ...
Bracing for rise in utility bills
Nov 06, 2008; ... Babyland Diaper Service here operates two 250-pound dryers and four 115-pound machines - compared with the 15-pound dryers typical in most homes. So when rates for natural gas, which heats the dryers, go up, it hurts, says Dan Anderson, owner of Babyland, at 1520 E. Trent. "It ...
Acme submits lowest bid for intersections on Francis
Nov 20, 2008; ... Acme Concrete Paving Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder, with a bid of $1.5 million, for a city of Spokane project to replace two asphalt intersections on Francis Avenue, at Addison and Nevada streets, with concrete. The city hasn't decided if it will accept the bids, however, ...
ServiceMaster in Coeur d'Alene to move to new Post Falls building
Nov 20, 2008; ... ServiceMaster of North Idaho plans to move next spring to a building that's currently under construction in northwest Post Falls. Steel Structures America Inc., of Post Falls, is erecting the $550,000, 12,000-square-foot structure, for Boulder Business Park LLC. The park connects to the ...
New $1.4 million lab under way for Fish and Wildlife at Mirabeau
Nov 20, 2008; ... Ginno Construction Co., of Coeur d'Alene, has started work on a $1.4 million lab at the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife's Eastern Washington regional office in the Mirabeau Point area. Rich Wells, a project manager with Ginno, says the , single-story, 5,300-square-foot ...
Seattle contractor lands projects at Fairchild valued at $1.2 million
Nov 20, 2008; ... M.J. Takisaki Inc., of Seattle, has been awarded two contracts totaling about $1.26 million for work to build an addition at a youth center at Fairchild Air Force Base and to replace electrical service and lighting at a separate base facility. Hal Ophus, Takisaki's construction manager ...
MRM Construction wins West Plains pipe project
Nov 20, 2008; ... The city of Spokane has awarded a $3.7 million contract to MRM Construction Inc., of Ellensburg, Wash., to extend a second water main from Spokane to the Spokane International Airport area on the West Plains. In the project, the contractor will install a 36-inch-diameter water main from ...
Western States, partner, win two VA hospital jobs
Nov 20, 2008; ... Western States Construction, of Spokane, has teamed up with a Western Washington contractor to win contracts for expansion and remodeling projects worth a combined $4.9 million at two Veterans Administration hospitals. Western States will be working jointly with 3D Construction Inc., of ...
PacWest sells downtown building, moves northward
Nov 20, 2008; ... PacWest Services Inc., a Spokane mortgage. company and real estate brokerage, has moved to a smaller building it bought recently and has sold its longtime building downtown. Its new location is on the North Side, in a two-story, 4,000-square-foot building at 24 W. Indiana, says Tim ...
Operations center rises for Cd'A bank
Nov 20, 2008; ... A building that will house a new operations center for Coeur d'Alene-based Mountain West Bank is under construction in north Coeur d'Alene, says Russ Porter, the bank's president and chief operating officer. The project cost is estimated at $1.8 million for the building's shell ....
Spokane County to renovate courthouse main-floor area
Nov 20, 2008; ... Waynco Construction Inc., of Spokane Valley, is the apparent low bidder, with a base bid of about $900,000, for a project to remodel a portion of the first floor of the Spokane County Courthouse. Ron Oscarson, Spokane County facilities director, says the project will include remodeling ...
KMPO to consider locations for Coeur d'Alene transit hub
Nov 20, 2008; ... Kootenai County's transportation planning agency is looking to hire a consultant to help it select a location for a proposed new transit center in the Coeur d'Alene metropolitan area. The agency, the Kootenai Metropolitan Transportation Organization, is seeking proposals for the study on ...
Montana concern plans building supply outlet here
Nov 20, 2008; ... Lumber Yard Supply Co., a Great Falls, Mont., building materials wholesaler, plans to open a branch in Spokane Valley. The company has bought a 101,000-square-foot warehouse and 11 acres of property at 17524 E. Euclid, and plans to construct a building there for its offices, investing a ...
State police building goes up in Cd'A
Nov 20, 2008; ... Boise-based contractor McAlvain Construction Inc. has begun construction of a new $12 million multiuse complex in Coeur d'Alene for the Idaho State Police. The complex will include a 40,000-square-foot structure, named the Linda Huff Region I office building after a trooper killed in the ...
Spokane awards wastewater plant work to CH2M Hill
Nov 20, 2008; ... The city of Spokane has awarded a $30 million, eight-year contract to the Spokane office of Denver-based CH2M Hill Inc., for engineering, design, and construction management on the second phase of upgrades to Spokane's wastewater treatment plant. CH2M Hill will oversee $100 million in ...
A glimmer OF HOPE
Nov 20, 2008; ... While home sales this year are well off of last year's pace, there are signs that the swoon might be easing at least when it comes to newly built homes. The sales of such homes have shown a slight uptick here since July, says Rob Higgins, executive vice president of the Spokane ...
Montana pizza chain plans outlet in Cd'A
Nov 20, 2008; ... Whitefish, Mont.-based Glacier Restaurant Group LLC plans to open a MacKenzie River Pizza Co. restaurant in north Coeur d'Alene following a $500,000 remodel of a 6,800-square-foot building formerly occupied by another restaurant there. The restaurant will be the 13th MacKenzie River ...
Soaring diesel prices took truckers down rough road
Nov 20, 2008; ... The dramatic increase in diesel prices earlier this year has hurt trucking companies here and nationally - with the potential of increasing the cost of everything transported by truck, including food, retail products, and manufactured goods. Trucking industry representatives say they are ...
Cabinet maker cuts staff as sales weaken
Nov 20, 2008; ... Huntwood Industries Inc., the Liberty Lake-based cabinet manufacturer, says it has reduced the size of its full-time work force by about 9 percent over the last few months due in part to weaker sales this year. Separately, Huntwood says it has opened to the public a 10,000-square-foot ...
Hayden golf club maker's assets sold
Nov 20, 2008; ... The assets of Henry-Griffitts Inc., a Hayden-based custom golf club maker founded in 1983, has been acquired by aboutGolf Ltd., of Maumee; Ohio, through a company it has formed called Henry-Griffitts Ltd., says Jim Hofmeister, CEO of Henry-Griffitts Inc. Hofmeister declines. to disclose ...
Garco lands Yakima-area jobs totaling $29.5 million
Nov 20, 2008; ... Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, has landed two big construction contracts in the Yakima, Wash., area that together total $29.5 million. One contract, worth $19.2 million, is for a three-building project at the Armed Forces Reserve Center located about six miles northeast of Yakima ....
Four-day Snoqualmie Pass closure cost $27.9 million
Nov 20, 2008; ... The four-day closure of Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass last winter cost the state 170 jobs ,and the loss of $27.9 million in economic output, $1.42 million in state revenue; and $8.6 million in personal income, a Washington state Department of Transportation study says. DOT closed I-90 ...
Coeur d'Alene natural-foods store buys adjacent building, to triple size
Nov 20, 2008; ... Pilgrim's Natural Foods Market, a Coeur d'Alene store that features locally grown and organic products, has bought a building next door that will enable it to more than triple its size, says Joe Hamilton, who owns the business with his wife, Sarah. The 8,000-square-foot store is located ...
Vandervert jobs total $40 million
Nov 20, 2008; ... Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, has landed seven construction jobs worth a combined nearly $40 million. Of those, the three biggest jobs, which total about $35 million, are for projects in Clarkston, in southeast Washington state, and in Yakima and Wenatchee, both in Central ...
City takes steps to update its aging regulations on signs
Nov 20, 2008; ... The city of Spokane says its sign code, which hasn't undergone a thorough review since the 1950s, needs to be updated to reflect new sign technology. The city's planning services department is working to update the sign code, and the Spokane Plan Commission has conducted a public hearing ...
Plasma center slated to open on North Side
Nov 20, 2008; ... Talecris Plasma Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc., says it planned to open a plasma donation center in north Spokane this week. Steven Goldsmith, a Talecris spokesman, says the center will occupy a 10,000-square-foot leased ...
Paul Mitchell school opens in the Valley
Nov 20, 2008; ... A Paul Mitchell cosmetology school has opened at 15303 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley. Paul Mitchell Schools is a franchise based in Costa Mesa, Calif. Though the school's first class, which started at the beginning of November, is small, with just six students enrolled, franchisee George ...
Cheney group eyes forming business improvement area
Nov 20, 2008; ... A nonprofit group in Cheney is seeking support from business and property owners there to form a business improvement district in the city's downtown area to fund safety initiatives, aesthetic improvements, and marketing efforts. The group Cheney Pathways to Progress, hopes to raise ...
Rural airports spend to boost economies
Nov 20, 2008; ... Rural airports in Eastern Washington are seeking to attract more general aviation business to fuel economic growth. Their operators -say that with little space available at Spokane's Felts Field and their relatively low rates, leased hangar and ground. space for private airplanes is ...
High-tech scans for Rover
Nov 20, 2008; ... Business Inland Empire Veterinary Imaging PS Owner Jeff Siems Location Spokane Employees Eight Product CT and ultrasound scanning and image interpretation Just like their bipedal human counterparts, dogs and other four-legged pets ...
Former Sylvan warehouse will be retail space
Nov 20, 2008; ... A Spokane insurance agent and her daughter are buying a roughly 30,000-square-foot building at 116 W. Pacific that formerly served as a warehouse for the now defunct Sylvan Furniture Co. and plan to renovate it for commercial tenants. The investor, Robi Railey, says that she and her ...
Guilds' School mulls erecting larger facility, eyes locations
Nov 20, 2008; ... The Spokane Guilds' School & Neuro muscular Center is exploring building. a much larger facility that would enable it to serve more children and families, says. executive director Dick Boysen. The school is badly crowded. now, he says. "It's pretty preliminary. But we're very serious ...
Farm Credit Services posts sizable gain in net income
Nov 20, 2008; ... Northwest Farm Credit -Services, of Spokane, has reported third-quarter net income of $39 million, up from $28.4 million in the year-earlier quarter. The federally chartered ag-lending cooperative says its earnings through the first nine months totaled $97.9 million, up from $80.6 ...
Pact signed on land at Riverpoint
Nov 20, 2008; ... Washington State University has reached a preliminary agreement with Denver-based developer NexCore Group LP for development of 3.5 acres of land that include the former Jensen-Byrd warehouse building and three other parcels in the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown. In the first of ...
Key Tronic's new clients create buffer
Nov 20, 2008; ... Key Tronic Corp., the Spokane Valley-based contract manufacturer, expects its revenue this quarter to be lower than projected earlier, but company executives say the forecast could have been much gloomier if not for the addition of 18 new customers over the last two years. That ...
New hotel planned near Airway Heights
Nov 20, 2008; ... A Seattle-area developer says he plans to start a hotel project northwest of Spokane International Airport before the end of the year. The developer, Surinder Khela, says he will develop a 79-unit La Quinta Inn Suites south of U.S. 2, at the northwest corner of Flight Drive and Deer ...
Avista sees eventual IPO at subsidiary
Nov 20, 2008; ... Executives at Avista Corp. and its Advantage IQ subsidiary long have talked about taking Advantage IQ public or exploring other ways for Avista to capitalize on its investment in the subsidiary. Now, they're getting more serious about it. "We really would like to grow the company so ...
ISM shifts focus to infrastructure
Nov 20, 2008; ... The Institute for Systems Medicine, a Spokane effort that had hoped to raise $100 million or more to attract world-class scientists here, has refocused itself on building the infrastructure it believes Spokane needs to be a player in basic research. That new focus, says Tony Bonanzino, ...
AmericanWest scraps acquirer role
Nov 20, 2008; ... AmericanWest Bancorp says it expects to reduce its overall work force by up to 10 percent and to secure private equity funding, regardless of any federal bailout money it might receive, as part of a broad effort to stem losses and get back on stronger financial footing. The Spokane-based ...