July Issue
July, OutFront
Recent Company Acquisitions
The University of Washington is very difficult to deal with. ... We have great relationships with some departments but not the relationship we hoped [for].
-- Richard Shea, CEO of Spiration Inc., at a UW-Bothell-sponsored summit...
July, OutFront
Washington CEO Wins Awards
Washington CEO Magazine was honored three times this year at the annual Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards banquet. Senior Writer Aaron Corvin won a second- place award in business news and...
July, OutFront
Zino Society Awards Green Kudos (And Cash)
O Ecotextiles Inc., a Seattle company that makes environmentally friendly materials for drapery, upholstery and bedclothes, has been awarded $50,000 from the Zino Society's second annual Green-Socially Conscious Investment Forum...
July, OutFront
Briefcase
BELLEVUE -- Groundbreaking for European Tower, a 16-story luxury condominium project, has been postponed. Developer Eugene Gershman says he's waiting until the market improves, possibly next fall. More than a third of the units...
July, OutFront
No Longer Just Married to the Military
A program developed by the Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce has become a national model in a campaign to encourage local businesses to hire the wives and husbands of people serving in the military. Backers say that too...
July, OutFront
Dupont: Wanted by Developers
Say "DuPont" and the first thing that comes to mind is the American global chemical giant. But DuPont also is a small and, perhaps, easily forgotten city in south Puget Sound. Well, start paying attention. While DuPont is, in...
OutFront, July
Window Shopping
French country homes around the state
July, OutFront
Paccar Revs up Medical Center
Bellevue truck maker Paccar Inc. has donated $1 million to Overlake Hospital Medical Center to set up the Paccar Education Center -- a 7,000-square-foot education facility intended to boost training for medical professionals...
July, OutFront
Mario to Scale Ever-Larger Buildings
Nintendo of America will start work later this year on a new 275,000-square-foot building at its Redmond headquarters. It will replace seven low-rise buildings currently on the site. The company intends to build sustainable...
July, OutFront
Port of Everett Opens First Phase of Waterfront Redevelopment
The Port of Everett has landed an anchor tenant -- Bayside Marine -- for its new "Craftsman District" on the Everett waterfront.
The $13 million Craftsman project is intended to revitalize the industrial waterfront with...
OutFront, July
Executive Appointments
Seattle-based Big Fish Games promotes Laurent de Segur from vice president of technology to chief technology officer.Kevin Doerr is named senior vice president of Oodle, Seattle.Dennis Fitzpatrick is named general manager of...
July, OutFront
Working at Home Without Working at Home
Maybe you work at home alone. Maybe you're on the road a lot and you have no headquarters or co-workers. You like your independence, but you're beginning to forget what it's like to grab a coffee with another human being who also...
OutFront, Agriculture, June
Local Farming On The Rise
Small to midlevel farmers in Washington state look stronger than ever despite spiking oil and food prices. Traditionally muscled out by large agribusinesses ? whose capital, infrastructure and federal commodity subsidies enable...
OutFront, June
Executive Appointments
· Ellen Bovarnick is named regional director of the Anti-Defamation League?s Pacific Northwest Region.
· Paul Campbell...
OutFront, Real Estate, June
Shifting Grounds In Seattle Property Market
The continuing credit crunch has claimed another victim: Clise Properties' plans to sell and redevelop a 13-acre tract in downtown Seattle, a $7 billion project on the scale of London's Canary Wharf.
That project has now been...
OutFront, Policy, June
State Kicks Tobacco Money To Biosciences
Fund, a state fund charged with distributing $350 million in tobacco settlement money to life sciences, has announced its first grants: $22 million to fund five programs.
THE...
Finance, OutFront, June
Recent Company Acquisitions
Rvs Come, Rvs Go
Western Recreational Vehicles Inc., a Yakima maker of the eponymous yachts of the highways, is shutting down after a failed merger attempt. While company president Bob Wert issued a statement April 17 saying the...
OutFront, Real Estate, June
Window Shopping
Three Puget Sound-Area Homes With Green Features
May, OutFront
Recent Company Acquisitions
Demolition company becomes a national player.
May, OutFront
Spinning Sawdust into Oil
Will cars someday run on cardboard? How about sawdust? Weyerhaeuser and Chevron have formed a joint venture to convert cellulose and lignin -- two basic compounds found in plants -- into biofuels. Much early biofuel research has...
OutFront, May
Briefcase
BOTHELL -- Nastech Pharmaceuticals' plans to deliver drugs via nasal sprays could be snuffed out. Auditors at accounting firm KPMG warned investors they have serious doubts whether the biotech can survive. Nastech lost $52...
May, OutFront
Bridging -- -- -- -- the Divide
Rural communities around the state often balk at supporting Seattle-centric transportation projects. One big one might be a windfall for Grays Harbor County, however. The $4.4 billion project to replace the State Route 520...
May, OutFront
WSU Gets Into the Human Race
A new biotechnology company being launched out of Accelerator Corp., a business incubator in Seattle, is seeking to commercialize technology developed at Washington State University. Commercializing university research is not...
May, OutFront
Study of Gray Matter broadens
The nonprofit Allen Institute for Brain Science has launched a new major project to accelerate brain and spinal cord research and help scientists worldwide gain new insight into numerous diseases and disorders.
The Seattle-based...
May, OutFront
You're fired... Not!
Thinking you can put a fire under your employees by threatening to can 'em? Can layoffs create a leaner, meaner organization that reacts faster to change? A new Washington State University study suggests that while Donald Trump's...
May, OutFront
Executive Appointments
Alex Alben is named vice president of corporate strategy and Fred Tietze is named vice president of sales and business development for Seattlebased Pluggd.L & L Financial Holdings Inc., Seattle, names Gene M. Bennett...
May, OutFront
Going Dutch in Seattle
Seattle developer Bruce Blume, founder, chairman and CEO of The Blume Co., is spearheading a project inspired by the ideas of urban-planning critic and activist Jane Jacobs. Yale Campus, in Seattle's South Lake Union...
May, OutFront
Window Shopping
What $500,000 will get you around the state
May, OutFront
Increasing Profits by giving stuff away
The best way to make money on the Internet may be to give it away, a leading thinker on the online economy says.
"Every business, one way or another, is going to have to compete with free," says Chris Anderson, the editor of...
April, OutFront
Executive Appointments
Dwight Babcock is appointed interim CEO and chairman for IsoRay Inc., Richland, following the resignation of Roger Girard.Sachin Chawla, vice president of product development at GoldenGate Software, is named chairman at...
April, OutFront
Boeing's Delivery Not at all That Speedy
Boeing failure to deliver on recent defense contracts was a key reason the Air Force didn't pick it to fill a $40 billion contract for refueling tankers. Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson says the decision "was not a...
April, OutFront
Microsoft Invades the City
Microsoft just loves Seattle as a place to set up new offices. Combined with employees who joined through the Redmond company's acquisition of aQuantive Inc., the company expects to have nearly 1,400 employees in seven locations...
April, OutFront
Do or Die Time for Tacoma
With a resurgent downtown, a four-year University of Washington branch campus, more affordable housing than in Seattle and one of the top seaports in the nation, you'd think all is well in the City of Destiny, T-Town -- Tacoma....
April, OutFront
Briefcase
FORKS -- Filming is nearly complete on the movie Twilight, based on the Stephanie Meyer novel. In the story, a teenage girl moves to this rainy Olympic Peninsula outpost, where she falls in love with a high school classmate --...
April, OutFront
Tulalips Bet on Hotel Resort
The Tulalip tribes will open their new 12- story, 350-room Tulalip Casino Resort this summer at their Quil Ceda Creek development west of Marysville. The new resort will be Snohomish County's first destination hotel. The resort...
April, OutFront
Trails to Rails in King County
Commuter rail could expand to the east side of Lake Washington under a proposal being considered by Sound Transit. Seattle's Cascadia Center has proposed spending $37 million to upgrade an existing 42-mile rail line between...
April, OutFront
Leed's Future in Seattle
Seattle was home to 33 environmentally sustainable buildings in 2007. The city is projected to have more than 100 "green" buildings by 2020, according to Colliers International.
April, OutFront
Big Change at the Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Feb. 7 that CEO Patty Stonesifer would be leaving the organization by the end of the year. Stonesifer, a former Microsoft executive, has led the foundation since its inception in...
April, OutFront
WTC Rewards Local Startups
The Washington Technology Center (WTC), a statewide economic development organization, has awarded $528,978 in funding to eight local technology firms and their two supporting research institutions, the University of Washington...
April, OutFront
Bremerton's New Marina Implicated in Ferry Failures
One element of Bremerton's evolving downtown renaissance is proving problematic -- the new Harborside Marina has been involved in two recent collisions with state ferries attempting to land at the nearby ferry dock.
Washington...
April, OutFront
Window Shopping
What a townhome or condominium costs around the state
April, OutFront
Record Wheat
Drought scare sends prices even higher
April, OutFront
Readers Voice
DON'T FORGET NORM DICKS
Bryan Corliss did a fine job in his article "Welcome To Boomerton" in your March 2008 issue. Bremerton (or is it Boomerton?) is experiencing a renaissance that many cities dream of and the article points...
March, OutFront
Can I Get Upgraded to Cougar Class?
Seattle-based Horizon Air has repainted four of its 70-seat CRJ-700 jets in the school colors of Washington and Oregon's four Pac-10 universities.
The first - in WSU's crimson and gray - rejoined the fleet after being repainted...
March, OutFront
PCC Expands its Green image
PCC Natural Markets, the Seattlebased grocery co-op, plans to open its ninth store, in Edmonds, by the end of June, coming as a flurry of much larger U.S. grocery and retail chains aggressively move into its market:...
March, OutFront
All Aboard the Bratwurst Express
By March 2009, the Bavarian-themed village Leavenworth hopes to open a passenger train station to further boost tourism and to enable visitors from western Washington to avoid driving through the Cascades.
The train stop,...
OutFront, March
Briefcase
BAINBRIDGE
Washington State Ferries has begun selling mural-sized advertisements on its boats. Backpack retailer JanSport was the first, paying $40,000 to mount floor-toceiling murals on two ferries on the Seattle-to-Bainbridge...
March, OutFront
Downtown Yakima is in Bloom
Yakima is poised for a major resurgence, boosters say. The city recorded more than $100 million in new construction in 2007 ? a record ? as developers poured new money into a number of downtown projects.
It's a sharp turnaround...
March, OutFront
Window Shopping
What a waterfront home costs around the state
March, OutFront
Plant a Supermall Outside Pullman
Boise-based Hawkins Companies has proposed building a 700,000-square-foot (more than 16 acres) shopping center in the currently undeveloped wheat fields between Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.
The shopping center would be built...
March, OutFront
Coffee Jitters
Starbucks, Tully's shake up management
OutFront, March
Executive Appointments
Neah Power Systems Inc. appoints Gerard C. (Chris) D?Couto president and CEO. Former President and CEO Paul Abramowitz is now chairman.PivotLink Corp., formerly SeaTab Software Inc., Seattle, appoints Frank Fulton CEO.Stephen...
March, OutFront
Sleepless Nights on the Delayed Dreamliner
Boeing workers in Everett continue to work round-the-clock to get the first 787 ready for its maiden flight.
The new all-composite airplane was supposed to take that first flight later this month. But the target?s been pushed...
February, OutFront, Vital Signs
Tacoma's Steady Growth
Tacoma is the second largest metropolitan area in the state. Pierce County as a whole is considered by the federal government to be a metropolitan division within the Seattle/Tacoma Consolidated Metropolitan Area.
February, OutFront
Briefcase
BELLEVUE - Wright Runstad & Co. of Seattle has plans for a 36-acre urban village in Bellevue's Bel-Red corridor that could eventually have 800 apartments, ground-floor retail, open space and more than 3 million square feet of...
February, OutFront
Butter London Opens at Sea-Tac
Seattle-based nail salon Butter London, which offers a nontoxic product line, is rapidly growing its brand at airports...
February, OutFront
As Prices Soar, Con Artists Make Hay
Record high prices for hay have prompted warnings from the state government to farmers to be on the alert for scams and fraud.
February, OutFront
Tourists Pour Cash Into Wine Country
Community leaders in Yakima and Walla Walla are raising glasses to celebrate the increased number of visitors coming to sample local wines.
OutFront, February
Insurance Settlements, Aid Key to Storm Recovery
Many southwest Washington businesses bootstrapped themselves back into operation after December's devastating storm, but a shortage of skilled workers in key construction trades could slow the recovery.
OutFront, February
Executive Appointments
Gordon Brandt has been promoted to president of Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., Bothell.Fay L. Chapman has retired as senior executive vice president and general counsel for Washington Mutual.Stewart Landefeld, partner at...
February, OutFront
Yahoo! First of Several Data
David Filo said at the December ribbon-cutting, which included Whitman County resident Wylie Gustafson, the real-life source of the distinctive Yahoo! yodel used in the company's advertising.
February, OutFront
Autumn Home Prices Didn't Fall in Wenatchee
Wenatchee continued to have the nation's hottest housing market last fall. A federal report released late last year showed that home values had increased 15.7 percent in the third quarter of 2007, compared with the same quarter...
February, OutFront
Washington Conquers Video Games
Sure, Washington is home to Microsoft, Nintendo of America and dozens of independent video game makers. But just how big a deal is the video game industry to the state?
February, OutFront
Starbucks Gets Back to its Roots
The big barista is back and he says he's going to unclog the filter. Last month Seattle-based Starbucks announced it was removing CEO Jim Donald after a three-year run, replacing him with long-time chairman and co-founder Howard...
February, OutFront
Banks Should Resolve
The subprime housing mess shouldn't cause a nationwide recession, economist Bill Conerly says, but the mortgage meltdown does raise the odds.
February, OutFront, Real Estate
Commercial Real Estate Rolls on
The Puget Sound region's commercial real estate market is hotter than the sun, with experts declaring it second only to New York City and predicting continued growth over the next several years.
OutFront, January
2007 Award-Winning Designs
Click here to take a look at the 2007 award winning architectural designs in Washington State.
OutFront, January
Briefcase
LACEY - Cabella's is here. The national catalogue retailer of hunting, fishing and camping gear opened its 27th and newest store in Lacey in November. Lacey officials expect it to attract as many as 4 million people in its first...
OutFront, January
Next Stop for UW: Everett Station
The University of Washington's third branch campus should be at the Everett Station transit center, a site consultant says.
The station is already home to Everett's University Center, where Everett Community College and five...
OutFront, January
Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'
The Columbia Basin Railroad took over the line running from Vancouver to Chelatchie Prairie in Clark County in February 2004. Since then, the company, led by CEO Eric Temple, has grown steadily.
A projected 1,000 railcars were...
OutFront, January
How Not to Get a Job at Microsoft
Last fall, Janelle Godfrey, a technical recruiter for Microsoft Corp., listed on her blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/ articles/janelle.aspx) what she called "Best Comments Heard at Microsoft's 'Meet the Company'...
OutFront, January
Executive Appointments
-Tony Colasin is new director of business development for Kirkland-based CellCyte Genetics Corp.
-Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Yakima, names Stan Flemming president.
-R. Jordan Gates is appointed president...
OutFront, January
Just in Time for the Real Estate Sell-Off...
The Schuster Group, a real estate investment firm, has raised $20 million of a $100 million fund it is putting together to invest in Puget Sound real estate. The fund, to be raised mostly from local individual investors, hopes...
OutFront, January
Worker Productivity
Ever wonder how hard we're working compared to other states or the nation as a whole? Wonder no longer. A report by the Prosperity Partnership, a coalition of business, government, academic, labor and nonprofit agencies in Puget ...
January, OutFront
Green Win for Cleanscapes
CleanScapes, a small Seattle firm, beat Waste Management, the biggest name in garbage globally, to win the city of Shoreline's garbage contract. Now Clean- Scapes has been selected to negotiate for some of Seattle's residential...
OutFront, January
The Road Less Traveled?
When political leaders linked roads and transit together in a tax package called Proposition 1 on the Nov. 6 ballot, they believed they had concocted a winning formula for relieving congestion in Puget Sound.
However, the...
OutFront, January
Mediquest's Quest to Treat Disease Fruitful
Bothell-based MediQuest Therapeutics is making steady, if quiet, progress toward treating a littleknown disease that primarily afflicts women.
The specialty pharmaceutical company, which focuses on developing therapies for...
OutFront, January
Ellensburg gets the Business
Developers are moving forward with what some are calling the biggest commercial development Ellensburg has ever seen.
Ellensburg-based Triple L Properties has filed plans to build a hotel, retail and office complex on a...
OutFront, January
Outsourced Comes to the Small Screen
NBC has commissioned two Seattle filmmakers to turn their independent movie, Outsourced, into a pilot for a half-hour comedy series. Director John Jeffcoat and screenwriter Jeff Wing (50 First Dates) are behind the effort. Their...
OutFront, December
Briefcase
CHENEY - Local officials plan to establish a 38-acre research park after receiving a federal grant of nearly $1.5 million. The money will pay for land as well as roads, utilities and telecommunications lines. The city plans to...
OutFront, December
Seattle U Launches Strategic Communications Center
Barry Mitzman - the long-time host of KCTS-TV's show Serious Money - is leaving his post as Microsoft's director of strategic communications to direct Seattle University's new Center for Strategic Communications.
He'll work...
OutFront, December
Can't Give it Away Fast Enough
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a $100 million fund to foster unconventional approaches to global health, inviting scientists to bid for small, quickly awarded grants. The Grand Challenges Explorations program...
OutFront, December
Washington is #3 in the Race to be Green
How green is the Evergreen State? When it comes to using green energy, Washington is among the fastest growing states in the U.S., ranking No. 3 this year and trailing only North Dakota and Montana, according to the latest...
OutFront, December
Teutonic Condos
A real estate developer is planning on turning the old Leavenworth Fruit Co. warehouse off State Route 2 into a $75 million condominium and shopping complex.
Make that a Bavarian condominium and shopping complex. Dubbed...
OutFront, December
Exective Appointments
James Aitken is president and general manager of KREM-TV and KYSNTV, Spokane.Workforce Development Council Snohomish County in Everett elects Sue Ambler as CEO.Meenu Chhabra is named president and CEO of Allozyne Inc.,...
OutFront, December
Picture this problem
Regional business and political leaders are planning to introduce a technology that would enable the public and private sectors to tackle problems such as urban growth and education through advanced computer visualization,...
OutFront, December
Spokane Restaurants Prosper
Spokane's restaurant industry is showing robust growth thanks to a healthy economy, a vibrant downtown and diners' newfound appetites for niche cuisines.
According to the Spokane Journal of Business, taxable retail sales for...
December, OutFront
High Grades For Local B-Schools
The Master of Business Administration programs at Washington State University and Western Washington University have earned kudos from the Aspen Institute. WSU and WWU finished 76th and 87th, respectively, out of about 600...
OutFront, December
Washington's Minimum Wage Tops Nation
Washington's minimum wage will continue to rank highest in the nation on Jan. 1, when the base pay increases 14 cents to $8.07 an hour.
The annual pay jump comes by way of a 1998 voter-approved law that ties the wage rate to...
OutFront, December
Kick-Starting Innovation Statewide
State officials this fall doled out $4.7 million in grants aimed at jumpstarting research in five new "innovation partnership zones."
The grants went to help fund research park projects in Bellingham, Grays Harbor, Pullman,...
OutFront, December
SOLD! Spokane Hospitals go for-profit
Spokane's not-for-profit Empire Health Services has agreed to sell its two hospitals to the largest publicly traded hospital company in the United States.
If the deal is approved by regulators, Community Health Systems, a...
OutFront, November
Briefcase
BURLINGTON - In the land where coffee is king, there's a new drink in town: locally grown tea. The Sakuma family harvested its first commercial crop this summer off five acres in the Skagit Valley. That gives the family farmers...
OutFront, November
Accounting for Integrity
Is it possible to turn a profit without being greedy? Is it possible to serve your customers without pandering to their basest desires? Are business leaders who embezzle and financially ruin companies and employees...
OutFront, November
More Monitoring for Microsoft?
A significant part of the antitrust settlement between Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department comes to an end in November, and it's up to a federal judge to decide whether to extend it to 2012. The restrictions prevent...
OutFront, November
The Laptop Effect
Washington State University's Tri-Cities branch campus enrolled its first classes of freshmen and sophomores this fall, after 17 years of having only juniors and seniors. As a result, WSU Tri-Cities reported a record fall...
OutFront, November
Rare New IPO
Varolii Corp., a Seattle company formerly known as Par3 Communications, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $86.3 million in an initial public offering.
The company, which provides on-demand...
OutFront, November
Star to Sell Wine
It's harder to get a hotter official spokesperson than this. The Washington Wine Commission has picked the sun - as in that fiery mass of incandescent gas in the sky - to be its representative for a new marketing campaign...
OutFront, November
Your Hip Bone Is Connected To ...
Highline Medical Center has been recognized by the Premier health care alliance with the 2007 Premier Award for Quality for excellence in the care of patients. Presented in six clinical areas, the award for quality is based on...
OutFront, November
Big Company says "NO" to Washington
Economic development officials say Washington has probably lost out on a major effort to attract a Fortune 500manufacturer to the state. That's prompted calls for changes in the restrictions on how state money can be spent to woo...
OutFront, November
How Much in Canadian?
A strong Canadian dollar has led to an increase in cross-border traffic, as Canadians come south looking for relative bargains, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The Victoria Clipper has seen a 25 percent increase in...
OutFront, November
Coal Plant Heating Up
Work continues on a proposed $2 billion power plant in western Walla Walla County that would convert coal into gas to power a generator, while storing the carbon dioxide that's given off deep underground. The Port of Walla...
OutFront, November
Adapting to Traffic
Get ready for some drastic changes in how you commute to work. Congestion is going to get so bad in the Puget Sound region that everyone will have to make major changes in the way they live as more people crowd into the region....
OutFront, October
Executive Appointments
·Aegis Living, Redmond, promotes Jerry Meyer from chief operating officer to president.
·Lindal Cedar Homes, Seattle, names Michael Harris president and COO.
·QL2 Software, Seattle, appoints Glenn Hasen president...