The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.
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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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Sharron Coontz, a member of Friends of Rocky Prairie, asked the Port of Tacoma commission today whether they would grant the group the first right-of-refusal in purchasing the port's 700-plus acres in Maytown.
Friends of Rocky Prairie is a citizens' organization opposed to the development of a South Sound Logistics Center in Thurston County.
The Tacoma and Olympia ports partnered to explore the development of an SSLC – a rail logistics center and industrial yard – in 2006.
That was after the Tacoma port purchased several hundred acres near Maytown to possibly use for such a facility.
"We're working on a plan where you could get your money back and look good and help be part of the solution and not the problem," Coontz told commissioners.
Coontz is concerned that the port will sell the property to a private developer. Her group and other Thurston County residents have voiced concerns about environmental, quality of life, increased traffic and other potential effects of a logistics center.
A few e-mails included in a public records request made by Friends of Rocky Prairie reveal at least one port staff member suggesting the port sell the land to a private developer.
But Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell said, "The port's not in a situation where we're looking to sell the property."
Today was the first he'd heard of Friends of Rocky Prairie's request to be considered first as a buyer for the land.
The port's partnership with the Port of Olympia to pursue the SSLC project is set to expire in June.
Farrell said today that a decision on what the ports might do could come before then.
A new shopping center is being planned for a site on South Union Avenue west of the Tacoma Elks Lodge.
The development, called 23 Union Square, is being offered for lease by First Western Properties.
A drawing of the project shows plans for a strip of retailers along the east side of the center including a 20,000-square-foot space that the developer has designated for an anchor tenant.
Three other buildings of 1,500, 3,700 and 6,500 square feet complement the main building group. The total space in the center is 42,200 square feet. Two hundred thirty-six parking spaces are planned.
South Sound financial institutions have announced new financial skills training for teens and the general public.
The Key Foundation (funded by Key Bank parent Key Corp.) has granted Tacoma Goodwill $50,000 to provide a second year of its financial literacy program Key to Change.
Last year, more than 230 persons took the free, eight-session programs to learn how to manage their finances, pay bills, avoid scams and save money.
The new funding will allow Goodwill to offer 40 more sessions and increase the participation to 360 people.
The second financial skills program announced today is being offered by Federal Way's Woodstone Credit Union.
The credit union's Financial Skills for Life targets teens. The workshops are designed to give youth lifelong financial skills, said the credit union.
Those who wish to register should call the credit union at 253-925-6879. The workshops will be offered on four dates, April 16, April 30, May 14 and May 28 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. each date.
The Boeing Co. acknowledged today that it is modifying the wingbox design of the 787 to provide greater strength to the crucial component.
The wingbox is the axis of the airplane where the wings attach to the fuselage.
According to industry sources, the wing boxes of the first six 787s built will be stiffened with additional braces. Tests showed premature damage could occur without that additional strengthening.
The first four Dreamliners, still being built in Boeing's Everett factory, will see their wing boxes modified before they leave the plant.
Boeing characterized the modifications as typical of design changes made during the development of a new airliner.
The 787 wingboxes are made in Japan. Boeing reportedly will build strengthened wingboxes for Dreamliners number seven and later.
SeaTac's Horizon Air continues to widen its network with the announcement today that it will begin service between Flagstaff, Ariz. and Los Angeles starting June 23.
Horizon will fly between the two cities twice daily with its Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft.
Flagstaff's only regularly scheduled airline service now is provided by US Airways. US Airways flies five times daily between Flagstaff and its Phoenix hub.
The city of Flagstaff is guaranteeing Horizon's revenues from Flagstaff if the route proves less successful than Horizon expects.
Horizon is also talking with Prescott, Ariz. to include that city among its Arizona routes.
