The Biz Buzz

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.

Talk to us
Got something to say? Here's the place to say it. We welcome your comments on what's going on in business in the South Sound that we should be discussing, reporting or analyzing here on our blog or in the pages of The News Tribune.

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.

Calendar
November 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30          
Archives
XML Feeds
What is RSS?
Misc
Who's Online?
  • artman77 Email
  • MrSinister Email
  • Guest Users: 354
Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Posted by Dan Voelpel @ 04:04:36 pm

Want to see the details of what your government and civic leaders proposed this week to keep Russell Investments from moving out of Tacoma?

Tacoma's business and government leaders presented Russell Investments executives with binders like this one that detail the incentives and commitments to keep Russell's headquarters in Tacoma and remake downtown as a magnet for other international financial services companies.

Coming Sunday, go to thenewstribune.com/business to download all or part of the 158-page portfolio provided to Russell executives. In Sunday's column, I will also outline the proposal and the most recent revelations that could provide clues about what may influence Russell executives' decision.

Russell, which started in Tacoma 72 years ago, plans to decide by the end of the year whether to build a new corporate headquarters in Tacoma or somewhere else by 2013.

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair) led a seven-member delegation into Russell's headquarters Monday to outline the incentive package.

What does it include? A lot, including...

[More:]

The City of Tacoma agrees to pay $15 million toward a 500-car public parking garage inside any Russell headquarters downtown. The City also will create a taxing district around a Russell headquarters and use the growth in property taxes to fund more than $11 million in infrastructure and streetscape upgrades.

If Russell moves out of its current building, the Port of Tacoma committed to occupy at least 2,000 square feet of the vacant space.

Dicks, meanwhile, committed to pursue up to $20.9 million in various federal funds to subsidize public improvements related to a new Russell headquarters downtown.

Want a sneak preview of one key document in the package? Then download this PDF file that shows on a map where Russell's employees live. The City of Tacoma put this together using a 2007 state survey of Russell employees' commuting habits.