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.

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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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Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Posted by John Gillie @ 02:49:17 pm

Boeing says it received no new orders for airliners in the week-long period ending Tuesday.

The company's order update, issued this afternoon, shows the company has received 346 net orders in 2008.

That order book includes 235 737s, two 747s, 30 777s and 79 787s. Boeing has won no 767 orders this year.

Categories: Aerospace
Posted by John Gillie @ 02:40:56 pm

Another sign that the condo market is ailing came recently when Tacoma's Prium Companies reconfigured a planned Foss Waterway project to eliminate 66 of a planned 90 condominiums.

The Foss Waterway Development Authority, which governs redevelopment effort on the Tacoma near-downtown waterway, approved the change late last week.

The new design included 90 condo units, five live-work units and some 27,000 square feet of office space.

The reconfigured building will include 24 condos, three live-work units and nearly 79,000 square feet of offices.

Prium had already told the waterway authority that it is delaying the start of building the structure near on the waterway's west side near the South 21st Street Bridge.

Prium previously had converted two near Wright Park condo projects, Hannah Heights and Chelsea Heights, to rentals because of the slowing condo sales market.

Prium will present the new plans to the authority's Urband Design Review Committee and then to the full authority for approval when those plans are complete.

Posted by John Gillie @ 02:20:48 pm

The oft-postponed Foss Waterway hotel project has been granted yet another delay by the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority.

Authority board members granted the request setting the deadline for a construction start to the mixed-use project on the near-downtown Tacoma waterway at the request of principal developer Robert Thurston. The new deadline is August 29.

In a letter to the authority board, Thurston, owner of Seattle's Inn at the Market, said changing market conditions have forced his group to once again readjust the building's design.

"The condo-for-sale market has been dramatically and detrimentally impacted," Thurston told the authority. "The realistically achievable margin on sales of the condo units has made this portion of the project no longer viable. As a result, our primary equity partner in the project became increasingly concerned about the condominium risk, requiring that the projet either be abandoned or reconfigured."

Thurston said the previous plan to build a 101-room hotel topped by 22 condo units has given way to a new plan for a building with 160 hotel rooms and six penthouse condo units.

Thurston said his group has secured permits for the new structure and West LB, the project's banker, is still committed. Developers need extra time, however, to present the revised plans to potential equity partners for their approval.

The latest delay, approved late last week, is the latest in a series of postponements that began four years ago with the project. The original concept for the site, just south of the Esplanade condo project near the South 15th Street Bridge over the BNSF tracks, was an all-hotel project.

Developers shifted to a mixed-use condo-hotel project when the condo market took off, and now they're back to a mostly-hotel project.

If the developers don't meet the August deadline, the authority may buy back the property at the original selling price. The authority would receive whatever permits the developers had sought at no additional cost.

Categories: Aerospace
Posted by Kelly Kearsley @ 02:15:28 pm

This was on our Web site last night:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Jamba Juice Co. for allegedly allowing the manager of its Puyallup outlet to sexually harass several female employees, the agency announced Wednesday.

In its suit, filed in U.S. District Court, the EEOC alleged that California-based Jamba Juice promoted a man to manage the Puyallup store two months after disciplining him for sexually harassing a young female employee.

The agency said the unidentified manager verbally and physically harassed female employees after his promotion, commenting on their bra sizes and breasts, attempting to engage them in sexually oriented discussions and touching them against their will.

The manager was not identified in the EEOC complaint and attempts to call Jamba Juice headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., were unsuccessful.

Posted by John Gillie @ 01:37:00 pm

Almost exactly a year after parts of its first 787 Dreamliner began arriving in Everett, Boeing Co. began assembly today of its fifth 787.

Had assembly of the first group of Dreamliners gone according to plan, six Dreamliners would already be flying and the first production Dreamliner for All Nippon Airways would be just a month short of delivery.

With the first test 787 still being assembled, the program is some 15 months behind schedule.

But the latest news, however, does indicate that after months of slow progress Boeing is finally getting the assembly line moving, albeit slowly. The fifth Dreamliner is scheduled to become the third flight test airplane. Two other Dreamliners will be used for fatigue and strength tests.

Room for the fifth Dreamliner was created in the Everett plant assembly bay when Boeing moved its static test airframe last week to another hangar where its composite airframe will be tested for strength.

Jack Jones, vice president of 787 final assembly and change incorporation, said the problems with suppliers are being worked out.

"The second flight-test airplane had a 50 percent reduction in the amount of incomplete work as compared to the first airplane. Traveled work on this airplane is 65 percent less than on the first."

Under Boeing's ambitious production scheme for the 787, major suppliers were to create major pieces of the aircraft in their own factories. Those assemblies were to arrive in Everett completely wired, plumbed and equipped and ready to be connected together in a three-day final assembly process.

Instead, the major pieces of the first 787 such as the fuselage and wings arrived incomplete, and Boeing workers have had to finish the job in Everett, a time-consuming task.

Some of those problems were caused by lack of parts. Other issues were caused by suppliers' inexperience completing major assembly tasks at new plants.

The 787 has now amassed nearly 900 orders despite its failure to live up to its production timetable.

Categories: Aerospace, Tourism
Posted by Kelly Kearsley @ 12:54:18 pm

The Port of Tacoma is idle today as longshore workers here and up and down the West Coast took the day off work in protest of the war in Iraq.

The protest involves 25,000 International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers from Washington to California including hundreds in Tacoma

May Day is traditionally a day to celebrate labor and workers' rights.

Though the action was widely anticipated, the Pacific Maritime Association called the war protest a strike and questioned whether it was an attempt to leverage the current contract negotiations the union and employers' group.

The PMA represents companies that employ West Coast dock workers including cargo carriers and stevedores.

The longshore union voted in February to stop work today in opposition of the war.

The union's contract allows for what are called "stop work" meetings to conduct union business if they give employers adequate notice.

Such meetings are usually held in the evening. The PMA denied the union's request for a work stoppage during the ports' busiest hours and the union ultimately withdrew its request.

Still talks of a May Day war protest continued.

On Wednesday the Coast Arbitrator ordered the union to inform its members that today would be a regular work day.

But it wasn't business as usual.

Four ships waited in Tacoma's port and truck gates were quiet at the terminals. Work in Seattle and two dozen the West Coast ports stalled as well.

ILWU International President Bob McEllrath said that dock workers are “standing down on the job and standing up for America.”

“We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq,” McEllrath said.

J. Craig Shearman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said shippers and exporters expected no significant, long-term disruptions from the walkout.

"This is something that happens every year," Shearman said. "Shippers and exporters know about it and plan around it, and we don't expect to see any significant disruptions from it."

Shearman said many longshore workers on the West Coast took the day off last year to participate in immigration rallies.

Scott Mason, spokesman for Tacoma's ILWU Local 23, said typically a couple hundred would come to work today.

The PMA dispatch bulletin shows that Tacoma terminals ordered 90 workers for the day shift.

The work stoppage at 29 West Coast ports violates the union's labor contract, according to the PMA.

It also comes while two parties are in the midst of negotiating a new, six-year contract that applies to all West Coast dock workers.

The PMA noted that a year ago, McEllrath said the ILWU is committed to good faith negotiations with transportation disruptions on either side.

Today's action raise concerns about whether those hopes will be fulfilled, said PMA spokesman Steve Getzug.

=> Read more!

Categories: Port and trade
Posted by Marce Edwards @ 12:15:08 pm

Start shopping. You have two months to get a hands-free device to use with your phone.

Verizon Wireless sent a news release today reminding us that the deadline is getting close. Well, close if you are shopping for that extra special ear piece.

Starting July 1, motorists in Washington could face fines for talking on wireless phones without using hands-free devices.

From the news release:

Consumers have a number of choices available to help them comply with the new law, from universally compatible headsets to phones with built-in speakerphones and voice-activated dialing. Most phones can be fastened easily to a car’s vent or visor and removed when you leave the vehicle. No installation or hard wiring is necessary.

Categories: General
Posted by Devona Wells @ 08:48:32 am

The newest designer clothing line for discounter Target won't initially be available at your nearest Target, according to a story this week by The Wall Street Journal. You'll have to instead wait for the pieces by designer Rogan Gregory -- touted as eco-friendly for using organic cotton and natural fibers, such as silk and linen -- until they make the rounds at luxury retailer Barneys.

The collection will first be sold in mid-May at Barneys New York and then at a Barneys in Los Angles, the WSJ story said. So the clothes should be making their way to Target in about three weeks.

Here are some additional details on the clothing line from the WSJ story:

The Target pieces, including a roll-up sleeve sweater and a leopard-print swimsuit, cost $15 to $45. That's significantly less than even the least-expensive item sold in Mr. Gregory's upper-end Loomstate line at Barneys, where T-shirts are priced at $68 and a sweater hoodie fetches $235.

Categories: Shopping