The gracious Rosario Resort on Orcas Island in the San Juans is for sale.

You’ll need to present a cashier’s for $250,000 in order to qualify for bidding at the auction - and you’ll likely need a lot more than that to buy the property.

The state Employment Security Department earlier today sent out a notice saying Rosario is closing and that 195 employees at the resort will be out of work by the end of October.

I called the resort general manager, Dan Dohner, for some more information.

The property includes 74 acres of land, plus a main resort with guest rooms, restaurants, meeting facilities, 35-slip boat moorage and additional space for moorage offshore. The site was developed in the 1970s, Dohner said, expanding the facilities of a mansion that was built in 1909 by Seattle Mayor Robert Moran.

Rosario is one of the island’s major employees, Dohner said, and it could well be that the new owner will continue to use the property for commercial purposes.

“A lot of people are sad, but a lot are excited about what it can be. This is another step of what Rosario is,” Dohner said. “The closure allows the new owner to take a breath, and figure out what to do.”

The resort closes on Oct. 20, and the auction will be held Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. at the resort. For further information, visit the auctioneer’s site here.

Boeing commercial airplane orders for the year reached 579 this week with the addition of two orders for 777 wide-bodied aircraft from unidentified buyers.

Those orders bring total 777 orders to 48 for the year. The twin-engine, long-range plane is the third most popular Boeing jetliner by orders this year.

The best-selling aircraft in Boeing's line-up this year is the 737 with 449 orders. Airlines have ordered more 737s this year through the third week of August than Boeing is producing in a whole year. At the present production rate of 31 a month, Boeing is building 372 of those twin jets a year. The backlog of orders for the 737 amount to six years' production at current rates.

The second most popular of Boeing's planes is the 787 Dreamliner with 78 orders this year.

Boeing's 747 and 767 have garnered two orders each this year.

Hybrid cars are all the fashion, and locomotive makers are building hybrid engines. Now, Seattle's Foss Maritime is about to put into service the world's first true hybrid tug boat.

Under construction at Foss's Rainier, Ore., shipyard across the Columbia River from Longview, Wash., the new tug is designed to reduce emissions by 44 percent.

The tug will be powered by electric motors driving its propellers. Those electric motors will draw their power from batteries and from generators installed in the boat.
The boat's main engines will kick in when full horsepower is needed.

In many ways, harbor tugs are well suited for hybrid drives because much of their time is spent at low power settings manuevering in the harbor or at idle while waiting for their next job.

The hybrid drive will operate from batteries at those low power demand times.

In addition to lower emissions and fuel savings estimated at 30 percent, the company, founded in Tacoma in 1889 and now headquartered in Seattle, says the new tug will cut noise pollution in the harbor where it operates.

Foss is seeking Green Passport certification for the boat from Lloyd's Register of North America, a maritime standards organization.

The tug will go into service in the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors. The Port of Los Angeles is contributing $850,000 to the project, and the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners is contributing $500,000 as part of the two ports' initiatives to clean up air quality in the nation's busiest harbor.

New plans for renovation of downtown Tacoma's most prominent historic eyesore, the 1890 Luzon Building, call for it to be returned to its appearance 117 years ago.

Paint applied to its brickwork when it served as an arcade and home to a Chinese restaurant will be removed gently, and the bricks restored to their original appearance.

The only difference from the building's original facade will be a new elevator and mechanical core that will be built abutting the historic building to the south to stiffen and strengthen it against earthquakes.

Gintz Group project manager Tim Lieberman said Tacoma architect Jon Graves' design would replicate the building's as-new details down to minor cosmetic items. The Gintz Group, a Tacoma developer, acquired the building last year from Oakland, Calif., developer Mike Bartlett.

Those plans have been submitted to state authorities to help secure their approval of historic tax credits of up to 20 percent of the building's renovation costs, said Lieberman. If state officials approve, the building's application for federal tax credits will be forwarded to the National Park Service which grants federal tax credits if the building's renovation mets federal standards.

The Luzon is one of two remaining West Coast buildings -- the other is in San Francisco -- designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root. The two designed several pioneering Chicago high-rises. After Root died, Burnham designed Washington D.C.'s Union Station and many of the buildings at Chicago's Worlds Fair.

Lieberman said he expects the tax credit approval process to take up to 90 days. Once those tax credits have been approved, the developers will complete their financing and begin the project.

The project manager said finding financing has been challenging but the tax credits and a $1.65 million low-interest loan from the City of Tacoma will make what might have been a difficult project doable.

Bartlett tried several times to rehab the building, but the pieces never came together for him.

The Gintz Group plan calls for retail spaces on the Pacific Avenue and Commerce Street levels and four stories of offices above, one of which will be the developer's headquarters. The building, located at South 13th Street and Pacific Avenue, will be renamed the Burnham & Root Building.

The developer has shown the building to several prospective tenants including a bank.

"I warn those who want to see the building that they need to have a well-developed imagination to look past the collapsing floors to envision how the finished building will look," he said.