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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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.

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Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Posted by Brian Everstine @ 05:01:17 pm

Olympic Boat Center locations in Tacoma and Fife are waiting for word on their future.

The Redmond-based chain filed for bankruptcy reorganization in July. A judge in Woodland Hills, Calif. will decide at 11 a.m. Tuesday on the store's plan to auction its assets. Multiple stores have already closed, but the Tacoma and Fife shops have stayed open to see what happens.

"We're still open until whatever goes on tomorrow goes on," said Randy Greiwe, Tacoma manager, on Monday.

Olympic operates 20 dealerships in Washington, California and British Columbia. Court documents state Olympic is one of, if not the, largest dealership in the world for some boat and engine brands.

The Tacoma and Fife locations have 30 employees, and Greiwe said they are anxiously awaiting Tuesday's decision.

Boat manufacturer Brunswick offered to buy Olympic for $48 million but the amount was not adequate, the court ruled. Documents list Olympic's debt at $53 million.

Olympic put information regarding the bankruptcy on their Web site at http://www.boatnut.com/misc/bankruptcy.html
.

Categories: General
Posted by John Gillie @ 02:26:52 pm

To earn 2,000 miles credit on Alaska Airlines' frequent flier plan usually involves at least a roundtrip to Los Angeles or San Diego.

But through Dec. 15, you can fly as little as 266 miles, the roundtrip distance from Seattle to Portland, and get those same 2,000 miles of credit.

That bonus mileage is part of a promotion that Alaska's sister airline, Horizon Air, announced recently.

The airline is doubling the usual 500 miles credit each way it awards on short flights for those who fly Horizon's shuttle between Portland and Seattle.

To get double miles, sign up for the promotion at www.horizonair.com.

Categories: General, Aerospace, Tourism
Posted by John Gillie @ 02:11:13 pm

A European-American consortium of Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defense and Space beat Boeing's bid for replacement airborne tankers for the Air Force by $3 billion, a high defense official has revealed.

That bid, now cast aside because of irregularities with the bidding process, called for Northrop Grumman-EADS to deliver the first 68 of 179 tankers for $12.5 billion. Boeing's bid for the same number of planes was $15.4 billion.

Those figures were revealed by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition John Young in a Washington Post interview.

Northrop Grumman-EADS won the competition with a militarized version of the Airbus A330. Boeing had bid the smaller Boeing 767.

The Defense Department has once again postponed new bidding on the tanker deal until a new president takes office next year.

Categories: General, Aerospace
Posted by Dan Voelpel @ 01:15:49 pm
Thornewood Castle in Lakewood looked like this in 2001 when Hollywood made it the set for filming "Rose Red," a television mini-series written by horror story master Stephen King. (News Tribune file photo: Wayne Robinson)

When BedandBreakfast.com went looking for ghosts among its clients, it had plenty of places from which to choose. The world's largest online B&B directory and reservation network scared up its Top 10 list and named Thornewood Castle Inn & Gardens its No. 1 spookiest B&B.

Bedandbreakfast.com, of course, highlights the castle's notoriety as the set for Stephen King’s ghostly television mini-series "Rose Red," which aired in 2002. Then the Web site notes, "In real life, guests have reported their share of chills and plenty of orbs have been recorded on guest photos taken here."

Owner Deanna Robinson confirmed the ghostly encounters today.

"People who see ghosts and tend to have those experiences, see them here. Those who don’t, don’t," she said.

=> Read more!

Categories: General, Tourism
Posted by John Gillie @ 01:10:15 pm

The huge Long Beach, Calif., factory where Boeing built its 717 commercial jets until 2006, could become Southern California's biggest independent movie production venue.

The former McDonnell Douglas buildings, once part of a huge aerospace complex at the Long Beach Airport, have been on the market for two years since Boeing halted production of the 717.

Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged in 1997, and the MD-95 jet became the Boeing 717.

Long Beach Studios LLC has reached an agreement with Boeing to buy the vacant property, said California sources.

The mammoth buildings could hold up to 40 sound stages for movie and television show production.

The company buying the Boeing buildings says it wants to construct hotels and ancillary buildings to house movie production people and actors in a self-contained complex.

Posted by C.R. Roberts @ 12:13:59 pm

Business owners: Looking for a shot in the arm? Looking for a way to keep your employees simultaneously healthy and happy? Bartell Drugs may have the answer.

The company is offering prepaid flu shot vouchers and, for companies with more than 25 employees, will deliver an immunizing pharmacist to your business for on-site shots.

The one-punch gift cards, called FluGramT, cost $25 each, according to Bartell spokeswoman Rachel Nowak. Discounts are available for larger purchases.

For more information, call Nowak at racheln@bartelldrugs.com.

Categories: General
Posted by Brian Everstine @ 12:02:51 pm

Lakewood Orthopeadic Surgeons this month became Puget Sound Orthopaedics, and added two surgeons, physician assistants and a Tacoma location,

Joining the organization are Dr. John Blair and Dr. Michael Martin. Dr. Blair went to medical school at the University of Chicago, did a residency at teh University of California and San Diego Medical Center and trained at a fellowship in spine and scoliosis at the University of Minnesota. He has a special interest in treatment of degenerative conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine, according to a news release.

Dr. Martin went to medical school at Wayne State University, did general and orthopedic surgery residencies at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, and did a spine medicine and surgery fellowship in San Francisco.

The new location is at 1515 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, (253) 572-2663. The original location is 7308 Bridgeport Way West, (253) 582-7257.

Categories: General