In an attempt to reacquaint consumers with its signature meal, Denny’s offered free Grand Slam breakfasts for eight hours on Tuesday.

And the customers showed up. Restaurants around the South Sound had lines out the door and full parking lots.

The meal, which includes pancakes, eggs, bacon strips and sausage links, is one of the restaurants best-selling menu items.

The Spartanburg, S.C.-based company ended the giveaway, having served up 2 million free Grand Slams around the country, according to The Associated Press.

News Tribune editor Cole Cosgrove tried to get in on the promotion after seeing the ads on television this past weekend.

At 10:30 a.m., about 20 people stood outside the Denny’s at 5924 Sixth Ave. in Tacoma. The parking lot was full, and three other cars circled like hungry sharks. "I took one lap and headed for the exit," he said.

Copy editor Rick Arthur, however – who also saw all the Denny’s spots on Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast – says there was no waiting for a counter seat when he popped into the chain’s outlet in Fife, right off Interstate 5, about 12:45 p.m., though the entryway was full and the line for those awaiting tables was out the door.

Denny’s has promoted the freebie heavily, with a 30-second ad that aired during the third quarter of the Super Bowl on Sunday, another 15-second ad during the post-game show and a full page ad in USA Today’s Monday editions.

The company reported 14 million hits on its Web site between Sunday night and Monday morning — the site read “service unavailable” at midday Tuesday. By late afternoon Tuesday, when the site was back up, Denny’s had recorded 40 million hits since Sunday night, according to the AP.

With the promotion only under way a few hours, spokeswoman Cori Rice said restaurants in Miami, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles were reporting long lines and other locations said they were very busy but under control.

“From all reports, it’s going extremely well,” Rice said.

Construction on the eight-story Midtown Lofts condominium project has halted after construction financing reached its limit.

The 50-unit building at 1142 Fawcett Avenue is about 65 percent complete, said Tom O'Connor, managing partner of Fawcett LLC, the company developing the project.

The company's lender, Frontier Bank, is considering whether to extend the term of the construction loan, O'Connor said.

The project originally received an 18-month construction loan from Frontier that was extended last fall.

That extension ran out at the end of the year. Fawcett LLC is seeking another extension.

New conservative appraisals of the project have erected obstacles in the building's path, O'Connor said.

Those new appraisals are less than half the amount already committed to the building, said O'Connor.

The bank now estimates that under the current depressed market conditions, selling out the building will take about four years, said O'Connor.

The 50 condos were to sell for prices between the mid-$200,000s to the $800,000s for a three-bedroom penthouse.

The developers have considered converting the building to apartments, but the building, made of concrete and steel, may be overbuilt for that use, O'Connor said.

The developers have amassed a list of about 120 potential buyers who have expressed strong interest in the building. No units are yet sold.

The building's construction lender, Frontier Bank, reported losses in the last quarter of nearly $90 million. In the building and construction sector of its portfolio, non-performing loans increased from $183 million to $359 million.

Between 40 and 50 construction workers were laid off the job late last week when the funding ran out.

In retrospect, said O'Connor, one of the developers' mistakes was obtaining the construction loan five months before actual construction began. That delay left the developers with too little time to get the building finished within the loan's time limits.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines, which has steadily expanded its reach beyond the West Coast since 2001, is adding yet another destination, Austin, beginning in August.

Alaska's daily service will fill a hole left by American Airlines, which discontinued its non-stop service between the two cities.

The new service will begin Aug. 3 with a daily departure from Sea-Tac Airport at 9:45 a.m. arriving in the Texas capital at 3:40 p.m. The returning flight will leave Austin at 4:40 and arrive back in Seattle at 6:45 p.m.

Alaska also announced today that it is enlarging its repertoire of flights to Hawaii. The airline will inaugurate new service from Portland to Maui beginning Aug.7. That service will operate Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Alaska began service to Hawaii from Seattle in October 2007. The airline currently offers daily nonstop flights between Seattle and Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii and between Anchorage and Oahu and Maui.