The Port of Tacoma is offering a free bus tour of its facilities Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.

The port's tour bus will pick up passengers who've reserved their seats at the South Hill Park & Ride lot at 10416 94th Ave. E. at 9 a.m.

Reservations are available by calling the port at 253-383-9463 or by e-mail at bustours@portoftacoma.com

Passengers should be back in South Hill by noon, the port said. Photo identification is required for riders 17 and older.

On-line travel company Expedia Inc. announced today it will close its Tacoma call center office by the end of the year.

The company plans to transfer some of the work the Tacoma office performed to an expanded call center in Las Vegas.

The company said an unspecified number of workers in Tacoma will be offered jobs in Expedia's Bellevue headquarters or in the Las Vegas call center.

The company didn't say specifically why it is closing the Tacoma operation, one of four call centers it maintains around the country.

It did issue a general explanation: "In making the decision to grow the Las Vegas location and close the Tacoma location, Expedia concluded that these geographic changes in its call center footprint would enable the company to most effectively serve its customers and address its evolving business needs."

"Expedia is providing support to any employees transitioning out of the company," the company said in a press release.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber marked 125 years of business advocacy with a luncheon Tuesday at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.

Simpson Investment Co.'s Ray Tennison is the outgoing Chamber chairman. In his remarks he said the past two years have been the most difficult in a generation for business and government.

"I am heartened by this community's ability to adapt," he said. "Sometimes with too many groups and too many meetings, but people are still dedicated."

Murray Pacific Corporation's Toby Murray, the incoming chairman, said that while his business has been a Chamber member for some time, he personally hadn't been that involved in activities until now. He also indicated that even the Chamber isn't immune to belt-tightening.

Staff and volunteers would be reviewing the Chamber's programs, events and services, he said, ending his remarks with a call to action.

"If you have time, volunteer it," he said. "If you have ideas, share them. If you have resources, consider investing them."

Other parts of the event included:

• The keynote speech, delivered by Kirkland-based "futurist" Glen Hiemstra, who said the world is in the midst of a "techo-social-economic revolution" that began in the early 1980s and won't be concluded until around 2020. Hiemstra said things are out of balance, especially the country's balance of wealth, and that the U.S. and the world needs an "economic reset" while protecting the free enterprise system. In his view, the keys to successful future business ideas are that they are smart, simple and sustainable.

• Pioneering and long-time Chamber members, featured in video interviews and awards: Weyerhaeuser, Puget Sound Energy, University of Puget Sound, Brown & Brown and the Roman Meal Company.

• "We Like Tacoma," by S.A. Huntington Jr., was written in 1909 and first performed by about 15,000 Tacomans who marched 20 blocks in downtown Seattle in July of that year. The chorus?

"We like Tacoma,
Where rail meets sail,
Where all are hearty, prosperous and hale,
Down on Commencement Bay,
A "New York's" going day by day –
Tacoma, the peer for all."

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber will celebrate 125 years of work at its annual meeting luncheon next week.

The keynote speaker at the Oct. 20 event will be Glen Hiemstra, a Kirkland-based author and consultant who calls himself a "futurist." According to his Web site, Hiemstra focuses on "emerging trends in science, technology, economics, demographics, energy, the environment, and transportation" to "discuss the opportunities that we all have to shape the preferred future."

Hiemstra is the author of "Turning the Future into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Futures."

According to a chamber news release, other parts of the Chamber's 125th anniversary celebration will include the unveiling of the historical song, "We like Tacoma," and archival film footage of a Chamber trip to Alaska in 1936.

The luncheon will be at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, 1500 Broadway, in the Grand Ballroom on the third floor, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Registration is from 11:30-noon.

Tacoma's LeMay Automobile Museum has added two new members to its board of directors.

The auto museum's board named Moray Callum, executive director of Ford America Design and Richard Davis, president and chief executive of Standard Parts Corp. as board members at its September meeting, the museum announced this week.

David Madeira, president and chief executive of the museum, said the two men's appointment shows continued momentum in the museum's development despite the recession.

"We are honored to have them both on the board as we continue the drive for America's Car Museum," he said.

LeMay is at the end of a fund drive to raise funds to build a museum building near the Tacoma Dome to house the LeMay Collection, the world's largest privately held auto collection.

Russell Investments is leasing about 215,000 square feet in its new Seattle home, according to a Seattle Times report today.

That's about 10,000 square feet less than the space the firm currently uses at its headquarters at 909 A St. in Tacoma. A report from Colliers International for the third quarter of 2009 put the available office space at 909 A St. at 224,000 square feet.

The Times' Eric Pryne reported this morning on leasing at the WaMu Center -- the building Russell's parent company Northwestern Mutual bought last month for $115 million.

Pryne's report focused on how rents in the WaMu Center compare to historic prices for downtown Seattle office space. But TNT readers might be more interested to learn what the recent listings for space in the building at 1301 Second Ave. reveal about Russell's future.

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The Tacoma City Council Tuesday night delayed indefinitely consideration of an environmental indemnification agreement for a proposed hotel on downtown Tacoma's Foss Waterway.

That delay will allow developer Hollander Investments and the site owner, Robert Thurston of Seattle, time to study their options for dealing with the issue.

Hollander and Thurston may bypass the council by simply transferring the existing environmental agreement from Thurston to Hollander.

The council delayed ratification of the new agreement several weeks ago because some council members were concerned that the Hollander design wasn't matching their vision of a boutique hotel on the waterfront site.

Other issues delaying the otherwise routine approval of the agreement were allegations that Hollander failed to live up to verbal agreements to remain neutral in a union election and to set aside rooms for convention business at its Marriott Courtyard Tacoma. Hollander denied it had violated any unwritten agreements.

If Hollander and Thurston determine they don't need the city's approval for the environmental agreement, Hollander would buy the hotel site between the Esplanade Condominiums and Thea's Landing and begin immediate planning to proceed with construction.

The construction must begin by March in order for it to meet shoreline permit expiration dates.

The hotel developer could be stymied in that effort if the city was slow to move on construction permit approvals for the project.

The developers of a proposed Marriott hotel on downtown Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway may bypass the Tacoma City Council in an effort to get a timely start on the new hotel.

Mark Hollander of Hollander Investments asked the council today to remove consideration of an environmental indemnity agreement for the hotel from tonight's council agenda.

The council has balked at approving that relatively routine environmental liability agreement because some members are unhappy with the design of the new hotel.

Hollander told the city he and the present owners of the hotel site need more time to study their options for further development.

A group led by Seattle hotelier Robert Thurston now owns the property. The city has already signed an environmental indemnification agreement with the Thurston group.

Hollander and Thurston are considering simply transferring that agreement to Hollander when the property is sold to the Bellingham developer. If the transfer is sufficient to protect the developer and the city, then the council would not have to be involved.

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JPMorgan Chase, the successor to failed Washington Mutual, has sold another former WAMU property, but this time the sale won't create a loss for Tacoma.

Chase was the bank that recently sold the former WAMU Seattle headquarters to Russell Investments parent Northwestern Mutual at a bargain basement price triggering Russell's planned move from downtown Tacoma to Seattle. Russell is downtown Tacoma's largest employer.

The new sale, announced today, is for WAMU's Cedarbrook Conference Center near Sea-Tac Airport.

Chase sold the conference center with its rushing streams and lush landscaping to Cedarbrook Lodge LLC. Managing partner in Cedarbrook LLC is Wright Hotels Inc., a company founded by Stuart Rolfe and Jerome Arches.

Rolfe is son-in-law of Howard S. Wright, the Seattle construction magnate. Wright Hotels is involved in several other West Coast properties including the Seattle Sheraton, the Portland Red Lion and the Monterey Marriott.

The 110-room conference center will be operated by Coastal Hotel Group, former operator of the Salish Lodge.

The Tacoma City Council wants more time to consider whether it gives approval to an agreement that would allow construction of a new hotel on downtown Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway.

Council member Spiro Manthou told fellow council members at a study session at noon today that several legal questions require further study.

The council delayed consideration of an environmental indemnification agreement for the hotel two weeks ago after council member Connie Ladenburg said she wanted more information on the hotel proposal. The measure had been due to hit the council agenda tonight.

The indemnification agreement would define the city's and the developer's responsibilities should unforseen environmental issues emerge during construction and later.

But the council's delay has not been so much over environmental concerns as it has been over the quality of the hotel design, union issues and the developer's track record in supporting the Tacoma convention business.

Hollander Investments of Bellingham is proposing to build two hotels and an office building on the site just north of the Thea's Landing condo project on the east side of the Waterway on Dock Street.

One, hotel, a Marriott Residence Inn, would be erected first with the second hotel and office structure to follow within a few years.

Manthou said the council's approval of the environmental indemnification agreement may not be necessary. The site's present owner, Seattle hotelier Robert Thurston, may be able to transfer the existing agreement to Hollander as part of the sale.

But city lawyers say the city may wish to modify the agreement to deal with the possibility of subsequent division of the property and sale to different owners.

Don Meyer, the Foss Waterway Authority director, told the council that he shared their desire to have a hotel built on the waterway that Tacomans could point to with pride.

Ladenburg has said she doesn't want a freeway-style hotel built on the waterfront property.

Meyer assured council members that the authority wouldn't allow a cookie-cutter hotel to be built on the site.

Hollander's existing downtown hotel, a Marriott Courtyard Hotel near the Tacoma Convention Center, has been criticized for looking too much like a suburban hotel.

"We don't expect to see what we have on Pacific Avenue on the waterway from this group," Meyer assured the council. The existing Marriott is on Pacific Avenue.

Both Hollander and the waterway authority have told council members they must act quickly because the hotel's shoreline permits will expire in March unless construction is started by then.

The authority has spent the last five years holding the hands of two developers who were unable to get a hotel built on the site.

Meyer said after the meeting that Hollander is one of the rare developers who has the financial muscle to get a hotel built during lean economic times like now.

Tentative plans released today in permit filings in South Carolina show Boeing wants to clear some 80 acres of forest land to build a 720,000-square-foot assembly plant in Charleston.

The plant presumably would be the second assembly site for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

Boeing says it is filing for the permits to get a head start on plant construction if it decides on Charleston for the second assembly line for the Dreamliner.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire Monday released a new report enumerating reasons why that second assembly line should be built in Everett or Moses Lake.

Boeing's existing assembly line is in Everett for the 767.

Charleston's major advantage would be it status as a largely non-union state. That means lower wages and benefits than in Everett and no possibility of strikes.

Washington residents are smarter, its aerospace taxes are lower, its unemployment fund more stable, its aircraft industry infrastructure is more extensive, its workforce more experienced and its quality of life superior.

So why would Boeing consider opening a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in South Carolina or any other state?

That's the question Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire asks in a new report aimed at persuading Boeing to open that second Dreamliner assembly line here.

Gregoire presented that report recently to Jim Albaugh, the new head of the company's Commercial Airplanes Group. She released it to the public today.

Washington provides Boeing with the best location for the second line. Washington is the highest quality location Boeing could possibly identify for additional 787 production," said Gregoire in an introduction to the new report.

While the report enumerates Washington's supposed advantages, it mentions no new incentives to turn Boeing's head.

Boeing said it appreciated the compilation of the state's advantages, the company believes unemployment and workers' compensation taxes are too high.

"While Washington state has made progress, there is still work to do to deal with the high costs of doing business," Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi told the Associated Press.

Washington Sen. Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, concurred that more needs to be done.

“While this report is beautiful and glossy and filled with rankings, is there really any substance here that Boeing hasn’t already considered? I want the company to stay in Washington as much as everyone else, but it’s time to stop resting on rankings and look at where we really are on the ground," he said in a news release.

Hewitt said the Legislature needs to consider Workers Compensation reform to cut workers compensation taxes that are due to rise this year.

Boeing received huge tax breaks when it searched for the site for the first 787 assembly line six years ago. Washington produced a $3 billion package of tax cuts and infrastructure and education enhancements to lure the assembly line to Everett.

But Boeing has already dropped strong hints that the second assembly line could be located elsewhere than Everett.

The company has applied for building permits in Charleston, S.C., where it recently purchased a plant from Vought Aerospace Industries that builds major sections of the 787 fuselage. The company says those building permit applications aren't indicative of the company making up its mind. It just wants to be ready to build a new plant if the decision favors South Carolina.

And Boeing executives have said that unless they get some assurance of labor peace here, they may just open that other assembly line in another state. Boeing suffered a two-month Machinists Union strike that shut down production of all of its commercial airplane lines here.

The report notes that the subject of labor peace is the subject of negotiations between Boeing and its unions.

Those unions have been talking with Boeing about how to ensure better relations.

But beyond labor issues, Gregoire's report enumerates several reasons why Washington outshines its rival states, though it leaves the question of labor costs and labor peace as a brief item in the report.

The report contends:

* Washington has a superior business climate.
In ratings by half-a-dozen independent sources, the Evergreen State earns higher marks consistently than rival states.
The Kauffman New Economy Index, which amalgamates 29 different indicators, Washington is ranked second to South Carolina's 34th.

Forbes Magazine also rates Washington fourth in business climate compared with 25th for South Carolina fifth for North Carolina and eighth for Texas.

* Washington has lower taxes for an aircraft assembly plant than any of the other states under consideration.
Total yearly taxes a new plant would be $11 million in Moses Lake, an alternative site for the plant, $11.3 million in Everett and $11.8 million in Charleston.

Washington real and personal property taxes are lower in Everett than in potential plant locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, the report claims.

Washington's sales taxes on construction are higher than those in competing states, but the state charges no sales taxes on machinery and equipment or components, the report notes.

* The state's unemployment insurance fund is healthy while rival states' funds are insolvent.

Washington unemployment insurance rates may be higher than other states, the result is the most financially healthy fund among the competing states. Both North and South Carolina funds are insolvent and borrowing money from the federal government. Texas' fund could be broke in two to three months. Rival states' unemployment rates are likely to rise to meet their obligations.

* Washington has the world's largest cluster of aerospace companies and workers. Other states' resources are small compared with Washington's.

n Boeing can take advantage of the experience Everett workers and suppliers have gained already putting the first 787s together. No other state's workforce has that experience.

* The state has improved its highway and mass transit infrastructure greatly since the 2003 competition, and more improvements are being built.

* Washington students consistently outperform students in other states on college readiness evaluation tests.
Average ACT scores for Washington are 22.8 compared with South Carolina's 19.8. Scholastic Aptitude Tests give Washington students a similar edge. Washington students average 531 scores on SAT math tests versus 496 in South Carolina and 506 in Texas.

* The state's quality of life rankings surpass South Carolina's. In the 2008 CNBC Top States for Business ranking, Washington rateds ninth place. South Carolina was 39th. The 2009 Most Livable States Award rated Washington 18th versus South Carolina's 49th.