The manager of Far West Billiards, a downtown Spokane food-and-pool hangout, said the business is closing after 10 years in operation. Closing is expected to be Thursday night Yvonne Millspaugh said she decided to shut down in anticipation of major remodeling that building landlord Rob…
Lost in the hubbub about Apple and Trader Joe's coming to town is the bigger news that the McKinstry company, a high-end facilities management and design-build firm, bought and is renovating the historic Great Northern Building, on the east edge of downtown Spokane. In the…
Washington’s population continues to grow, but at a slower rate. The 2011 population estimate prepared by the Office of Financial Management places the state's population at 6,767,900 as of April 1. That represents an increase of 43,360, or a growth rate of 0.64 percent from…
Avista will buy power from the proposed Palouse Wind project in Whitman County, the company said today. The Spokane-based utility will receive about 40 average megawatts of renewable energy, and as much as 100 megawatts, from the wind farm, which is being developed by First…
A Google Health pilot program to collect and manage personal health records for some Spokane residents will shut down on Jan. 1, 2012. The closure affects about 280 Spokane patients who used Google Health in conjunction with 1HealthRecord, an online system to connect medical information…
RICHLAND, Wash. — Plans are moving forward for construction of a $41 million museum at Richland that would tell the history of the Hanford nuclear reservation in World War II and the Cold War. The Corps of Engineers has approved the environmental review and a…
YAKIMA, Wash. — After delays caused by a cool, wet spring, the cherry harvest is under way in Eastern Washington. Growers hope to have some cherries in markets for the Fourth of July weekend. The Yakima Herald-Republic reports the cherry harvest in the Yakima Valley…
View Larger Map LIthia Motor Group, the Oregon-based company that operates Camp Subaru and BMW in Spokane, paid $2.1 million for the former Empire Ford building, court records show. When the story appeared last week, a Camp spokesman confirmed the amount for the building exceeded…
A former Sterling Savings Bank branch manager in Klamath Falls, Ore., has been barred from the banking industry. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued the order against Shannon Kuhlman last month. Kuhlman allegedly engaged in unsound banking practices that will inflict, or probably inflict, significant…
Spokane's, InCyte Pathology was named one of Seattle Business magazine’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” in 2011. The company was honored during a recent Seattle event. InCyte Pathology, founded in 1957, is a privately held anatomic diagnostic lab service provider. More than 300 companies…
The Spokane Valley Perkins Restaurant on Argonne and Mission closed last week, said Nancy McDaniel, the principal owner of the company that operated it for 15 years. McDaniel said that restaurant has lost money "for years." She said neither the Perkins company nor her own…
Murray Huppin, president of Spokane-based electronics retailer Huppin's Hi-Fi, Photo and Video, has a happy look on his face, and it has nothing to do with Hoopfest. Huppin has two stores in the Spokane area and both are doing good business in an otherwise challenging…
The Rosauers company has begun a major remodel of its South Hill Super One Foods store, at 830 E. 29th Ave. Company facilities director Ken Groh said the project will change the look of the store, inside and out. A new entry is part of…
A long-rumored plan that a major company would build a large distribution center on the West Plains came to fruition Thursday. Caterpillar Inc., a major provider of construction equipment, announced it's building a 500,000 square foot center on the West Plains, not far from the…
Spokane-based Gold Reserve Inc. has said it’s appealing plans by the New York Stock Exchange to delist its stock. The Canadian mining company, registered in the Yukon, has its executive headquarters in downtown Spokane. The AMEX sent a notice this week telling Gold Reserve (stock…
Among the most difficult companies to pry information from is Trader Joe's. They will just not let any information squeek out without their approval. Case in point, the planned opening of the new Trader Joe's on the South Hill in Spokane. Announced months ago, the…
This week, T-Mobile announced it's upgraded and unleashed a new, more robust 4G service for Spokane-area customers. Last week Verizon Wireless also released a 4G upgrade for area subscribers. Here's part of the release from T-Mobile: Today, T-Mobile announced it is doubling the speed of…
We wanted to call attention to a splendid bit of graphic art published in Lapham's Quarterly. Artist Haisem Hussein did a full-color global map showing the historical connections for black pepper, tomatoes and coffee. The work, worth a nice wall poster, has lots of interesting…
Marty Dickinson is leaving the Downtown Spokane Partnership to become senior vice president and corporate marketing communications executive at Sterling Savings Bank. Her last day at the DSP, where she has been president for six years, will be July 1. Marla Nunbeg was named interim…
Tammi Mason and business partner Mary Walmsley expect to open Luxe coffee shop in the main floor of the old Oddgirls building on West Sprague in downtown Spokane. They're setting up shop in the main floor of the former Ella's Supper Club, 1017 W. First.…
WASHINGTON — Builders broke ground on more new homes in May, but not enough to signal a recovery in the troubled housing market. Home construction rose 3.5 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units per year, the Commerce Department said…
Spokane’s Camp Subaru will relocate later this year, moving into the spacious, empty Empire Ford building downtown at the corner of Third and Stevens. The sale closing is set for next week, said Jim Quigley, of Kiemle & Hagood Co. Quigley and Mike Livingston, also…
While the most recent monthly jobless numbers from Washington are not whoop-worthy, the economy is not totally in the tank. The post below summarizes the key data, including that Washington state lost a net 700 jobs in May. Still, the May 2011 unemployment rate is…
WASHINGTON — The outlook among homebuilders has been bad all year. And this month it became grimmer. The National Association of Home Builders says builder sentiment for June fell three points to 13. That’s the lowest level in nine months. And it’s just five points…
Employment in Washington fell by 700 in May, the first decline after eight months of increases, the Employment Security Department reported today. Despite the reduction, the unemployment rate declined to 9.1 percent from a revised 9.2 percent for April. The rate was initially pegged at…