Brandon Foote, CEO of OnPOINT Imaging, a Spokane Valley-based company, will be the speaker at Wednesday's Executive Connect breakfast at the Spokane Club, on the corner of Riverside and Monroe. OnPOINT Imaging, which Foote founded, is a provider of document imaging, network integration and electronic…
Friday's story about the former owners of Vision Quest gyms had only as much information as was supplied to us by a PR company. Today (Sept. 12) we got to talk with partner Jeff Carlson. Three key points: * He isn't a Spokane native, correcting…
As we noted last week, the owner of Dawn Of the Donut was looking for a new owner to take over the zombie-themed bakery, which has a storefront on North Division. If he couldn't, owner Marty Judnich was ready to close the shop. Today the…
Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc. has named W. Mark Schmitz as its new chief financial officer and executive vice president. Schmitz has more than four decades of experience in finance and executive roles in manufacturing, service, retail and technology industries. Most recently he was CFO of…
The owner of Dawn of the Donut, a Spokane bakery that served a variety of zombie-themed baked goods, will close the business next week. The business opened in August 2013 with a storefront at 3402 N. Division St, and a roving donut truck. The owner,…
Wednesday's SR had a quick hit on the general softening of the "flipper" home sale market, in Spokane and nationwide. But not in Seattle, where the high-rollers keep buying and selling, above the national average. (See the graphic below.) The story relied entirely on data…
Is this the Bennett Block or the House the Hiebers Built? Dru Hieber, whose family first developed the downtown Spokane block on Main and Howard, looks ahead to a new and more dynamic business center on the family's property. See our Monday story for more…
A Spokane investment group has purchased the historic Globe Building at 204 N. Division St., in downtown Spokane, paying previous owners Owen and Julie Clarke $1.32 million for the three-story building. The buyers are Globe Building Partners LLC, which includes Spokane investors Kevin Edwards, Mark…
Seattle business owner and economics activist Nick Nanauer will give two lectures Oct. 2 at Washington State University Pullman and in Spokane at the Martin Woldson Theater. .Regarded as one of the Northwest's most ardent advocates for income equality, Hanauer is making those remaks through…
Some of the work involved in NorthTown Mall's north side renovation started becoming obvious this week. Earlier this year, owner General Growth Partners began tearing out the inner shops lining the north corridor. Yesterday work crews from Bayley Construction, of Seattle, began tearing down the…
If you're among those who believe that reliable, affordable Internet service is too important to be left to CenturyLink and Comcast, here's something to read. The city of Ellensburg is considering turning its city-funded fiber network into a public utility. Still early in discussions, a…
In case you didn't see this item in the Sunday SR business section, let's run it once more. Grocery Outlet will open another Spokane Valley supermarket in late September at 12115 E. Sprague Ave. Grocery Outlet has three other locations in Spokane and one in…
Spokane's City Council adopted two changes to the building code this week, both making it easier for home builders to put up new homes. The first was removing the mandate that water service lines had to be done with copper pipe. That deal came out…
Free ad for Starbucks. We had to grab this quick shot of the work taking place inside the downtown Starbucks near the Apple Store on West Main Avenue. I get the impression this work crew doesn't take their coffee breaks here. The work led to…
The July roundup of Spokane home prices was typical: mixed results such as a small increase in total sales, but a mild drop in prices. Today's story touched on all that. The accompanying chart had me wondering if there's a pattern being established. Low prices…
This is a fairly significant investment by outside people, looking to support one of our area's great retreat centers and gathering places. The story ran in Sunday's Here's the Dirt column: Nicki and Ron Coil, of Eugene, Oregon, have purchased the Pinelow Park and Conference…
Let's take one more shot at Vivint, why don't we? Last time we mentioned the Utah-based company that sells home security systems, we were thanking them (sort of) for returning $150,000 in Washington state money it took to move a new office and call center…
It's good to see a solid rebound taking place at Colville-based Hewes Marine Company. Booming sales in the aluminum recreation boat industry is spurring the family-owned company to expand its production facility. Started in 1948, the company will spend about $2 million to add 19,000…
Itron Inc. has signed a license and settlement agreement with a New York firm over a claim of patent infringement. The settlement is with Endeavor MeshTech, Inc., a subsidiary of Endeavor IP, Inc, based in New York City. Its website says Endeavor IP is an…
A former owner of downtown Spokane sports bar Heroes and Legends is reopening a new bar in the same location, at 830 W. Riverside Ave. The new business is called 24 Taps and will be a food-and-beverage sports bar, said owner and Spokane CPA Tom…
Spokane marketing and design firm Rainmaker Creative is opening an office in Silicon Valley. Company co-owner Billie Gaura said the firm’s Cupertino, California, office will open in September, starting with two employees. It will be an extension of the main office in Spokane, at 107…
Umpqua Bank, which recently merged with Sterling Financial, has started a Wildfire Relief Lending Program to help customers in parts of Washington and Oregon hit hard by wildfires. The new fund allows Umpqua customers who reside in area under voluntary or mandatory evacuation to receive…
Today's interesting Spokane business story is the plan by Red Lion Hotels to sell its Bellevue property. It sits conveniently near the Bellevue city core and right next to busy I-405. It will fetch top-dollar because of Seattle area property values. Down at the bottom…
Jack Heath, president and COO of Washington Trust Bank, said the bank has not decided what happens with the skybridge that connects the defunct hotel to the annex, which the bank recently bought for $2.6 million. Story on the sale was published on Tuesday this…
Yep, back in the first half of this decade, people had some grand plans for downtown Spokane. One was the proposed transformation of the Ridpath Annex (aka the Executive Court) into shiny condos. It was supposed to transform that area of town, until the recession…