Parker Howell

A proposal requiring Kootenai County property buyers to divulge sale prices is off the table following an agreement by the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors to share data with the county. The deal, expected to be signed this afternoon, gives the county limited access to sale price data used to determine the fair market values of homes – numbers used to calculate property taxes.

A Maryland telecom-equipment company plans to buy Spokane Valley-based World Wide Packets Inc. for roughly $290 million in cash and stock, the companies said Tuesday. Ciena Corp. intends to keep the privately held company's local operation, which employs about 80. The deal is expected to close this spring or summer, company representatives said.

Whipping winds, drifting snow and ice closed part of a highway and contributed to accidents around the Inland Northwest Sunday, and colder weather may be in store for the region. In Spokane, city officials announced the opening of warming shelters for the homeless Sunday, when temperatures were expected to be as low as 11 degrees Fahrenheit, before wind chill.

A Spokane group that wants to buy the historic Ridpath Hotel would start by revamping the downtown landmark's top two floors, giving residents a swanky spot to dine and drink with a remarkable view of the city. Members of two restaurant groups and an undisclosed investor have quietly secured about $2.2 million to transform the floors into a high-end nightclub and restaurant, said Chad Hutson, business development director for Cuisine Northwest LLC, which provides food and beverage service for the hotel.

PetSmart stores have pulled birds from their shelves after cockatiels from a Florida vendor tested positive for a contagious avian disease that can spread to humans. PetSmart outlets in North Spokane and Spokane Valley were among Washington stores that received birds from the distributor, which shipped some animals that carried avian chlamydiosis, a company spokeswoman said.

Frigid temperatures have hit the Inland Northwest, but Habitat for Humanity-Spokane hasn't stopped work on four new duplexes for working-class families in East Spokane, its director said. The units, on the 5500 block of East Union Avenue near Felts Field, are worth an estimated $125,000 on the market but will sell for about $80,000, said Michone Preston, Habitat's executive director. Volunteers are needed to help with framing and other tasks, she said.

A startup nanotechnology company focusing on renewable energy and co-founded by Washington State University and University of Idaho researchers has licensed technology they developed at the schools. GoNano Technologies Inc. acquired several patents relating to nanotechnology discoveries by UI physicist David McIlroy and M. Grant Norton, a WSU materials engineer and associate dean, its CEO said. The company plans to move into a new, approximately 1,200-square-foot research and production lab at UI's Business Technology Incubator on Jan. 1.

The Spokane area can't rely on "business as usual" to house a growing population in the face of rising home prices, according to a report released Friday by the Spokane Affordable Homeownership Task Force. Model projects resulting in "new, innovative market rate housing developments" are needed to prevent the area – projected by a state agency to see 153,000 more residents by 2030 – from looking like the Puget Sound region, where working-class people may struggle to pay for a home, task force representatives told about 100 Realtors, officials and businesspeople at the Spokane Convention Center. Stating that housing stock will remain traditional, or leaning toward single-family units, for "the foreseeable future," it also calls for more cooperation between homebuilders and governments.