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Tom Sowa

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News >  Business

Met theater sale to end Thursday

The proposed sale of the Metropolitan Performing Arts Theater in downtown Spokane concludes next week with a deadline that will decide if more than one bidder is interested in the historic building. Robert Delaney, a corporate attorney for Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., Inc., the theater's owner, said bids by qualified buyers must be submitted by 5 p.m. Thursday.
News >  Business

Skating event adds 4 sponsors

With more than 800 days left before skaters hit the ice, Spokane organizers on Wednesday announced four new corporate sponsors for the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The competition, to be held from Jan. 21 to Jan. 28, 2007, is expected to draw more than 120,000 spectators and fans. Star USA Inc., a Spokane company, landed the right to organize the national competition by beating out Boston earlier this year.
News >  Business

Survival business may thrive

A Spokane company is projecting fast growth over the next two years, thanks in part to bad news around the globe. RS Consulting, which was launched in late 2002, focuses on training people how to prevent being abducted and how to survive if taken hostage.
News >  Business

Noted futurist likes city’s technology potential

Jaron Lanier, the guy who's credited with coining the term "virtual reality," has heard plenty about Spokane's downtown wireless "hot zone." He'll be here next week to discuss how cities like Spokane can use cutting-edge ideas to create a stronger economy. A dreadlocked free thinker who's also been called "everyone's favorite futurist," Lanier will be one of two keynote speakers at the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce annual meeting next week in the Spokane Ag Trade Center.
News >  Business

Spokane County jobless rate up slightly

Spokane County's gradually improving economy took a brief summer vacation, with slightly more people here out of work in August than in July, according to state jobless data released Tuesday. The county's seasonally adjusted August unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.5 percent, compared with 5.4 percent in July, said Scott Bailey, a labor economist for the state's Employment Security Department in Vancouver.
News >  Business

Alaska to lay off 30 in Spokane

Alaska Airlines, which is cutting 900 jobs companywide, will lay off all 30 of its Spokane station workers. Starting Oct. 15, Alaska's ticket check-in and gate operations will be taken over by Horizon Air employees, Horizon spokesman Dan Russo said.
News >  Business

Funeral urns fall under airline safety regulations

People carrying funeral urns or remains of loved ones through Spokane's airport are required to use only containers that can be X-rayed, federal aviation officials say. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) set guidelines earlier this year requiring remains to be carried only in temporary containers, or inside urns made of wood or light brass that can be easily inspected by X-ray machines at checkpoints.
News >  Business

City plans sale of fire station

The city of Spokane plans to sell one of its fire stations in a corner of downtown that's going through an economic renaissance. On the market is the city's Fire Station 4, at 8 S. Adams on the west edge of downtown Spokane. The 15,500-square-foot property has been appraised at $473,000. The one-story station, built in 1964, is 6,600 square feet.
News >  Business

Idea has really registered

At the age of 21, Seattle entrepreneur Matt Ehrlichman went out and raised $250,000 from a handful of Puget Sound-area investors. That was four years ago, and Ehrlichman, co-founder of a Spokane software company, said: "We were fairly clueless about what we were doing."
News >  Business

SIRTI puts chief on leave

The executive director of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) has been placed on paid leave while the organization determines if he acted inappropriately. Patrick Tam, who was hired by SIRTI as executive director in 2002, will continue to draw his $140,000 salary while the investigation proceeds, said Nancy Isserlis, the organization's board chairwoman.
News >  Business

Survey shows strong job growth in region

Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma together generated about 36,000 jobs over the past 12 months, a survey by Arizona State University has found. The numbers support recent studies by state and regional economists showing Spokane's and Washington's economies have rebounded from the 2001-2003 downturn.
News >  Business

Federal transfer payments boost area economy

A new study from EWU's Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis affirms something area economists have noted before: Inland Northwest residents get more money back from the federal government in pensions, payouts and support than we send to Washington, D.C., in taxes and Social Security. The Spokane economy relies on government "transfer" payments for about 21 percent of all personal income. In Kootenai County the figure is 18 percent, the study said.
News >  Business

The business behind the games

Sports have already contributed a ton of money to the Inland Northwest economy. Think of the sound of thousands of basketballs bouncing across downtown during Hoopfest, or warming up the Arena during the State B tournament. That loud shuffling of 100,000 sneakers on Bloomsday comes with a nice accompaniment at the cash register. The annual spring race creates a net benefit of about $9 million, say organizers, due to the large number of out-of-towners spending money during their visit to Spokane.
News >  Business

Big Sky to end Olympia flights

Unable to overcome a $50,000-a-month operating loss, Big Sky Airlines announced Friday it will halt flights between Spokane and Olympia. The airline's three daily round trip flights between the cities will end on Sept. 11.
News >  Business

Local high-tech firms noted

Five Spokane-area businesses made a magazine list of the Top 100 Washington high-tech companies. The list, published in the August issue of Washington CEO magazine, ranks technology firms based on total number of employees. The list is topped by the Boeing Co., followed by Microsoft Corp.
News >  Business

Airport plans to add 18-acre buffer zone

Spokane airport officials plan to buy 18 acres of land at the airport's southeast corner, part of a long-range plan to create a buffer zone for one of its two runways. They've made offers totaling about $1.28 million for the land, which lies on the north side of Interstate 90.
News >  Spokane

Southwest sued over weight issue

A Chattaroy woman has sued Southwest Airlines, saying employees of the company humiliated her in front of other passengers because of her weight. Trina Blake, 26, said the treatment she received just before boarding a return flight to Spokane from Orlando, Fla., has left her distraught and afraid to go out in public.
News >  Business

Board of Realtors sued over listing service

Three Spokane real estate agents have filed a lawsuit against the Spokane Board of Realtors, claiming they've been wrongly forced to join that group to use a countywide listing service. The suit names the Spokane Board of Realtors and its 12 directors. The board and its affiliate, the Spokane Association of Realtors, represent about 1,400 current real estate agents, including the three who filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court in Spokane.
News >  Business

Airport tower contract OK’d

Federal aviation officials have awarded a $13.9 million contract to two companies to begin design and construction of a new, taller air traffic control tower at Spokane International Airport. The new tower will be more than three times the size of the current 75-foot air control tower.
News >  Business

Council using CEOs in drive to attract companies to region

The Spokane Area Economic Development Council has begun using area business executives to pursue leads with out-of-state companies that might move to this area. The goal is to spur recruitment of companies that would add more high-paying jobs to the area, said Jon Eliassen, president and CEO of the Spokane EDC.
News >  Business

Vivato lands deals, cuts jobs

Vivato Inc. announced two big deals this week, plus took steps to cut costs by laying off seven workers at its Spokane Valley research and development office. Vivato makes wireless "smart antennas" and other devices for creating large indoor or outdoor networks. The privately held company has landed major investments from several Silicon Valley venture capital firms.
News >  Business

Spokane lands ‘porch-swing’ honor

In case some people didn't know Spokane is a great place to raise a family, Forbes Magazine and its publisher have cemented that reputation with a new ranking. Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard, in a new book called "Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness," selects 150 cities that he considers high-quality alternatives to life in the fast lane.
News >  Business

Spokane won’t get call center

Area business leaders Friday said Spokane's loss of a new, 1,000-job call center to the city of Springfield, Ore, should rally the state and community to work harder to win future deals. Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken confirmed that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has chosen that city for its new West Coast service center. Miami-based Royal Caribbean, which operates cruise ships and arranges tours, has said the West Coast call center eventually could create 1,000 or more jobs.
News >  Spokane

Non-subscribers to be charged for online access

Starting Sept. 1, non-subscribers to The Spokesman-Review will be asked to pay $7 a month to view daily articles found on the paper's Web site, www.spokesmanreview.com. Subscribers to the print version still will have full access to online stories, said Shaun O'L. Higgins, The Spokesman-Review's director of sales and marketing.
News >  Business

Federal grants well received

Regional and state officials from both political parties Wednesday took turns praising $1.9 million in federal grants designed to push Spokane's economy into high gear. The grants, announced this week by the federal Economic Development Administration, are part of ongoing efforts to create more jobs and boost the economy of Eastern Washington, said David Sampson, the head of the EDA and an assistant secretary of Commerce.