Business in brief: Horizon adding nonstop routes

Horizon Airlines will launch nonstop flights from Spokane to Sacramento and to Los Angeles starting July 1.

Both nonstops are new routes being added by Horizon, said Patrick Zachwieja, the airline’s vice president of marketing and planning.

Horizon’s sister carrier, Alaska Air, already provides nonstop flights to Los Angeles, said Zachwieja.

The only other airline offering Spokane to Sacramento service is Southwest Airlines. Its flights have one stip and are offered only on weekdays.

Both new Horizon flights will use 70-seat CRJ-700 jets.

The daily Sacramento flight from Spokane leaves at 12:55 p.m. The return flight leaves Sacramento at 3:35 p.m.

The daily flight to Los Angeles leaves Spokane at 6:15 p.m. The new return flight leaves Los Angeles at 9:20 a.m.

Briny Breezes, Fla.

Town votes to sell to developer

Residents of this trailer-park town sitting on beachfront property have voted overwhelmingly to sell their community to a developer for more than $510 million, which could make most of them millionaires.

Some residents bought their homes for as little as $35,000.

The contract isn’t official – and residents won’t get any money – until 2009. If the sale goes through, nearly every owner will get more than $1 million.

About 80 percent of the town’s shareholders who cast ballots approved the sale, while 17 percent opposed it, according to a statement Wednesday from the town’s corporate office. More than 97 percent of shareholders voted.

The overwhelming support will help heal some rifts created by the proposed sale of the 488 mobile homes, said Gay Sideris, who has lived at the park with her husband since 2001.

“I don’t think there is anyone that lives here that doesn’t love Briny,” said Sideris, who stands to get about $1.5 million for a $155,000 investment. “We’re happy it went through because it will be good for us and our family, but we’re sad we have to leave. Now we can just concentrate on the great two years we have left here.”

The 43-acre property is a down-market relic of old Florida surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes and splashy high-rise condos.

State and local officials still must approve new zoning to accommodate the 900 condo units, a luxury hotel and marina proposed by the developer, Ocean Land Investments of Boca Raton.