Week in review
MONDAY
A Web e-commerce company called Mom4Life.com that expects to generate about $800,000 in sales this year plans to move from California to North Idaho. Founder Heather Ledeboer, who grew up in Kettle Falls, said she, her husband Trent, and their two young children, wanted to get back to the Northwest and enjoy the open spaces.
TUESDAY
Caffé Pazzesco, a 17-month-old office coffee service company, will arrange an automatic, single-serving coffee machine, condiment rack, wooden cabinet and artistic poster in a company’s office — all at its own expense. The company makes money when clients buy coffee and condiments to supply the in-house coffee shop. The company has 120 Spokane-area clients and expects the turn the company into a $10 million enterprise within four years.
WEDNESDAY
The felony accounting fraud trial of Thomas G. Turner, the first former Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities executive to face criminal charges for his role in the company’s demise, began with federal prosecutors calling Turner a liar who schemed to mask company losses by deceiving auditors. Attorneys for Turner, however, tried to direct at least some of the blame for the company’s failure toward the auditors.
“Washington Group International, the Boise engineering and construction company that built Hoover Dam and whose name is associated with a century’s worth of public projects in the West, will be sold to rival URS Corp., of San Francisco, for $2.6 billion.Washington Group will retain its Boise headquarters, where it employs about 600 people.
“PlayXpert LLC, a North Idaho software company, says its new application allows PC gamers to chat and search the Web to research game strategies and back-stories without leaving the action.
THURSDAY
Prium Companies, a Tacoma-based real estate firm whose statewide commercial real estate holdings include Spokane’s Wells Fargo tower and Rock Pointe office complex, is casting about for joint equity partners, company officials confirmed Wednesday.
FRIDAY
The former Executive Court of the Ridpath Hotel in downtown Spokane is back on the market for $6.3 million after rising construction costs stymied redevelopment efforts. The hotel annex was slated to be converted into 56 condominiums.
“William (Bill) Senske, who died May 25, was remembered by family and friends as a hard-working businessman who launched Senske Lawn and Tree Care and also rid Spokane of 6,000 pigeons and a rodent infestation in the 1950s.