[bgwah]

Amazon needs its own signature skyscraper. :P

[JiminyCricket II]

In addition to bond's post, from amazon.com's press releases:

Amazon.com to Open Customer Service Center in Kennewick, Washington

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 2005--Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) today announced that it is planning to open a customer service center in Kennewick, Washington, later this year. The new facility will operate 7 days a week and is expected to create up to 120 new customer service jobs within the next few months for employees in the local area. The facility could grow to more than 400 jobs over the next few years.

The Kennewick center will offer additional email and phone support to customers of Amazon.com and its merchant partners.

"We are very excited to be opening this new facility in Kennewick," said Frances Merenda, Amazon.com's senior site leader for the Kennewick facility. "Along with our other U.S.-based customer service centers in North Dakota and West Virginia, the Kennewick operation will enable Amazon to serve even more customers quickly and efficiently, particularly as we head into our busiest time of the year."

"The Tri-Cities is extremely fortunate to have a company as prestigious and well-respected as Amazon.com select our community for their new call center," said Carl Adrian, president and CEO of the Tri-City Industrial Development Council. "This process was truly a team effort by the state, the City of Kennewick and the Tri-City Industrial Development Council (TRIDEC). By choosing the Tri-Cities for its new call center, Amazon.com brings the largest number of non-federal related jobs created in our area in many years."

Kennewick Mayor James Beaver commented, "The City of Kennewick and the Tri-Cities is proud to welcome Amazon.com to our community; their selection of the City of Kennewick is just the latest example of business leaders choosing our region to do business. This partnership with Amazon.com, the Tri-City Industrial Development Council (TRIDEC) and the City of Kennewick is another example of how we can work together to build a better community."

Recruitment

Amazon is seeking to hire up to 120 employees for its new Kennewick center over the next several months; these positions include managers, supervisors and associates. Interested candidates can apply for jobs by visiting www.go2worksource.com or by calling WorkSource Columbia Basin: 509-734-5900.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc., (Nasdaq:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as beauty, health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics and office, toys and baby, and home and garden.

Amazon.com and its affiliates operate seven retail Web sites: www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.ca, and www.joyo.com.

As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to potential future losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, consumer trends, inventory, limited operating history, government regulation and taxation, fraud, and new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, and all subsequent filings.

CONTACT: Amazon.com, Seattle
Patty Smith, 206-266-7180
or
Tri-City Industrial Development Council (TRIDEC)
Deanna Smith, 509-735-1000

SOURCE: Amazon.com


Great news for an area that really needs to diversify economically.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Maybe this means a new skyscraper in Kennewick!

:D

[destroybananas]

Seattle region continues to add jobs
But pace began to drop off in August

By BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Following months of high job growth, the Seattle region last month recorded 2,300 net new payroll positions, which marked a continued gain but at a lower level than July and June, the state said on Tuesday.

Hiring in the construction, aerospace, health and hospitality industries contributed to the 19th straight month of payroll job growth for the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area, according to the state Employment Security Department.


But in July, the region saw a net of 5,400 new jobs. In June, that number was 6,600. All numbers take into account seasonal differences.

Rick Kaglic, the department's chief economist, said in a statement that it is difficult to continue a high level of job growth each month. Roberta Pauer, the department's Seattle area economist, noted that it's important to look at a longer time period for a larger picture.

"We're continuing a solid rate of job growth," she said. "But we're going to have a more moderate year in the next 12 months."

One factor: Pauer said rising oil and gas prices could cut consumer spending and boost costs for businesses. For the state, in the coming 12 months, she expects an average of 5,000 new jobs to be created per month.

That compares with an average of 7,000 new positions created per month for the last 12 months.

In August, the state said, the unemployment rate for the Seattle area remained at 4.8 percent, the same level as July.

Statewide last month, 2,800 new employees were added to payrolls. Also for August, the state unemployment rate inched up to 5.8 percent, a 0.2 percentage point difference from July.



It is now 0.9 percentage point higher than the national unemployment rate.

The department attributed that bump in the month-to-month increase to the 27,000 new people who were looking for jobs in the state. That number, the department added, was the highest monthly increase in people in the labor force in the last five years.

Pauer added the state has recovered all of the jobs it lost during the January 2001 to April 2003 recession -- and is actually 54,800 positions ahead. But the Seattle region is still short 32,400 positions for the same period.

The view on benefiting from new job growth depends on perspective and competition, said Dave Mecklenburg of the state's WorkSource office in Renton.

Mecklenburg, a business services specialist, said he has been receiving up to six calls per day recently from employers who want to fill definite job openings.

Manufacturing and transportation companies, mainly in south King County, have contacted him.

"But job seekers need to remember that just because the economy is getting better, it doesn't mean that others who have jobs aren't looking for new jobs, too," he said.

At The Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle, General Manager Elisabeth James said the state's improving economy and the area's cruise ship industry have pulled in more tourists this summer. Those tourists, she said, translated into the Westin hiring more room attendants, banquet and restaurant staff and receptionists. She declined to give the number of new workers who were hired in August or the summer, only saying that the hotel's occupancy rate increased about 5 percentage points compared with last summer.

"August was the strongest month we've had in five years. The entire summer was busier than we've been since 9/11."

On a larger scale, economists are watching how Hurricane Katrina might affect Washington state job growth.

Pauer said state businesses could feel an impact from a massive reconstruction project in the hurricane-devastated area, particularly in New Orleans.

"To the extent that we can export lumber and wood products down there, that will help our economy," she said. "But there may be some shortage of construction materials that may impact our own local construction projects by raising prices."

P-I reporter Brad Wong can be reached at 206-448-8137 or bradwong@seattlepi.com.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
I already posted an article on that. ;)

In other news . . .

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/manufacturing/general/2005/09/12/portland_daily22.html

The Business Journal of Portland
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Intel expanding as LSI contracts
Aliza Earnshaw
Business Journal staff writer

Chipmaking giant Intel Corp. announced plans to expand its manufacturing facilities in Oregon, just after LSI Logic Corp. said it would sell its chip plant and lay off 90 of its 630 Oregon employees.

Santa Clara, Calif.-headquartered Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), whose largest presence worldwide is in Hillsboro, said it will begin construction of an annex to its Ronler Acres facility this fall. Intel will also build a new water treatment facility in the center of the Ronler Acres campus.

Intel plans to spend about $4 million on the annex and $10 million on the water treatment building, and another $15 million on equipment.

The expansion will accommodate Intel's "aggressive" hiring, said spokesman Bill MacKenzie.

Intel has added about 600 employees in Oregon since the beginning of the year, boosting employment to 16,000. Intel also plans to bring more employees from other locations to Ronler Acres for training.

Intel's expansion plans stand in sharp contrast to LSI's announcement that it will no longer manufacture chips in Gresham, located just east of Portland.

LSI, headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., said it is moving to a "fabless" manufacturing model, as so many microchip companies have done in recent years.

Most of the worlds chip manufacturing is done in Taiwan, which boasts several large outsource manufacturers, including TSMC, Chartered and UMC.

LSI said it will try to sell its facility to a company that could take on LSI's manufacturing, and possibly hire LSI workers.

[destroybananas]

Pier 1 plans DuPont distribution center
Pier 1 Imports Inc. has leased space in DuPont where a new distribution center is expected to open early next year.


Northwest Landing Business Park developer First Industrial will build a new 451,151-square-foot warehouse that will serve as Pier 1's second West Coast distribution center. The first is an 800,000-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, Calif.

The 15-year lease is valued at $22 million, according to a news release by CB Richard Ellis, which represented Pier 1.

"We looked at a number of locations for Pier 1 Imports throughout the West Coast and determined that DuPont, which is close to the Seattle/Tacoma Port, was the best strategic location to more efficiently serve Pier 1's expanding store presence in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, and at the same time, safeguard against port congestion issues they face in Southern California," said Frank Geraci, an industrial leasing specialist with CB Richard Ellis, in a statement.

DuPont is midway between Tacoma and Olympia on Interstate 5.

[destroybananas]

Boeing lands $1.3B cargo jet order
Jade Cargo International has placed a firm order for six Boeing 747-400ER freighter aircraft in a deal worth $1.3 billion at list prices.

Delivery is scheduled to start in 2006 and continue through January 2008.

The air cargo operation, which plans to start operations in 2006, is a joint venture between Shenzhen Airlines Co. Ltd., Lufthansa Cargo AG and a European development finance group. It is the first cargo airline in China with foreign ownership.

The 747-400ER has a maximum payload of 248,000 pounds and a maximum range of 4,970 nautical miles. Final assembly of all 747 models is done at the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group facility in Everett.

"China is a key manufacturing center for the world, producing a number of high-value goods that are good candidates for air shipment," said Rudolf Tewes, general manager for Jade Cargo.

Boeing (NYSE: BA) on Wednesday said it expects the world's air cargo fleet to double over the next 20 years and Asia will be a key region in that growth.

[destroybananas]

Bonanza: Washington state revenue forecast jumps by $493 million

By DAVID AMMONS
AP POLITICAL WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington state's surging economy, driven by a continuing construction boom and red-hot real estate market, will pump an additional $493 million into state coffers, forecasters said Thursday.

The good news - the third quarterly revenue surge in a row - brings the state's reserves to over $1.1 billion.

Legislators and administration officials on the state Revenue Forecast Council cautioned that the money shouldn't set off a spending spree, since the economy could cool a bit as the housing market softens, and the state could face a budget deficit in the next few years.

The first call on the new money should be pension funding and preserving a healthy reserve account, said state Budget Director Victor Moore. The council chairman, House Finance Chairman Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, said the Legislature also faces growing school and social and health service costs that could hit $100 million.

The new forecast by the state's chief economist, ChangMook Sohn, now projects that more than $26 billion in revenue in the next two fiscal years. That is up $492.9 million over the June forecast.



As Washington emerged from recession and the real estate boom began, the council has adjusted forecasts upward dramatically for the past three quarters in a row.

Previous increases were $450 million and $739 million, bringing the total increase to over $1.7 billion.

Lawmakers left town this spring with a skimpy $200 million ending fund balance after boosting a variety of "sin taxes" by about $450 million. Now the forecast shows a reserve of $1.12 billion.

Sohn said the sizzling housing market is responsible for nearly half of the latest windfall. But he cautioned that the pace will soon start slowing to a more normal rate.

Soaring oil prices haven't noticeably affected consumer spending and the state economy, and gasoline pump prices haven't been much affected by the Katrina hurricane, he said.

The strike at Boeing could whack personal income figures by $100 million if it goes on for a month, but the latest forecast doesn't make any Boeing-related adjustment. Sohn still assumes that Boeing and the aerospace industry will expand by 6,000 workers both this year and next.

---

On the Net:

Forecast Council: http://www.erfc.wa.gov

[MarkDaMan]

Lucy heads East

Lucy will open its first East Coast stores next month.

The Portland-based women's activewear company will open a store Oct. 3 at Tysons Corner in Mclean, Va., followed by Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, marking its 19th and 20th store locations.

With the remaining 18 stores located throughout the western United States, Lucy is scheduled to open an additional five stores this year in California, Illinois, Arizona and Washington state.

"We've had our eye on this market for quite some time and are excited to open our first East Coast Lucy stores," said Mike Edwards, president and chief executive officer of Lucy.

[MarkDaMan]

Oregon, NY reach wine shipment agreement

08:11 AM PDT on Friday, September 23, 2005
Associated Press

A wine shipment agreement has been reached between Oregon and New York that could boost potential customers for Oregon winemakers by millions.

The reciprocity agreement allowing direct shipments of wine between the two states was announced Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that states may not allow their own wineries ship directly to customers without allowing out-of-state vineyards to do the same.

"This is a very big deal for Oregon," said Earl Jones, whose Abacela Vineyards and Winery in Roseburg will be among the first to obtain the $125 direct-shipping license needed to sell wine directly to New York wine buyers. "This will heighten sales of Oregon wines tremendously."

Only California and New York have enacted the reciprocity agreements needed to open their borders to out-of-state shipments among the 24 states that had banned those shipments, said Jesse Lyon, a partner with the Portland law firm Davis Wright Tremaine.

Lyon credited the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the state Attorney General's office with drafting language that led to full reciprocity with New York.

"The timing couldn't be better," said Lyon, whose firm serves as general counsel to the Oregon Wine Advocacy Council, the state wine board's legislative arm. "Wineries getting in on the front end of this should be able to start shipping wine to New York in time for the holiday season."

For Oregon's 314 commercial wineries, most of them too small to attract major distributors, the ability to ship wine directly to New York consumers is a real plum.

"After California, New York is the biggest wine market in the country," said Ted Farthing, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board. "We expect this to dramatically tip the balance between Oregon wine that's sold in-state versus what is sold out of state."

[destroybananas]

Totem Lake Mall may get $15 million - Kirkland council seeking independent studies before financing redevelopment plan
2005-09-23
by Lori Varosh
Journal Reporter

The Kirkland City Council this week declared its intention to invest public money in Totem Lake Mall redevelopment, but members declined to sign a ``memorandum of understanding'' with the developer without further examination.

The sum sought is too much money to spend without independent economic and legal analyses, said Councilman Dave Asher.

If built as Coventry II DDR Totem Lake LLC proposes, the new mall would include 562,000 square feet of retail, 216 residences, 144,000 square feet of office, nearly 3,100 parking stalls and a 13-screen theater.

City and developer estimates show the project would generate $1.1 million to $1.6 million in annual revenue through sales, admissions, property and utility taxes -- enough to cover most of a $15 million investment via 30-year bonds. Council members expressed concern, however, that the memorandum established no upper limit to the city's commitment.

``Whatever our investment, it has to have a cap,'' Asher said Thursday. The development must have a completion date and the city's commitment must be of ``public money,'' so it can persuade the county, state and other agencies to participate.

Council members also decided to obtain independent legal and economic opinions, as well as an assessment of the value of proposed improvements, before returning to the issue on Oct. 18.

Charles Worsham, development director for Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty, had urged the council to act Tuesday. The development team is spending more than seven times as much as the city, and the city's commitment is necessary the team spends even more, Worsham said.

According to the draft memorandum of understanding, the city's top priorities would be construction of a plaza connecting the lower and upper malls, and improvements to 120th Avenue Northeast, said city manager Dave Ramsay.

Revitalizing the underperforming mall is the city's ``No. 1 economic development priority,'' he said.

Lori Varosh can be reached at lori.varosh@kingcountyjournal.com or 425-453-4234.

[destroybananas]

U District office complex fetches $94.5 million

By BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Roosevelt Commons, a 230,000-square-foot, high-end office complex in the University District, has been sold for $94.5 million to a San Francisco real estate firm's client, its previous owner said.

Developer James Whitney of Seattle-based Portage Bay Partners said Thursday that the sale to RREEF's client, which was not named, closed Wednesday. The decision to sell the two-building complex on 1.3 acres came after an analysis by his company revealed there are more potential buyers in the commercial market than quality properties.

"The sales price that we could receive today started to outpace the benefits of long-term ownership. We wouldn't have seen these prices three to five years ago."

Some investors, he added, are putting money into high-quality commercial real estate, instead of the stock market. About 50 companies considered buying the complex, which also was developed by financier Malcolm Goodfellow.

Whitney and Goodfellow are principals of Roosevelt Commons LLC, the former owner.

One appealing aspect to any buyer, Whitney said, is that Safeco Insurance and the University of Washington, the tenants, have long-term leases. Both signed leases upon moving in when the complex opened in 2002.

Safeco occupies 132,181 square feet in a five-story building at 4300 Roosevelt Way N.E. and signed a 12-year commitment. The UW, which signed a 10-year lease, occupies a six-story building at 4311 11th Ave. N.E.

Portage Bay Partners said a limited number of high-end office space in the University District has kept rental rates high.

P-I reporter Brad Wong can be reached at 206-448-8137 or bradwong@seattlepi.com.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Boeing, machinists cut deal
Tentative pact, subject to union vote, aims to end strike at aircraft maker.
September 25, 2005: 7:24 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. has reached a tentative agreement with the workers who build its fast-selling jetliners, setting the stage for an end to a strike by the machinists' union, the union said on Sunday.

The deal, which is subject to approval by the about 18,000 union members, calmed investor fears of a protracted walkout that could have delayed deliveries of planes like the 737 and 777 when demand is strong.

Details of the pact were not immediately available.

The strike had threatened to spoil what has been a boom year for Boeing, which is likely to overtake European rival European Airbus in jet orders in 2005 for the first time since 2001. Airbus retains a substantial lead in plane deliveries.

Resolution of the walkout which began on Sept. 2 is also good news for leading Boeing (Research) suppliers including Triumph Group Inc., Curtiss-Wright Corp., Rockwell Collins Inc., and Goodrich Corp., some of which had been reducing hours and furloughing workers as a result.

[destroybananas]

Exports to China soaring
Steve Wilhelm
Staff Writer
State exports to mainland China are growing faster than exports to Japan, although the latter remains the top overseas market for Washington goods, according to state trade statistics for the first half of 2005.

Gov. Christine Gregoire focused on these two markets during her first trip to Asia this week. She first visited Tokyo and Kobe, and was expected to visit Beijing and Shanghai later in her trip.

Gregoire was accompanied by a delegation of state business and agricultural leaders, featuring former Gov. Gary Locke, who is of Chinese descent and whose visits to China were highly publicized during his two terms in office.

The state exported $3.51 billion in goods to China and Hong Kong through July, compared with $4.9 billion to Japan during the same period, according to U.S. Census data compiled by WiserTrade data center in Holyoke, Mass., and made available by World Trade Center Tacoma.

Exports to China climbed 52 percent compared with the same period of 2004, primarily due to increases in Boeing Commercial Airplanes' deliveries.

Exports to Japan grew 12.5 percent during that time, partly because that country's economy is not growing as quickly. Exports to Hong Kong declined slightly, as fast-growing mainland China ports take a higher percentage of cargo than in the past.

As is generally the case, Boeing aircraft dominated Washington's exports, with the company exporting $1.6 billion in aircraft to China through July, versus $2 billion in aircraft to Japan.

Boeing has great expectations for China's market. The aircraft maker issued a forecast Sept. 20 that China will purchase 2,600 new aircraft worth $213 billion over the next 20 years, with that nation's air-travel market expected to grow 7.3 percent annually. Boeing projects global air travel will grow at a slower 4.8 percent rate over the same period.

While some agricultural exports to China are growing, Japan continues to be a more important market for Washington-grown goods. Several agricultural exports, including seafoods, prepared foods and grains, exceeded $100 million during the first half of this year.

Imports from China through Washington ports also grew a brisk 47 percent. So far this year, Washington ports handled $6.7 billion in imports from China, while the $5.2 billion in imports from Japan grew a somewhat slower 23 percent.

More than $3 billion of the Japanese imports are cars and machinery, while imports from China are much more heavily weighted toward consumer items and garments.

Contact: swilhelm@bizjournals.com • 206-447-8505x113

[destroybananas]

Plenty of work to do in plan for regional economy


Plenty of work to do in plan for regional economy

By Drew DeSilver

Seattle Times business reporter

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The latest plan to grow the regional economy isn't so much a detailed set of policy proposals as a giant "to-do" list.

The dozens of items on that list range from the small and specific, such as extending existing state tax breaks for aerospace manufacturing to R&D and engineering work, to the big and vague, such as developing consensus on tax reform.

The strategy was developed over the past year by the Prosperity Partnership, a group of 150 local governments, businesses, labor organizations and nonprofits from throughout King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties.

The plan is to be formally adopted today by the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District, the federally recognized planning agency covering the four counties.

The overall goal is to create 100,000 more jobs in the region in the next five years, beyond the 290,000 new jobs already forecast to be added over that time.

Information on the Web



The draft final version of the PP strategy is at: http://www.prosperitypartnership.org/strategy/index.htm.
The strategy emphasizes actions to develop five areas: aerospace, information technology, life sciences and biotechnology, transport and logistics, and alternative energy, "green building" techniques and other environmentally friendly businesses.

It also identifies several initiatives to improve the region's overall business climate, chief among them:

• Developing a consensus higher-education reform proposal for the 2007 Legislature, which could include such objectives as giving colleges and universities more flexibility to set tuition and expanding course offerings at branch campuses.

• Developing a "balanced, pro-competitive" tax-reform bill for the 2007 Legislature, building on the efforts of the 2002 Gates Committee.

• Supporting a regional transportation plan to fix or expand major area roadways.

Bill McSherry, economic-development director for the Puget Sound Regional Council — one of the partnership's lead agencies — acknowledged the strategy has a lot of blank spaces that need filling in.

The plan avoids specifics on regional transportation, McSherry said, because of Initiative 912, on the Nov. 8 ballot. The initiative would repeal the 9.5 cent-a-gallon gas tax enacted by the Legislature.

"We don't know what the reality is for transportation in 2006," McSherry said.

And, he said, getting broad consensus on higher education and tax reform won't be easy.

"If someone could have figured out what to do with higher ed in six or nine months, they'd have done it already," he said. "Our goal is, let's start picking off the things we can do in the short term, while we lay the groundwork for the long term."

Janet Pack, a business professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, was largely unimpressed after reviewing the 67-page strategy.

Pack, who has extensively studied urban and regional economic development, questioned two of the partnership's key assumptions: that the four-county region is a single, integrated economic area, and that by working together the region's communities can largely determine their economic future.

"There's not much more in this than 'we're all in this together' and 'we all have to pull together,' " she said. "But I'm not sure 'we're all in it together' when you're talking about 82 cities. I can see them fighting over almost every one of these [action] items."

In addition, she said, most communities that have consciously tried to attract or build specific industries have little to show for their efforts.

"It's not clear that there is much local government can do to make [clustering] happen, other than things like having a good school system and not having a tax system that drives people away," Pack said.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com

[destroybananas]

Small-company incubator makes first investment
Jeff Meisner
Two local entrepreneurs have launched a new technology incubator, which has provided seed funding to its first portfolio company.


Seattle-based Curious Office Partners, founded in July, is the brainchild of Seattle Sounders soccer team co-owner Adrian Hanauer, and Kelly Smith, founder of digital media startup RocketVox.

The two men have set aside about $1 million of their own personal assets to invest in seed-stage software and Internet companies.

Merrill Brown, editor-in-chief at MSNBC.com from mid-1996 to mid-2002, is an adviser to Curious Office. Brown is an outside business consultant based in New York City.

According to Smith, Curious has invested "less than $100,000" in a new startup in the United Kingdom called FeedDigest.

FeedDigest has developed a new RSS (which stands for "really simple syndication") technology that searches the Internet for news content and pushes it to subscribers' Web sites.

For example, users who want to keep up with news about The Boeing Co. can have relevant news stories on the Internet pushed to their personal Web sites or e-mail inboxes.

FeedDigest currently has more than 13,000 subscribers, and is one of the main reasons for Brown's involvement with Curious Office Partners. The other is Smith, whom Brown has known for several years.

"RSS is one of the answers to the question of what online news will look like five years from now," said Brown, who was also senior vice president of RealNetworks Inc.'s consumer services from 2002 to 2003.

Curious Office's investment is earmarked for bolstering the startup's network infrastructure so it can handle the growing number of subscribers. The funding also will go toward the addition of features to FeedDigest's service, Smith said.

Smith said the incubator will invest in concept-stage software and online applications and services by partnering with developers such as FeedDigest founder Peter Cooper, a British software engineer.

Curious Office Partners also funds internal software projects. Thus far, the firm has one such project -- StampShark.

Smith provided scant detail on StampShark, except to say that its focus is the digital imaging market.

[destroybananas]

Jobster launches search engine for job seekers
Online recruiting service Jobster Inc. said it has launched a new job-search engine.


Jobster Search integrates the Seattle-based company's technology, which allows employers to post their jobs online, with that of WorkZoo Inc., an operator of a vertical search engine that allows job seekers to search major job boards simultaneously.

Jobster acquired Fountain Valley, Calif.-based WorkZoo in July.

Jobster is backed by venture firms Trinity Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., and Ignition Partners of Bellevue, which in January invested $8 million in the year-old company.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Thursday, September 29, 2005
Office vacancies continue to dip
Downtown trend may spell drop in landlord discounts
By BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Spurred by an improving economy, vacancies in Seattle's downtown office market have dipped for the third consecutive quarter, falling by 0.9 percentage point and placing the overall rate at 12.4 percent, Cushman & Wakefield said in an analysis released Wednesday.

If this tightening trend continues, the Seattle office market will likely see fewer of the landlord discounts popular during the 2001-03 recession, when vacancy rates hovered as high as 15 to 17 percent.

Thomas Bohman, a Cushman & Wakefield director, said businesses are pursuing more measured growth compared with the high-tech boom of the late 1990s. Historically, the real estate market expands and contracts in eight- to 10-year cycles. The last cycle included the boom of the 1990s, which saw vacancy rates lower than 1 percent.

"I feel better about the growth we're seeing in this cycle. The last cycle was exciting and fun because it was so fast-paced," Bohman said. "But this cycle has the earmarking of being more broadly based, a little more conservative."

Jesse Ottele, a vice president in Seattle with CB Richard Ellis, estimates that businesses are expanding by 10 to 15 percent and trying to secure favorable leases -- before the market tightens up so much that prices are out of their range.

"They are planning for that growth in the near future," he said.

Typically, when vacancy rates are 11 to 12 percent, the market begins to favor landlords, who start to end discounts, said Wende Sauvage, a Cushman & Wakefield associate who specializes in the downtown market.

If the vacancy rate drops to below 7 percent, there is more incentive for developers to build office space and lenders are more apt to finance projects to meet increased demand.

Much of the current expansion is coming from public relations and marketing companies, law firms and new high-technology businesses, according to Sauvage.

Cushman & Wakefield also reported that high-quality Seattle office space for the third quarter was $26.96 per square foot, a slight drop from the second-quarter price of $27.05 per square foot.

But in the past two months, some of the best downtown office buildings, such as Two Union Square, have raised rates by $2 to $4 per square foot because of new demand, according to Sauvage.

"People have made that flight to quality," she said. "There's not much vacancy left in those buildings."

Leigh Callaghan, senior vice president with Colliers International in Seattle, said the downtown office market could change fast. He added that the leverage power to ask for lower rent, something tenants could do when the economy was sluggish, is evaporating.

"I believe that vacancies will tighten up quicker than people have anticipated," he said.

Not only is high-quality office space in downtown Seattle important to impress clients, he added, but it also is a way to retain top talent. His example: A prestigious office with a view of Puget Sound can help make employees happy.

As the downtown Seattle market improves, Bohman said, it's important for businesses to keep their office space needs in mind, especially for the next 18 months.

"It won't be a question of, 'Will I be able to get space?' You'll get space somewhere," he said. "It's, 'Will you get what you want?'"

In the coming months, he said, to secure that ideal office space, "you're probably going to have to pay a lot more than what you're currently paying to get it."

[destroybananas]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/09/28/2002527359.gif


Seattle buildings filling up; some rents on the rise

By Tom Boyer

Seattle Times business reporter


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Seattle's office-vacancy rate continued its steady tick downward in the third quarter.

Expanding companies have gobbled up more than a million square feet, the equivalent of a typical downtown office tower, according to a report from real-estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

The growth has come from established companies such as Amazon.com, which has reportedly leased several floors of the 76-story Bank of America Tower; startups such as Zillow.com, a real-estate venture led by former Expedia Chief Executive Richard Barton; and expanding construction, marketing and law firms.

If the demand for space continues at this pace, the completion of WaMu's new downtown headquarters will not be the headache for landlords that it was expected to be a year ago. Much of the space WaMu occupies in other buildings already has been leased.

Top-tier class-A buildings such as Two Union Square and Bank of America Tower are getting so full that landlords have raised rates by $2 to $5 a square foot, said Wende Sauvage, a Cushman & Wakefield associate specializing in downtown Seattle.

While it's the first time in years that the words "rent increase" have been uttered in downtown Seattle office buildings, rents are more than $10 below the highs of 2000 and well below the $35 a square foot developers say they need to start the next wave of office buildings. The average class-A space rented for $26.96 a square foot in the third quarter, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The biggest beneficiary of all this is Chicago-based Equity Office Properties, which owns nearly one-third of the region's office space, including the Bank of America Tower.

"They are just shy of a 90 percent-occupied portfolio," Sauvage said. "That is a huge change. They were in the high 70s a couple of quarters ago. They've been rescued by Amazon and also a couple of their existing tenants."

In Bellevue, the office-leasing picture has been a little quieter, in part because there are no large blocks of space left to lease. Six huge companies, including Equity, Texas-based Hines and local developer Schnitzer Northwest, are ready to build towers as soon as they can lock up anchor tenants.

Bellevue's vacancy rate has "been down, down down," said Tom Bohman, Cushman & Wakefield's Eastside director.


"You look at it over the course of the last two years, [and] it's a phenomenal turnaround for downtown Bellevue," Bohman said.

The real-estate-investment market has been red-hot. The latest example was a deal announced months ago that closed last week: Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle.

The 758-unit luxury-apartment and retail complex sold for $191 million to Equity Residential, the Chicago-based sister company to Equity Office, according to papers filed with King County.

Tom Boyer: 206-464-2923 or tboyer@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[James Bond Agent 007]

OK, this next one was kinda interesting . . .

Does this mean they'll eventually change the name of the IDX Tower to the GE Healthcare Tower? :???:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seattle Times
Friday, September 30, 2005
Business Digest
GE Healthcare to buy IDX Systems

GE Healthcare will acquire IDX Systems, which employs 489 people in Seattle, for $1.2 billion, the companies announced yesterday.

IDX's Carecast operating unit, which develops software to manage and support electronic medical records and other health-care functions, is centered in Seattle, where the company has had a presence since acquiring Phamis in 1997 for about $150 million.

GE Healthcare spokeswoman Andrea Kozek said the company views IDX employees as "a valuable asset, and we're planning on everything operating as is."

The merger must be approved by IDX shareholders and regulators. The companies said they expect to close the deal early next year.

IDX, headquartered in Burlington, Vt., has about 2,400 full-time employees. Its Seattle operation is one of the largest tenants of the IDX Tower, a 3-year-old downtown building, which the company was allowed to name because of the size and term of its lease.

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002555216_bizbriefs12.html

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - Page updated at 08:33 AM
645 Boeing workers added in state last month

Last month's strike by Boeing machinists temporarily halted the company's airplane production, but it did little to slow its hiring.

Boeing added 645 workers in Washington state last month to expand its local workforce to 61,042 people as of Oct. 6, the highest level since January 2003. Nearly all of the additions were in the commercial-airplanes group, which added 500 jobs last month to increase to 48,956 workers across the country.

Surging demand for new, more fuel-efficient jetliners is responsible for the hiring.

Chaz Bickers, a Boeing spokesman, said most of the new hires are either supporting 737 production or aiding development of the widebody 787 Dreamliner, which is due to enter service in 2006.

[destroybananas]

Fishermen's Terminal gets $19M for upgrade


The Port of Seattle will spend another $19.2 million to improve Fishermen's Terminal, where controversy has been swirling since the port decided to allow pleasure boats to dock there.

[destroybananas]

Biotech startup hires prominent CEO
Seattle biotechnology company Ikaria Inc., which grew out of groundbreaking research into hibernation at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has snagged a top pharmaceutical executive as its new CEO.


Flemming Ornskov, a senior manager at Swiss drug giant Novartis AG ADS, will become president and CEO of Ikaria and also join the company's board of directors. Ornskov previously worked for U.S. drug maker Merck & Co.

Ikaria, launched this spring, is based around the work of Hutch biologist Mark Roth, who successfully put mice into a temporary state of hibernation. The results of his study were published in the journal Science.

The company says the research could have applications for human health. By slowing the body's metabolism and need for oxygen, doctors might have a longer window to treat traumatic injuries, organ transplants, heart attacks and strokes.

The new company attracted a bevy of early-stage investors, including Arch Venture Partners, Venrock Associates, 5AM Ventures, Aravis Ventures and the Washington Research Foundation.

Ornskov's last position with Novartis was president of the company's ophthalmics business unit, based in Basel, Switzerland.



© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc. Add RSS Headlines

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002566888_boeing17.html

Monday, October 17, 2005
Leasing giant orders 20 787s
By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

Los Angeles-based aircraft leasing giant International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) has ordered 20 787s, providing an important seal of approval from Boeing's largest customer.

The list price of the order is $2.6 billion, though ILFC likely got a steep discount.

After a brief 787 sales lull since the summer, the deal pushes the 787 firm-order tally to just shy of 200.

This is the opening of what promises to be a hectic order rush for Boeing from now until the end of the year. At least two more large 787 orders are expected to be made firm this month or next.

ILFC booked the order unannounced last week. Boeing tallied the sale on its Web site Thursday but did not identify the customer. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news online last night. A person familiar with the order confirmed the details.

ILFC Chairman and Chief Executive Steven Udvar-Hazy said at the Paris Air Show in June that he was in talks to buy the new jet. Because he is highly regarded as a shrewd market-maker, his vote of confidence is a big boost for the 787 program.

Last week, the Indian government approved a large order, including 20 firm 787 orders. That sale should be final soon.

And an order from Air Canada, which included 14 firm 787 orders, is also expected to be revived and finalized within weeks.

Boeing now has 194 firm orders for the 787, bringing the total of orders and publicly announced commitments to 293.

[James Bond Agent 007]

The Business Journal of Portland - 2:39 PM PDT Monday
Unemployment rate falls

Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 6.1 percent in September from the revised August rate of 6.6 percent.

September's rate matched March's lowest rate of the year, the Oregon Employment Department said Monday. Oregon's unemployment rate has not been below 6.1 percent in more than four years, since reaching 5.9 percent in April 2001.

The national unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in September, reflecting the shock to the labor force in parts of the southeastern United States as a result of hurricane damage.

In September, nonfarm payroll employment showed the typical trend for the time of year, adding 11,900 jobs when a gain of 11,600 is the typical seasonal trend.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - 3:08 PM PDT Tuesday
State unemployment rate dips, Seattle's rises

The state unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent in September from 5.8 percent the month before, seasonally adjusted figures from the Washington State Employment Security Department indicate.

But in the Seattle area, the unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent from 4.5 percent in August. In King County, unemployment rose to 4.8 percent from 4.5 percent a month earlier. The latest Seattle and King County figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Officials were enthusiastic about the statewide figures.

"Despite the decrease in employment figures, the economy in our state remains vibrant. Employers continued to hire, and the outlook for future growth remains positive," said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee, in a statement.

According to Lee's office, the state did not consider the 16,000 striking Boeing workers last month to be unemployed, so they didn't affect the unemployment rate. But federal standards did not count the strikers as employed, so total employment in the state dropped by 10,600 last month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The U.S. unemployment rate last month was 5.1 percent.

[InlandEmpire]

Things are looking up on the East Side!

County jobless rate hits five-year low
Spokane, state rates fall to 5.1 percent
Related information
Read more



Tom Sowa
Staff writer
October 19, 2005

Spokane County's September 2005 unemployment rate of 5.1 percent is the lowest monthly number in five years, state labor economists said Tuesday.

The last time Spokane County reached 5.1 percent unemployment was August 2000, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In August of this year, Spokane's revised jobless rate was 5.8 percent. The next-lowest jobless rate for Spokane this year was 5.3 percent, measured in May.

Statewide, Washington's unemployment rate in September measured 5.1 percent also. It was 5.5 percent in August, labor economists reported. Both the Spokane and the state rates are not seasonally adjusted.

The national unemployment rate in September was 4.8 percent, unadjusted. It was 5.1 percent in August 2005.

September's numbers showed a net gain of about 2,500 labor force jobs in Spokane, compared with August of this year. But it's not clear how many of those are newly created jobs. A large number of workers and school employees return in September following summer vacations.

The private-sector job category showing the largest job gain in September was education and health services. That group showed a net gain of 300 Spokane jobs compared with August 2005, state data showed.

Measured against one year ago, however, Spokane has added 6,500 labor force jobs, according to the state data released Tuesday. In September 2004, Spokane had 208,900 workers. One year later the number had grown to 215,400, the reports say.

Statewide, the general uplift of Washington's economy has lowered the number of unemployed state residents by 3,700 since September 2004, according to a press release from the state Department of Employment Security. As of September 2005, Washington had 168,300 unemployed workers, the release said.

By the numbers
Jobless rates
These are the preliminary September unemployment percentages for selected Washington counties.

Spokane …5.1

Adams …4.4

Asotin …5.8

Benton …5.2

Clark …6.3

Columbia …7.0

Douglas …4.0

Ferry …6.8

Franklin …5.2

Garfield …4.3

Grant …5.1

King …4.8

Lincoln …5.1

Okanogan …5.0

Pend Oreille …6.3

Pierce …5.5

Snohomish …5.0

Stevens …6.2

Walla Walla …4.7

Whitman …3.6

State high – Columbia …7.0

State low – San Juan …3.3

[destroybananas]

New CEO is moving Cdigix to Seattle

By Brier Dudley

Seattle Times technology reporter


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Larry Jacobson is CEO of Cdigix.



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Usually new employees start work where their companies are located, but not Larry Jacobson, the former president of RealNetworks.

Jacobson today is being named chief executive of Cdigix, an Englewood, Colo.-based company that provides digital music and video services to universities. But instead of moving there, Jacobson is moving the company to Seattle.

Cdigix isn't moving to shorten his commute. The company wants to tap into Seattle's digital-media talent pool and be closer to its key technology suppliers — Microsoft, RealNetworks and MusicNet, a New York-based music distributor with operations in Seattle.

"Seattle has become somewhat of a digital hub for media, which is a great advancement, I think, for the city and Cdigix," Jacobson said.

Jacobson, 46, was president at Real from 2001 until April 2004, then worked for a time as senior vice president at Getty Images. Earlier in his career, he was president of Ticketmaster and Fox Television Network.

Cdigix provides universities with a package of digital media services for students and a legal alternative to illegal downloading. The package includes music subscriptions and track sales, on-demand video, a social-networking service and a platform for distributing educational content.

Cdigix began offering its services in 2002 and they're now used by 34 universities, including Yale, Tufts, Duke, Rutgers and the universities of Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan and Missouri.

About half the schools are paying for students to get free music subscriptions. Others charge monthly fees of $3 to $5 apiece for music and video services. Cdigix gets sales from the services and advertising sales.

"There's a real momentum in the marketplace for universities to adopt these services," Jacobson said.

Cdigix has 15 employees but plans to hire more Seattle, using a round of funding from Meritage Private Equity Funds, Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Iron Gate Capital.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Yay, a new headquarters.

Here's some jobs for Yakima. Which could use 'em I guess. ;)

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/10/24/daily12.html

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)
Tuesday, October 28, 2005
HouseValues plans major contact center in Yakima

HouseValues Inc., which provides online services for the real estate industry, said it plans to open a new contact center in Yakima that could eventually employ 350 people.

The Kirkland-based company (NASDAQ: SOLD) employs more than 500 at its headquarters.

The company expects to hire about 100 people in Yakima over the next six months, with the initial focus on management and sales. The center is expected to open in January.

HouseValues said it evaluated a number of communities before deciding on the Central Washington city.

David McFadden, president of New Vision, the Yakima County Development Association, said the talent and availability of the work force, as well as available space and existing infrastructure in Yakima, were among the reasons HouseValues selected the city.

[destroybananas]

this is good news for Yakima. good to hear.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
I've got an interview in Yakima on Friday. So, if I get it, Yakima will have one more new job to add to its economy. :D

[InlandEmpire]

Gregoire to announce major sports bid in Spokane

04:26 PM PDT on Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gov. Christine Gregoire on Wednesday will announce that a major sporting event related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, will be sought for Spokane.

The governor and event organizers are being coy about the details until the announcement, planned Wednesday morning at the Davenport Hotel.

In a press release Tuesday, Gregoire's office said the state planned to bid to host "the highest profile Olympic sporting event outside of the actual Games."

The press conference is being staged by Toby Steward and Barb Beddor, the husband-and-wife team that is bringing the 2007 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships to Spokane.

The Olympian newspaper reported today that the governor will reveal the state's financial effort in support of a Spokane bid to land the 2009 world figure skating championships.

[destroybananas]

that will be great for spokane.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Y'know, when I was in Spokane I often wondered if it would be a good place for a Winter Olympics.

[destroybananas]

I don't see why not.

[InlandEmpire]

^^
If SLC can host the Winter Olympics, I see no reason why Spokane could not contingent on some infrastructure improvements to the city to handle the crowds. *Not that it will ever happen* but that possiblity is there.

[destroybananas]

Another online grocer sprouts up
Spud.com of British Columbia thinks it can succeed by starting small and growing slowly

By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Here comes the online grocery store -- again.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Small Potatoes Urban Delivery -- which allows shoppers to order organic produce, breads and meat over the Internet and then have the items delivered to their doorstep -- has started service in the Seattle area.

Like the name suggests, the company is small potatoes when compared with the once high-profile services of HomeGrocer.com, Kozmo.com and Webvan. Those companies raised hundreds of millions of dollars during the Internet boom from venture capitalists and retail titans such as Starbucks and Amazon.com, only to collapse in spectacular flameouts in 2001.

Small Potatoes Urban Delivery -- also known as Spud.com -- is nowhere near the scale of those high fliers. It currently has six employees and one purple delivery van in Seattle. Only a few hundred customers have tested the service since it debuted last month.

But Spud.com General Manager Henri Parren, who previously led Kozmo.com's Seattle operation, said the company's small size and focus on profitability will help it succeed where others have failed.

"This is the way I always wanted to do it," Parren said when asked to compare Kozmo.com and Spud.com. "It makes sense, you just grow very carefully and logically and justify every expense."

Spud.com does operate on a tiny budget. Gone are the flashy marketing campaigns, the highly automated warehouses and the freshly scrubbed diesel trucks that were hallmarks of HomeGrocer.com.

Still, Spud.com faces competition.

Not only must it deal with large grocery chains such as Safeway and Albertsons Inc., both of which continue to offer online grocery shopping, but also with specialty organic delivery services.



In the Seattle area, companies such as Pioneer Organics and New Roots Organics allow shoppers to have buckets of organic produce dropped off at their doorsteps.

With about 600 products, including milk, pasta, cereal and juice, Parren said, Spud.com offers a more complete offering than the organic delivery services.

"They have their customer groups, but we feel that we appeal to a broader audience with what we are doing," he said. "Our system allows for more options, you can place an order when you please and you have a lot of flexibility as to what is in that order."

He said prices will be comparable to those at PCC or Larry's Markets.

Unlike with HomeGrocer.com or Webvan, shoppers do not have to be home in order to receive the groceries. Using dry ice, Parren said, delivery drivers leave the buckets on customers' porches.

Orders also are delivered on set days depending upon the location of the customer. Eastsiders, for instance, receive their orders on Thursday, Parren said.

The company charges a $3.50 delivery fee for all orders under $35. Orders costing more than that are delivered free.

Terry Drayton, the former chief executive of HomeGrocer.com, said he was familiar with Spud.com, partly because of the involvement of HomeGrocer.com co-founder Mike Donald.

Drayton, who now runs a 70-person Bellevue technology consulting firm, said it makes sense to roll out the service slowly in select markets. But he questioned whether Spud.com, Pioneer Organics and New Roots could survive in the Seattle market.

"What we found is that there just wasn't enough demand for organic-only products," Drayton said. "People wanted a replacement for their primary shop, they didn't just want another supplier. If we couldn't supply all of their needs, then they wouldn't bother shopping with us at all."

Drayton added that the key to a delivery business is having a large enough transaction to compensate for the delivery costs, which he estimates is about $7 per order.

At HomeGrocer.com, he said, the average order was $118, so it could still produce a decent margin with the delivery cost added in. But he said it's a "whole different story" if the average order is $20.

"Delivery almost has a fixed cost component, whether you have two bags or 12 bags, it barely changes the number," he said. "It will be interesting to see how they do."

The company, which was founded in 1997 by David Van Seters, certainly is different in size and scale from HomeGrocer.com.

But that's not stopping executives at Small Potatoes Urban Delivery from trying to make connections to the former Bellevue grocery service -- whose trucks with the peach logos became a common sight on Seattle-area streets during the dot-com boom.

In a statement Tuesday, the company made several references to the service, with Van Seters saying that Spud.com combines the "best of Kozmo and HomeGrocer" with "a time-tested delivery service."

But based on his experience, Drayton said there is little comparison between the two services.

In addition to Seattle and Vancouver, Spud.com offers service in Calgary, Alberta, and on parts of Vancouver Island.

P-I reporter John Cook can be reached at 206-448-8075 or johncook@seattlepi.com.

[InlandEmpire]

I think this is great news for us Idahoans...

Idaho unemployment falls to another record low
Saturday October 15, 2005
Idaho unemployment falls to another record low

BOISE, Idaho (AP) Idaho's unemployment rate hit a record low in September.

It fell to a seasonally adjusted level of 3.5%, from 3.8%.

The number of people working in the Gem State was lifted as companies including Jayco, a recreational vehicle maker in Twin Falls, as well as construction firms and food processing plants are adding workers to keep up with demand.

The state's unemployment rate is well below the U-S rate of five-point-one percent.

Roger Madsen, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce and labor, says this reflects Idaho's robust economy.

Near Boise, the jobless rate fell to 3.1%

In Coeur d'Alene, it fell five tenths to 3.7.

In Idaho Falls, however, it climbed a tenth to 2.5%.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Everybody go to Idaho for a job! ;)

In other news . . .

Seattle P-I
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Seattle office occupancy going up
Forecast also calls for more job growth
By BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Equity Office Properties Trust, owner of about 13 percent of the Puget Sound region's commercial work space, is forecasting that office occupancy in downtown Seattle will grow as much as 3.5 percent per year until 2009.

The forecast, released Wednesday, follows expectations that the region's improving economy will see annual job growth of 3 percent to 3.5 percent for that period, said Patrick Callahan, senior vice president for the Seattle region.

"As your job growth goes up, your absorption rate goes up," he said. "That correlation says that downtown Seattle is in a recovery mode now, and the long-term prospects look very good."

Fueling the growth is business expansion particularly from professional service companies, including architects, financial businesses, engineers and technology enterprises, he said.

As an example of signs of the region's improving economy, he pointed to the downtown Seattle office vacancy rate, which has dropped from 14 percent to 12.5 percent in the past 12 months.

Bellevue, which had a 30 percent office vacancy rate in 2002, now has an 8 percent rate.

Along Interstate 90 on the Eastside, from Seattle to Issaquah, the office vacancy rate sits at 5 percent.

"In other words, the recovery is here, and it is present and throughout the market," Callahan said.

Roberta Pauer, a Seattle economist, said she shares the same 3 percent to 3.5 percent job-growth-rate optimism. But in about two years, she said, the growth will level off to about 2 percent.

Still, the region has seen an average of 4,000 new jobs created per month in the past 12 months, she said.

Callahan said the downtown Seattle office market is expected to fare well next year, given the completion of the new 890,000-square-foot Washington Mutual Tower.

Some landlords, he said, were concerned that the office tower would create a higher vacancy rate because there would be more commercial space on the market.

But with new and existing businesses expected to occupy downtown office space, he said the vacancy rate could stay at about 12.5 percent or increase slightly.

Rental rates are expected to remain flat.

Currently, he said premium office space in a high-rise building is renting for $30 to $35 per square foot.

A low-rise building is seeing rental rates in the $25 to $30 per square foot range.

Seattle, he added, is witnessing the highest level of demand for office space since 2002 and earlier this year had already absorbed 1.1 million square feet of space.

But even with this new activity, commercial landlords are more cautious about renting space, as compared to the frenzy seen in the high-tech boom a few years ago.

Stephen Cugier, an associate with Grubb & Ellis in Seattle, said some landlords are asking potential tenants for letters of credit of up to $50,000, especially if a company wants to occupy a full floor of office space.

"Lessons have been learned," he said. "I don't think companies want to put themselves in that situation (of losing money). It's a financial hemorrhage.

"Investors and landlords are on the hook for that."

Still, downtown Seattle remains an attractive location to work, said Mark Peterson, spokesman for Marchex Inc., a downtown Seattle online advertising business.

Since Marchex started in 2003, its Seattle presence has grown from less than 10 employees to more than 100.

"We are growing in terms of employees, and we have room to grow in Seattle," he said.

Chicago-based Equity Office, which entered the Seattle market in 1997, has about 10 million square feet of office space in the Puget Sound region.

[destroybananas]

good news, maybe we'll get more office towers in the near future.

[MarkDaMan]

W+K would like world to buy a Coke
The Portland agency, fresh off a new North American account, lands the soft-drink maker's global work
Thursday, October 27, 2005
HELEN JUNG

Portland-based ad agency Wieden+Kennedy has won a multimillion-dollar contract to create the core marketing themes and concepts for Coca-Cola Co. to use in commercials and ads around the world.

The deal, confirmed Wednesday, is the agency's second big assignment this year from Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink maker, and the latest in a string of new high-profile clients for Wieden+Kennedy in the past two years. The agency -- which employs about 600 people worldwide, including 300 in Portland -- is best known for its work for sports apparel and footwear manufacturer Nike, based near Beaverton.

Coca-Cola chose Wieden+Kennedy to develop its global marketing platform over the other finalist, Red Cell United, a division of WPP Group, said Kelly Brooks, a Coca-Cola spokesman. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. Coca-Cola spends about $2 billion annually in global marketing and advertising, including media buys, talent fees and production costs.

"Wieden was selected on the strength of the idea that they presented as well as their demonstration of how that idea can work across geography, media and audiences," Brooks said. He declined to describe the agency's pitch, saying the new work would be launched in 2006.

The agency did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

The contract comes weeks after the firm won the North American advertising contract for Coca-Cola Classic for 2006, reportedly worth about $150 million. The agency has worked with the company off and on for several years and currently handles its Powerade brand.

Coca-Cola has not had a single lead agency to handle its global marketing campaigns in recent years, Brooks said. But the company is trying to sharpen its marketing as part of its ongoing self-described "turnaround."

"It makes sense to feature and nurture a single core idea that can help us speak in a clear and consistent way to consumers in all parts of the world," Brooks said.

While Wieden+Kennedy will come up with the themes and core ideas for Coca-Cola's marketing message around the world, other agencies may help adapt those ideas to the geographic and media markets in which they work, Brooks said. Wieden+Kennedy also is expected to create some commercials and ads, he said.

Nike remains one of the agency's largest clients. In the past two years, Wieden+Kennedy has added specialty coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. and video-game developer Electronic Arts Inc., maker of blockbuster title John Madden's NFL, to its portfolio. The firm, which has six offices around the world, also counts ESPN, Miller Brewing Co. and Vodafone among its clients.

Helen Jung: 503-294-7621; helenjung@news.oregonian.com

[MarkDaMan]

Boeing profit more than doubles in 3Q

10:28 AM PDT on Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Associated Press

SEATTLE -- Boeing Co. said Wednesday it more than doubled its third-quarter profit, aided by a large tax benefit and strong operating results, but the aircraft maker and defense contractor said the results for the fall quarter were hurt by a strike by airplane assembly workers.

The company raised its estimates for earnings in both 2005 and 2006, but its stock fell nearly 3 percent in premarket activity.

The quarter was the company's first under new Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney and was marred by a four-week strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which Boeing said hurt earnings by 25 cents to 30 cents a share and caused it deliver 21 fewer airplanes than planned.

Earnings for the July-through-September quarter were $1.01 billion, or $1.26 per share, up from $456 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.

Results included a gain of 62 cents per share for tax settlements and adjustments and numerous other one-time items: a gain of 45 cents per share for the sale of its Rocketdyne unit, 6 cents per share of additional expense for share-based plans and a charge of 14 cents per share for post-retirement expense related to the sale of operations in Wichita, Kan., and Tulsa, Okla.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had estimated earnings of 80 cents a share. Thomson Financial did not immediately know the comparable number for Boeing. But it appeared the comparable Boeing number would fall well short of the Wall Street estimate.

Revenues fell 4 percent to $12.6 billion from $13.2 billion, reflecting the impact of the IAM strike and slower growth in its defense business.

Boeing raised its estimates for earnings to a range of $2.95 to $3.05 per share for 2005, up 20 cents per share, and between $3.10 and $3.30 per share in 2006, up 10 cents per share. It cited strong performance in its core businesses this year followed by higher commercial airplanes deliveries, revenues and earnings next year, offsetting the lower revenue growth in defense.

Boeing shares fell $1.87, or 2.8 percent, to $65.10 in premarket trading. At Tuesday's closing level, its stock was up about 29 percent in 2005.

Boeing's Seattle-based commercial airplanes unit delivered just 62 planes in the quarter, its lowest total for the period in a decade due to the strike that ended Sept. 29. The company now expects to deliver about 290 airplanes in 2005, down from its previous estimate of 320 but up from 285 in 2004. That ensures that rival Airbus SAS will outsell its U.S. rival for the third straight year.

The strike caused Boeing to lower its estimate for this year's revenue to $55 billion; analysts had been estimating it at $57.1 billion. Third-quarter revenue was up 6 percent to $4.9 billion in the commercial airplanes division and down 11 percent to $7.4 billion in the defense business due to what the company called the timing and mix of aircraft deliveries, lower missile sales and the Rocketdyne divestiture.

Operating margins rose to 6 percent from 3.9 percent in the quarter, underscoring what McNerney said was the company's operating strength.

"Although we faced some challenges this quarter, Commercial Airplanes continued its tremendous sales success, completed firm configuration of the 787 Dreamliner and reached an agreement with the IAM that supports continued growth and competitiveness," he said. "At the same time, Integrated Defense Systems delivered strong margins." McNerney took over July 1 as Boeing's third CEO since December 2003, hired to restore stability at the top to a corporation shaken by the scandal-hastened departures of predecessors Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher.

[destroybananas]

Drugstore.com loss narrows; sales rise
Drugstore.com Inc. said its third-quarter net loss narrowed compared with a year ago, while net sales increased 14.5 percent over the same period last year.


Net sales were $96.6 million, compared with last year's third-quarter sales of $84.3 million. The consensus estimate for this year's third quarter called for sales of $95.3 million.

The net loss for the third quarter of 2005 was $7.1 million, or 8 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $32.8 million, or 43 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2004.

For the fourth quarter, the Bellevue-based online retailer (NASDAQ: DSCM) is targeting a net sales range of $105 million to $110 million, and a net loss in the range of $6.4 million to $7.4 million.

[destroybananas]

Microsoft 1Q earnings rise 24 percent

By ALLISON LINN
AP BUSINESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. said earnings for its fiscal first quarter rose 24 percent, thanks in part to healthy server sales. But its sales outlook in the current quarter concerned some analysts and shares fell slightly Thursday.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the Redmond-based software maker earned $3.14 billion, or 29 cents per share, up from $2.53 billion, or 23 cents per share, in the same period last year.

The most recent results included a charge of 2 cents per share to account for a legal settlement with RealNetworks Inc. The results for the year-ago period included a one-time charge of $359 million, or 3 cents per share, to account for a legal settlement with Novell Inc.

Without the one-time charge, the company would have earned 31 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 30 cents per share on revenue of $9.78 billion.

Revenue for the quarter rose to $9.74 billion from $9.19 billion in the same period last year.

For the current fiscal second quarter ending Dec. 31, Microsoft said it expects to earn 32 cents or 33 cents per share, on revenue of between $11.9 billion and $12 billion.



The revenue figure is slightly below the current Wall Street consensus estimate of $12.29 billion, which analyst Charles Di Bona with Bernstein & Co. said is likely what sent shares lower in after-hours trading.

Microsoft shares fell 26 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $24.85 in trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The results were released after regular trading. In after-hours trading, shares were down an additional 40 cents.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said he thought analysts were expecting bigger spikes in sales of the company's new Xbox 360 video game console and SQL Server, both of which are due out in November. But Microsoft expects to "see more of a ramp-up throughout the course of the year."

Microsoft also said Thursday that it plans to ship between 4.5 million and 5.5 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide by June 2006. Analyst Rick Sherlund with Goldman Sachs said the fact that Microsoft is forecasting a steady stream of Xbox consoles, rather than big spikes, will likely mean shortages for customers during the holidays.

"You will not come close to meeting demand in the December quarter," he said.

Sherlund said that raises concerns that there could be some production snafus, but he noted that the company still has plenty of time to gain an edge over Sony's PlayStation 3, which isn't due out until next spring.

Microsoft said it is on track with its Xbox manufacturing plans.

Microsoft did not change its overall revenue guidance for the full fiscal year ending June 30 of between $43.7 billion and $44.5 billion.

Earnings guidance for the full fiscal year was only slightly changed from the previous quarter's guidance for that period. Microsoft said it expects to earn $1.26 to $1.30 per share, including the 2-cent charge related to the RealNetworks settlement. The company had previously said it expected to earn $1.27 to $1.32 per share for the full year, without the charge.

"We feel good about the quarter ahead and good about the year ahead," Liddell said.

In the fiscal first quarter, Microsoft said results were helped in particular by strong growth in its Server and Tools unit. The company saw a 15 percent increase in revenue growth from its SQL Server product although a new version of the software is due out in November.

Di Bona said the company performed well overall.

"It's not a bad earnings number," he said.

Microsoft also said Thursday that it expects to accelerate a previously announced plan to buy back around $30 billion in company stock. Microsoft has already repurchased about $11 billion in shares, and Liddell said the company expects to repurchase the additional $19 billion by the end of 2006. It previously had said it expected to complete the plan by June of 2008.

Liddell said the accelerated buyback showed "confidence about the future performance of the company."

He noted that Microsoft, with a cash pile of around $40 billion as of Sept. 30, clearly has the money for it.

---

On the Net:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft

[destroybananas]

Paccar says quarterly profit is best-ever
2005-10-26
Journal Business Staff

Paccar Inc. on Tuesday reported the most profitable quarter in the Bellevue-based truck manufacturer's 100-year history.

For the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, Paccar generated a record quarterly net profit of $304.8 million, a 24 percent increase over the $246.7 million profit it reported for the same quarter a year ago. It is the 15th consecutive quarter that the company has racked up a higher year-over-year net profit.

Revenues for the just-completed quarter totaled $3.54 billion, a 21 percent increase over the $2.92 billion in sales the company reported for the same period a year ago.

Mark Pigott, Paccar chairman and CEO, credited the strong financial performance to the company's ``geographic diversification, disciplined business practices and innovative product breadth.''

The company said it expects to sell approximately 290,000 of its heavy-duty Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks in the United States and Canada this year, an increase of nearly 25 percent over last year. It expects to sell between 290,000 and 310,000 heavy-duty trucks in North America next year.

Paccar's board of directors Tuesday gave the company the green light to repurchase up to 5 million outstanding shares of its common stock. The decision comes on the heels of the company's recent buyback of 5 million shares, which the board authorized last year.

Mike Tembruell, Paccar's vice chairman, said the repurchasing of company stock reflects the board's ``confidence in Paccar's successful global business strategy and excellent long-term growth.''

Paccar shares (Nasdaq: PCAR) rose $1.93 to close at $68.37 in Wall Street trading Tuesday.

First Mutual Bancshares

Bellevue-based First Mutual Bancshares Inc., the holding company for First Mutual Bank, on Tuesday reported its 52nd consecutive quarter of record year-over-year net profits.

For the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, First Mutual generated a net profit of $2.7 million, an 8 percent increase over the $2.5 million net profit it made for the same quarter a year ago.

New loan originations grew to $151 million in the third quarter, an increase of about 24 percent over the $122 million in new loans the company issued during the same period a year ago. Total deposits increased to $728 million, compared to $658 million a year ago. Total assets rose to $1.06 billion, up from $983 million a year ago.

John Valaas, First Mutual's president and CEO, attributed the company's ``strong loan production'' and record earnings in part to ``improvement in the local economy and relatively low interest rates.''

First Mutual shares (Nasdaq: FMSB) rose 45 cents to close at $24.66 Tuesday.

Seattle Genetics

Bothell-based Seattle Genetics Inc. on Tuesday reported a third-quarter net loss of $6.2 million, an improvement over the $16.6 million net loss it reported for the same period a year ago.

Revenues for the three-month period that ended Sept. 30 rose to $2.6 million, up from $1.5 million for the same period a year ago.

Seattle Genetics shares (Nasdaq: SGEN) fell 39 cents to close at $5.36 Tuesday.

[James Bond Agent 007]

There's a big empty lot just south of the Paccar (Kenworth) factory that I'm just dying for them to build an expansion of the factory on. It's, like, one of my economic development fantasies for the Seattle area.

Yes I'm weird.;)

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002592235_port30.html

Sunday, October 30, 2005
Port of Tacoma expands and Asian trade is booming
By Alwyn Scott
Seattle Times business reporter

Drums roared as two dancers in a lion costume leapt about a small stage, surrounded in the distance by hulking cargo cranes.

With the Chinese lion dance and the mayor looking on, Tacoma recently opened a new shipping container dock — the third renovated cargo hub the port has opened this year.

The Olympic Container Terminal is leased to Yang Ming Lines of Taiwan, whose only other exclusive foreign terminal is in Los Angeles.

The dance, in which the lion spreads prosperity and blessings to the community, was no mere frill. Tacoma's three new terminals — its largest expansion ever — echo booming Asian trade that is bringing jobs to Tacoma. The port says more than 43,000 "family-wage" jobs in Pierce County are connected with its activity, up from 28,000 five years ago.

With the surge in cargo forecast to continue, Tacoma's "terminal shuffle" over the last two years has vastly expanded its docks — and set the stage for further growth.

Tacoma nearly doubled, to 525 acres, its land for unloading the giant container ships that now carry most of the world's goods.

The expansion was larger and less costly than Seattle's.

Even so, Tacoma is only just keeping up with demand.

All six of Tacoma's container terminals have expansion options that would add an additional 100 acres if fully developed. "We could probably expand all of our existing terminals in the next five years" to meet the needs of cargo handlers, said Timothy Farrell, executive director of the Port of Tacoma. "And on top of that, we have interest from new customers."

Valuable land

Tacoma's approach to development centered on two goals: giving terminal operators what they want but also ensuring its own bottom line stays in the black.

Farrell said Tacoma first designs the terminal with the operator, including the features it wants and what it would cost. Then it requires the operator to sign a lease that would pay for the facility.

"We don't do the construction until the deal is signed, so we know how much money we have to work with," Farrell said.

While Tacoma's leases with terminal operators are all different, "they all have minimum commitments to cover debt service and construction costs" within 14 to 30 years, he said.

The efficiency of this approach has attracted customers, and encouraged expansion.

"The industry saw that Tacoma can build a 171-acre container terminal expandable to 237 acres and that sort of perked up their ears," he said, referring to the Pierce County Terminal opened in January.

But Farrell wants to innovate even more.

As West Coast ports grow, space is getting tighter — and more valuable. So Tacoma is considering charging terminal operators fees based on the value of the land.

"We're looking at how much this location is worth to the customer," Farrell said. "What would they be willing to pay to be here?"

Getting cargo inland

To really give the locations value, however, Tacoma needs to ensure that docks, rail lines and highways work seamlessly to speed cargo inland. (More than half of the cargo unloaded at Tacoma and Seattle makes its way east.)

Tacoma cargo sometimes hits a bottleneck. Known as "Bullfrog Junction," it is the spot where five railroad tracks converge. So the port has taken a role in coordinating traffic through the junction, by communicating with container terminals and the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway lines.

"We keep the information ahead of the cargo, so the cargo doesn't have to stop," Farrell said.

Tacoma's emphasis on service has paid off with new customers. Four cargo handlers have moved from Seattle over the years. And Tacoma claims to handle more cargo per acre of land — typically 5,000 containers a year, and as many as 8,500 in some terminals — than Seattle, which says it handles 3,500 to 4,000 containers.

"That's the kind of value we have to deliver to sustain the pricing model we're after," Farrell said.

Tacoma's latest expansion began in 2001. Evergreen Marine, which decamped from the Port of Seattle in 1991, was celebrating 10 years in Tacoma. It had just doubled the size of its Tacoma container terminal. It wanted to double again — quickly.

Tacoma first built a car-import lot, allowing Pierce County Terminal to convert from autos to containers for Evergreen.

Evergreen left Husky Terminal, allowing K Line to move into that larger, renovated space. Then K Line's piers were expanded for Yang Ming Lines, which begin serving the port this month.

Larger than Seattle's

Tacoma's expansion was larger and less costly than Seattle's, which also has been building cargo facilities.

Tacoma developed 210 acres for containers, compared with 101 acres Seattle has added since 1998. Tacoma spent $251 million, compared with $391 million in Seattle.

Part of the difference stems from cheaper land in Tacoma. But Tacoma also has more profit to work with. Over the last six years, Tacoma made a cumulative operating profit of $86 million, after deducting depreciation of its facilities. By contrast, Seattle's seaport lost $40.8 million over the same period, and made a profit in only one of the last six years.

As well, taxpayers bore less of Tacoma's expansion cost. The Port of Tacoma levies 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, compared with 25 cents in Seattle. Because of Pierce County's smaller tax base, the Port of Tacoma collects about $1 for every $6 levied in King County for the Port of Seattle.

Seattle also built facilities that aren't being used. Railroad tracks next to ship berths that were added as part of the $300 million renovation of Terminal 18 are supposed to allow containers to be moved more quickly from ships to trains.

But the terminal operator, SSA Marine, prefers not to use them. Patricia Davis, Seattle's longest-serving Port commissioner, says the industry no longer finds on-dock rail to be most efficient. "Things change," she said.

Tacoma has on dock-rail on four of its six container terminals, and it is heavily used, says port spokesman Michael Wasem. The alternative to on-dock rail is trucking containers out to separate rail yards.

"That means interacting with soccer moms on the highway," Wasem said. "We try to avoid that."

Big future?

Another difference: Tacoma earns money by operating its own rail yards. It also requires terminal operators to pay more if they handle more cargo. Seattle doesn't operate its facilities, and its tenants don't pay extra for moving more freight.

"Our revenue is based on straight land leases and on crane rental, which has no relationship to tonnage," Port of Seattle spokesman Mick Shultz said.

Davis said Seattle's land-rental rate is higher than Tacoma's, and is due to go up in coming years, helping Seattle recoup its investment.

Tacoma's expansion and the addition of Yang Ming will help it handle a record 2.2 million containers this year and 2.4 million next year, according to port forecasts.

The port figures it has capacity to handle 3.3 million containers in 2007, without buying additional land. In five years, the port expects to be actually handling that many containers a year.

Farrell worries road and rail lines across the state will choke that growth. "We're heavily reliant on voters and the railroads. Are there going to be facilities to get the stuff out?"

But even so, Tacoma isn't stopping.

Spokesman Wasem stands on a broad section of land east of the Blair Waterway and points to a vast open space, much of it bordered by deep water. That's where Tacoma aims to develop 300 more acres of terminal space, in partnership with the Puyallup tribe.

"That's the future," he said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/26/2002585460.jpg
Expanded container yards: The Port of Tacoma's "terminal shuffle" allowed it to open three expanded container yards this year. The docks are equipped with railroad tracks, allowing "straddle carriers" to move containers directly to rail cars, speeding them to Chicago and other inland destinations.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/26/2002585527.jpg
New tenants: Giant cranes hoist cargo from ship to shore at the Pierce County Terminal. Evergreen Marine, which moved to Tacoma from Seattle in 1991, started the "terminal shuffle" when, after doubling the size of its old container yard, it said it wanted to double again.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/26/2002585800.jpg
Making room: To make room for the shuffle, Tacoma built a new automobile-import yard. That opened space for two terminals to relocate and make room for a new tenant, Yang Ming Lines, which began serving Tacoma this month.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/10/28/2002590001.gif

[Hub for an Empire]

In Friday's Business section of the Spokane Spokesman Review, it mentioned that Southwest Airlines is adding another Non-stop flight from Spokane to Las Vegas. That will be there second flight to Las Vegas from Spokane International Airport!
It stated that Las Vegas was #2 in growth from the Spokane airport in the number of passengers from the period of March 2004 to March 2005. Phoenix was number #1.
With this added flight, Spokane will have three Non-stop flights including a flight on America West Airlines!
Way to go Spokane!

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Oh good, now all those snowbirds in Spokane have quicker ways to go south in the winter. ;)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Another article on the Port of Tacoma. The Puyallup Indians are are thinking about getting in on the action. ;)

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/10/31/story7.html

From the October 28, 2005 print edition
Tacoma port prepares for a major expansion
Steve Wilhelm
Staff Writer

The Port of Tacoma, which opened three new or upgraded marine cargo terminals this year, is now maneuvering to develop yet another terminal that would dwarf them all.

At nearly 300 acres in its largest possible configuration, the proposed container terminal is attracting attention from ocean carriers around the world.

Carriers are running out of space on the West Coast at the same time that cargo volumes and ship size are increasing. Large new container terminals have become almost impossible to develop.

"The only place you could find it is Los Angeles or Long Beach, and they've hit the wall in terms of new terminals because of community opposition," said Paul Sorenson, a partner at BST Associates in Seattle, a maritime consultancy. "There's nothing in Seattle of that size."

But bringing the huge new container terminal to fruition is a subtle business, because 150 acres of the site are owned by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, and tribal leaders have not decided if they want to develop the land on their own or with the port. Until last fall the tribe's Emerald Queen casino was on the property, but the tribe has since moved the casino to a new site near Interstate 5.

The tribe has been contacted by "several" companies offering to help it develop the site for a container terminal, tribal spokesman John Weymer said, adding that the tribe is just beginning to assess what will serve its needs best.

"It's a huge issue, the future economic growth of this area, and the tribe is very excited about that opportunity," Weymer said. The tribe will use outside experts, as well as its own staff, "to analyze the options best suited to the tribe," he said.

The Puyallup Tribe got the property in 1989 with the resolution of a longtime dispute over the tribe's treaty rights.

The properties in question are on the east side of the Blair Waterway, adjacent to the port's largest new terminal, the 171-acre Pierce County Terminal, which opened earlier this year.

The Blair Waterway, with its 51-foot depth and protected waters, has been the port's most fruitful growth area since the port in 1993 removed the former 11th Street Bridge at the waterway's entrance, clearing a bottleneck.

The port now plans to widen the entire waterway to 850 feet to accommodate huge container vessels capable of carrying up to 15,000 containers. Such ships would be about 50 percent larger than the largest vessels now calling at Northwest ports.

Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell, speaking carefully because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the port prefers to reach some kind of joint venture with the tribe to develop the 300 acres.

"We happen to think that's the best option in terms of terminal development, and community development, but if that's not the best for the tribe, we're prepared to go ahead and do some big things just as the port," he said. "One of the things the tribe is doing, is they're looking at diversifying their portfolio of business, and they want to take a close look at it and make sure they know what they're getting into."

If the tribe decides to develop its own terminal on its property, the port could develop a terminal on its current 125 acres plus some other properties it could acquire, Farrell said.

Volume at the port is growing so fast that staff members expect it will handle the equivalent of 2 million 20-foot containers (called TEUs) this year. Just four years ago that was expected to occur in 2008. Now the port directors expect to hit 3 million TEUs by 2009.

Farrell said "five to 10" ocean carriers have been talking to the port about moving into this next large terminal, although he declined to name the interested companies.

With trade with China continuing to boom, and Chinese ports being expanded at a furious pace, a logical candidate to use the proposed terminal might be a Chinese carrier, two of which now call at the Port of Seattle.

"The market right now is pretty hot. There's a lot going on, there are growth opportunities, and the question on our mind is how long will this window stay open?" Farrell said.

If carriers can't find room for big, new terminals within the United States, they may locate at proposed container ports in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, or even Mexico, he said.

While negotiations continue between the port and the tribe, port authorities are preparing their own properties with plans to tear down the Kaiser Aluminum plant on 96 acres that the port bought in 2003. This is the largest single piece of the package the port would commit to the new terminal.

The Tacoma Port Commission also has approved a new general cargo terminal, just 28 acres, that will be developed near the mouth of the Blair Waterway. And plans are under way to expand existing terminals by another 180 acres by developing existing property owned by the port.

"The good news about that, is every single one of our terminals that exists today has room to expand," Farrell said. "Within the next few years, we'll add enough space that it will be like adding another terminal."

[James Bond Agent 007]

Some good news for Spokane . . .

October 31, 2005 02:00 PM US Eastern Timezone
Kaiser Aluminum Announces Major Expansion at Trentwood, Wash., Facility Responding to Growing Industry Demand; $75 Million Program to be Completed and On Line in 2008

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2005--Kaiser Aluminum today announced a major expansion at its Trentwood, Wash., rolling mill to address the significant growth in demand for fabricated aluminum products. The $75 million expansion is slated to proceed over the next three years with full online capacity available in 2008.

"This is an important expansion to meet a growing worldwide demand in our major markets for high-quality fabricated aluminum products," said Jack A. Hockema, president and CEO. "The investment demonstrates our commitment to serving our customers' changing needs while equipping the company to benefit from the continuing growth and currently strong demand cycle of the global aerospace industry and other manufacturing sectors."

The expansion includes the addition of a state-of-the-art thick plate stretcher, horizontal heat treat furnaces, an ultrasonic inspection system and other ancillary equipment to complement existing capabilities for light gauge plate and sheet at the facility. The new equipment will enable Kaiser to supply heavy gauge heat treat stretched plate in thicknesses of up to 8-10 inches to the aerospace and general engineering markets worldwide.

The capital spending for this project is expected to span the period of 2005 through 2007, with the most significant expenditures occurring in 2006. This spending is reflected in the financial projections included in the Disclosure Statement dated Sept. 7, 2005 recently distributed by the company in connection with the solicitation of acceptances of its Second Amended Plan of Reorganization from its creditors as part of the company's chapter 11 reorganization. Also, this investment comprises a portion of the anticipated capital expenditures discussed in the company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q.

Kaiser Aluminum's Trentwood facility provides heat treat aluminum sheet and plate to major manufacturers worldwide. The plant employs approximately 600 people.

Kaiser Aluminum (OTCBB:KLUCQ) is a leading producer of fabricated aluminum products for aerospace and high-strength, general engineering, automotive, and custom industrial applications. The company has more than 2,000 employees and 11 plants in North America with the capacity to produce more than 400 million pounds annually of value-added sheet, plate, extrusions, forgings, rod, bar, and tube.

[destroybananas]

^Where in the hell is Trentwood?

[destroybananas]

oh nevermind, it's near spokane. Good news for that area.

[MarkDaMan]

Schnitzer Steel buys Atlanta recycling company

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. has acquired Regional Recycling LLC, a metals recycling business with 10 locations in the southeastern United States.

Schnitzer paid $65.5 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities for the acquisition.

"Our acquisition of Regional provides us with a new and solid presence in the Southeast, and complements our metals recycling businesses and our recent acquisition of Greenleaf Auto Recyclers. With the acquisition of Regional, Schnitzer's ability to serve domestic and export markets from either coast is significantly enhanced," said John Carter, president and chief executive officer of Portland-based Schnitzer Steel (NASDAQ: SCHN).

The company will be operated under the name of Regional Recycling, a Schnitzer company, with headquarters in Atlanta and locations in Alabama (Attalla, Birmingham and Selma) and Georgia (Atlanta, Bainbridge, Cartersville, Gainesville and Rossville).

Regional Recycling executives Byron Kopman and David Romanoff will become executive directors of Schnitzer Southeast.

In 2004, Regional Recycling reported revenue of $190.4 million.

[horatio_the_hermit]

Now this is probably a stupid question but are Shnitzer steel and shnitzer development related.

[crowdedhouse]

to Arlene Shnitzer--hence the Shnitz. Who would have imagined that there would bo so much $$ in junk steel 40 yrs ago?

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9874005/

Boeing beckons
Everett plant attracts suppliers for the 787
By Steve Wilhelm
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2005

After a long dry spell, The Boeing Co.'s new 787 jetliner seems to be attracting new aerospace suppliers to the vicinity of the Everett facility where Boeing will assemble the aircraft.

British supplier company Smiths Aerospace signed a contract Oct. 24 for 17,000 square feet at the Harbour Pointe Tech Center in Everett, which is a five-minute drive from Boeing's Everett assembly plant. Smiths will occupy the site on Jan. 1.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement

"We've been waiting a long time to see any Boeing suppliers in the market related to the 787, and we're beginning to see more," said Gregg Riva, senior vice president of Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm in Bellevue that handled the deal.

"Within the last two weeks we've had three tours with three suppliers, which is three suppliers more than we've seen in a long time, other than Smiths," he said, adding that Harbour Pointe has another 170,000 available square feet for lease.

Riva declined to identify the other 787 suppliers, other than to say one is European and two are from the United States. All are looking to lease spaces similar to Smiths and move in by early 2006.

The last time a 787 supplier announced plans to lease space here was in February, when Messier-Bugatti, a French company, said it would open a 25,000-square-foot distribution and light-manufacturing facility for 787 wheels and brakes near Boeing's Everett plant.

Since then, state and regional economic officials, including Gov. Christine Gregoire, have expressed regret at the paucity of 787 contractors locating near Everett.

"We did initially think suppliers would be here pretty quickly, but we didn't understand the bigger picture or model of what happens," said Deborah Knutson, director of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council.

Under Boeing's new model for designing and assembling the twin-engine 787, the company will depend on so-called "tier one" suppliers to build large sections of the jetliner for final assembly in Everett. Those suppliers, or sub-suppliers, will design many of the parts that go into 787 assemblies -- work that Boeing used to do itself.

"I don't think we at the EDC, or even at the state, really knew how complicated the new way of doing this was going to be," Knutson said of Boeing's assembly model.

Jim Shaw, vice president of Boeing business for Smiths Aerospace, said it's the need to collaborate on design work with Boeing that drew his company to Harbour Pointe.

Smiths, a British company headquartered in London, for many years has had an office and lab in Bellevue that supports Boeing's 737 and 777 models. But Shaw said the fact that Smiths will itself design parts for the 787 demanded closer proximity to Boeing's engineers, despite the fact that both sides will be working on the same computerized database.

"You can do a lot of things on a virtual basis, but there's nothing better than having engineers in the same room working out problems," he said. "The fact that we're literally five minutes away from Boeing is a huge benefit in terms of us getting to Boeing quickly, or them coming to our facility."

The Smiths Aerospace facility in Everett will include about 55 people, most of them working directly on 787 design.

"We'll be building a systems engineering group, for that product, up at the facility at Harbour Pointe," he said. "Conceptually, we want to create a larger engineering presence here, so that we can work more efficiently with Boeing in the future."

The Smiths team will focus on what it calls the "common core system," which refers to the 787's central computer system. Other Smiths engineers will design other parts for the 787, including the machinery that raises and lowers landing gear, as well as other systems that monitor steering and braking.

Shaw added that Smiths expects the facility to be a long-term investment, adding that he believes it will be utilized as Boeing develops future aircraft models using 787 technologies.

"The 787 program will be around for a long time, and we're looking at it as a 30- to 50-year program we know we're going to have to support," he said.

But the one plum that Smiths may not be able to bring to Everett -- which is ironically the plum that state economic boosters want most of all -- is manufacturing jobs.

Shaw said his company is still evaluating when, or if, it will bring any parts assembling or even warehousing to the Everett area. He points out that many of the parts that Smiths builds won't be installed by Boeing but by its suppliers.

For example, Smiths' actuators for 787 wings will be sent to Japan to be integrated into the final wing. The big part will then be airlifted to Everett aboard an outsized 747.

"We're not sure yet if we're going to need some just-in-time warehousing, and we're going to work with Boeing on that just-in-time strategy as we move forward, and figure that out," he said.

He's also not sure if lower-tier suppliers will follow the example of lead contractors such as Smiths and establish a presence near the 787 factory. "That's a decision they have to make," he said.

Shaw suggests that the Everett area is clearly the place to be for companies wishing to work closely with Boeing on design.

"Everyone knows that Boeing is gravitating northward in terms of operations. The supply community knows that, and everyone realizes the next place to be is next to your customer," he said.

[MarkDaMan]

Now this is probably a stupid question but are Shnitzer steel and shnitzer development related.

I've wondered that too, its a pretty uncommon name, and if so, why the Schnitzers haven't developed anything here?

[crowdedhouse]

I've wondered that too, its a pretty uncommon name, and if so, why the Schnitzers haven't developed anything here? Actually the Shnitzers own a lot of Property in Portland and have a management firm(I cant remember the name but quite a bit of properties are owned and managed by it.There are 2 sides to the Family and I know that Lewis Shnitzer owns a whole bunch of apts and small comercial buildings.They used to own thee old Multnomah apts across from the stadium.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Might as well post some news about Washington's agriculture sector, too. ;)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_AGR_Crop_Values.html

Thursday, November 3, 2005
Washington state's agricultural production sets record in 2004

By SHANNON DININNY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Washington state farmers set a production record in 2004 and apples once again topped the list of crops, but apple growers saw a decline in sales from the previous year, according to the state's Agricultural Statistics Service.

The total value of Washington crops in 2004 was $5.94 billion, the fourth straight year of increase and a mark that tops the previous record of $5.92 billion in 1995.

Apples made up 16 percent of the total value of Washington farm products, but sales fell 18 percent to $962 million, down from $1.18 billion in 2003. The state is the nation's top apple producer, growing about half the U.S. crop.

Overall, record crop sales show the state's agriculture industry has increased its efficiency and remains healthy, said Valoria Loveland, director of the state Department of Agriculture. However, concerns about the 2005 crop remain due to the drought and rising fuel costs, Loveland said.

"We're going to see the impacts of higher diesel and fertilizer costs next year, and I am concerned about the value of the crops and the profitability to stay near the top," Loveland said Thursday.

She attributed the decline in apple sales in part to weather, as well as a decline in bearing acres. More apple growers are planting cherries, which are highly profitable, and wine grapes or are planting new apple varieties that are not yet producing fruit, she said.

Milk, the second crop on the list, logged a 27.5 percent increase in sales last year to more than $861 million. Rounding out the top five crops were wheat at $524 million, cattle and calves at $476 million and potatoes at $460 million.

The top five commodities represented 55 percent of the 2004 total value of Washington crops.

Countering the decline in apples, several other fruit crops made significant gains in 2004, including cherries at $242 million, pears at $133 million, red raspberries at $47 million and blueberries at $16 million.

Onion growers saw the biggest decline at 38 percent, from $141 million in 2003 to $87 million in 2004.

Among major categories, field crops such as wheat, hops and potatoes accounted for $1.8 billion in sales, followed by livestock and livestock products at $1.68 billion and fruits and nuts at $1.49 billion.

Specialty products - forest products, Christmas trees, floriculture, nursery and other horticultural products and mushrooms - had a combined value of $535 million. Commercial vegetables had a combined value of $366 million, with berry crops rounding out the groups at $78.8 million.

[destroybananas]

Seattle biotech incubator helps another young fledgling to fly
By Benjamin J. Romano

Seattle Times business reporter


PREV | 1 of 2 | NEXT




ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Kenneth Grabstein, chief scientific officer, and Deepshikha Datta, a founder and vice president of new biotech startup Allozyne, have state-of-the-art lab space in Seattle, thanks to biotech incubator Accelerator.





Allozyne employees are busy unpacking at their Eastlake lab. The company is working on technology to make protein-based drug therapies faster, safer and more powerful.



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Seattle biotechnology startup Allozyne closed on its first funding round only three weeks ago, but its scientists are already moving into state-of-the-art lab space.

Accelerator, the aptly named Seattle biotech incubator that's officially announcing Allozyne today, has made a franchise of quickly bringing promising science into development while freeing scientists from the more mundane burdens of launching a business.

"It saves me from doing the part of the job that I don't like to do," said Allozyne's chief scientific officer Kenneth Grabstein, a veteran of Corixa and Immunex.

The work Grabstein likes, in Allozyne's case, is developing a technology that could improve a range of protein-based drug therapies.

Several biotechnology products such as growth factors, monoclonal antibodies and interferons are based on proteins. Allozyne's technology modifies them by incorporating amino acids that don't naturally occur in proteins.

Allozyne aims to make the medicines faster, safer and more powerful.

"You can do a lot of interesting functions from protein that are normally not possible," said Deepshikha Datta, a founder and vice president who helped develop the technology as a post-doctoral student in the Materials and Process Simulation Center at California Institute of Technology.

That Allozyne was launched in Seattle might make sense to people familiar with Accelerator and its founder, Dr. Leroy Hood, who began his career at Caltech. But that's just a coincidence, Datta said.




Accelerator




Nearly $17 million has been invested in five biotechnology startups at the Eastlake incubator since it was founded in 2003:

Allozyne

Funded: Oct. 14

Employees: 4

Research goal: Improved protein-based therapeutics through the addition of non-natural amino acids

Origin of technology: California Institute of Technology

Homestead Clinical

Funded: July 2004

Employees: 5

Research goal: Early detection of diseases, including cancer, through blood samples

Origin of technology: Institute for Systems Biology (Seattle)

Progress: Identified a "significant" number of biomarkers

Spaltudaq

Funded: November 2004

Employees: 2

Research goal: Faster discovery of promising drug candidates for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Origin of technology: Founder Johnny Stine

Progress: Isolated a number of antibodies to be developed against breast cancer

VLST

Funded: May 2004

Employees: 8

Research goal: Faster discovery of promising drug candidates for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Origin of technology: Founders Craig Smith and Steve Wiley, formerly of Immunex

Progress: 70 targets discovered; four advancing to preclinical development; raising a second funding round

VieVax

Funded: March 2004

Employees: 1

Research goal: Rapid development of vaccines against infectious diseases .

Origin of technology: Founder Greg Mahairas and co-discoverer Chris Minion of Iowa State University, which out-licensed the technology

Progress: Completed successful animal studies; evaluating strategic options
Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, collaborated with some well-known names in venture capital on Accelerator, which offers select biotech startups lab space, technical support, access to top-notch science and financing.

Allozyne was introduced to the incubator by Chad Waite, managing director at OVP Venture Partners in Kirkland and an Accelerator board member. "We moved the technology from Pasadena to Seattle," he said.

Scott Carter, who handled the Allozyne licensing deal as assistant director in the Office of Technology Transfer at Caltech, said Accelerator is unique among biotechnology incubators he's seen.

"What Accelerator did is bring together money with the facilities and services that are provided," said Carter. Most incubators provide only the latter, he said.

Five of the six backers of Accelerator invested in Allozyne. They are Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Amgen Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, MPM Capital and OVP. The sixth is Versant Ventures.

Collectively, Accelerator investors have pumped nearly $17 million into five biotech startups since 2003. Some have invested individually in at least three more. In that time, there have been 10 first-round biotech venture deals in Washington, according to venture-capital research firm Venture One.

"When it comes to actually getting companies started in biotech in Seattle, we're the ones who are doing it," said Carl Weissman, Accelerator's president and CEO.

Accelerator is on track to meet its goal of launching seven or eight companies in four years, and it has $5 million remaining to do it. But that won't be the end of the line.

"Our intention is to make this an enduring entity that will continue to generate interesting companies here," Weissman said. "We're already talking to our investors about the next commitment."

Benjamin J. Romano: bromano@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[destroybananas]

Bezos space project plans HQ in Kent - Venture aims to develop reusable launch vehicles
2005-11-06
by Clayton Park
Journal Business Editor

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' quest to reach the stars will move to Kent early next year.

The dot-com billionaire recently bought a 24.65-acre property along South 212th Street, about a mile east of the Boeing Space Center. The property will become the new headquarters for Blue Origin LLC, a project Bezos began in 2000.

Blue Origin's mission, according to a brief description on the company's Web site, is developing reusable launch vehicles and technologies ``that, over time, will help enable an enduring human presence in space.''

The Web site also lists several ``immediate openings'' for engineering and technical positions at Blue Origin.

``Our hiring bar is unabashedly extreme, and we insist on keeping our team size small (measured in the dozens),'' the company's Web site states. ``This means the person occupying each and every spot must be among the most technically gifted in his or her field.''

The company Web site adds that job applicants ``must have a genuine passion for space'' and ``must want to work for a small company. We are building real hardware -- not PowerPoint presentations. This must excite you. You must be a builder.''

Randy Bannecker, a spokesman for Blue Origin, said the company plans to move its headquarters from south Seattle to Kent in the first quarter of 2006.

The company, which is in an expansion mode, expects to bring more than 100 new jobs to Kent, city officials announced in late October. The city did not disclose the identity of Blue Origin's owner when it made the announcement.

Bannecker said Blue Origin officials were not granting interviews to the media.

Blue Origin is led by program manager Robert Meyerson, a veteran aerodynamics engineer who previously worked on the Space Shuttle program before moving to the Seattle area in 1997 to work for Kirkland-based Kistler Aerospace.

Other Blue Origin employees include workers previously involved with Beal Aerospace, Iridium, and the Delta Clipper-Experimental, National Missile Defense and the Boeing-led Sea Launch programs.

Bezos, through an entity identified as Blue Properties LLC, paid $7.8 million to acquire the Kent site, on the southeast corner of South 212th Street and 76th Avenue Southeast, in June, according to county records.

The city granted Blue Origin a permit this past summer allowing the company to convert the property's two existing warehouse buildings into a 243,000-square-foot facility that will be used to design, manufacture and test aerospace vehicles and engines.

Work to renovate the buildings is under way. The fences surrounding the property have signs identifying Foushee as the contractor, along with signs that read ``No Trespassing.''

Upon completion, Blue Origin's prototype launch vehicles will be transported to West Texas for further testing at a rocket launch site that Bezos plans to build near the town of Van Horn.

The rocket launch site will be built on a five-square-mile portion of a sprawling 165,000-acre ranch that Bezos purchased, along with two other ranches just outside of town, said Larry Simpson, editor of the Van Horn Advocate, a community newspaper that published one of the only interviews Bezos has granted to date about Blue Origin.

Unpiloted test flights of the launch vehicles could begin by either late 2006 or early 2007, depending on how long it will take to complete the initial prototypes, Simpson said. The launch vehicles are designed to carry three people at a time ``to the edge of space,'' he said.

Simpson and his wife, Dawn, produce the weekly Van Horn Advocate in the back room of a combination Radio Shack/office supply store that the couple also run.

Simpson also operates the airplane fueling station at the nearby county airport where Bezos lands his private jet when visiting his ranch properties.

The couple, who spoke with the Journal by phone, said they were surprised when Bezos and two Blue Origin officials dropped by their store for an impromptu chat last January.

During an interview that lasted a little over a half-hour, Bezos discussed his plans to develop reusable suborbital launch vehicles that could carry passengers nearly into space, the couple said.

Simpson said Bezos hoped to be able to begin offering commercial passenger flights within three to five years of the initial test launches, with the ultimate goal of helping humankind achieve space colonization ``in his lifetime.''

The 41-year-old Bezos, who was born in Albuquerque, N.M., and spent a portion of his youth in Houston, has an estimated net worth of $4.8 billion. He founded Amazon.com, which has grown to become the world's largest online retailer, in 1994.

Larry Simpson said Blue Origin has a charge account at his store. ``His people buy office supplies and electronics stuff from us,'' Simpson said, adding that the bills are paid with checks personally signed by Bezos.

Larry Simpson said construction workers are erecting fences and building an access road to Blue Origin's planned rocket launch site. The site, itself, is too far from the highway to be seen by passers-by.

Blue Origin officials also discussed their company's plans at two public meetings held in Van Horn this past spring and summer. Larry Simpson said area residents have welcomed the project with open arms.

The company also has been warmly greeted by city officials and business leaders in Kent.

``We're obviously very excited that they're coming to Kent,'' said Nathan Torgelson, the city's economic development manager.

Marcelle Pechler, executive director of the Kent Chamber of Commerce, said Blue Origin is a good fit for the city, which is already home to a number of other manufacturers, including Boeing, Flow International, Esterline's Hytek Finishes Co., and Oberto Sausage Co.

The Kent chamber is looking into the possibility of creating a ``Center for Advanced Manufacturing'' to promote the Kent Valley as an industry hub for the region and to provide assistance to area manufacturers.

``We have the space, we have the infrastructure and the other businesses to support what they're doing,'' said Pechler. ``It's an appropriate home for them. ... Those space tourists may need some of those packaged beef sticks for their long journey.''

Clayton Park can be reached at clayton.park@kingcountyjournal.com or at 253-872-6717.

ON THE NET

http://www.blueorigin.com

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Wow, cool news!! It would be great if Seattle could become a center of space technology and colonization! :D

[MarkDaMan]

HemCon bandage stakes claim to soldier's kit bag
Robin J. Moody
Business Journal staff writer

HemCon Inc. has expanded its manufacturing plant -- nearly quadrupling its production capacity -- just in time to meet a major boost in demand from the U.S. military.

The Pentagon announced last week that it wants every soldier deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan to carry a HemCon bandage in their first-aid kit. The announcement translates to a military order of about 150,000 to 250,000 bandages in 2006, at least twice the number ordered in 2005.

Four-year-old HemCom is based in Portland, and the unique bandage was developed by Dr. Kenton Gregory and his team at the Oregon Medical Laser Center, in partnership with the military.

HemCon could previously turn out 16,000 bandages a month, maximum, but with the addition of 23,000 square feet it can now manufacture 40,000 bandages monthly. This week, staff are finally able to make use of every part of the expanded facility, which totals about 35,000 square feet.

The company employs 50 workers, but expects to employ up to 75 by the end of 2006.

HemCon bandages have demonstrated superior hemorrhage control on the battlefield without reported adverse reactions, the military has reported, and numerous lives have been saved due to this medical advancement.

Here's how they work: Red blood cells and bacteria have a negative surface charge. A chitosan bandage carries a positive charge.

When the HemCon dressing is pressed on a severely bleeding wound, it binds electrostatically in one to five minutes.

The bandage also forms a muco-adhesive glue that seals to the tissue, but the bandage can be easily removed with water. Chitosan is derived from shrimp shells.

"This is a tremendous validation of our technology by an important partner and customer, the U.S. military," said HemCon Chief Executive John Morgan.
HemCon received Food and Drug Administration clearance for the bandage three years ago this week and has been on a major growth spurt ever since -- thanks mostly to its lucrative partnership with the military and recent war activity by the U.S. government.

HemCon was ranked the third-fastest growing company in Portland by the Business Journal, and will end 2005 with revenue of $12 million, compared with $5 million in 2004. It has been profitable since late 2004.

Sales of the bandages to the military will also be supported by a $5 million grant from the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2005-2006, which HemCon officials say will ensure the military has the money to purchase the hemorrhage control bandage.

HemCon is also working an initiative to export its products to Europe, and on a foray into the civilian medical market. Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue recently became the first civilian group to use the bandages in the field.

HemCon will attend the world's largest medical device expo, Medica, in Dusseldorf, Germany, later in November. It expects to be certified to export to Europe by December.

rmoody@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3438

[destroybananas]

^
Wow, cool news!! It would be great if Seattle could become a center of space technology and colonization! :D

I think it's possible.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Wow, this would be a nice plum if Washington state could get it . . .

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002610214_rollsroyce08.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2005/11/07/2002610016.jpg
A Rolls-Royce engineer works on a jet engine at the company's factory in Derby, England. The first engine for the Boeing 787 is being built there.

Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
State hoping to lure new Rolls-Royce plant
By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

The first jet engine for Boeing's 787 is taking shape at Rolls-Royce's factory in England, the apex of British engineering prowess. But five years from now, many of those engines could bear the label "Made in the USA."

The engine maker wants to back up its production plant in England with a second factory, and the United States is strongly favored as a location, Phil Hopton, Rolls-Royce vice president of Seattle operations, said in an interview.

In addition to manufacturing Trent 1000 aircraft engines for the 787, such a factory would make ship and power-plant engines, he said.

Gov. Christine Gregoire met with Rolls-Royce Chief Operating Officer John Cheffins at the Paris Air Show in June, presenting the case for Washington state as a site. Gregoire was the first governor to pitch directly to the company for the factory, she said in an interview Monday.

The governor said the state expects a formal request for proposals from Rolls-Royce soon.

"We're ready. We've already done much of the work in anticipation," she said. "We think we've got a shot."

Modern jet engines are among the most beautifully intricate pieces of machinery ever built.

The tips of the fan blades move at 1,000 miles per hour, and temperatures inside the engine reach 3,632 degrees Fahrenheit. Hopton said that at a new plant, aircraft-engine assembly would employ about 100 people in highly skilled aerospace engineer and technician jobs.

The number of additional jobs in manufacturing marine and energy-sector engines is still under review. Rolls-Royce engine design will remain in the U.K. even if a second plant is built.

A decision on whether to locate the plant in the U.S. will be made next year, and the plan is to start operations at the new facility as 787 production ramps up, Hopton said.

"It would certainly be coming onstream by 2010," Hopton said.

In Paris, Gregoire argued that building the engine close to the 787 assembly plant would save transportation costs and mesh with Boeing's superfast production plan. In addition, Rolls-Royce could tap the state's aerospace tax incentives that were put in place to win 787 assembly for Washington.

But Rolls-Royce will ask the states to compete for the location, just as Boeing did before selecting Everett for final assembly.

"We want the competition," Hopton said. "It's no secret the different states bring different things to the party."

A key reason for looking to the U.S., Hopton said, is to balance the effect of currency shifts. Rolls-Royce prices its engines in U.S. dollars, as do all aerospace companies globally, while many of its costs are in British pounds. The steady rise of the pound against the dollar eats into profits and requires complex currency-hedging deals.

"Moving more of our cost base into dollars makes eminent sense for us," Hopton said.

Factors that could be taken into account in selecting which state will win the plant include labor rates, proximity to Boeing, better logistics and avoidance of tropical storms such as Hurricane Katrina, he said.

A Rolls-Royce spokeswoman said the company has held general discussions with several states but no formal talks with any.

In addition to its aircraft-engine business, Rolls-Royce makes ship engines and gas turbine-based generating equipment for the energy sector.

Those businesses "are all in a growth phase," Hopton said.

Hopton said military aircraft-engine work is less likely for the new factory, though it hasn't been ruled out.

Rolls-Royce already has a facility in Indianapolis that does big Department of Defense jet-engine projects, in addition to producing jet engines for the smaller Embraer regional jets and Citation business jets.

The global headquarters for Rolls-Royce's energy business is in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and the company has major ship propulsion manufacturing plants in Massachusetts, Maryland and Mississippi. Rolls-Royce has some 6,200 U.S. and 1,600 Canadian employees.

Trent 1000 engine parts are supplied by a global network of partners that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (turbine blades) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (compressor module) of Japan; and Goodrich (engine-control system) and Hamilton Sundstrand (gearbox) of the United States.

Assembly of the first fuel-efficient 787 engine got under way in Derby, England, just last week. Each engine has a list price of $12 million to $18 million, depending on which 787 variant it powers.

Eight 787 engines will be built purely for ground tests and nine more for flight tests. The first flying engine is to be shipped in January 2007.

But the next big program milestone is less than four months away. On Valentine's Day 2006, company engineers in Derby are due to start up the first 787 engine.

[JiminyCricket II]

WOW. I really really really really really really hope we get that. It just says "prestige" all over that factory if it gets built, jet engines are amazing, just like when the article said "Modern jet engines are among the most beautifully intricate pieces of machinery ever built." Plus those engineers and mechanics get paid the big bucks.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Yeah I agree, that would be cool. I almost hope that Spokane or some other non-Seattle place gets it, just for the heck of it. ;)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In the meantime, a cancelled big Boeing deal is now officially resurrected . . .

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Boeing_Air_Canada.html

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 · Last updated 3:05 p.m. PT
Air Canada orders up to 96 Boeing planes.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- Air Canada's parent company has struck a deal with Boeing Co. to buy up to 96 airplanes, after previously canceling a similar order because of a dispute with pilots, Boeing confirmed Wednesday.

ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. said it had placed a firm order for 18 widebody 777s and 14 of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliners. The Montreal-based company also said it had taken purchase rights for 18 more 777s and options and purchase rights for 46 more 787s.

Boeing said that at list prices, the firm orders were worth $6 billion. Airlines, however, typically negotiate steep discounts from list prices. ACE and Boeing did not disclose the actual price for the deal.

ACE said it would order a mix of 777s, including the 777-200LR, 777-300ER and 777 Freighter. The 777-200LR and 777-300ER sell for between $209 million and $253 million, while the 787 is listed at between $125 million and $135 million.

ACE said it would receive its first six 777s between March and July of 2007, and is scheduled to get its first 787 in 2010.

The new order comes after Air Canada was able to reach an agreement with its pilots. The company was forced to cancel its previous order in June because the pilots rejected a cost-cutting deal that would have freed up money for new planes.

The airline emerged from bankruptcy last year. In a statement, it said the new airplanes would help the company better compete with leading worldwide carriers.

[JiminyCricket II]

^
Yeah I agree, that would be cool. I almost hope that Spokane or some other non-Seattle place gets it, just for the heck of it. ;)

I hope Seattle gets it, and I mean IN Seattle. Think about a factory off of I-5 near the stadiums with a nice big sign facing I-5 that says "Rolls-Royce Jet Engine Propulsion Technology" across it or something like that. I can just see it, visitors looking on with envy. :D

[James Bond Agent 007]

I hope Seattle gets it, and I mean IN Seattle. Think about a factory off of I-5 near the stadiums with a nice big sign facing I-5 that says "Rolls-Royce Jet Engine Propulsion Technology" across it or something like that. I can just see it, visitors looking on with envy. :D
Yeah that would be cool. Unfortunately, I highly doubt there's enough vacant industrially-zoned land anywhere in Seattle to put a brand-spanking-new jet engine factory. I'm guessing something like that would need - what? - several dozen acres? A few hundred acres?

Not gonna find that anywhere in the Seattle city limits, I'm afraid.

[InlandEmpire]

I was thinking this would actually be a perfect opportunity for Spokane. There is plenty of room west of the city near the airport for such a thing, and it would still be in reasonable proximity to Boeing operations in Seattle. I noticed they were citing a safe location (away from hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.) and wages being factors, which in both instances I think Spokane could deliver. The city could really use an economic boost like that.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Yeah, that's exactly where I was thinking of too - Spokane around the airport.

If it didn't go there, it would probably either go somewhere in Snohomish County (is there much land left around Paine Field???) or maybe in Pierce County near Frederickson, which has a large industrial park with many large, vacant parcels.

Of course there's no guarantee Washington will get it at all, as the article said, Washington will have to compete against other states.

General Electric airplane engines for Boeing jets are made near Cincinnati. So obviously proximity to Boeing isn't totally neccessary.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Friday, November 11, 2005 - 12:00 AM
Google seeks to add space in Kirkland

By Kim Peterson
Seattle Times technology reporter

Google is expanding its presence in Microsoft's backyard and is close to signing a lease for 15,000 feet of office space in downtown Kirkland, according to the company's real-estate broker.

The company is also keeping an eye on some of the major office developments planned for downtown Bellevue, but is nowhere near making a commitment, said the broker, Dan Foster of Flinn Ferguson Corporate Real Estate in Seattle.

Rumors have been flying for weeks that Google might be interested in moving to Bellevue, perhaps to the posh Lincoln Square, which opened some of its retail and hotel space earlier this month. The corporate headquarters of Eddie Bauer is the only confirmed tenant for Lincoln Square's office building, which is expected to begin construction early next year.

There's no truth to the Bellevue rumors, Foster said. But Google is interested in the opportunities it could find in the city, if it wanted to. Foster added that he keeps the company informed about all the corporate real-estate developments in the area.

"They like to be educated about the market," he said.

Lincoln Square's development company, owned by Kemper Freeman Jr., does not comment on any rumors related to its lease negotiations, a spokeswoman said.

Google, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on any expansion plans.

Google opened a research-and-development office in Kirkland in mid-2004, but by last November it had placed only 10 employees there. Now its headcount ranges between 150 and 200 employees, and the office has expanded to the top two floors — about 47,000 square feet — of the building, Foster said.

He would not say exactly where in downtown Kirkland the company is looking, but said a draft lease could be ready in the next couple of weeks.

Google has long been interested in downtown Kirkland, he said. Before its offices opened last year, engineers occupied a small executive suite in Kirkland's Carillon Point.

The Kirkland office has been one of the fastest growing at the company. It is home to graduates from the University of Washington and relocated Googlers from the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. About 55 UW alumni work throughout the company, but fewer than a dozen are in the Kirkland office, said Ed Lazowska, a professor in the university's Computer Science & Engineering Department.

And much to the chagrin of its Redmond rival, the office also has claimed its share of Microsoft employees.

The potential employee exodus has been a cause for concern at Microsoft. In March 2004, executives as high as Chairman Bill Gates discussed over e-mail the threat of losing people to Google. The subject of those messages, but not the content, came out in court hearings earlier this year in the case of Kai-Fu Lee, an executive Microsoft sued after he jumped ship for Google.

Many of the buildings under construction in downtown Bellevue won't be completed for years. That's a long time for a fast-moving company like Google to wait, said some real-estate brokers. If Google were to move into hundreds of thousands of square feet in one of those buildings, it would definitely send a message, one said.

It would be "clearly aimed at trying to position themselves for a major hiring initiative," said Tom Bohman, Eastside director at Cushman & Wakefield.

[Hub for an Empire]

I know the EDC is concentrating on forming an Aerospace group to market Spokane, since they stated there are several companies already operating here that deal with that industry!

On another topic.....
I noticed this EDC article from last month that Spokane was rated
#16 out of a list of 55 hot mid-sized cities for Entrepreneurs! (Based on growth)
You can see that article at:

http://www.spokaneedc.org/PR.php?n=315

[mhays]

Everett makes sense for Rolls Royce.

The Everett area has lots of extra industrial capacity due to Boeing's shrinkage and the related shrinkage of their suppliers. Plenty of land, and maybe even an existing building.

And of course the reduced transporation costs would be helpful for RR.

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002623534_webboeingorder14.html

Monday, November 14, 2005
German airline DBA orders 40 Boeing 737s
By David McHugh
The Associated Press

BERLIN – German airline DBA said today it would update and expand its fleet by ordering 40 Boeing 737s for delivery beginning next year.

DBA cited good experience with the twin-engine planes from Chicago-based Boeing Co. and said it had been in talks with European competitor Airbus before making the decision.

DBA didn't give the price it would pay, saying only that the planes' list price was $54 million each, which would work out to $2.1 billion. But large orders often come with discounts.

The order will include both the 737-700 and the 737-800 models and would help ensure the Munich-based airline's expansion, which will include a denser network within Germany and flights to Paris beginning in March, board chairman Hans Rudolf Woerhl said in a statement.

"We want to grow further," he said. "It is our goal, to be No. 1 in point-to-point traffic within Germany."

The airline would have lost the know-how that pilots and mechanics have acquired working with the current fleet of 737-300s if it had switched to Airbus, Woehrl said. "Staying with Boeing saved us money," he said.

Woerhl said the airline wants to add flights from Hamburg and Hanover to Frankfurt, if it can get the landing and takeoff slots.

"These are important routes for business travelers and so far they are monopoly routes with correspondingly higher prices," he said. "Beyond that, we can now begin to implement our successful concept on European routes too."

He said growth in Europe would focus on destinations within 11/2 hours' flying time from Germany.

DBA currently operates a fleet of 29 planes, including 737s and Fokker 100s. Its current network includes flights from Stuttgart, Hanover, Munich, Berlin and other German cities to destinations within Germany and foreign destinations including Nice, Rome, and Moscow.

[Last Chance]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002624320&zsection_id=2002119995&slug=747advanced15&date=20051115


New 747 version could save jobs in Everett

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

In a decision sure to be greeted with relief at Boeing's Everett plant, the company announced late Monday it would move ahead with plans for a new version of its iconic 747 jumbo jet, the 747 Advanced, now renamed the 747-8.

Boeing got its second launch customer for a cargo version of the new 747 derivative Monday, assuring an extended life for the plane that entered service in 1970.

Without a go-ahead for the 747-8 version, the production line in Everett faced closure within a few years because Boeing had a 747 backlog of only 42 jets.

Both launch customers are cargo airlines. Boeing had hoped to get an order for the passenger version of the jet to launch the program, so beginning with only cargo customers is something of a surprise. Plans for the passenger version will proceed.

Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) will take eight of the new jets with options for six more. NCA, with a fleet of 13 older 747s, is owned by Nippon Yusen KK, Japan's largest marine shipping line. Boeing already had one announced customer, Cargolux, an air-freight company based in Luxembourg that ordered 10 of the new jets plus options for 10 more. The 18 firm orders together are valued at approximately $5 billion.

The first 747-8 is scheduled for delivery in October 2008, according to internal company documents.

Though Boeing doesn't disclose the number of employees working on specific programs, company documents indicate the Everett plant has thousands of engineers and manufacturing support staff in addition to about 1,000 people working directly on day-to-day 747 production.

Boeing's 747 jumbo jet



Launched: April 1966

First flight: February 1969

Entered service: January 1970

Delivered to date: 1,364

Unfilled orders: 42

747-400 list price: $205 million to $236 million

Most recent passenger jet order: Air China in November 2002 ordered four passenger versions of the 747-400

Orders in 2005: 26 airplanes, all freighter versions, including eight for UPS

Deliveries in 2005: 11 airplanes, including just two passenger jets

Source: Boeing
The launch decision was expected, though Boeing had repeatedly retreated from previous plans to update the airplane.

In the mid-1990s, Boeing planned two 747 derivatives that would have been nearly-new airplanes with 777 systems, expensive to develop. The idea was scrapped when the Asian financial crisis temporarily depressed the market.

Meanwhile, Airbus pushed ahead with the A380 superjumbo, which eclipsed the 747 as the largest airliner in the world.

In 1999, Boeing proposed the 747X family, a cheaper option that included a stretch version almost as big as the A380. But when Singapore Airlines chose the A380 over the 747X, Boeing decided that the market wasn't big enough for two superjumbos and again backed away.

After being criticized for years for lack of investment in the future, Boeing has a full plate of major development programs, with the 787 in detailed design phase, the new ultra-long-range 777-200LR in flight test and now a new version of the 747 to work on.

The 747-8, the third and cheapest 747 fix yet, uses the super-efficient 787 engines to extend the jumbo's life. It will be powered by four modified versions of the General Electric 787 engines, making it quieter, increasing its fuel efficiency and extending its range to 8,000 nautical miles.

The new derivative will have raked composite wing tips and other small aerodynamic changes to the wing to increase performance.

The fuselage on the cargo version will be lengthened with inserts of 160 inches just in front of the wing and 60 inches just behind it, a total stretch of 18 feet, 4 inches. The freighter version will carry a payload of 147 tons, with a range of 4,470 nautical miles.

The passenger version of the new jet will also attempt to update the dowdy image of the jumbo jet's interior and rival the appeal of the Airbus A380 with a spacious entryway and new interior design, including mood lighting and luxury "sky suites" with sleeping bunks for first-class passengers. It will be slightly shorter than the cargo version, a 10-foot stretch.

The 747-8 is aimed at a market slot halfway between the Boeing 777-300ER size, with 365 seats, and the Airbus A380 superjumbo, with 550 seats.

The passenger version of the 747-8 will seat 450 passengers, 34 more than the current 747-400.

There hasn't been an order for the passenger version of the existing 747 since China Airlines ordered four in November 2002.

However, Boeing is negotiating with several Asian airlines to take the new 747-8 passenger model.

Singapore Airlines is considering buying nine, Cathay Pacific of Hong Kong may take six, China Airlines of Taiwan may buy six more, and Qantas of Australia is looking at an order of as many as 20.

Those airlines are weighing the new 747 against the A380 superjumbo, and Airbus' six-month delay in delivering that plane has undoubtedly helped Boeing. Every 747-8 that is sold probably means one less superjumbo sale for Airbus.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

[MarkDaMan]

Gov. touts lowest Ore. jobless rate in 4 years
07:51 PM PST on Monday, November 14, 2005
By WILLIAM McCALL, AP Business Writer

Oregon's economy is showing more signs of a strong recovery and job growth after unemployment fell to its lowest level in more than four years in October.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski speaks about Oregon's low unemployment figures at a state employment office in Portland.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski made a special appearance Monday at the monthly Oregon Employment Department briefing in Portland to announce the statewide jobless rate fell to 6 percent for the first time since April 2001.

He noted the state economy has the sixth-fastest growth rate in the nation, with a steady expansion over the past two years.

"We've created more than 81,000 jobs in this state" since January 2003, the Democratic governor said. "And it's regional growth, not just in a particular area."

Art Ayre, the state's chief labor economist, said the Oregon economy has grown at a steady 3 percent rate for nearly two years, more than double the average 1.4 percent growth rate nationally.

Private companies performed even better than the slower public sector, growing 3.6 percent in Oregon compared to 1.5 percent nationally over the past 12 months, Ayre said.

The state had recovered the 64,000 jobs it lost in the recession by last January and has gained another 40,400 since January, he said.

"You have to ask yourself, 'Is Oregon doing something right?'" Kulongoski said. "And I think it is."

Nationally, the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5 percent in October, about the same as the previous five months.

Oregon had suffered the highest jobless rate in the nation for most of the recession but has been making up ground in the past year. The one-point difference between the Oregon unemployment rate in October and the national rate was the smallest since January 2001, Ayre said.

The Oregon growth rate likely will slow, probably to about 1.5 percent, but so far has outpaced the nation, he said.

Some Oregonians who were at the Employment Department during the announcement said they had mixed feelings about the improvement.

William Hones, 50, said he came from Britain when he was 22 and hitchhiked across the United States to find a job with a cruise ship line. He has never had trouble finding a job, even during the recession, including his current job as a building maintenance worker, he said.

"There's no reason not to work in this country," Hones said. "There should be no reason you can't find a job."

But he said he has had his share of bad jobs, including a two-year stint as a cab driver he called "the worst job I've ever had."

His feelings were echoed by Lucia Marie DelosantosCoy, 28, who has been working part-time for a temporary help service.

"I just applied for unemployment for the first time," DelosantosCoy said.

"Yeah, there are more jobs out there, but it's an issue of quality vs. quantity," she said. "There aren't enough quality jobs."

Kulongoski urged stronger support for education, including vocational programs for skilled workers. As an example, he noted the number of skilled millwrights is declining in Oregon as many approach retirement age.

"It will end up hurting our economy over the long run if we don't invest in those skills," Kulongoski said. "They're good jobs. You can have all the engineers and all the scientists you want. But someone has to pick up the tools and build the buildings and the roads and the bridges."

In October, most of the major industries in Oregon performed slightly better than their normal seasonal trend. The gains were led by trade, transportation and utilities with 3,000 more jobs than the typical seasonal increase for that sector.

The end of a one-month strike by Boeing Co. employees boosted October numbers by 900 jobs in the aerospace industry in Oregon.

Retail started its seasonal hiring with a gain of 4,400 jobs, which Ayre said "is a pretty strong start to the holiday hiring season."

Building material and garden supply stores added 500 jobs and is up 1,500 jobs, or 10.3 percent, in the past 12 months. The industry has been helped by the very strong residential construction market in recent years. The biggest loser for the month was leisure and hospitality, which declined by 6,000 in October.

Construction employment dropped only 200 jobs in October, when a loss of 500 is normal for the time of year. Seasonally adjusted employment in construction reached 93,300 in October — gaining more than 11 percent with 9,300 jobs added over a 12-month period.

Manufacturing performed in line with normal trends in October, cutting 100 jobs when a drop of 400 is expected for the time of year.

The jobless rate is down more than a full point from last October, when it stood at 7.3 percent. For the month, 100,657 Oregonians were unemployed, the lowest level since December 2000 and nearly 19 percent lower than the 124,056 without jobs in October 2004.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
That article is rather annoying. It touts Oregon's lowering unemployment rate, but it doesn't say exactly what Oregon's unemployment rate is!!

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - 1:36 PM PST Tuesday
State's job growth continues in October

The state's unemployment rate in October was 5.6 percent, down slightly from 5.7 percent the month before, according to the state Employment Security Department.

The better employment news is that the state's employers continued to add jobs. Payrolls advanced by 23,800 jobs in October, following a decline of 12,100 in September. The jobs data in both months was distorted by the strike by 16,000 workers at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Excluding the effect of the strike, the state gained 11,700 new jobs over the two-month period, said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.

"The economic environment in Washington remains positive," Lee said in a statement. "Employers are adding workers and providing more opportunities for people to find jobs."

Employment in the state increased roughly 78,000, or 2.8 percent, since October 2004. During the same period nationally, employment increased 1.4 percent.

In the Puget Sound region, King County's unemployment rate in October was 4.7 percent, down from 4.9 percent, and Snohomish County's was 4.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent.

[Last Chance]

This article is from the Portland Business Journal. It gives a current unemployment rate and also says it's the lowest unemployment has been in SIX years...

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/11/14/daily9.html?t=printable

The Business Journal of Portland - 2:45 PM PST Monday
Oregon unemployment rate lowest in six years
Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 6 percent in October, compared with 6.1 percent in September, but it was the lowest reading in more than four years and marked the first time since April 2001 that Oregon's rate has been at 6 percent or below.

In April 2001, the rate was also 5.9 percent.

The national unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5 percent in October, about the same as the prior five months readings, which were in the range of 4.9 percent to 5.1 percent

In October, nonfarm payroll employment grew slightly faster than is the typical trend for the time of year, adding 18,400 jobs when a gain of 17,200 is the typical seasonal trend.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
That's more like it. ;)

I can't believe anyone would write a newspaper article about an unemployment rate without saying what the unemployment rate is! Like, it should be in the very first sentance!

[MarkDaMan]

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski made a special appearance Monday at the monthly Oregon Employment Department briefing in Portland to announce the statewide jobless rate fell to 6 percent for the first time since April 2001.

I can't believe anyone would write a newspaper article about an unemployment rate without saying what the unemployment rate is! Like, it should be in the very first sentance!

damnit James, don't you read?!?!?:laugh:

[Last Chance]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002626270&zsection_id=2002119995&slug=jobless16&date=20051116

Hiring is firing on all cylinders

By Josh Goodman
Seattle Times business reporter

With Washington's job market heating up and seasonal hiring among retailers in full swing, some area employers are beginning to bump up wages.

To draw quality employees to its stores on the Eastside, where competition from new retail outlets is intense, Fred Meyer has started some experienced new hires farther along the pay scale. It's also reduced to one day the seasonal hiring process at hard-to-staff stores in Bellevue, Issaquah and Redmond.

"Things are the tightest they've been in several years," said Keith Fuller, director of Fred Meyer's recruiting office in Portland.

Driven by strong hiring in the Seattle area, job growth accelerated last month across the state.

On Tuesday, the Employment Security Department announced that payrolls statewide expanded by 23,800 workers last month, including the return to work of some 16,000 Boeing Machinists after a nearly monthlong strike.

Excluding the impact of the strike and a net gain of 1,383 employees at Boeing since September, employment levels expanded by 7,100 jobs — the biggest monthly gain since July.

As crowded as the job market is getting, however, the state's chief labor economist says there is still plenty of slack left in the economy.

That's because people have been entering the labor force at a faster pace — an average 6,875 a month the past year — than jobs are being created.

With more people looking for work, Washington's jobless rate nudged only negligibly lower, to 5.6 percent in October compared with 5.7 percent in September.

In the past year, unemployment has fallen less than half of a percent.

The state is still below the peak labor-force participation rate of nearly 69 percent, when unemployment was below 5 percent, said Rick Kaglic, chief economist at the state Employment Security Department.

The labor-force participation rate is the percentage of eligible population over age 16 that is employed or looking for work. In October, it was 68.3 percent — the highest level in five years.

The bulk of job growth continues to be driven by businesses in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area. Smoothing over the impact of the Boeing strike, employment increased by 6,300 the past two months, accounting for 54 percent of gains statewide.

Since the statewide recession ended in April 2003, Seattle has recovered 71,200 of the 100,600 jobs it lost.

For the year, area employment is up 3.1 percent compared with 2.8 percent for the state and 2.4 percent nationwide.

"It's been a long time coming, but Seattle is steadily making up the ground lost during the recession," Kaglic said. "Solid job growth should continue for some time."

That's particularly true in the case of technology companies. Everyone from small startups, which have benefited from a triple-digit increase in venture capital, to IT giants Microsoft and T-Mobile have been on a hiring frenzy in recent months.

The increased competition is beginning to drive up wages, especially for midlevel and senior positions, recruiters say.

"The market is robust, to say the least," says Jana Bergman, a recruiter at Comforce Technical Staffing in Redmond. "I've got 200 open orders right now, more than double the volume I had a year ago."

For the state overall, October's job gains were concentrated in manufacturing and aerospace, which has added 6,900 jobs in the past year.

Josh Goodman: 206-464-3347 or jgoodman@seattletimes.com

[James Bond Agent 007]

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski made a special appearance Monday at the monthly Oregon Employment Department briefing in Portland to announce the statewide jobless rate fell to 6 percent for the first time since April 2001.

I can't believe anyone would write a newspaper article about an unemployment rate without saying what the unemployment rate is! Like, it should be in the very first sentance!

damnit James, don't you read?!?!?:laugh:
Oh. *blushes*

Still, it should be in the first paragraph. It was kinda buried there. ;) :D

[Last Chance]

This wasn't mentioned in the Puget Sound Business Journal or the Portland Business Journal, but it's good news for Wafertech, Intel and the Beaverton / Hillsboro, OR and Vancouver, WA areas.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/11/14/daily23.html?f=et79&hbx=e_du

Semiconductor sales seen picking up through 2008
Global microchip sales will pick up speed in the next few years, growing by 45 percent to $309 billion by the end of 2008, according to the annual forecast made Wednesday by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

The group projects growth of 6.8 percent this year to $227.6 billion this year, 7.9 percent in 2006 to $245.5, 10.5 percent to $271.3 billion in 2007, and 13.9 percent to $309.2 billion in 2008.

The San Jose-based semiconductor association said that the fastest-growing major markets next year will be:

Personal computers with a forecasted unit growth of 10 percent;
Cellular telephones at 13 percent;
Digital cameras at 9 percent;
Digital televisions at 52 percent;
MP3 players at 52 percent.
The 2006 forecast projects the market for microprocessor will slightly outpace the PC market, driven by saled of notebook computers.

The group also projects growth of 15.9 percent for flash memory, driven largely by 23.5 percent growth in NAND flash, which is used in products such as MP3 players and digital cameras.

It said NOR flash is growing more slowly at 6.1 percent as cell phone manufacturers are using other types of memory devices, such as DRAMs and NAND flash.

[James Bond Agent 007]

A new chocolate factory in Blaine! :banana:

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - 8:58 AM PST Thursday
New sweets factory planned in Blaine

Totally Chocolate Inc., a maker of custom chocolate products for business promotions, and other confections, plans to break ground soon on a new 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Blaine.

The company expects to deliver more than a million pounds of its custom chocolate products this year, stretching the capacity of its current factory -- half the size of the new one -- near the Canadian border. That facility will be leased out or sold, officials said.

"We were faced with a choice between putting the brakes on further sales growth or investing in a larger, more efficient plant," said Jeff Robinson, Totally Chocolate's founder and CEO, in a statement.

Totally Chocolate has developed technology to make detailed chocolate gifts featuring company logos, messages and engravings of products, machines or buildings.

Construction on the new manufacturing plant will begin next month, and the project is expected to be complete early next summer.

[Last Chance]

^ Sounds like a front for a tunnel under the border to me...

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
LOL!

[destroybananas]

Washington state revenue forecast jumps by $305 million

By DAVID AMMONS
AP POLITICAL WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington's hot economy, still surging with a mighty assist from construction and real estate sales, will boost state coffers by over $300 million, forecasters said Thursday.

But in the same breath, economists warned of dark clouds on the horizon, and Gov. Christine Gregoire and key legislators cautioned against a spending spree in the upcoming legislative session.

"There's a lot of risk out there," said state budget director Victor Moore.

It's a tempting target: The new revenue update, reflecting the fourth quarterly revenue surge in a row, brings the state's reserves to over $1.4 billion, roughly 5 percent of the state budget.

Chief economist ChangMook Sohn's new analysis for the state Revenue Forecast Council presumes a cooling of the red-hot housing market and consumer spending, and projects continuing high oil prices.

The housing bubble hasn't popped yet, but a cool-down probably is imminent, Sohn said. National housing starts dropped 5.6 percentage points last month, he noted.



"There are many signs that housing is peaking," he said. "We have been expecting that for a long time."

In Washington, the real estate and construction sector are responsible for half of the new $304.9 million windfall announced by the council. The state will collect another $100 million just from the tax on real estate transactions.

Gregoire will use the new forecast as she finishes the state budget she sends to the Legislature next month. Moore said the plan will include over $200 million for human services caseloads, school enrollment and teacher raises, plus some money for public pensions.

The administration will support at least $176 million in additional pension contributions and the Legislature should sock away hundreds of millions toward the extra $700 million pension payment that will come due in two years, he said.

"There's a lot of pent-up demand," but lawmakers should rebuff most new spending, Moore said in an interview. "We have our eye on (balancing the budget for) '07-09. That's what's important."

Without specifying a number, the governor urged lawmakers to save a substantial portion of the reserves for the expected budget problems that await in the upcoming biennium.

"I'll make budget decisions that set aside the dollars we will need tomorrow, while still taking care of real needs we have today," Gregoire said in a statement.

The council chairman, House Finance Chairman Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, and Senate budget Vice Chairman Mark Doumit, D-Cathlamet, said majority Democrats won't go on a spending spree.

"We will try to be careful and reasonable," McIntire said. He later acknowledged in an interview that both spending pressures and requests for tax breaks will be ferocious.

He suggested "rational exuberance" as a response to the windfall, but noted that the state economy is unbalanced with its heavy reliance on growth in one sector.

"The level of uncertainty is very high," Sohn agreed.

Doumit predicted "a pretty high level of fiscal restraint. I don't think anybody feels we are awash in new revenue."

Republican members of the panel, Sen. Joe Zarelli of Ridgefield and Rep. Ed Orcutt of Kalama, said they'll hold the Democrats to their word.

"We should lay as low as possible through the rest of this biennium," restraining the impulse to spend, Zarelli said.

"We have to be planning for the downturn that we know is coming," Orcutt said. "We have to be putting something aside."

Sohn noted that Wall Street recommends that states build up a 5 percent cushion.

Sohn's new forecast now projects that more than $26.3 billion in revenue.

Previous quarterly revenue increases have been $493 million, $450 million and $1.7 billion. Lawmakers spent some of that, but a record surplus still is projected.

---

On the Net:

Forecast Council: http://www.erfc.wa.gov




Printer-friendly version

[sequoias]

Good news there, I hope they will balance the budget. We'll see though.

[MarkDaMan]

Portland area home prices rise by 20%

06:03 PM PST on Tuesday, November 15, 2005
By kgw.com and AP Staff

The nation's booming housing market continued to push prices higher in the summer and early fall with 69 metropolitan areas reporting double-digit increases compared with a year ago, a real estate trade group reported Tuesday.

Among them was the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area, where the median price of $253,000 marked a 20 percent increase. The median is the midpoint where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

The National Association of Realtors said nationwide that the median price of an existing home rose by 14.7 percent in the July-September quarter to $215,900, compared with a median price of $188,200 a year ago.

Led by Phoenix, Ariz., and Orlando, Fla., the nation's hottest markets far outperformed the nationwide figure. The price of existing homes sold during the third quarter in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area jumped to $268,000, a whopping 55.2 percent higher than the same period a year ago. Orlando has the second biggest increase, a gain of 44.8 percent to $261,300, followed closely by Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., where home prices were up 42.5 percent to $277,600.
Related content

Some economists have expressed concern that demand for housing in some parts of the country is being driven by a speculative frenzy that could burst the price bubble as mortgage rates continue to climb. Freddie Mac's nationwide survey showed that the 30-year mortgage hit 6.36 percent last week, the highest level in more than two years.

However, most analysts believe that rising mortgage rates will simply moderate the double-digit gains in home prices that home sellers have enjoyed in recent years, rather than cause sharp declines in home prices.

"The good news is that inventory levels are improving and housing supply will come closer to buyer demand in 2006," said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors. "We expect a healthy and more balanced market next year." The Realtors' latest survey showed that 69 metropolitan areas - nearly half of the 147 areas surveyed - enjoyed double-digit price gains in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier.

At the other end of the scale, six metro areas saw small price declines, led by a 5.4 percent drop in home prices in Elmira, N.Y., where the median price fell to $77,100, compared with $81,500 in the third quarter of 2004.

[Mike D]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002626270&zsection_id=2002119995&slug=jobless16&date=20051116

Hiring is firing on all cylinders

By Josh Goodman
Seattle Times business reporter

With Washington's job market heating up and seasonal hiring among retailers in full swing, some area employers are beginning to bump up wages.

To draw quality employees to its stores on the Eastside, where competition from new retail outlets is intense, Fred Meyer has started some experienced new hires farther along the pay scale. It's also reduced to one day the seasonal hiring process at hard-to-staff stores in Bellevue, Issaquah and Redmond.

"Things are the tightest they've been in several years," said Keith Fuller, director of Fred Meyer's recruiting office in Portland.

Driven by strong hiring in the Seattle area, job growth accelerated last month across the state.

On Tuesday, the Employment Security Department announced that payrolls statewide expanded by 23,800 workers last month, including the return to work of some 16,000 Boeing Machinists after a nearly monthlong strike.

Excluding the impact of the strike and a net gain of 1,383 employees at Boeing since September, employment levels expanded by 7,100 jobs — the biggest monthly gain since July.

As crowded as the job market is getting, however, the state's chief labor economist says there is still plenty of slack left in the economy.

That's because people have been entering the labor force at a faster pace — an average 6,875 a month the past year — than jobs are being created.

With more people looking for work, Washington's jobless rate nudged only negligibly lower, to 5.6 percent in October compared with 5.7 percent in September.

In the past year, unemployment has fallen less than half of a percent.

The state is still below the peak labor-force participation rate of nearly 69 percent, when unemployment was below 5 percent, said Rick Kaglic, chief economist at the state Employment Security Department.

The labor-force participation rate is the percentage of eligible population over age 16 that is employed or looking for work. In October, it was 68.3 percent — the highest level in five years.

The bulk of job growth continues to be driven by businesses in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area. Smoothing over the impact of the Boeing strike, employment increased by 6,300 the past two months, accounting for 54 percent of gains statewide.

Since the statewide recession ended in April 2003, Seattle has recovered 71,200 of the 100,600 jobs it lost.

For the year, area employment is up 3.1 percent compared with 2.8 percent for the state and 2.4 percent nationwide.

"It's been a long time coming, but Seattle is steadily making up the ground lost during the recession," Kaglic said. "Solid job growth should continue for some time."

That's particularly true in the case of technology companies. Everyone from small startups, which have benefited from a triple-digit increase in venture capital, to IT giants Microsoft and T-Mobile have been on a hiring frenzy in recent months.

The increased competition is beginning to drive up wages, especially for midlevel and senior positions, recruiters say.

"The market is robust, to say the least," says Jana Bergman, a recruiter at Comforce Technical Staffing in Redmond. "I've got 200 open orders right now, more than double the volume I had a year ago."

For the state overall, October's job gains were concentrated in manufacturing and aerospace, which has added 6,900 jobs in the past year.

Josh Goodman: 206-464-3347 or jgoodman@seattletimes.com
I'm glad to hear that Seattle's economy is coming back strong. Seattle and Portland were places I long considered relocating to, but I crossed them off my list when the economy nosedived in 2001 after hearing the grim news back then about the economy in the Northwest. Now I can put Seattle back on my relocation list. Hopefully I can do the same for Portland.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Note that the unemployment rate here in Washington is still 5.6% and in Oregon it's 6%. Both are well above the national unemployment rate of 5%.

[Last Chance]

Yeah, and the weather really sucks too. There just aren't any articles to post about it because the City Council has suppressed the media!

[James Bond Agent 007]

Some of these Boeing orders are starting to get staggering in size. In today's news, advance info says the Chinese will order 70 737's and the UAE will order 42 777's. Then at the end of the 2nd article here there's a rumor the Chinese will order 150 planes - though it's not sure that that's anything more than a rumor, and even if it's true it might just be confirmations of previous orders, at least in part.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051119/ap_on_bi_ge/china_us_boeing;_ylt=Ak5WYpsmtqESYklv5qAi8Hus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGI2aDNqBHNlYwM3NDk-

China to Buy 70 Boeing 737 Airliners

BEIJING - China will buy 70 Boeing 737 airliners, a U.S. official said Saturday as President Bush arrived on a visit expected to include discussion of Beijing's surging trade surplus with the United States.

Mike Green, senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council, would not discuss the financial details of the airplane deal. Neither Boeing Co. nor the Chinese government made any formal announcement of the sale.

"It's a very important thing and I think it's a testament to how our approach to China is yielding real results," Green told reporters traveling in China with Bush. "In this case, an order for 70 737 aircraft from Boeing."

Beijing often announces large purchases of American airliners in connection with visits by U.S. leaders in an effort mollify Washington's frustration over China's trade surplus, which hit a record $162 billion in 2004.

It is expected to pass $200 billion this year.

China is a key growth market for Boeing and its European rival Airbus Industrie.

Boeing says it expects Chinese carriers to buy more than 2,600 new aircraft worth $213 billion as the country's economy grows and more people travel. It says it hopes the single-aisle Boeing 737 jet, which carries about 150 passengers, will make up the bulk of China's new purchases.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/248986_boeingorder19.html

Saturday, November 19, 2005
Airline poised to place $10 billion order for 777s
By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER AEROSPACE REPORTER

Emirates, one of the world's fastest-growing airlines, is expected to order about $10 billion worth of Boeing 777s at the Dubai Air Show that begins Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, according to an industry source familiar with the airline's plans.

The order, for what the source said will be up to 42 777s, would represent a major strategic victory for Boeing over Airbus and its competing A340 -- further evidence that with sky-high fuel prices zapping airline profits, the four-engine A340 is losing key customers and market share to the twin-engine 777.

Boeing could also land a 737 order out of China during a visit there Sunday by President Bush, though a Boeing insider dismissed a report by Bloomberg News that the order would be for 150 of the single-aisle Boeing jets.

The Emirates order will include the 777-200LR, the jet that last week set a record for the longest non-stop jetliner flight ever, flying more than 13,000 miles from Hong Kong to London.

When it enters airline service early next year, the 777-200LR will go head to head against the Airbus A340-500, which is already in operation with Emirates, Singapore Airlines and several other international carriers on non-stop routes such as New York to Singapore and Dubai to Sydney.

The Boeing and Airbus jets have about the same range, although Boeing will offer the 777-200LR with auxiliary fuel tanks that makes it the world's longest-range jetliner.

Emirates joins Air Canada, another A340-500 customer, which evaluated the 777-200LR and decided to order it instead of more A340-500s. Singapore could be next.

It has been widely reported for months, based on comments in part from various Emirates executives, that the airline favored the 777 and would make an order announcement on its home turf at the Dubai Air Show. But the size of the 777 order is a surprise.

The industry source said the airline will order 24 777-300ERs, eight 777 freighters and 10 777-200LRs. It may take purchase rights on as many as 10 more 777s, the source said

The 777 freighter, which is in development, will be based on the 777-200LR design.

The 777-300ER is Boeing's most expensive jet, with an average list price of $239.5 million. The 777-200LR has an average list price of $220.5 million. Boeing has not yet announced the list price of the 777 freighter, but has said it would be higher than that of the 777-200LR passenger plane.

Airlines don't pay the list price. Boeing's top customers such as Emirates probably get discounts that could be as much as 30 percent or more.

Emirates already operates the 777-200ER and is in the process of taking delivery of 30 777-300ERs that it ordered from a leasing company two years ago.

Emirates has more than 80 Airbus and Boeing planes in its growing fleet.

It is the biggest customer for the Airbus A380, with 45 of the double-decker giants on firm order -- nearly a third of the 159 firm orders Airbus has for that plane.

The A380 will enter service with Singapore Airlines in late 2006

Emirates also is evaluating Boeing's 787 and the Airbus A350.

The A350 will have two engines, as will the 787. The 787 is due to enter service in 2008, and the A350 in 2010.

The Emirates 777 deal will add to what has been one of Boeing's best years for jetliner orders. Heading into the Dubai show, Boeing had firm orders for 733 planes, including 64 777s.

Boeing could leave Dubai with more 777 orders than just those from Emirates.

Qatar Airlines, based in Doha of the United Arab Emirates, may announce a firm deal during the show for commitments that it made at the Paris Air Show in June. The airline said then that it would order at least 20 777s, including the 777-300ER, the 777-200LR and the 777 freighter.

Qatar also said in Paris that it would order 60 A350s.

As Boeing's backlog of 777 grows, it is boosting production of that plane at its Everett plant, meaning more work for Machinists there. Production of the 777 is about to go from four jets a month to five, with a further increase to seven planes a month later, according to a Boeing source. The company will not disclose production rates.

Boeing is also increasing production of its 737 at its Renton plant, where a second 737 assembly line will open this month. Boeing could be building a record number of 737s by later next year.

So far this year, Boeing has won 453 firm orders for its 737 and may add to that total during President Bush's visit to China.

A person familiar with the matter said Chinese officials may announce a firm deal for 45 737s for China Southern Airlines. The airline had said earlier this year that it was seeking government approval to buy that many Boeing jets.

Bloomberg News reported Friday that Chinese officials would announce orders for up to 150 737s as part of the Bush visit. But a Boeing source called that report "bogus." This person said if there were a previously unannounced 737 order from China on Sunday -- and Boeing does not know for sure there will be -- it would be for significantly fewer than 150 planes.

[James Bond Agent 007]

So, in the last 9 days we've had . . .

- Air Canada resurrects its order for 96 planes
- German airline DBA orders 40 planes
- Emirates Airlines orders 42 planes (will be official early next week)
- Chinese order 70 planes (will be official within a few days)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's 248 airplanes ordered in just over a week.

[Last Chance]

^ I can't find the article right now, but there was one last week that stated that Boeing had enough firm orders now that they had booked the first 3 years of production.

There was a hint that they may be considering a second production line for the 787, and that was before the articles you just posted.

I doubt that they would start another line because they have stated many times that they will never be back to the same employment level that they were at before this latest downturn.

Still, great news all around! Thanks for sharing.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Yeah I put that article in the 787 thread in the Transportation section.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Elsewhere, it looks like the Port of Olympia is starting to get a little more busy . . .

http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051119/NEWS/51119001

Port gets $2 million for rail yard
Federal appropriation coming in 2006, legislators announce
by Jim Szymanski
The Olympian

OLYMPIA — The Port of Olympia got a $2 million federal present that will help pay for its growing rail yard.

The 2006 Congressional appropriation was announced Friday by U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The port will use the money to install tracks to load cargo and stage trains for coupling, said Jim Amador, the port’s marine terminal director.

“This will give us more loading and storage track,” Amador said.

“Rail can be a more cost-efficient way of moving cargo.”
The port is moving toward more rail transportation because the cargoes it moves, including aluminum, metals and military trucks, tend to move by rail.

Rail is becoming a more popular transportation means compared with trucks because Puget Sound-area freeways tend to suffer from traffic jams or gridlock.

“Every rail car takes three trucks off roadways,” Amador said.

The port has been installing dockside rail this year to speed the loading and unloading of cargo between ships and trains.
The $2 million appropriation will allow the port to add storage tracks next year, which will speed the process of loading each car and coupling it to a longer line of cars.

The number of rail cars using the port has increased fivefold since 2002, Amador said.

As rails are added, the port will become more competitive in recruiting new lines of cargo, Amador said. In the past, he has mentioned transporting transformers for power projects and moving parts used in the construction of refineries as possible new cargo lines.

“There are things in the works,” was all Amador said Friday regarding possible new port cargoes.

“This funding will help create jobs by enhancing the Port of Olympia’s ability to process cargo,” Baird said. “It will also reduce the port’s dependence on local roads, alleviating congestion and headaches for commuters along the I-5 corridor.”

Murray toured the port in February, when port officials lobbied her to seek federal funding to increase the port’s rail capacity.

Port Commissioner Steve Pottle said he was surprised at the size of the port’s appropriation.

“I did not believe we would get that much money,” he said. “With Katrina and the war in Iraq, I thought we would struggle.”

As ports in Seattle and Tacoma grow as container ports, Olympia has an opportunity to recruit niche cargoes that don’t move in containers, Pottle said.

[Last Chance]

^
Yeah I put that article in the 787 thread in the Transportation section.

Thanks! I hadn't even found that thread yet. Guess I need to peruse a bit further...

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
Here it is - I posted a link to the article in the 2nd-to-last post:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?postid=1709159#post1709159