[James Bond Agent 007]

Since we periodically post articles about new businesses, new industries, business expansions, unemployment rates and the development associated with all of that, I thought it would be a good idea to put them all in one thread. Also, this kinda stuff especially interests me personally, so I've been thinking of doing this for a while anyway. :D

So to get this started . . .

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/175122_boeing27.html

Dream job for Tacoma plant: supplying material for 7E7

By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER AEROSPACE REPORTER

A Tacoma plant has won a major role in the Boeing Co.'s 7E7 program.

Toray Industries, of Japan, which has a production facility in Tacoma, has been selected to supply carbon fiber materials for the composite 7E7 in a deal worth more than $3 billion, Boeing and Toray announced yesterday.

The material will be shipped to Boeing's worldwide 7E7 suppliers and partners from Tacoma.

Another $1 billion deal with Boeing could follow, Toray Industries executives told reporters in Japan.

The Tacoma plant will double its capacity in order to supply the composite material that will be needed to build about 1,500 7E7s over the next 18 years, Toray Industries said. The contract with Boeing is through 2016, with a five-year option.

Final contract details are still to be worked out, according to Toray Industries

Employment at the Tacoma operation, known as Toray Composites Inc., is expected eventually to grow from about 180 today to about 250, according to a spokesman there.

"Our strong partnership with Boeing helped smooth the latest deal," Toray President Sadayuki Sakakibara said at a news conference in Tokyo.

Boeing's deal with Toray underscores just how closely tied Japanese industry will be to the 7E7.

Japan will build about 35 percent of the 7E7 structure. Japanese industry will supply the wings of the superefficient jet, as well as one fuselage section and some other parts.

Toray Composites Inc. already supplies the carbon fiber used in the composite tail section of Boeing's 777.

That section is manufactured at Boeing's Frederickson plant near Tacoma.

Boeing's 7E7, a midsize jet slightly bigger than the 767, will use more composites than any jetliner has before, including the Airbus A380 superjumbo now in development. The wings and fuselage of the 7E7 will be composite. The material weighs less and is stronger than the aluminum used on jetliners. Composites also don't corrode like aluminum, which will reduce airline maintenance issues with the 7E7.

"The realization of a carbon fiber composite commercial aircraft has been Toray's composite business dream for more than 30 years," Masayohi Kamiura, director of the Toray board, said in a statement.

Toray will supply what's known as "prepreg," which is a combination of high-strength carbon fiber and toughened epoxy resin.

The carbon fiber used for the prepreg comes to the Tacoma plant from Toray's operations in Decatur, Ala. Toray announced it also will double production in Alabama.

Toray opened its facilities in Tacoma in December 1992. The prepreg capacity there now is about 5.2 million square meters. That will be expanded to about 11.4 million square meters to accommodate the 7E7 work beginning in 2007.

The 7E7 will enter airline service in the first half of 2008. Manufacturing is expected to begin next year, leading to first flight in 2007.

The jet will be assembled in Everett, but the wings will come from Japan and the fuselage and tail sections from Italy, Texas and Kansas.

Toray Industries is the world's largest marker of synthetic fibers and has operations in many countries. It supplies carbon fiber for a range of products, from fishing rods and golf club shafts to aircraft structures and satellites.

It has supplied carbon fiber material to Boeing since 1982.

Boeing's deal with Toray for the 7E7 is for carbon fiber that would be used in the 7E7 wings and tail section, according to Toray.

Sakakibara, Toray's president, was quoted as saying at the Tokyo news conference that the company hoped to win another contract with Boeing by the end of the year, worth about $1 billion, to supply additional carbon fiber material that would be used to make 7E7 fuselage sections.

Boeing declined comment on whether another deal with Toray is in the works.

Each 7E7 will require about 30 tons of carbon fiber, according to Toray.

Analysts in Japan were surprised by the size of the deal, and investors snapped up Toray shares, sending the stock to a three-year high on the Tokyo exchange.

[destroybananas]

some more good news...

Kenworth production lines rev up, company to hire 250


Kenworth Truck Co. is looking to hire 250 workers this summer at the company's Renton manufacturing plant, as demand continues to rise for big trucks.


The company said it needs experienced assemblers, painters, forklift drivers, maintenance mechanics and electricians. The pay ranges between $11 and $24 a hour.

Kenworth Truck Co., a division of Bellevue truck maker Paccar Inc., is a leading manufacturer of heavy- and medium-duty trucks. Paccar said industrywide sales in North America during 2004 could outpace 2003 by 20 percent to 30 percent. In last April, Paccar said that Phoenix-based Swift Transportation Co. had recently ordered 3,000 Kenworth trucks for its fleet. The European market for large trucks is expected to be "slightly better" than last year, Paccar said.

Paccar chairman and CEO Mark Pigott told industry analysts in late April that to meet the growing worldwide demand for trucks, Paccar's build rate rose 7 percent during the first quarter of 2004. Pigott expected it to increase again in the second quarter. The growth was attributed to an improved economy and increases in orders from companies upgrading their fleets.

Paccar reported record revenue and net income for the first quarter of 2004. Paccar, known for truck brands Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF, earned $182.2 million on revenue of $2.5 billion for the first quarter of 2004, compared to earnings of $110.8 million and revenue of $1.92 billion in the first quarter a year ago.

[James Bond Agent 007]

From the Puget Sound Business Journal:

LATEST NEWS
9:00 PM PDT Monday
Survey: Seattle hiring outlook 'optimistic'
More than a third of Seattle-area businesses plan to hire more employees in the next three months, according to a staffing company survey.

In the Seattle metro area, 36 percent of employers said they plan to hire between July and September, 9 percent plan to reduce their work force and 49 percent said they don't plan on any changes. A year ago at this time, 12 percent of companies surveyed thought employment increases were likely and 7 percent intended to cut back.

The statewide hiring picture looks brightest in Olympia, where 40 percent of surveyed businesses plan to add staff and only 3 percent plan to decrease their size. Across the state, the average was 34 percent planning an increase, 56 percent planning no change, 7 percent planning a decrease and 3 percent didn't know.

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey said job prospects "appear best" in the following industries: construction, transportation, public utilities, wholesale and retail trade, services and public administration.

"Seattle-area employers are significantly more optimistic about hiring plans," for the next quarter, said spokesman Jim Challen, in a statement.

[arbeiter]

It's good to know the economy is getting better up there, because I am moving back this August.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Puget Sound Business Journal

State unemployment rate falls to 6.1 percent

The state's unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent in May, declining two-tenths of a percentage point from April. The rate represents a marked improvement over last May, when the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent.

The state still lags the rest of the country, with the national unemployment rate in May at 5.6 percent.

Still, the preliminary figures pleased state officials.

"Both the business services and the transportation and warehousing industries showed particular employment strength. Modest improvement in manufacturing also contributed to the brighter employment outlook," said Employment Security Commissioner Sylvia Mundy in a statement.

The state added a net 26,500 nonagricultural jobs last month, with retail contributing 3,500 and professional and business services adding 2,500 jobs.

Ferry County, in northeast Washington, continues to have the state's highest unemployment rate at 12.5 percent in May. Garfield County, in southeast Washington, has the lowest unemployment rate, with 1.7 percent last month.

[destroybananas]

www.seattlechannel.org

Mayor celebrates more jobs in South Lake Union
ZymoGenetics opens new manufacturing facility

SEATTLE - Mayor Greg Nickels today celebrated yet another milestone in the growth of the South Lake Union neighborhood.

ZymoGenetics opened their new manufacturing facility at their South Lake Union location, bringing 25 new jobs to the area. The expanded ZymoGenetics facility brings the total number of new biotech jobs to South Lake Union to approximately 500 jobs this year alone.

"Great things are happening in South Lake Union," Mayor Greg Nickels said. "Today we mark 500 new biotech jobs in South Lake Union; this is an industry that employs people with a wide range of skills and experience. These new jobs are a boost for Seattle's economy, and continuing evidence of progress in creating world center for biotechnology research."

"We were one of the first biotech companies to move into South Lake Union in 1994," said James A. Johnson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, ZymoGenetics. "We're excited about the future of neighborhood and the opportunity to continue to expand here.

The following chart shows the biotechnology companies and institutions that have moved to or expanded in South Lake Union since January, 2004 and the jobs they represent:

Number of Jobs New To Seattle Total Number of Jobs
Battelle Memorial Institute 2 150
Children's Hospital 0 49
Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center 162 3,081
Rosetta 270 270
Seattle Biomedical
Research Institute (SBRI) 40 200
ZymoGenetics 25 390
---------- ----------
Total: 499 new jobs 4,140 jobs

Mayor Nickels said the job growth is part of overall renewal at South Lake Union.

This past Thursday, the Mayor celebrated with community partners and private donors at the Cascade Playground groundbreaking ceremony, marking the start of a $1.15 million renovation at that community park. The improvements to the park were planned with the community and will implement sustainable improvements throughout.

"We're creating a great new neighborhood and a world center of the life sciences research that will save the lives of many people," said Nickels. "We're building on the solid base of research institutions and companies already here to expand for the future."

Seattle ranked No. 5 on a list of the nation's top biotechnology clusters according to a study released last week by the Milken Institute.

For more information, visit the Mayor's South Lake Union website at: http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/issues/lakeunion/

[destroybananas]

www.nwcn.com

State's revenue forecast jumps $247 million

07:20 AM PDT on Friday, June 18, 2004


Associated Press





OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington's economy is creating new jobs every month and will be back to pre-recession levels later this year, generating an unexpected $247 million for state coffers, state officials say.

But that bump in state revenue will be more than offset by the cost of renewing state business tax cuts and incentives that lawmakers and Gov. Gary Locke pushed through this year to aid the recovery. And the state has a big budget problem next winter.

Officials had thought it would be sometime next year before the state got back to the employment levels it had before the nine-eleven attacks and the state slipped into chronic recession. But state economist Chang Mook Sohn said Thursday that businesses have been adding new workers at a steady clip for the past six months - and that the state should restore all 85,000 jobs by December. That would be a four-year recovery, the longest in modern history and twice as lengthy as usual.

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001966836_berlex28.html

Berlex to build state's first big biotech drug factory

By Luke Timmerman
Seattle Times business reporter

The state's first major factory to make biotech drugs is coming to south Snohomish County, where Berlex Laboratories will build a $60 million plant with 70 new, highly skilled jobs.

The factory is considered a competitive coup for the state, whose officials would like to see biotech become a catalyst for economic growth. The region already is ranked among the nation's top biotech centers based on research and development, but it lags in manufacturing. Some officials worry the region's edge could be lost if the products coming from local research are manufactured elsewhere.

Now officials can hope other companies will follow the lead of Berlex, the American part of a $5.8 billion-a-year German company — Schering AG — that arrived in the Northwest two years ago by buying a piece of Immunex. For Berlex, the factory represents a high-stakes bet that it can pry open a bountiful new market for its drug Leukine.

The expanded production is a gamble that the company can get the drug approved for treating Crohn's disease, a painful inflammatory condition of the intestines that afflicts 300,000 to 500,000 Americans.

For the region, the plant marks the first time a company has locally invested in a large-scale factory to make biotech drugs emerging from its research and development labs. It also will pump an estimated $850,000 a year of tax revenue into state and local governments.

Berlex bought the 16-acre site in south Snohomish County after a global search. The land for the factory is being carved out of Opus Northwest's 90-acre Northpointe Corporate Center north of the intersection of Interstates 5 and 405. Berlex has workers in both Seattle and Bothell.

Ground is expected to be broken later this summer, and the four-building campus is scheduled to be certified for production by the Food and Drug Administration by late 2006 or early 2007. Room is being left for future expansion, to make more Leukine or other biotech drugs, and to employ 180 there if it chooses to move current manufacturing workers from Seattle and Bothell.

Initially, Berlex is outfitting the plant to produce Leukine, a genetically engineered drug developed 13 years ago by Immunex to stimulate the re-growth of white blood cells for patients wracked by chemotherapy. Berlin-based Schering AG, Berlex's parent company, bought the drug for $380 million two years ago, to diversify beyond birth-control pills and strengthen its foothold in the American health-care market.

Leukine isn't one of Schering's top 10 global sellers, but the company was impressed with results last year from a 124-patient clinical trial of Leukine against Crohn's disease, a painful inflammatory condition of the intestines. It is investing many millions in a larger clinical trial later this year to confirm it works. If that testing succeeds over the next two years, the factory will be ready by then to produce more Leukine.

To Berlex, the drug's new use could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year — it currently costs patients or their insurers $245 per shot, and it may require daily shots over several weeks.

If the Leukine trial fails, Berlex said it has backup options. It could re-tool the new plant to make other biotech drugs it may acquire, or do contract manufacturing for other companies.

David Carlson, Berlex vice president of biotech drug manufacturing, wouldn't be specific about the new plant's capacity but said it will at least double production of Leukine. He said the company chose to build in Snohomish County after closely scouting other West Coast sites. Carlson said Berlex's main reason for staying here is its desire to retain the workers who know how to make Leukine, and there was a chance the company would lose them if a factory was built elsewhere.

"There's nobody that knows Leukine better than the people here, and Berlex recognizes that," Carlson said. "This is really a framework the company can build on for the future."

Scott Morrison, U.S. life sciences leader for Ernst & Young in Palo Alto, Calif., said the factory, while not huge by industry standards, is bound to make other places with biotech aspirations envious. Earlier this month, delegations from 49 states and 60 countries came to San Francisco for the industry's annual convention, trying to woo companies to move labs or factories into their areas.

"This is another feather in the hat of the Seattle area," Morrison said. "These companies are becoming big very fast, and everyone realizes we're still at a low point in the technology curve, and we're working our way up. It will be decades before the industry matures."

Berlex said it didn't receive any special deals or tax breaks from Washington state or local governments, other than a sales-tax credit for manufacturing equipment that's part of existing law. But it plans to lobby in Olympia for more sweeteners.

Berlex spokeswoman Cathy Keck Anderson suggested Washington consider offering biotech manufacturers a tax break, as the state does for younger biotech companies that still are mainly focused on research and development.

"To have a fully commercial and mature industry, you (Washington state) have to look at incentives for commercial (biotech drug) manufacturing," Keck Anderson said. "Otherwise, you'll always be exporting your intellectual property."

Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, who helped lure the factory, said she is thrilled by Berlex's decision and hopes it will send a signal to other biotechs that the county has a pool of skilled contractors, manufacturing workers and affordable land.

As research-based companies in Seattle grow and need to manufacture their products, she said, she hopes they will look to Snohomish County.

"We absolutely have to diversify from aerospace, and this is it," Knutson said.

Carlson said Berlex's local employees, many of them Immunex holdovers, will be relieved to hear the news. Berlex never showed any signs of pulling out of Washington and has increased from 150 to 200 workers locally the past two years. But some wondered whether Berlex had a future in Washington, or would find someplace cheaper to do business, he said.

"This is the kind of commitment a lot of people here have been looking for," Carlson said.

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001966843_econasparagus28.html

Trade winds buffet state's farmers

By Alwyn Scott
Seattle Times business reporter

SUNNYSIDE, Yakima County — Thirty years ago, Manuel Rivera took a leap of faith into the global economy.

He was 15 when he left his home in Mexico and sneaked across the border to reach this rural hamlet of orchards, fields and feedlots. Drawn by low-wage jobs few Americans wanted, he picked apples and cut asparagus. He worked hard, raised a family and saved enough money to buy a small asparagus farm of his own. Now the global economy is taking back what it gave him.

Del Monte, which always had bought Rivera's crop for its canning factory in nearby Toppenish, didn't need it when the two-month harvest started in May. The company instead had contracted with a cannery in Peru, where asparagus is grown year-round, an acre yields three times as many spears and workers earn a tenth of what Rivera makes.

Earlier this month, Green Giant said it will join Del Monte in Peru, a move that will close the last and largest asparagus cannery in the state by this time next year. All told, in two years, Washington will have lost more than 400 full-time factory jobs and an estimated 5,000 seasonal positions in factories and fields.

The factory closures are only catching up to what has already taken place on the farm.

Since 1991, when a trade agreement opened U.S. markets to Peru's farm exports, more than half of Washington's asparagus fields have been plowed under.

Many farmers say they will never grow the crop again, since it takes three years to establish a new field. Some are quitting farming entirely, leaving idle land to gather weeds.

Manuel Rivera isn't sure what he'll do. Standing on the stoop of his doublewide mobile home, he looks at nine dusty acres, the fruit of 13 years of bank payments.

"They're going to ship their canned asparagus over here with a lower price," he says of the Peruvians. "What are we supposed to do with ours?"

Outsourcing the farm
Worldwide harvest makes way to U.S. store shelves

On a drive through Eastern Washington, agriculture hardly looks like a dying industry. Big sheds, walls of wooden crates and brightly painted processing plants dot fertile valleys. Thousands of acres are painstakingly planted in tidy orchards, trellises and rows. Each spring, thousands of migrants arrive to help harvest $5.6 billion worth of crops.

Agriculture still is a large slice of the state's $223 billion economy; food processing is the second-largest source of factory jobs after transportation equipment.

But Rivera's troubles are rumbling across the fields. Falling trade barriers have opened U.S. grocery shelves to the bounty of the world. It's a bonanza for consumers, who enjoy better food year-round at lower prices.

That has proved disastrous for many U.S. farmers. Overseas crops have displaced much of what they used to sell at home, and claimed foreign markets, too.

The simple asparagus spear reveals how global economics collide with the countryside, and how fluidly the fortunes from farm and factory jobs can shift — or disappear altogether.

Still picked and packed by hand, asparagus demands lots of labor. It sells for a relatively high price, so it turns a high profit. And it requires a network of ships, jets and trucks to transport it around the globe.

If asparagus can't survive as a Washington-grown staple, can other crops be far behind? Grapes, raspberries, pears, apples, cherries, potatoes, the famous cut tulips of Skagit Valley — all are now imported from cheaper foreign suppliers.

In Hermiston, Ore., potato king J.R. Simplot will shut his French-fry factory this fall. The 625 workers used to supply McDonald's franchises as far away as Singapore. Now some of the work will be done outside the U.S., which is importing more fries than ever.

Shifting strategies
Dream came true, but now it's fading

Three decades of effort may have bought Manuel Rivera a better life than he would have had in Mexico. But it hasn't bought luxury. His double-wide mobile home is sagging, and the doors are coming apart. The carpet is lumpy, and the television is small.

Rivera, 46, never planned to stay in the U.S. He arrived in 1975 determined to make some money and return to his hometown, Colima, Mexico, in a year.

"Every year, I thought, 'I'll save a little more and get more money to go back,' " he says.

A practical, hardworking man, he still doesn't speak English. But he is an expert at picking apples, cherries and grapes and at pruning trees and vines.

Over time, he figured it was better to work here, even at low-wage field jobs, than return home to even less opportunity. He saved enough to buy land — something that would have been impossible in Mexico, he says.

He became a legal resident and saw his four American children go to school and learn English. His two daughters finished high school, and Sandra, 20, is studying to be a teacher at Toppenish Heritage College. His sons, George, 16, and Manual Jr., 11, aim to go to college, too. "I want to be a policeman," says George.

But the American dream that brought Rivera here and took almost 30 years to build has, in two years, been knocked apart. Hard work and sacrifice — all that defined his life here — appear to be failing him.

It cost $10,000 to sow his field and three years for the plants to mature. Now his land will produce for a decade. But when Green Giant leaves next year, there will be no guaranteed buyer for about half of the state's asparagus crop. Rivera's crop may not even be worth the cost of harvesting.

Hope dies hard
Not easy to wash away dirt buried under skin

Despite such risks, many farmers remain drawn to the land. George Smith, a burley 59-year-old who has been growing pears since the 1970s, is planting new trees and expanding his orchard to 20 acres, half of his farm in Zillah, which also grows cherries.

Canned pears from China and South Africa sell for $4 a case less than Smith's, and there's nothing to keep the factories from moving overseas. But he has declined offers to sell. "I don't know what else I'd do," he says. "I've got nowhere else to go."

Besides, he loves the life. "Ever get up on a spring morning and walk across a plowed field? There's an odor that comes from that soil. I can't describe it."

Mike Bever studied agriculture in college and owned orchards. In the mid-1980s, he went broke during the Alar apple scare and now runs a commercial cleaning business. He sees how risky farming is, with foreign imports and abandoned acreage all around. Yet he can't help wishing.

"I have this horrible desire to jump back in to it," he says.

Others have seen no choice but to let go, however reluctantly.

In Yakima, Toppenish Mayor Blaine Thorington leans against the yellow school bus he drives for a living, squinting in the afternoon sun. His family sold asparagus to Del Monte for three generations. After Del Monte's announcement, he plowed under his last 30 acres.

"Sometimes I lay awake at night and think, I couldn't make it when my dad and granddad could," he says. "But it just kinda became clear to me that it was eating away at my retirement. I just didn't want to end up in 10 more years with nothing."

On the Yakama Nation reservation, which covers much of the land between Toppenish and Mount Adams, a $20,000 irrigation pivot stands in a field of weeds. Over the past decade, large tracts of land like this, which farmers used to lease from the tribe, have fallen into disuse.

"We have orchards that are more or less deserted," says Acey Oberly, superintendent of the Yakama Agency. "We just haven't been able to get people to come in and bid on the leases."

What expansion there is in Washington's agriculture industry comes mostly from wineries, whose angle-roofed villas and sleek signs are worlds away from the barns and billboards touting apples and antiques. But with Chilean wine selling for $3 a bottle, Washington's grape farmers are under attack, too.

"Watch the auctions," says Bever. "Farm after farm after farm is being auctioned off."

Fighting back
Part of state's strategy: technology to the rescue

This season, at least, Manuel Rivera has found a savior, a farmer who agreed to buy his asparagus crop. He wears a denim bomber jacket, scuffed brown cowboy boots and a confident smile.

Rich Rasmussen, 51, is a true asparagus believer. Raised on a Skagit Valley dairy farm, he moved east to Granger, Yakima County, and began growing produce on 3 acres in 1976. Now he and his brother, Greg, farm 300 acres of asparagus, part of a 1,200-acre spread.

Instead of caving to the threat of Peruvian imports, Rasmussen chose to fight. His weapon is a $150,000 computerized asparagus sorter from New Zealand, a gleaming stainless-steel contraption 30 yards long that digitally photographs each spear's butt and then groups the spears into bundles by diameter.

It can rip through 80 tons a day, producing 160,000 one-pound bundles, with half the workers of his other packing lines, where workers sort spears by hand. And it allows him to bundle similar sizes more quickly and accurately, producing a consistent product that fetches a higher price.

Rasmussen's line is just one of the things Washington is doing to save its industry. The Legislature this year allocated $3.8 million to help the asparagus industry buy sorters and other equipment.

"If they can mechanize, they can create a few good-paying jobs and eliminate a lot of the minimum wage jobs," said state Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, at the time.

Lawmakers also eased rules that blocked unbundled asparagus from being shipped out of state, helping growers sell more easily. The federal government anted up, too, buying canned asparagus for food programs and to keep the Dayton, Columbia County, plant running.

Many believe technology can save the industry. Better seeds and machinery saved many farms toward the end of the last century, often at the expense of jobs.

The 300,000-square-foot plant that cans Green Giant asparagus, in Dayton, is said to be the most highly automated in the industry.

At Del Monte's plant in Toppenish, a conveyer line connected with a can-making factory next door. Freshly minted cans shot onto production lines that churned out millions of cases in a few short weeks every spring.

"Let's kill broccoli!"
Embracing the changes, mastering the market

But Peru is going high-tech, too.

Jose "Pepe" Chlimper is sitting on a barstool at Torchy's restaurant in the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle. At 49, this dynamo is Peru's newest grower — and its largest exporter of fresh asparagus. His farm, Agrokasa, now raises more asparagus than Washington state's entire fresh crop last year. And he only planted his fields in 1999.

His two cellphones chirp constantly, forcing Chlimper to put down his Mac & Jack's ale and walkie-talkie with the world.

The Peru office tells him 60,000 pounds were harvested today. "Isn't that nice?" he says with a grin. Miami tells him it sold half of the crop at $1.25 a pound, a price that includes 50 cents for airfreight.

A "spy" in Baltimore tells him California asparagus is selling for $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods, meaning U.S. companies that handled his crop could be making $2.74 a pound. More than half of the markup on asparagus comes on the U.S. side, not Peru, he says.

But asparagus isn't why Chlimper is here. He has come to make a deal on grapes. Vanguard International, an agricultural broker in Issaquah, is selling Chlimper's grapes in China.

Chlimper's embrace of the global economy is total: a Peruvian businessman, educated at North Carolina State University, using Nextel and AT&T Wireless phones to do business in Issaquah and China. He logs it all meticulously on a Compaq laptop, running Microsoft Windows.

Chlimper has hosted Washington asparagus growers at his farm in Peru and visited theirs earlier this month. He says Washington growers, lulled by decades of selling to the canneries, tried to save the dying canned market rather than seeking alternative buyers.

Peru's labor-cost advantage is largely offset by airfreight to the U.S., he says. So Washington could still be competitive selling fresh asparagus if growers aimed at the right market — fresh.

"They were not seeing the big picture," he says — the decline in demand for canned asparagus, and the rise of the fresh market. Rather than keeping canneries, U.S. farmers should be working together to build high-speed packing lines, like Rasmussen's.

"Let's kill broccoli!" he says. It has three times the market share and is ripe to be supplanted by his asparagus — and Washington's, if they care to join forces.

But changing old ways is difficult. So far, he has no takers.

A field hand's story
Relocating to build better life for family

Peru's industry will continue to grow, driven by its natural advantages: year-round growing and a low-wage economy.

Rivera and Rasmussen are competing with Carlos Ynca, a crew supervisor with CampoSol, one of Peru's largest growers. Ynca, 31, stands in a field as tree shadows reach slowly across the golden sand. Several pickers, baskets of asparagus tied behind their backs, step up. Ynca scoops their spears and places them in a plastic crate, which he loads on a truck. The fresh spears will be in the U.S. the next day.

In 10 hours, his 12-member crew picks about 2,600 pounds of asparagus, earning $6 to $9 each, or about what field workers in Washington make per hour.

He doesn't care much for the work. But like Rivera, he moved to take the job three years ago because it paid well. The home Ynca shares with his wife, Adriana, and two young daughters, makes Rivera's sagging, doublewide mobile home look like a palace.

It's a 10-by-15 room with adobe walls and a single bare light bulb. The window is filled with bricks until Ynca can afford glass or patterned brick. The room holds two beds, two dressers, a chrome dinette and four chairs. Ynca saved six months to buy a 14-inch silver LG television; he keeps the remote in a plastic bag.

Twice a week, his wife 28, walks five hours across the desert to collect firewood in the hills. She cooks in a reed hut built in her yard. Bricks on the ground hold her blackened pots and tea kettle. Cold water is available every other day for 90 minutes, from a hose in the yard.

Ynca's pay is more than he could make in his home village. And, like Rivera, he knows living here offers hope to his children, who might otherwise be selling candy on the streets of Lima.

"I started working here because they pay well," Ynca says.

Kelly, his older daughter, is in kindergarten. Her uniform cost $6.50, a good day's wages. Shoes cost $10. The textbook $7.50. CampoSol lends money for these necessities. And it has built up her school, adding more classrooms and its first latrine. Before, children went in the schoolyard.

"This life is better because we have what we need for the day, and we have what we need for food," Adriana says.

But adjustment to the global economy is as hard for the Yncas as it is for the Riveras. Adriana misses the trees and greenery of her native mountains: "All I have here is a patch of sand."

Back in Sunnyside, Manuel Rivera looks at his small field and wonders if there is a future in asparagus. He still thinks of his home in Mexico and dreams of retiring there. Meanwhile, "maybe I'll try corn," he says.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Actually, I now don't entirely take this article too seriously after I read this:

"But with Chilean wine selling for $3 a bottle, Washington's grape farmers are under attack, too."

I occasionally buy Chilean wine. It is NOT $3/bottle (and if it is, it's crap). Chilean wines in a supermarket are the same price as Washington wines.

However about the asparagus, I read the same thing somewhere else not too long ago, so that part is probably true.

[destroybananas]

Flagstar to expand regional headquarters
Troy, Michigan-based bank plans to storm West Coast from Bellevue offices
Jeanne Lang Jones
Staff Writer
Flagstar Bank is moving to larger offices in Bellevue as the first step in a substantial expansion of its West Coast regional operations.


Based in Troy, Mich., the publicly traded savings institution is one of the largest wholesale mortgage lenders in the country with operations in 21 states, including Washington and Oregon, where it has offices in Bellevue and Portland. Its Bellevue office is one of 13 regional headquarters nationwide.

"What we're doing in Bellevue is basically turning it into our West Coast operations center," said senior vice president Kelly Cruz, who relocated to Bellevue in May to head the expansion. "We'll also have about 75 percent of the functionality we have in our corporate headquarters out here."

Flagstar plans a sharp ramp up in operations. Since opening its Bellevue office five years ago, the mortgage lender has grown to a staff of 40. Expansion plans now call for Flagstar to grow its Bellevue operations to as many as 300 employees within the next two years.

The expanded operation will service the entire West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii while also facilitating quicker processing on loans in earlier time zones. Additionally, the Bellevue regional headquarters will serve as backup for corporate headquarters in Michigan in case of a disaster, Cruz said.

To accommodate its growth, Flagstar recently leased 14,500 square feet of office space in the Plaza Center building at 10900 N.E. Eighth St. in downtown Bellevue. The new lease is nearly triple the size of its previous space.

Flagstar was represented in its lease negotiations with landlord Equity Office Properties Trust by Steve Balkman, a principal with Bellevue-based Puget Sound Properties.

Currently, Flagstar has nearly 100 branch banks across the country. The lender purchases mortgage loans from about 7,000 smaller mortgage banks, credit unions and mortgage brokers, as well as providing retail banking services to consumers and commercial customers.

[destroybananas]

www.bizjournals.com

Wireless Services banks $8.5 million for expansion

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/06/28/story7.html

[destroybananas]

GiftCertificates.com makes financial rally

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/06/28/focus16.html

[destroybananas]

Berlex plans $60M drug-manufacturing facility at Northpointe
Berlex Laboratories Inc., the U.S. affiliate of drug giant Schering AG of Germany, has reached an agreement to buy a 16-acre site near Lynnwood where it plans to develop a $60 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility. The price of the land was not disclosed.


The new factory will be at Opus Northwest LLC's Northpointe Corporate Center, and will initially make Leukine, which Schering bought from Immunex Corp. two years ago, before Immunex was bought out by Amgen Inc. Berlex currently manufactures Leukine at a leased facility.

Leukine is an approved treatment for people suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy, but it is being studied as a treatment for Crohn's disease, which would increase the drug's market significantly.

Berlex said the land purchase is dependent on several factors, but it hopes to break ground in late summer.

"Berlex will be working with Opus ... and local and state officials to address conditions identified in the purchase and sale agreement," the company said in a statement. The specific conditions were not disclosed, but the company appears to have the ear of at least one local official.

"This factory could have gone anywhere in the world. But its managers chose Snohomish County," Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon said in a statement. "Their decision is important for both the county and state because our region is already well established as a biotech research and development center."

Once the land-purchase conditions are met and the sale goes through, the timeline for finishing the facility could be as long as three years, as biotech manufacturing facilities require approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

When operational, the facility would employ 70, Berlex said. Future phases could increase employment to 180 by 2009, though that will depend on demand for the company's drug programs, and may include consolidation of current Leukine production operations, Berlex said.

The company's oncology business unit and clinical operations groups currently employ about 200 people in Seattle and Bothell.

Besides providing the ability to provide an increasing supply of Leukine, the facility could be used to manufacture other Schering products, or to manufacture drugs developed by other companies.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^That last one was the same Berlex one I posted yesterday.

Read the articles before you post new ones, dammit. ;)

[James Bond Agent 007]

BTW it occured to me on the bus home today, that long story I posted last night about farmers in central Washington might mean that that new dam we were talking about a few months ago might not be so badly needed after all.

Though I still think it would be cool anyway. :D

[JiminyCricket II]

"But with Chilean wine selling for $3 a bottle, Washington's grape farmers are under attack, too."

:rolleyes:

Grape farmers are the only ones that will *never* be in trouble. Just come on over to the Columbia and Walla Walla Valleys, they are filthy rich. The wine industry is not going anywhere. It's just too perfect of a location for grapes. Long daylight in the growing season = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[destroybananas]

Selling the skyline
Bellevue rethinks sign code for high-rises, may give large companies top billing
Jeanne Lang Jones
Staff Writer
Puget Sound Energy tried -- but failed -- last year to persuade the city of Bellevue to allow it to brand its building. Now a company that promises to bring 1,500 jobs to downtown Bellevue wants the city code changed to allow its name across the top of a downtown office high-rise.


If the city refuses it could be a deal breaker. Matt Terry, director of planning and community development for Bellevue, said he'd heard obtaining top signage rights was one of the company's lease conditions.

As reported first in the Business Journal, Safeco Corp.'s life insurance and annuity unit has a letter of intent to take as much as 250,000 square feet of space in the adjacent Rainier Plaza and KeyCenter buildings on 108th Avenue Northeast in downtown Bellevue. When the spinoff is completed in the third quarter, the as-yet-unnamed company will be the state's third largest in terms of revenue and among its top 20 employers.

Vice president of marketing for Safeco's life and investments unit Jim Pirak declined comment, saying, "Until we have the lease agreement in place it is not appropriate to comment on the particulars."

But Bellevue's largest landlord, Equity Office Properties Trust, is backing its prospective tenant's play.

"This change is appropriate for the city of Bellevue in order to attract large corporate headquarters to downtown," said Patrick Callahan, senior vice president of Equity Office's Seattle Region.

While Bellevue allows signage at the top of mid-rise buildings, it prohibits signage above 75 feet except for hotels. The city figures street level signs are sufficient to guide pedestrians and drivers.

"We view our skyline as one of the most precious assets the city has," said Terry. "Many neighborhoods have downtown Bellevue as a territorial view."

But given the economic benefit of attracting a major corporate headquarters, city staffers now are recommending amending the code to allow top billing on high-rises. However, the staff favors restricting such signage to companies larger than 200,000 square feet, keeping signs on the east facade only facing Interstate 405 and not allowing signs to be lighted at night.

Under those terms, Puget Sound Energy will now also be eligible for top billing, once its headquarters building at the Summit is expanded. Spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said the utility is working with the city through the public process. This time around, PSE may find its new ally makes the going easier.

"We understand a healthy business community creates healthy neighborhood communities," said Bellevue Mayor Connie Marshall. "We want to be sensitive to the skyline residents see, yet amplify the marketability of our corporations. I think a nice careful balance is possible."

The council also is willing to listen to the new signage proposal.

"This is something that could bring a very strong tenant into downtown Bellevue. I think it's incumbent on us to look at the impacts and benefits," said Councilmember Claudia Balducci. "A lot of cities do this sort of thing. We were on a trip to Denver and it seemed every other building has Qwest on top. But Bellevue has worked really hard to retain its character, so it's not something to be done very lightly."

While changing the code creates some challenges in allocating space for exterior signage, Councilmember Grant Degginger said, "I think the signage, tastefully done, can be a positive addition to the cityscape while serving as a valuable economic development purpose."

[James Bond Agent 007]

I think they should just make downtown Bellevue look like Times Square and get it over with. :)

[destroybananas]

haha, Yeah there you go.

[destroybananas]

Buyer may spin off Safeco division
Eric Engleman
Staff Writer
The investor group that is buying Safeco Corp.'s life-insurance and investments business is considering spinning off the mutual funds unit, a Safeco spokesman said.


"We understand that the investor group that is purchasing Safeco life and investments is evaluating the sale of the mutual funds operation," said Safeco spokesman Paul Hollie.

Safeco announced in mid-March it was selling its life-insurance and investments business for $1.35 billion to an investor group led by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd.

Representatives of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and White Mountains could not immediately be reached for comment.

Seattle-area brokers have been buzzing about the possible sale of the mutual funds business. As of Dec. 31 last year, the unit had 50 employees and $3.8 billion under assets, Hollie said.

More than half the unit's employees are located in Redmond, and the rest are in downtown Seattle, he said.

Paul Latta, an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle, said Safeco's mutual funds unit doesn't represent a large portion of Safeco's business, but it "represents a meaningful portion of assets under management in Seattle."

He said the unit ranked in the top three asset managers in the Puget Sound region and employed a substantial number of local portfolio managers and financial analysts.

Any sale of the mutual funds unit would have to wait until the sale of the larger life-insurance and investments business was complete, Hollie said. It would also have to be approved by mutual fund trustees and shareholders, he said.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Safeco announced in mid-March it was selling its life-insurance and investments business for $1.35 billion to an investor group led by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd.
Hey, that would be cool if we could get Warren Buffet to move here. We'd have the 2 of the richest people in the world living in Seattle. :D

[destroybananas]

lol, I know, just think of the possibilities....:P The whole world would hate is for sure now. hehe

[destroybananas]

...like destroying NASA for the following....

Rocket maker loses $227M deal
NASA arrangement nixed in contracting protest
NASA has dealt a serious blow to local rocket maker Kistler Aerospace Corp., withdrawing a contract that could have paid out $227 million through the end of 2006.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/07/05/story1.html

[destroybananas]

June air traffic increases at Alaska Air Group
Think your Alaska Airlines flight is more crowded these days? You're not imagining things, according to passenger data released by Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc.


In June, the airline's passenger load factor (the percentage of available seats occupied by fare-paying passengers) increased to 76.6 percent, up from 73 percent a year earlier and up from 70.1 percent in May.

Revenue passenger miles (the number of available seats actually sold, which is a measure of an airline's traffic) increased to 1.52 billion from 1.356 billion a year earlier.

At regional airline Horizon Air, which is also owned by Alaska Air Group, revenue passenger miles in June jumped to 199.4 million from 145.9 million in June 2003. Last month's passenger load factor was 73.1 percent compared with 66 percent a year earlier and 65.3 percent in May. Horizon carried 535,000 passengers in June, up from 441,000 a year earlier.

[destroybananas]

EPartners, EYT merge; Seattle to be headquarters
Two companies that provide Microsoft Business Solutions -- the small and midsized business applications subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. -- are merging and moving their headquarters to Seattle.


Dallas-based ePartners, which company officials say is the largest North American Microsoft Business Solutions company, and Chantilly, Va.-based EYT, which used to be known as Ernst and Young Technologies, will merge, with the combined company called ePartners.

The company said it will employ 400 people, including 220 consultants. It will have 29 total offices, including one in London.

Dan Duffy, CEO of ePartners, will be CEO of the merged company. Howard Diamond, CEO and chairman of EYT, will become executive chairman and chairman of the board.

Duffy said the two companies' combined revenues were $75 million last year and added that he expects revenues to "more than double in the next 12 to 18 months." He said the merger was a "stock deal."

In February, EYT merged with In2Gr8 Corp., a Seattle-based Microsoft Business Solutions provider, and successfully raised $20 million in venture capital funding. EPartners' headquarters will be located in the same building as the former In2Gr8's -- in the Fisher Plaza building on Fourth Avenue in Seattle. Duffy said initially there will be 10 administrative employees working at ePartners' headquarters but that number will also grow in the next 12 to 18 months.

"We're experiencing fairly substantial organic growth," Duffy said.

[James Bond Agent 007]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001982049_boeing17.html

Boeing will hire up to 3,000: Navy deal, brighter forecast for jets create demand

By David Bowermaster

After slashing more than 27,000 local jobs in three years, Boeing is putting its pink slips away and will add up to 3,000 workers in the Puget Sound area by the end of the year.

The hiring plans, announced yesterday, are the most emphatic sign yet that Boeing's beleaguered commercial-airplane business is finally rebounding from the collapse in air travel that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"This is a surprise, since we were forecasting a small reduction in their work force" this year, said Bret Bertolin, a senior economic forecaster with the state's Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

Roughly 600 to 700 of the jobs will go to previously laid-off production workers. Most of the rest will go to engineering and technical workers, including both recalled employees and new hires with specialized skills.

"This is great news for our members, their families and the Puget Sound community, and we are optimistic that this is an indication for a turnaround in the industry," said Mark Blondin, president of the International Association of Machinists District 751. Blondin was in Chicago to attend a labor summit with Boeing Chairman Harry Stonecipher.

"We hit the low-water mark, and we're coming up now," said Charles Bofferding, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace union.

Boeing had 52,806 employees in Washington state on July 1, down from 80,000 in September 2001, and 104,000 in June 1998.

The main drivers of the good news are the popularity of Boeing's new 7E7, a major contract with the Department of Defense and the improving financial health of the world's airlines.

Boeing delivered just 281 jets in 2003, down from 381 in 2002 and 527 in 2001, as financially troubled airlines postponed purchases. But things have been turning around in recent months.

First, Boeing forecast that jet deliveries would increase this year to 300 planes, thanks to higher-than-expected demand for its narrow-body 737s and freighter 747s.

Then the U.S. Navy in June selected Boeing's 737 as the platform for its Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA) program. The initial development contract is worth $3.9 billion and will result in production of seven aircraft at the company's Renton factory. An order for 109 production aircraft will follow, and international orders are expected to bump that number up to 300 jets.

When the MMA contract was awarded, Boeing said it would generate 1,200 jobs, mostly engineering, over the next two years.

The hiring plans fed a budding optimism not only about Boeing but about the entire Puget Sound area's economy.

"It's nice to see that the turning point's arrived" for Boeing, said Roberta Pauer, an economist with the state's Employment Security Department.

Pauer cautioned that 2,000 to 3,000 new Boeing jobs will not transform Washington's economy, which comprises 2.5 million workers.

But each new Boeing job typically creates two additional jobs, Pauer said, and she expects Boeing to add up to 15,000 jobs as demand for new airplanes continues to recover.

"That will provide additional stimulus to the region's economy," Pauer said.

"For a work force that has endured unfair competition, an industry downturn and a terrorist attack, this is truly welcome news," added Washington Sen. Patty Murray.

Boeing will recall 50 to 100 more production workers at its fabrication facility in Portland, and 250 to 300 workers at its plant in Wichita, Kan.

That means Boeing will add up to 3,400 jobs nationally over the next six months.

Nearly three-quarters of those positions will be in the commercial-airplanes division. The rest will be in defense programs.

To fill highly skilled jobs that laid-off engineers are not qualified for, Boeing will hold a job fair Aug. 12.

The company will place employment ads in Sunday newspapers this weekend in Dallas, Fort Worth, Atlanta and Los Angeles, and next weekend in Seattle.

Whether Boeing will continue hiring in 2005 will depend on the health of its customers.

"If we do see a gradual recovery continuing, we could anticipate seeing some additional measured employment growth," Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said, "but we have no hard-and-fast forecast for 2005."

Conte emphasized, however, that Boeing wants to avoid the boom-and-bust hiring of the past.

"We're going to strive to eliminate the wild swings in employment we've seen, up and down," he said.

[destroybananas]

Bellevue real estate surge ripples across Eastside
Jeanne Lang Jones
Staff Writer
Downtown Bellevue's once moribund office market is turning around so sharply that some local real estate brokers expect its abrupt recovery to push a wave of new tenants to suburban markets throughout the Eastside in coming months.


Pending leases are expected to soak up as much as a third of the available space in downtown Bellevue by the end of the summer. Vacancies at 18.6 percent this quarter are expected to slide to less than 12 percent by the fall, according to Tom Bohman, a director at Cushman & Wakefield of Washington Inc.

"We are at the end of the really good deals for tenants," Bohman said.

Indeed, as there is less space available in Bellevue's business district, what remains is very likely to cost more, local brokers say. Annual rents could increase as much as $3 to $5 per square foot in downtown Bellevue as the balance of power slides back toward the landlords, Bohman said. As a result, he added, "There will be a spillover to the suburban markets."

The prospect of a groundswell of prospective tenants looking for less expensive quarters is especially good news for landlords along the I-90 corridor. That submarket, which stretches from Lake Washington to Lake Sammamish on either side of the freeway, is close to Interstate 405 and has a number of relatively new offices built during the tech boom of the late '90s. Traditionally one of the most robust submarkets on the Eastside, the I-90 corridor stands to lose some substantial longtime tenants over the next two years.

Recently, for instance, the gaming company Sierra Entertainment Inc. announced it will lay off nearly all of its 110 employees over the next two months as part of a reorganization of its parent company, Los Angeles-based Vivendi Universal Games. The layoffs will dump nearly 60,000 square feet of space back onto the I-90 market. Meanwhile, the relocation of drugstore.com Inc. to downtown Bellevue, if it occurs as brokers expect, will release a similarly large block of space. Additionally, The Boeing Co. is not expected to renew its lease of the 157,000-square-foot Eastpointe Corporate Center building off I-90 when it expires in a couple of years.

Also casting its large shadow over the I-90 corridor: Microsoft Corp. The software behemoth has been snapping up smaller office properties near its Redmond headquarters in recent months, including Spacelabs' former building.

Then in the last week, Microsoft became the lead bidder among five with its $38 million offer for the 20-acre Eddie Bauer Corporate Campus in Redmond. Located off 150th Avenue Northeast near Microsoft headquarters, the campus includes nearly 233,000 square feet of office space in three buildings.

The proposed purchase has brokers wondering whether Microsoft will eventually pull its workers out of its offices at Sammamish Park Place in Issaquah to properties nearer its Redmond headquarters.

While these potential additional vacancies are substantial, the appetite for space along I-90 promises to remain keen, several Eastside brokers said. Besides a potential crop of prospective tenants being shouldered aside by larger players in downtown Bellevue, a number of current I-90 tenants are expanding.

Several fast-growing companies, including discount travel Web site Expedia.com and wireless provider T-Mobile, have helped absorb vacant space along the busy freeway. In the past six months, Expedia alone has leased an additional 60,000 square feet of space and is back out looking for about 60,000 more square feet, brokers said.


"Their place is just on fire," said John Black, a principal at the Bellevue-based brokerage Broderick Group Inc. "They are doing really well."

Across the entire I-90 corridor, Black estimates there has been as much as 400,000 square feet in leases negotiated in the past nine months. Among the new tenants eating up available space: Sun Microsystems, which relocated to I-90 from downtown Bellevue and the High Tech Institute of Phoenix.

Currently, vacancies along the I-90 corridor are under 11 percent, according to Bohman. If leases outpace vacancies, Bohman expects the tightening market could result in a modest annual rent increase of about $1 a square foot. That's not nearly as pronounced as what's expected in downtown Bellevue, brokers acknowledge, but it may well be enough to cause a trickle of tenants to choose outlying submarkets instead.

While the Eastside office market is clearly shifting in favor of landlords once again, it remains to be seen whether the turn will be as sharp as expected, particularly with AT&T Wireless' pending acquisition leaving its post-merger size in question. Additionally, for the close-in Eastside suburban markets, much depends on whether a company being spun off from Safeco completes a massive lease of space in two downtown Bellevue office towers as expected.

That said, it could be a long time before tenants regain the upper hand. Even if office rents do rise as sharply as predicted, few are forecasting the area's long-depressed rents would rise high enough to spur enough new development to ease the tightening market significantly.

[James Bond Agent 007]

". . . Black estimates there has been as much as 400,000 square feet in leases negotiated in the past nine months"

Holy crap, that's like an entire new 30-floor tower!! But too bad it's in the lowrises along I-90. :(

[northface]

uhh....we need towers.

[James Bond Agent 007]

:D

Starbucks' Q3 financials break records

Seattle coffee giant Starbucks Corp. said profits and revenue reached record highs in its fiscal third quarter.

Net earnings for the quarter ended June 27 increased 44 percent to $98 million from $68 million for the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings per share were 24 cents for the period, compared to 17 cents per share for the comparable year-ago period, Starbucks said. Wall Street's consensus estimate was for earnings of 22 cents per share.

As a result of Starbucks' third-quarter performance, along with its current revenue and operating outlook for the fourth quarter of 2004, the company raised its full-year earnings target to between 94 cents and 95 cents per share, an increase of 4 cents per share over its most recent guidance. The target range now is 10 cents higher than Starbucks' original forecast for fiscal 2004.

Starbucks also said Wednesday that it expects similar growth in 2005. The company plans to accelerate an already blistering store-opening pace, with 1,500 new stores around the world in fiscal 2005, which amounts to 2.4 new stores a day. For 2004, the company said it is on target to open 1,300 new stores.

Same-store sales are forecast at between 3 percent and 7 percent, though the company said "based on current business performance it is possible that comparable store sales growth may again exceed the company's target range." Comps have run in double-digits throughout fiscal 2004, despite a target in the 3 percent to 7 percent range.

The initial earnings per share target for 2005 is $1.12 to $1.15, on net revenue growth of about 20 percent, Starbucks said.

"Starbucks operations are functioning at a more sophisticated level than ever before," said Orin Smith, president and CEO. "Our consistently strong performance positions us well to achieve our aggressive fiscal 2005 goals -- including an acceleration of store growth as we pursue the company's expanding global opportunity."

[JiminyCricket II]

Oh, adding to the Boeing article above, I read in the paper yesterday that Boeing just closed a deal selling $2.86 billion(or so) worth of 777-300ER's to some mideastern airline. :)

[JiminyCricket II]

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2004/photorelease/q3/040719h1.jpg

FARNBOROUGH, United Kingdom, July 19, 2004 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Emirates today said the Dubai-based airline will order up to 13 Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplanes valued at $2.96 billion dollars at list price.

Four of the airplanes are on firm order and will be delivered during 2006. The rest are covered by purchase rights that extend through 2012.

"The 777-300ER sets the standard in its class for performance and comfort, making it the natural fit for Emirates as they expand their world-renowned service across the globe," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally. "We're honored that Emirates is making the 777 a foundation of its significant fleet expansion."

Emirates, which now operates 21 Boeing 777s, next year begins receiving a separate group of 777-300ERs from leasing companies. At that point it will operate the 777-200, 777-200ER, 777-300, and the 777-300ER, becoming the third airline to operate the four 777 models. By late 2007 Emirates will have 51 Boeing 777s, giving it one of the world's largest 777 fleets.

"The 777 is a proven performer for Emirates and is highly rated for comfort by our passengers, in addition to being a very reliable and efficient airplane," said Emirates Chairman H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum.

Emirates will use the 777-300ER to extend routes to key European and Asian cities, and fly to emerging markets. The airline currently serves seventy-seven destinations and has implemented an aggressive growth plan.

Sheikh Ahmed added that "the low operating cost, renowned passenger approval , and the revenue capability from both cargo and passengers are the main reasons we selected the 777-300ER."

Boeing's 777 family is one of the world's most advanced, and the 777 is the only airplane to receive ETOPS (extended-range, twin-engine operations) certification upon first entering service. Thirty-four airlines have ordered approximately 641 Boeing 777s. The 777 has continually been selected by passengers as the most preferred airplane in its class by a margin of three-to-one. Since its launch, it has been the fastest selling twin engine airplane in history, outselling the closest competitor in its class despite entering service two years later.

[destroybananas]

I can't find the report that I read on the Seattle PI today that talks about the unemployment rate, it's down to 6.1, and it also said that Seattle added 15,000 jobs from December to now.

[destroybananas]

I found it, it was actually on the Seattletimes.com

Western growth is up










E-mail this article
Print this article
Search archive
Most read articles
Most e-mailed articles

Job growth has picked up in the nine states covered by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. California has lagged a bit in recent months, but other Western states have seen sustained growth, the bank said in a quarterly report.
California payrolls grew at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the first five months of the year compared with 2.2 percent growth for the rest of the country. Idaho and Nevada, on the other hand, had job growth of more than 4 percent through May. Oregon was also a leader, growing more than 3 percent on an annual basis.

Looking at Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, three "information-technology centers," the bank found employment has stabilized or increased since the boom-bust of the 1990s. Seattle has done best among the three, with an increase of nearly 15,000 jobs or a 2.7 percent annual rate since December.

Portland is up 5,000 jobs or a 1.5 percent boost. San Francisco is up 11,000 jobs, but that is only a 0.8 percent increase because of its large labor market.

"The recovery is good news," the bank said in its Western Economic Developments report, "but it will take some time for these areas to dig out of the holes left by the IT boom and bust."

Seattle employment grew 22 percent from January 1995 to December 2000 but lost 6 percent of jobs by the end of 2003. About a quarter of jobs lost were IT jobs.

Exports slow down

Washington exports fell for the third year in a row in 2003, driven down by slumping overseas sales of aircraft, according to data from the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research. The so-called Miser data are regarded as the best available for state-level exports.

Exports fell to $34.2 billion in 2003 from $34.6 billion in 2002, a decline of 1.2 percent. Blame Boeing for the decline — the aircraft sector of exports was down 13 percent for the year, dropping to $20 billion from $23 billion in 2002.

That means non-aircraft exports did quite well, up more than 22 percent, from $11.6 billion to $14.2 billion. The state had strong exports in such areas as agricultural products, electronic gear, processed food and primary metals.

Top destinations for exports in 2003 were: Japan, $5.4 billion; Canada, $3.3 billion, China, $3.2 billion; Singapore, $2.1 billion; and Australia, $2 billion.

Software consolidation?

Check Microsoft's quarterly report tomorrow, especially its sales-growth total. Analysts expect the total to grow 10 percent to $9 billion. That will reflect a trend in the software industry where the big continue to get bigger.

Barron's, a weekly financial publication, said it might be time for more consolidation in the industry. It suggests the software world has evolved into a competition between Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and SAP of Germany, with each having a "stack" of software and applications.

Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft, in the courts now because of antitrust challenges, is the bellwether, according to Barron's. A favorable ruling for Oracle could open the gates for further consolidation in what many believe is a mature industry.

Stephen H. Dunphy's columns appear Tuesdays-Fridays and Sundays. Phone: 206-464-2365. Fax: 206-382-8879. E-mail: sdunphy@seattletimes.com.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Y'know, I think Washington and Oregon have had higher unemployment rates than the US average since time immemorial.

I know they did hack in the 80's even before I moved here, I'm pretty certain they did back in the 70's too, and I think they also had a higher unemployment rate through most of the 90's, except maybe one or two years.

I think people just get unemployed here and then they either can't or don't want to move to another job elsewhere, so they decide to collect unemployment instead.

[destroybananas]

umm, no you're wrong...WA had unemployment rates for more than 5 years where it was under 4%, lookk it up.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^Yeah, but that was in the late 90's. And at that time, the US unemployment rate was also like 4%. And anyway I did say there were a couple years where it was lower.

This was the best thing I could find:

Washington
http://www.researchcouncil.org/Reports/1998/Unemployment%20Insurance/_UI%20images/uifig22.gif

United States
http://www.humboldt.edu/~ee3/econ104/topics/unemployment/u.gif

[James Bond Agent 007]

So the first low point around 1967-68 for the Washington at about 5% was at about 3% for the US.

Then Washington's went WAY up to 10% around 1970 (the famous Boeing Bust) while it stayed pretty low at about 6% for the US.

When the US rate went up to 8% in the late 70's, Washington's was about the same, though Washington didn't have the same ups and downs that the US had in the 70's.

However the early 80's recession (the worst since the Depression) it went up to 12% in Washington and only up to 10% in the whole US.

The next low point in Washington around 1990 at 5% was also at about 5% for the US (maybe a tad higher).

Then the Washington chart doesn't go to the late 90's. Oh well, I think they were about the same.

So with a few exceptions, Washington's had been at best the same as the US, but more often it's been higher.

[JiminyCricket II]

Washington's unemplyment was(probably still is) dependent on the aerospace industry. We're more diversified now, so that's why the last Boeing bust (which was just as bad as the 70's bust) didn't hurt as bad.

[destroybananas]

Friday, July 23, 2004

Microsoft to hire 3,000 in area

By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

In another boost for the local economy, Microsoft Corp. yesterday said it would hire 6,000 to 7,000 employees worldwide during the coming year -- including 3,000 people in the Puget Sound region.


Although the Redmond company isn't growing as quickly as it did during the heyday of the technology boom, the new hiring projection shows that it plans to continue the steady expansion that gave the region a measure of stability during the economic slump.

The new hires will fill both newly created positions and jobs vacated by others, so the projection doesn't mean that the company will add a net total of 3,000 jobs in the region. Microsoft declined to say yesterday how many of the jobs will be new positions. In the past year, however, it also hired about 3,000 people in the region, and expanded its local work force by a net total of about 1,400 employees, to slightly more than 28,000 people.

"That kind of growth is still substantial, and the remarkable thing about Microsoft is that it continued to hire people through the recession, which in large part was created by a downturn in the high-tech industry," economist Dick Conway said.

Microsoft also said it plans to boost research and development spending during the coming year by about 4 percent, from about $4.6 billion to $4.8 billion, not including the cost of employee equity compensation.

News of Microsoft's hiring plans comes a week after The Boeing Co. said it would hire as many as 3,000 workers in the Puget Sound region, after cutting more than 27,000 jobs in the state during the previous three years.

Microsoft's regional employment is being watched closely by employees and technology labor leaders who fear that the company plans to move significant amounts of its domestic work overseas to countries such as India and China. Microsoft repeatedly has said that it plans to keep the bulk of its research and development work in the Seattle area.The new hiring projections show that the company remains "very committed to the region," Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse said.

Microsoft said last year that it planned to add a net total of 4,000 to 5,000 jobs worldwide, about half of them in the Puget Sound region, which would have brought its worldwide headcount to nearly 60,000 people by now. But Begasse said yesterday that, because of an internal communications problem, the company reported those numbers incorrectly. In fact, the projections included both new hires and people hired to fill vacated positions, making the net gain significantly less.

Even so, worldwide, the company ended up hiring more than the 4,000 to 5,000 it had expected during the past year. It hired about 7,100 employees worldwide and 3,000 in the Puget Sound region

[James Bond Agent 007]

^Wow, that's definitely good news - maybe we'll get some more offices that way.

Think about it - if MS take up sooo much suburban-stlye lowrise offices on the Eastside, that will push up rental rates and decrease the supply, which in turn could mean that more companies would opt for offices in downtown Bellevue highrises. :D

At least I *hope* it would work out that way!!

[destroybananas]

Meydenbauer expansion expected to get support - Study set to be released today suggests Bellevue, Port make a $55 million joint investment
2004-07-23
by David A. Grant
Journal Reporter

BELLEVUE -- A proposal that the Port of Seattle join Bellevue in expanding the Meydenbauer Center convention facility is expected to get a boost today when city officials give their first report on a feasibility study of the plan.

It's expected that the first phase of the study, conducted by Port and city of Bellevue staff over the past three months, will support the idea and recommend the two organizations take the next step toward a joint investment of approximately $55 million.

Expansion supporters say a larger convention center is needed to compete with other cities and that a Port investment would complement its World Trade Center and Bell Harbor International Conference Center, both in Seattle.

Detractors say the Port, best known as the operator of Sea-Tac Airport, has no business being involved in an economic development project in Bellevue, especially at a convention center that has run a net loss for the past two years and is expected to lose money again this year.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed in April to launch the $250,000 feasibility study, the city would invest about $30 million and the Port approximately $25 million.

Bob Wallace, a Bellevue businessman and director of the Bellevue Convention Center Authority, which manages the facility, said Thursday he anticipates the study will recommend further examination of the proposal.

``What I expect it to say is that it is a very feasible thing for the Port and city to work together to develop a world trade center in conjunction with a convention center in Bellevue,'' Wallace said. ``It seems like a merger made in heaven. Each party brings strengths the other doesn't have.''

Not everyone supports the idea, however. At a Port meeting in March, Commissioner Alec Fisken said he couldn't understand why the Port would get involved in such a development.

Other commissioners made it clear they would expect a return on any investment. According to the memorandum of understanding, $15 million of the Port's $25 million stake would be a ``priority equity investment,'' entitling it to a return after the city pays bond debt for both the center's original construction and its expansion.

Bellevue pays its convention center debt and its operating costs using revenue from operations and from proceeds of a citywide hotel-motel tax. The Port generates revenue from operations and from approximately $60 million in annual property taxes collected countywide.

The city has tried for years to expand Meydenbauer Center, which was built in 1994 for $29 million. The current proposal would double the size of usable space to 254,000 square feet. Backers say the larger facility is needed to compete with new or expanding convention centers in other cities.

The press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m. today at City Hall, where the feasibility study will be released. Bellevue City Council members will discuss the study's findings during a study session at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 11511 Main St.

The Port of Seattle will be briefed on the study at its Aug. 10 meeting and will vote on whether to further pursue a joint investment during its meeting on Aug. 24. A final decision on investing won't come until October or November, said Port spokesman Mick Schultz.

[James Bond Agent 007]

This has surely got to hurt Wenatchee . . .

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/07/26/daily5.html

Alcoa to lay off 400 in permanent closure of Wenatchee smelter

Alcoa Inc. will lay off 400 workers at an idle aluminum smelter in Wenatchee this fall after its union rejected a contract proposal.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa idled the smelter in July 2001 on energy-related concerns. The company has maintained a 400-person work force there, paying them to perform community service.

On July 13 of this year, Alcoa and the Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council, which represents workers at the smelter and is affiliated with the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh, sat down for contract negotiations.

But on Monday, Alcoa said the union had rejected the company's contract proposal without a membership vote. As a result, Alcoa will leave the Wenatchee smelter idle, and Alan Cransberg, the company's president of U.S. primary metals, said there was "no hope of start-up in sight."

Alcoa said it will take a $20 million charge in the third quarter to cover the cost of the layoffs, which will begin around Oct. 1.

"Unfortunately, 400 families in the community will lose steady income and good benefits," Mr. Cransberg said.

He said health care costs were the sticking point in the contract negotiations. Alcoa was asking Wenatchee workers to take on a greater share of the costs for their health care benefits, although Mr. Cransberg did not provide specific details.

"We believe our wage and benefit proposal was very fair, and asked for workers to contribute to health care in the same manner that approximately 20,000 other Alcoa employees do in the U.S.," Mr. Cransberg said, adding that those domestic employees pay around $72 a month for health care benefits.

But union leaders argued the concessions were unnecessary.

"We reject the idea that Alcoa needs concessions from our members at Wenatchee in order for the plant to run profitably," Andrew Palm, a USWA vice president and chairman of the Alcoa negotiating committee, said in a statement. "This is a good plant. Alcoa should stop holding this community hostage and put our members back to work."

With the indefinite idling of the Wenatchee plant, Alcoa now has a lone smelter in the Pacific Northwest, its Intalco facility in Ferndale, near the Canadian border. The Wenatchee smelter had a capacity of 182,000 metric tons per year.

[JiminyCricket II]

It is barely the union's fault at all...

Because of greedy Enron and other energy companies, our state's once dominent aluminum production is now going the way of the doh-doh bird. Kaiser still hasn't re-opened in Spokane.

Our once cheap electricity(it's still produced at an extremely lower price than the rest of the nation, but inexplicably we pay more for it, as well as these companies) has been crapped on by BushCo.'s buddies(Ken Lay, specifically.)

If you want more jobs, which ='s more business, which ='s more skyscrapers. Help vote Bush out of office.

[JiminyCricket II]

BTW, some buildings have aluminum components in them, and the steel used for highrises is running low because companies can't afford to produce them anymore because of said Ken Lay. Forcing developers to pay more, and less likely to build because of the price.

Like I said, Less Bush = More skyscrapers!

[James Bond Agent 007]

I also read an article in the Wall Street Journal not too long ago that Alcoa is going to focus its production on places where it can get cheap electricity - Canada, Trinidad and Tobago (they've got tons of natural gas they can burn for cheap electricity), Brazil, I think South Africa, a few more. So yeah, I do think it's the not-so-cheap-anymore electricity that's the real culprit.

[JiminyCricket II]

^Yeah, that is horse-shit. Wenatchee has 2 dams *barely* north and south of the city. Not to mention the Grand FUCKING Coulee dam, the largest single producer of electricity in the world a fucking hour away! And probably 8 more dams within 4 hours....And they're telling me they can't get cheap electricity. That's utter bullshit!

I know I already complained about this but... Bush gives energy companies the free will to charge what ever the hell they want, however scandalis.

ARGH! As you can see this kind of pisses me off. Sorry about my french.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^LOL.

Actually I think it was Clinton who deregulated the energy industry, or at least he got it started.

Anyway I think it would have been inevitable that the NW power rates went up - we export a lot of our power to California, and demand there is growing real fast along with the state (and they themselves haven't built too many of their own generating facilities I think), so they've just eaten up more and more of our electricity, driving up the price. Simple laws of supply and demand, I s'pose.

[JiminyCricket II]

In that phone conversation that was released recently with those Enron guys, they said that they hoped Bush would get elected, because he doesn't put up with the regulations. That's what I was going by.

Yeah, California does take a lot of the electricity during the summer especially. But uses considerably less during the winter. Why can't we get cheap power then? Not to mention, Enron screwed CA and STILL didn't even give us the courtesy reach-around with cheaper electricity.

[JiminyCricket II]

This could be bad for the agriculture business. I know the wheat growers in the Palouse rely on cheaply getting their produce on barges in the Snake river, then sending it down to Portland. The increased cost of rail or truck to Tacoma or Seattle can eventually hurt them. Hopefully this will all work out....

Shipping company to pull out of Portland

This story was published Friday, July 30th, 2004

By Jeff St. John Herald staff writer

Shipping Mid-Columbia agricultural products to East Asia could become more complicated in September.

That's when major shipper Hyundai Merchant Marine plans to stop serving the Port of Portland, the destination port for containerized cargo carried down the Columbia River by barge.

Now shippers worried about a possible bottleneck in the Columbia River transportation system are looking at the option of fighting for space on Portland's remaining cargo ships or sending containers by truck or train to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

For shippers who use the Port of Pasco's barge terminal, the presence of terminal operator Northwest Container Services Inc. is a plus. That's because the company provides train transport for containers to west-side ports.

"We've been getting calls from a lot of the shippers in the area, because they know we have another means of getting cargo to the Puget Sound," said Wayne Plaster, the company's operations general manager in Portland.

But that also is likely to cost more, he said. Though shipping costs vary widely depending on volume, time of year and other factors, he estimated the cost of carrying a container of cargo by truck or rail from Pasco to the Puget Sound at $650 to $700, compared with about $350 to carry it by barge to Portland.

"A good percentage of the business we did (in barge container traffic from Pasco) was with Hyundai and their vessel partners," he said. Unless the other two remaining shipping companies remaining in Portland, "K" Line and Hanjin Shipping, can pick up that business, "our barge business will go down," he said.

It's not clear how severely Hyundai's pullout will affect the cost of shipping goods. Shipping lines have come and gone at the Port of Portland before.

Hyundai, which announced the pullout earlier this month, carried about 18 percent of all full containers out of Portland, said Eric Hedaa, Port of Portland marine and business development division spokesman.

Hyundai has said it will honor contracts with shippers to get their cargo to ports it will still serve after the September pullout, Hedaa noted.

The Port of Portland is asking its two remaining containerized cargo shippers to see if they can increase the number of containers they ship to make up for the shortfall Hyundai's departure will leave, he said.

"But that's going to be rough," Hedaa said, because the river isn't deep enough to allow the newest generation of cargo ships to fully load, and plans to dredge the channel have stalled for years over environmental concerns.

"We're not exactly sure how much capacity they'll be able to provide," he said. "Our hope is that we'll be able to bring in another carrier to fill the void Hyundai's leaving."

Until that happens, shippers are likely going to have to make do with limited options, said Ken Casavant, a transportation economist at Washington State University in Pullman.

"Depending on their timing, they may have to divert" some shipments from the river to truck or train, he said.

Grain shipments, which travel on chartered cargo ships, will not be affected by Hyundai's decision, he said.

But most other cargo coming down the Columbia River system -- mainly hay, peas, lentils, frozen vegetables and wood products -- do travel in containers, he said.

Given that fact, Jim Toomey, Port of Pasco executive director, is happy that Northwest Container Service has given the port the flexibility it needs to serve its customers.

"Price and dependability, those are the two factors" shippers will be looking at in making their decisions, he said.

The volume of goods shipped from the port's barge terminal has grown from 25,000 tons in 1998 to 73,000 tons in 2002, spurred on by millions of dollars of improvements to the terminal and its rail connection.

Agricultural exports account for about 95 percent of the cargo that passes through the barge terminal, and hay makes up about 60 percent of those exports. Port of Pasco tenant Zen-Noh Hay Co. on its own sends about 2,500 hay-filled containers down the Columbia each year.

Even though barge shipping is by far the least expensive choice for bulk agricultural products, plenty of shippers already use the Puget Sound ports for their products, said Northwest Container's Plaster.

"I'd guess fully a third of the export product in the Basin moves through Puget Sound now," he said.

During the monthlong Columbia River dam lock closure earlier this year, Northwest Container was able to move enough cargo by train from Pasco and other points to Seattle and Tacoma's ports to make up the difference, Plaster said.

"We've done it. We've proven it works," he said.

As for the price, "It's just going to be a function of the market."

[James Bond Agent 007]

Interesting. However there's so much grain produced in the inland NW, and it is so important a product for Japan and elsewhere in Asia, that I doubt they'd just give up on it all. When Hyundai leaves, that will probably just create a void that someone else will be glad to fill.

If the depth of the Columbia River is one of the major problems, maybe they could create a grain terminal at Astoria?

[JiminyCricket II]

^That's a good idea. Those Goonies wouldn't mind the extra business.

I wonder what the environmental issues of dredging is. Salmon? Will it kick up too much silt? If so, since the part they're gonna dredge is so close to the ocean, won't all of it be gone is a short time anyways?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Kate Riley / Times staff columnist

Wind farms for Kittitas? More power to them

If you drive through Cle Elum on your way north, you will pass a little motel, the Wind Blew Inn.

It's an aptly named establishment for an area where the tree-filled mountains give way to shrub-covered foothills. The lowlands bake hot in the sun, sucking the cold marine air off the mountains, making wind.

It's perfect, in fact, for a wind farm. Zilkha Renewable Energy wants to build about 120 wind turbines in strings along the ridges of Table Mountain's lower slopes. They would generate about 180 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 45,000 homes for a year. As proposed, the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project would straddle U.S. Highway 97, about 13 miles northwest of Ellensburg.

That has riled some — but by no means all — of the neighboring landowners. Among the opponents are city dwellers with vacation homes who fear the turbines, the length of a football field from ground to rotor tip, will spoil an unquestionably beautiful and rustic view.

The turbines are gangly things, to be sure. The first time I drove past them turning on a bluff at Wallula Gap, where the Columbia River starts to turn West and becomes the state border, it was like a gut punch.

It is nothing like what Lewis and Clark saw on that bluff 199 years ago.

But things have changed, and if our region is to grow in environmentally responsible ways, more wind power has to be part of the equation. The trauma of the Western energy crisis that began four summers ago and projections of future power requirements show the need to diversify the Northwest energy portfolio. Even better if new generation is nonpolluting, renewable energy such as wind farms.

Underscoring the need, the Western Governors Association in June initiated an effort to encourage 30,000 megawatts of new clean energy by 2015, including wind power. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. Energy secretary, co-sponsored the resolution with his more famous California counterpart.

The need is there, but clearly the issue is not so easy when the wind farms are going up in your picture window or where you enjoy hiking.

"It's about birds, bats and viewshed," said Jeb Baldi, vice president of the Kittitas Audubon Society. While the National Audubon Society is in favor of wind farms with some caveats, local board members have been struggling to come to consensus. Board members will meet again tomorrow night. Some members like the wind farms because they make clean energy, which benefits birds and people alike; others fear the turbines' rotors will do more damage than good to bird and bat populations and will change the valley's character.

The brewing conflict in the Kittitas Valley prompted the Houston-based Zilkha to take advantage of a recent state law permitting it to opt into the exhaustive state application process under the authority of the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The council's first-ever hearing on a wind-farm proposal begins next Monday in Ellensburg.

Zilkha officials figure the state process, while more onerous, has a more certain time frame and clearer appeals process — direct to the state Supreme Court — than local permitting, which can be litigated every step of the way. Zilkha also has proposed the Wild Horse Wind Power Project in a different part of Kittitas County. Another company has proposed the Desert Claim Wind Power Project but has not applied to the council.

Wind farms dominate the letters to the editor at the Ellensburg Daily Record like no other topic, says Managing Editor Tim Engstrom. To pinpoint the urban-rural tensions of the public debate, he has refined his letters policy to ferret out city folks trying to list their vacation homes as their primary residence.

A Record editorial endorsing wind farms noted: "... many of the opponents to wind farms in Kittitas County are people who bought homes in the country to get away from the cluttered Puget Sound area, while there are many supporters who have farmed and ranched around the sites for generations."

Many landowners who will lease land to Zilkha will benefit — as will county tax coffers. One landowner, the state Department of Natural Resources, would lease land for about 45 of the towers, earning as much as $250,000 each year for its Common School Trust Fund for public school construction around the state.

The effect on views is a reason not to want wind farms, but it is not a reason to stop them. If the council is satisfied the effects on birds and bats are small and can be mitigated, the permit should be issued. And the governor should sign it.

I don't like the looks of the turbines, either. But I welcome them.

[destroybananas]

Air cargo volume soars
But Northwest to shift cargo traffic to Portland
Greg Lamm


http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/08/16/story2.html

[destroybananas]

State's job-growth picture brightens
Washington added 11,600 net new jobs in July, a strong showing relative to the recently released national figure of 32,000 new jobs created in July.




The Seattle area accounted for 8,100 positions, about two-thirds of the state's total, said Roberta Pauer, an economist with the state Employment Security Department's Labor Market and Economic Analysis branch.

"Both private and public sector employers added staff in much higher numbers than what would be necessary to meet purely seasonal staffing needs," Pauer said. "Permanent hiring occurred across the board, including construction, professional and business services industries, wholesale and retail trade, leisure and recreation, and government both state and local."

Meanwhile, the state's July unemployment rate fell to 6 percent from June's 6.1 percent. Unemployment nationally also fell in July to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent in June.

Despite the better performance, the labor market still has a ways to go before reaching pre-recession employment levels, Pauer said. During the recession from January 2001 to June 2003, the state lost about 84,200 jobs. In the recovery period since then, the state has added back 64,500 new jobs.

In the metro Seattle area, where the recession was concentrated, 95,400 jobs were lost during the 30-month recession. About 35,000 jobs have been created during the 11-month recovery.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^Damn you beat me to it. I was just gonna post the same article. ;) :D

[JiminyCricket II]

:(

Port of Portland to lose second shipping company

This story was published Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

By Jeff St. John Herald staff writer

Another major container shipping company at the Port of Portland has announced plans to pull out by year's end, leaving Mid-Columbia agricultural exporters even more concerned about the rising cost of getting products to East Asian markets.

On Thursday, "K" Line said it would stop serving Portland in December. The announcement came less than a month after Hyundai Merchant Marine said it would stop serving the port by the end of next month.

The two companies together accounted for about half of Portland's full container exports so far this year, said Eric Hedaa, the port's marine and business development spokesman.

"K" Line's departure "came as a surprise, and it's another setback on top of the loss of Hyundai," he said.

Jim Toomey, Port of Pasco executive director, agreed that "K" Line's departure will bring increased uncertainty to Mid-Columbia shippers of hay, vegetables and other containerized agricultural products.

"The loss of capacity is a big deal," he said. Shippers from the Port of Pasco's barge terminal who are unable to secure space on remaining Portland cargo ships could be forced to spend more money to send containers by truck and train to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

Hedaa said "K" Line had explained it was dropping Portland as a port in order to add its first Chinese port of call to its schedule.

With Chinese products headed to America commanding a much higher rate of return for shippers than America's commodities headed back to Asia, many shippers are choosing to return empty cargo containers to be filled at East Asian ports rather than wait for American goods to carry back over, he said.

The Port of Pasco's barge terminal operator, Northwest Container Services Inc., can provide train transport to the Puget Sound ports. But a company official has estimated train or truck transport can cost nearly twice as much as carrying the same container by barge to Portland -- and that barge traffic likely will drop unless Portland's re-maining container cargo carrier, Hanjin Shipping, can pick up the business left by Hyundai and "K" Line.

On a more positive note, President Bush an-nounced Fri-day that an initial $15 million will be available to begin deepening the lower Columbia River's shipping channel from 40 feet to 43 feet. That would allow oceangoing ships to carry more cargo and reduce their costs of shipping to Japan, China and other East Asian nations.

While the project isn't expected to be complete until 2007, and Congress has yet to approve the entire $150 million for it, Hedaa and others expressed hope that the first round of funding will give shippers a reason to look again at the Port of Portland.

"The (shipping) lines leaving Portland is not disconnected to the channel depth" issue, Toomey said.

Pat Boss, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, agreed.

"Clearly it's in our best interest to make sure the river can be dredged and the Port of Portland can have a viable service overseas," he said.

Washington exported about $500 million of frozen french fries to East Asia last year, he said, with about $100 million going through Portland and the rest through Seattle and Tacoma. While most of that product travels to the ports by truck, the availability of barge shipping helps keep competition steady and prices down, he said.

"Without the barging system, rail and trucks become your only mode of transportation, and that lessens competition and raises prices," he noted. "We used to ship a lot more by barge and rail, but if you look over the last 20 years, barge and rail has gone down. We're trying to reverse that trend."

Hanjin Shipping, told The Oregonian newspaper Friday that it had no plans to pull out of the Port of Portland.

___________________________


Although this is to a direct gain of the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, I'm more worried about the farmers over here on this side of the state. This will be costly. It looks like they're going to dredge the Columbia though.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^I read in the Sunday Seattle Times that 85% of Washington's wheat is exported, mostly to the Far East. Obviously Japan, Korea and maybe China need our wheat. If they need our wheat, surely they will find a way to get it to port.

Maybe the wheat farmers should collectively start their own shipping company!! :)

[James Bond Agent 007]

BTW, I just thought of another possible reason for this . . . and if I'm right, this might only be temporary.

Because China is exporting sooooo many things, and because they are importing sooooo many basic commodities to go into their economy, there is a big shortage of shipping capacity in the world right now. Shipping rates for ships that carry things like wheat and potatos and other commodities have gone waaaay up in the past year, and there is a shortage of ships for such things. Also, it takes a few years to build sufficient numbers of new ships to accomodate all this growth, so ships are basically being rationed worldwide. These pullouts of Hyundai and K-Line might just be decisions by those companies to redirect useage of their existing ships to more profitable routes, at least until they can get more new ships online to do everything they'd like to do. So, if I'm guessing right, the loss of these 2 shipping lines might be temporary, until new ships can be ordered, built and then put into service.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Here's an article I read on the phenomenon back in the fall:

A Surge in Ocean-Shipping Rates Could Increase Consumer Prices
Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, November 4, 2003

By Robert Guy Matthews

A recent surge in ocean-shipping rates to their highest levels in decades is adding upward pressure on already rising commodity prices that could push up the cost of imported goods in the U.S. and other countries.

With the demand for seafaring vessels far outstripping supply, the cost of shipping iron ore, soybeans, coal and other commodities used in the manufacture of a wide range of goods has nearly tripled this year. The Baltic Dry Index, the key industry indicator for commodity freight rates, has doubled in just the last two months. Industry officials say there are no signs of relief on the horizon in terms of lower prices or additional supplies of vessels.

China's surging economy is creating a huge demand for ships to import the basic raw materials the country needs to build infrastructure, supply its massive manufacturing sector and satisfy a growing consumer market. As more ships go to China, fewer are available to ferry goods between other countries, causing a supply shortage that helps to boost prices. Compounding the squeeze, shrinking mining industries in the Americas and Europe have increased those regions' imports of coal, while the summer drought in Europe is boosting grain shipments from the U.S.

"We are at a price spike that has never been seen before, the highest-rate market of all time," said Tom Cutler, a shipping analyst for Clarksons, a big London-based shipbroker. "It has caused a total disruption in the way that ships are being positioned." Clarksons has kept records on shipping rates for about 30 years.

Economists say the high shipping rates could be felt by consumers within months. The impact will come in the form of higher prices on goods made of steel, alumunum and other metals, and on certain food products derived from livestock, such as cattle and pigs, that feed on soybeans, grain and corn.

Robert Dunn, professor of economics at George Washington University in Washington, said the inflationary pressure will be keenest in countries that import more than they export, such as the U.S., China and countries in the European Union. "For products that are heavier and bulkier, like textiles and metals, the effect on prices would be larger," as much as 3% next year, Mr. Dunn said. But for lighter items, such as electronic gadgets, the effect on prices shouldn't be as strong because transportation costs are less of a factor, he said.

Already commodity prices are heading higher. Copper is trading on the London Metal Exchange at six-year highs of about $2,083 a ton. The cost for alumina, the basic ingredient to produce aluminum, has nearly doubled in the last year. Cotton prices have been trading at near five-year highs of about 84 cents a pound, in part because of increased demand from China.

The growing use of the world's sea lanes has followed rising demand from China. This year, China has increased its imports of iron ore, a basic material to make steel, by nearly 40 million tons, or 33%. Meanwhile, coal exported from China, Indonesia and Australia is making its way to Europe in strong numbers, up about 35%, according to industry statistics. As Chinese consumers' incomes grow, Brazil, a major supplier of soybeans, is shipping greater quantities of them to China, where they are used for animal feed and human food products, such as soybean oil.

Higher ocean-going freight rates are mainly hitting bulk-shipping vessels, specialized carriers that transport commodities in their raw form and which account for about a third of all commercial ocean-going trade. More than a third of all bulk ships carry iron ore and coal. The other classes of freight ships are container vessels, which carry semi-finished goods, such as electronic devices and appliances, and tanker vessels used for oil.

Although ships come in different sizes and shapes, the current spot cost to rent a typical bulk ship - the length of between two and three football fields - to ferry coal or iron ore is about $75,000 a day, say traders and shipbrokers. That compares with $20,000 to $28,000 a day in January. About 40% of goods are transported in ships hired on the spot market. Companies that locked in contracts with ship owners before the recent price run-up are paying about $30,000 a day, but those prices are likely to increase as the contracts come up for renewal.

"It's been outrageous," said Leon Goldenberg, president of Fremark Industries, Inc., a world-wide metals trading company based in New York. "You can't continue to absorb costs when the freight rises higher than your profit margin." He said in some cases his shipping costs have risen $10 a ton at a time when his profit margin is only $9 a ton.

Shippers shouldn't expect newly built vessels to ride in on the waves to deal with the demand anytime soon, analysts say. The shipbuilding business, centered in South Korea, Japan and China, is backed up and the lead times for taking new deliveries are almost twice as long as normal.

Shipbuilders, the vast majority of which are privately held, ususally jump at the chance to build more ships when demand is so high. But the world's shipbuilders are busy building new oil tankers to satisfy more stringent safety requirements called for by European regulators. Also, previous orders for new container ships have pushed any new orders for bulk ships to the back of the line. A new ship that used to take 18 months to two years for completion, now requires as much as three years for delivery.

[JiminyCricket II]

Because China is exporting sooooo many things, and because they are importing sooooo many basic commodities to go into their economy, there is a big shortage of shipping capacity in the world right now. Shipping rates for ships that carry things like wheat and potatos and other commodities have gone waaaay up in the past year, and there is a shortage of ships for such things. Also, it takes a few years to build sufficient numbers of new ships to accomodate all this growth, so ships are basically being rationed worldwide. These pullouts of Hyundai and K-Line might just be decisions by those companies to redirect useage of their existing ships to more profitable routes, at least until they can get more new ships online to do everything they'd like to do. So, if I'm guessing right, the loss of these 2 shipping lines might be temporary, until new ships can be ordered, built and then put into service.


That's pretty much what I figured after reading this paragraph:
"With Chinese products headed to America commanding a much higher rate of return for shippers than America's commodities headed back to Asia, many shippers are choosing to return empty cargo containers to be filled at East Asian ports rather than wait for American goods to carry back over, he said.

If shippers would rather return to Asia empty than wait to fill up with produce, then the Chinese shipping market must be way more profitable.

Now that you mention it and after reading that article, perhaps you are right that this is only temporary. The ship builders just need to "catch up." And once they have leftovers from the Chinese market, they'll send some of the ships back. That makes perfect sense, I hope.

Thanks for the article.

[destroybananas]

Drugstore.com moving HQ to One Bellevue Center
Drugstore.com Inc. said it has signed a new lease for 53,256 square feet at One Bellevue Center, where it will relocate its headquarters early next year. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.


Drugstore.com will move about 250 employees from the Sunset Corporate Campus in Bellevue's Factoria neighborhood to three of the downtown building's 21 floors. The lease in Factoria was due to expire in July 2005.

One Bellevue Center is owned, leased and managed by Equity Office Properties Trust.

"The new lease is financially very attractive to drugstore.com as we continue to look for ways to grow the company while containing costs," said Robert Barton, acting chief executive officer. "One Bellevue Center's amenities and location offer a desirable working environment, a variety of transportation choices for our employees, and the larger building provides expansion options."

[DowntownBoy]

Bellevue's office vacancy must be shrinking fast!... thats good.

[Kevin]

Sorry to butt in, I thought this was funny

http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=25690

Sounds like a much worse Syracuse.... :laugh:

[James Bond Agent 007]

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Biomedical firm to build lab, complex in Everett
Company expansion could bring 500 jobs

By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A fast-growing contract biomedical research company has bought 28 acres of land in south Everett where it plans to build a new laboratory and office complex that could house up to 1,000 employees in the next decade.

SNBL USA, a 5-year-old subsidiary of Japan-based Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, bought the undeveloped land for $3.5 million from Fluke Manufacturing. It plans to begin construction on a 100,000- square-foot building early next year, spokesman John Wilson said.

When completed, the initial building could double the company's current work force to about 500, he said.

Located southeast of the company's headquarters at 6605 Merrill Creek Parkway, the land purchase is another boost for Snohomish County's biomedical industry. Earlier this year, Berlex Inc. announced plans to build a $60 million drug plant near Lynnwood. That plant could employ about 70 people in 2007, the company said.

Several biotechnology companies also are clustered in the area, including Icos, Seattle Genetics and Sonus Pharmaceuticals.

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said SNBL's decision to expand in the city is "a sign that our area is ripe for future biomedical business growth."

SNBL opened the facility in Everett in 1999 to be closer to customers, which include biotechnology companies such as Amgen and Icos.

About 100 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have tapped the services of SNBL, an independent research company that oversees preclinical projects in the early stages of a drug's development.

Many of those projects include testing of monkeys, baboons and other animals, which are imported to the Everett facility from the company's breeding farm in China.

According to the company's Web site, SNBL's facilities have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care -- a non-profit organization that is committed to the humane testing of animals in scientific experiments.

Wilson said the company's business is growing as more pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies start testing new drugs.

"There are a limited number of these facilities around the country, and the high-quality ones are a valuable commodity," he said.

Researchers at the Everett facility have worked on preclinical studies to test the effectiveness of drugs for the treatment of AIDS, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis and other diseases.

SNBL, which has field offices in Baltimore and Boston, could look to expand in other areas of the country. Wilson said, however, that the land purchase in Everett should "accommodate our growth" for the next five to 10 years.

[destroybananas]

Coastal Hotel Group moving to Seattle
Coastal Hotel Group, which manages 12 hotels in the world, is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Seattle.


Ten employees will make the move to the new headquarters, which will be located at 2104 Fourth Ave. In addition, Yogi Hutsen of Seattle has been named president of the management company.

The privately held company is owned by Doug Toms and Don Simplat, and manages 1,200 hotel rooms in Illinois, California, Washington, Curacao and the British Virgin Islands

[James Bond Agent 007]

Washington median income growth No. 2 in U.S.

The state of Washington had the nation's second-highest rate of median household income growth in the past three years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to Census figures released Thursday, median household income in the state grew from $45,186 in 2001-2002 to $46,863 in 2002-2003; a growth rate of 3.7 percent exceeded only by North Dakota's 4.3 percent growth. Idaho and West Virginia were the only other states to show median household income growth while 10 states reported declines and the rest reported no change.

Despite the growth in median income, Washington -- with its three-year (2001-2003) average median of $45,960 -- doesn't crack the top 10 states, led by New Jersey, at $55,221, followed by Maryland ($55,213), New Hampshire ($55,166), Alaska ($55,143) and Connecticut ($55,004).

[destroybananas]

Nordstrom grows sales amid national slowdown
Upscale department store operator Nordstrom Inc. of Seattle beat analysts' expectations with an August same-store sales increase of 7.2 percent, no small feat considering nearly all of the nation's major retailers saw declines or lower-than-expected growth.




Dan Geiman, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen Inc. in Seattle, said he was expecting comparable sales of between 6 percent and 8 percent, though the Wall Street consensus was 4.7 percent. Nordstrom management had forecast a month ago that same-store sales would increase on average by 1 percent to 3 percent per month during the third quarter.

Nordstrom said Thursday that net sales of $431.7 million in August represents a growth rate of 8.2 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

The strongest performing geographic regions for the month were the Southwest and Southern states, Nordstrom said. The strongest merchandise categories were accessories, women's shoes and women's designer apparel.

Nordstrom operated 180 stores as of Aug. 30, three more than on the same date a year ago.

[destroybananas]

German university orders new Cray supercomputer system
Seattle supercomputer maker Cray Inc. said Thursday that Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany, has become the first European organization to place an order for a Cray XD1 supercomputer system. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The new system is scheduled to be installed during the fourth quarter at the University of the Federal Armed Forces within HSU, where it will be used primarily for advanced education and training.

The university is planning new postgraduate-level course work beginning in October that will teach computing techniques for fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, optimization and automatic control, Cray said.

"We evaluated many proposals from leading IT companies and decided on Cray because of the Cray XD1 system's excellent price-to-performance ratio," Professor Hendrik Rothe, chair of the university's laboratory for measurement and information technology, said in a statement. "This high performance computer will be of great benefit to our students, since hands-on learning is always the best method to understand sophisticated physical, mathematical and technical problems."

[James Bond Agent 007]

Spokane Journal of Business
Economic index shows bright Spokane outlook

WSU prof’s calculations put indicator at highest point; ‘GDP’ here grows

By Paul Read


An index intended to show the direction in which Spokane’s economy is headed has reached its highest point possible, providing “the strongest and most positive interpretation of the local economic trends” since the index was created, its author says.

Called the Spokane Leading Economic Activity Index, it was developed in 2001 by Washington State University professor Don Epley and uses select data that reflect the metropolitan area’s economic makeup.

The index can vary between zero and 1.0, and has averaged 0.58 since its inception, previously topping out at 0.67 a couple of times and falling as low as 0.16 back in the winter of 2002. In Epley’s September report, issued last week, the index was at 1.0, the top end of the scale. It reflects data from May, June, and July.

“In the three years that we have done this analysis, I have never seen a picture that looks so positive,” says Epley, who teaches real estate and economics at WSU’s Spokane campus. “Very rarely do the indicators all point in the same direction. The work force is up, unemployment is down, residential permits took a significant jump, and the national consumer expectation indicators are among the highest levels.”

Jon Eliassen, president and CEO of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, says he’s seeing the same trends, and points specifically at residential building permits, which he says some people have forecast will be extraordinarily high this year in the Spokane-Kootenai county market.

Also, he says, “What I hear on the streets is that there is an increase in retail sales as well.”

Rich Hadley, president and CEO of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, says, “To see nine out of nine indicators up, that’s better than Ichiro has done in July and August,” referring to Seattle Mariners standout right fielder Ichiro Suzuki’s recent batting tear.

“I respect the information because I think Don Epley takes a very cautious approach,” Hadley says. “To see him validate what we’re seeing around the region is certainly very encouraging.”

Epley’s index tracks nine economic indicators, including six specific to the local economy and three national indices.

The three national measures—the U.S. Index of Leading Economic Indicators, the U.S. Index of Consumer Sentiment, and the U.S. Non-Manufacturing Index of Business Activity—all showed upward movement during the period.

On the local front, Epley found that single- and multifamily building permits both were up sharply, both the civilian labor force and the number of non-farm employees grew, and the number of unemployed here was at its lowest level in two years.

The sixth local indicator is based on the other main index that Epley compiles, called the Spokane Economic Activity Index, which also showed positive movement in his September report.

That index was constructed to estimate real economic growth in the Spokane metropolitan area by estimating changes in the purchasing power of the work force here, using employment and wage data, Epley says. He says it estimates economic movement here in a manner comparable to the way the nation’s Gross Domestic Product shows the progress of the U.S. economy.

An increase in the index means the work force here has more income to spend, and vice versa, he says. Because it relies on government data, the index lags some. The September report reflects activity in the second quarter of this year.

For that quarter, the index stood at 113.76, about 2 percent higher than a year earlier and just shy of the 114.33 level it hit in the fourth quarter of 2000, the highest mark it has achieved in 20 years.

“In comparison to the figures for the previous quarter, economic growth in the Spokane economy has started to recover,” Epley writes in his report.

Over the 20-year period for which Epley has made calculations, Spokane’s economy has grown at an annual average rate of about 2 percent, dipping significantly only during a two-year period beginning in 2001.

“This is all good news for the community and the region,” says the EDC’s Eliassen. “It’s good to see economic activity. It makes people feel better about hiring and expanding. There’s just real strong growth in the numbers.”

[destroybananas]

^well it's about damn time!!

[destroybananas]

State jobless rate inches higher
By Blanca Torres and Shirleen Holt
Seattle Times business reporters

Washington lost about 6,800 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate inched up to 6.2 percent, according to preliminary figures released by the state yesterday.

Despite the dramatic drop-off from July, when a revised 10,100 jobs were created, August's numbers reflect some unusual summer hiring and layoff patterns, said Roberta Pauer, an economist with the Washington Employment Security Department.

Rather, she said, August was essentially flat, with no job gains and no real job losses.

"We're continuing our recovery trend," Pauer said. "It's solid, even if not spectacular."

Most of the job losses came from education and government, whose variable hiring and layoff schedules "play havoc" with the numbers, Pauer said.

Washington's unemployment rate, up slightly from July's 6 percent, has not changed significantly since February, when it was also 6.2 percent, even though the state has added about 38,700 net jobs in the past seven months.

This is partly because so-called discouraged workers have resumed their job search and are once again counted in unemployment figures, Pauer said.

The Seattle area lost 600 jobs in August, although local unemployment remained at 5.7 percent. All figures are adjusted to reflect seasonal fluctuations in the job market.

The recovery hasn't been fast enough for former technology and aerospace workers, two industries hardest hit by the recession.

They were among the more than 100 people in Seattle attending Monday night's premiere of "American Jobs," a documentary about offshoring by California filmmaker Greg Spotts.

The independent film, released on DVD on Labor Day, features laid-off Boeing workers, as well as a Mercer Island technology worker forced to train her Indian replacement.

CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight "will feature clips of the film all this week.

In a panel discussion following the showing, former Boeing engineer Kennett Bivens called the current job market "a dead animal."

"It's not a bear; it's not a bullish market. It's dead."

Bivens, 36, was a technical product designer for the Boeing 767 when he was laid off in January 2003.

He was out of work for 14 months before landing a contract assignment for Philips Medical Systems in March.

Bivens said he's now making fairly good money but that his long unemployment stretch plunged him into debt.

He sold his camera collection and guitars to help pay the bills, and he's still making payments on a car that no longer runs.

Although he's eligible for health benefits through his temporary employment agency, he can't afford the $169-a-paycheck premium.

The mounting stress prompted Bivens to take a semester off from Bellevue Community College, where he is retraining for a career outside of aerospace.

"I'm so stressed out," he said Monday night. "I need to see a doctor."

Bivens' stress may not be relieved any time soon.

Philips Medical System announced earlier this month it will cut 130 full-time and 20 temporary positions at its Bothell campus in January.

Predictably, manufacturing saw the biggest drop in August, down 1,200 jobs from July. This was followed by construction and leisure and hospitality, sectors that both lost 500 jobs last month.

The retail sector, however, picked up 600 jobs.

Meanwhile, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers issued its own job study this week, which looks at employment in technology-intensive pockets around the nation.

According to the report, done by the University of Illinois' Center for Urban Economic Development, tech employment in the Puget Sound area was down 6,400 jobs between March 2001 and April 2004.

"We have fewer jobs than we did three years ago when they said the economic recovery was beginning," said WashTech director Marcus Courtney.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^Your post was really messy, and you posted the article twice in the same post, so I fixed it. :D

The thrills of moderator power. :D

[DowntownBoy]

My mom told me that unemployment in the early 80's was over 9% in Washington. 6.2 percent doesn't seem all that bad compared to that... although tell that to the peeps that don't have a job.

Anyway.... outsourcing sucks. It would be nice to have the 300,000 jobs that went to India from call centers here.

[JiminyCricket II]

Wait until the 7E7 production heats up(2007+). Then the Puget Sound will be booming a bit again. I think Boeing is hiring about 3000 for the final assembly, that usually creates 3 or 4 times that number of jobs indirectly. And the new Next Generation 737 is selling like hotcakes. BIG TIME. I think they are up to 90 orders in 2004 already, with more likely on the way. Can you say "Record setting year."?

About the same time the tech industry should have healed up, and all that biotech construction going on right now will be opening up and research and drug production will pick up, I think Seattle will be booming again in 2 or 3 years.

*trying not to sound to optimistic so I don't jinx us* ;)

[destroybananas]

Alaska Air Group partners with Delta
Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc. said Thursday it has entered its two airlines into a code-sharing agreement with troubled Delta Air Lines Inc. of Atlanta. Shared flight codes allow one airline to book passengers on another airline's planes.


Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air will codeshare flights with Delta, share airport lounges and "provide reciprocal frequent flyer benefits," Alaska said in an announcement. The agreement is subject to review by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the codesharing provision is subject to approval by Delta's pilots' union, the companies said.

The necessary approvals will be completed as soon as possible, and the agreements could become effective late this fall and early next year, officials said.

Earlier Thursday, Delta's credit ratings were cut by Fitch and Standard & Poors, following a warning Wednesday that Delta's independent auditor expressed doubt about its ability to continue as a going-concern.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Friday, September 17, 2004

More money for state with economic growth

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

OLYMPIA -- Washington's economy is slowly, steadily growing, aided by a sizzling real estate market and the prospect of new Boeing jobs, and should pump an additional $132 million into state coffers, state economists said yesterday.

The new cash isn't a lot, compared with the state's $23 billion budget, but will help lawmakers and the governor deal with a looming budget hole that could total $1 billion.

The state Revenue Forecast Council, a bipartisan group of legislators and the state revenue and budget directors, adopted the new, mostly upbeat revenue update.

Gov. Gary Locke's administration will await a November update before finalizing a two-year budget proposal for the 2005 Legislature and the new governor. Locke is not running for re-election.

State economist Chang Mook Sohn, the council's director, said the economy is pulling out of bleak times, albeit very slowly, and is expected to outpace the national recovery.

Of the latest $132 million uptick, nearly all is due to expanded real estate excise tax collections, he said.

The state charges 1.28 percent of the purchase price of a home.

[James Bond Agent 007]

BTW why don't you Oregonians ever post in this thread? Surely there's interesting economic stuff happenin in Oregon? ;)

Does Portland have a business newspaper?

[mSeattle]

If Washington state really wanted to boom would it not try to expand into or attract rail/monorail transit manufacturing and supply? The way other cities are booming, you would think that more non-auto transit will be needed.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^I don't think there's a single entity or company in the world that transports things (other than people ;)) via monorail. Goods are transported either via rail or truck. Period.

[PacificNW]

007-The Business Journal of Portland:

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/

and the Daily Journal of Commerce:

http://www.djc-or.com/Editorial/index.cfm

[destroybananas]

^not everyone reads the bizjournals for all the cities, that's why it's better to post them here so that it's more "centralized" if you will...

[James Bond Agent 007]

Thanks for the links PNW.

Here's a Portland story. ;)

11:44 AM PDT Tuesday
Survey: Portland-area hiring outlook strong
Portland-area employers expect to hire at a brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2004, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.


From October to December, 37 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 3 percent intend to reduce their work force, according to Manpower. Another 60 percent expect to maintain their current staff levels.

"The Portland-area employment outlook is stronger than the third-quarter forecast when 36 percent of the companies interviewed intended to take on more staff, while 11 percent planned to decrease headcount," said Manpower spokesman Jim Nelson. "A year ago at this time, employers were significantly less confident about hiring when 18 percent of companies surveyed thought employment increases were likely and 14 percent intended to cut back."

Statewide, the survey found 33 percent plan to hire more workers, 54 percent expect no change, 9 percent expect decreases, and 4 percent are unsure.

National results of the survey show that the hiring pace for the fourth quarter is expected to remain stable across the United States. Of the 16,000 U.S. employers that were surveyed, 28 percent plan to add staff in the fourth quarter, while 7 percent expect to reduce their payrolls. Sixty percent anticipate no change in staff levels for the coming quarter, and 5 percent are unsure of their hiring plans.

The survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their work force during the next quarter. It is the only forward-looking survey of its kind, unparalleled in size, scope, longevity and area of focus. The survey has been running for more than 40 years and is one of the most trusted surveys of employment activity in the world. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey in the U.S. is based on interviews with nearly 16,000 public and private employers in 470 markets across the country and is considered a highly respected economic indicator.

Employment services company Manpower Inc. has 4,300 offices in 67 countries.

[James Bond Agent 007]

State short on "living-wage" jobs

By Shirleen Holt
Seattle Times business reporter

Washington may be climbing out of an economic recession, but demand for so-called "living-wage" jobs continues to outpace the supply, according to a study released yesterday.
More than a quarter of the job openings in the state pay less than $20,942 a year, the minimum income a single adult needs to cover basics such as rent, health insurance, food and transportation, according to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, the advocacy group for the poor that published the study.

The odds worsen for a single parent of two young children who would need to earn at least $43,608 a year in Washington to make ends meet. More than three-quarters of job openings statewide — 77 percent — paid less than that, the study found.

The findings are based on figures from 2002, the most recent data available.

"It's still an economy that produces a relatively high number of lower-wage jobs," said Paul Sommers, a Seattle University economist and adviser to the study's researchers. "This makes it difficult for households to meet reasonable budget needs."

Predictably, competition for even the lowest of the living-wage jobs is tough.

For every job paying $20.97 an hour, the base for a single parent of two, there are 13 job seekers, the study found. For jobs paying at least $10.07 an hour, the living-wage threshold for a single adult, there are four job seekers.

Andy Drott is one of them.

The 60-year-old computer programmer can't find a job in his old pay range, $75,000 a year. So now he's competing with others for lower-paying jobs, some as low as $10 an hour.

At that rate, he'd be earning about $20,800 a year, not enough to cover food, his health insurance ($300 a month) and the mortgage on his Mill Creek home ($1,300). He shares the house with his wife, Mary, who suffered two strokes recently and now collects Social Security disability insurance.

Yet for Drott, who has had to pull money out of retirement savings to pay living expenses for the past 20 months, a low-wage job is better than no job at all.

"I don't have work," he said.

Washington's minimum wage, which is tied to inflation, is one of the highest in the country at $7.16 an hour, or $14,892 a year. The federal minimum is $5.15. But the state's relatively generous minimum doesn't cover savings for emergencies or retirement.

"Many Americans have managed to do without savings," Sommers said. "This is a bad thing. People aren't preparing for retirement, they're not prepared for an illness, they're not able to put a child through college."

Typical expenses for a single parent with two young children include $728 a month for rent and utilities, $369 for food, $426 for transportation and $925 for child care, according to the report.

Despite the gloomy findings, Washington's average wage rose to $38,794 last year from $37,921 in 2002. The latest job-vacancy survey published by the state Employment Security Department showed dramatic growth in some high-paying sectors, such as health care, where the median wage — half make more and half make less — is $21 an hour, and construction, paying a median of $15 an hour.

Median wage for all occupations combined is $10.50 an hour.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Seattle Times
Friday, September 24, 2004

NASCAR racetrack developer selects site near Marysville - lol, this figures!

By Emily Heffter
Times Snohomish County Bureau

A developer of NASCAR racetracks has selected Snohomish County as its preferred site for a Northwest speedway, county officials and executives from International Speedway Corp. will announce Monday.

The decision eliminates a site in Kitsap County and at least two near Portland that were vying for the track, a source said. A speedway has been coveted by the communities because of the income and jobs it is expected to bring, thanks to NASCAR's growing popularity. A site near Yelm, Thurston County, was removed from the list last week.

Snohomish County and Marysville officials had been trying since April to lure International Speedway Corp. (ISC) to 600 acres of farmland between Marysville and Arlington, east of Interstate 5. An economic study indicated the proposed ¾-mile track, which would seat about 75,000 people, would generate between $87.3 million and $121.8 million in new revenue every year.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon yesterday said he couldn't confirm or deny that ISC's preferred site was in Snohomish County. He told a reporter that he could say more if a story on the decision could be held until Monday. He didn't give a reason for delaying the announcement, but said he would take the story to other media if The Seattle Times didn't agree to hold it.

He later called the reporter to see if a story on the decision would be delayed. When told it would not, he then said ISC will be in Snohomish County on Monday to announce its decision. But he insisted he didn't know what the decision would be.

"I feel good about it," he said of the impending announcement. "I think it's a positive sign that they're coming to Washington state."

But after his telephone conversation with a reporter, Reardon inadvertently left his phone off the hook and could be heard telling other county officials in his office that he was only "playing dumb" and that he had told another official Marysville would be the site.

A source familiar with the decision said ISC surprised local officials by choosing a site so early. They had expected the company to narrow the sites to one in Oregon and one in Washington and see which state would offer the best incentives.

Tom Valley, the director of corporate development for the Florida-based track developer, said ISC's board of directors met Wednesday but didn't vote on the site. "I don't know if there's going to be an announcement next week," he said.

None of the company's 14 board members could be reached last night for comment.

Snohomish County Council Chairman John Koster, R-Arlington, who represents the area where the track would be built, said the company's lobbyist contacted him yesterday afternoon to set up a meeting because of the Monday announcement.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means as far as location goes," Koster said. "You know, Marysville is in my district, after all."

Marysville officials were cautious in their response.

"It would be really good news," Mayor Dennis Kendall said. "I'm holding my reaction until I actually see the proposal or something that says Marysville is the selected site."

Koster and Reardon both stressed that a track wasn't a sure thing for Snohomish County even if the speedway developer announces plans to build here. Koster, especially, is hesitant to express support for the idea.

Before Snohomish County and the state agree to help finance a huge racetrack, Reardon said, the county will have to make sure it pays off.

"I'm not willing to take a loss to have NASCAR come here," he said last week in a separate interview. He added that he didn't think the county would have to take a loss.

Local officials hope the state Legislature will approve special financing that would let public agencies borrow money to help build the track, then pay back the loans with tax revenue generated by the track.

Wyandotte County, Kan., used similar financing to build the Kansas Speedway in 2001. State and local governments there offered a $120 million financing package to ISC that included buying 146 residential lots and farmland and waiving the track's property taxes for 30 years.

Officials in the county credit the track with bringing jobs, businesses and retail revenue.

Some Washington state legislators have already said they wouldn't support that kind of financing for a sports facility. Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, opposes the track, which she has said would be a "hard sell" in the Legislature.

After last year's $3.2 billion package to persuade Boeing to build the 7E7 jetliner in Everett, some lawmakers may shy away from another big-budget bill to lure economic development to Snohomish County.

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, who chairs the Senate Economic Development Committee, has said he expected the state would need to shuffle planned transportation projects or pass transportation bills if ISC wants to locate here, a technique Kansas used.

Sheldon, a track supporter, said the state also could offer ISC master-planned permitting, which would allow the developer to obtain all of its necessary permits up front, so as to save time later.

ISC is scheduled to make a presentation to the state's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee on Oct. 6. That could help clarify what the company wants from the state.

The company would have to buy the land, which has 29 different owners. The Snohomish County Council would have to add some of the land to Marysville's urban-growth area, and then Marysville would likely annex the site.

The site is about 600 acres, with another 150-acre area for possible expansion.

The proposal for a racetrack has been controversial in North Snohomish County. Residents of the neighborhoods to the east and west of the site formed a group called Snohomish County Citizens Against the Racetrack, or SCAR. They say the development would be noisy and are concerned about traffic congestion and harm to the environment.

A group of local business leaders and others who supported the idea of a track formed FUN — Fans United for NASCAR. They see the track as an engine for economic development and job creation in the northern part of the county. The site will likely be developed anyway, they say, and a racetrack is a way to keep the land in the hands of a single owner and ensure the development is well-designed.

[mSeattle]

"The company would have to buy the land, which has 29 different owners. The Snohomish County Council would have to add some of the land to Marysville's urban-growth area, and then Marysville would likely annex the site."

Isn't this called sprawl?

[James Bond Agent 007]

^Depends on where the annexation is.

UGB's weren't intended to be permanent, hard lines anyway.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Here's an update on those Kittitas County windfarms, from today's Seattle Times:

Power shift: Wind now seen as a viable alternative energy source

By Tricia Duryee
Seattle Times Eastside business reporter

Eric Markell has been watching the wind blow for 25 years, hoping that someday it would heat homes and light buildings.

The wind's energy potential wasn't taken seriously until recently because it was too costly and unpredictable, said Markell, Puget Sound Energy's senior vice president of energy resources. Now with vast improvements in the reliability of wind technology, utilities are considering it as an alternative to traditional resources like hydroelectricity and natural-gas-fired generation in a major way.

PSE is paving the road, by announcing last week that it would pay up to $300 million for the proposed Wild Horse Wind Power Project near Ellensburg. The purchase makes PSE the first utility in the state to buy a wind farm.

And the Bellevue-based utility is just one of many in the Northwest trying to fulfill demand for power through wind, said Barrett Stambler, director of renewable business development of PPM Energy, which sells power.

Portland General Electric, PaciCorp and Avista also are looking for renewable power sources, he said. In all, he estimates, the utilities want to acquire about 2,500 megawatts by 2010.

"PPM has made wind power one of its most important business agendas, because there is so much interest by customers to diversify their energy sources," Stambler said.

But the process is not simple. With few wind farms completed in Washington, wind power is not readily available. Developers have started working on several sites but are struggling to get farms off the ground as residents rally against them and they wait for the federal tax credit to be renewed that would make the resource more competitive on price.

"Wind must and should have a permanent key place in our portfolio," Markell said. "The struggle is in actually getting it done."

How it works

Washington state has only a few wind farms. The two largest are in the southeastern part of the state near the Columbia River, where the wind often blows in excess of 45 mph.

The farms' 200-foot-tall turbines with three 100-foot-long blades can be seen from miles away. When the wind is really blowing, the tips of the blades spin at 120 mph.

When the blades reach full speed, generators kick in and send power to underground lines that deliver it to a substation for use in homes and businesses around the area.

A wind farm hits its maximum generating capacity when the turbines turn at top speed. But the wind doesn't always blow, so a farm actually produces less than its capacity.

The Wild Horse farm, being developed by Houston-based Zilkha Renewable Energy, is to have 100 to 133 turbines that would generate up to 220 megawatts of energy at full capacity.

One megawatt of wind power can create enough energy to serve 330 homes for a year, Puget Sound Energy says. That means Wild Horse could produce enough power to supply up to 73,000 homes a year.

The farm is in the permitting process. Zilkha filed an application in March with the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.

If the project and others are completed in the Northwest, it will significantly add to the amount of wind power being produced here. Currently, only 1.3 percent — 651 megawatts of the 51,200 total megawatts being generated in the Northwest — is from wind, according to Jeff King, the senior resource analyst at Northwest Power and Conservation Council in Portland.

"That doesn't sound like much, but it has grown from nothing five years ago," he said.

That could grow to as much as 8 percent if the 3,600 megawatts under development are built. That could be enough power to serve 1.2 million homes for a year, or more than 1-½ times the number of households in King County.

Getting laughed at

Ever since the West Coast energy crisis in 2000, utilities have been searching for a stable resource to offset natural-gas cost increases and dwindling hydroelectric generation. Wind has become a natural candidate because it is free and renewable.

When Stambler started marketing wind to utilities, he said, he found little interest in the idea.

"You tended to be pushed off to the [research and development] department as opposed to talking to the mainstream power purchasers," Stambler said. "I was just trying to get meetings and not get them to laugh at me."

But utilities have been forced to look seriously at alternative power sources at least partly because of the growing demand for power, and wind is gaining acceptance.

PSE estimates that by 2008, it will need sources capable of generating 350 megawatts more power to serve its users. When it sought proposals for power sources, the utility received 50. The company narrowed the list to seven — three of those wind farms, including Wild Horse.

Three farms are proposed for Kittitas County.

In addition to Wild Horse, Zilkha plans the Kittitas Valley Wind Project along Highway 97 between Cle Elum and Ellensburg. About 121 wind turbines would be installed on 90 acres and generate about 180 megawatts, or enough for about 45,000 homes. It is in the permitting process.

The third is Desert Claim, owned by enXco, a wind-energy company that develops, builds, operates and manages wind-energy projects out of Palm Springs, Calif. It is on Puget Sound Energy's short list of possibilities.

EnXco has filed an application with Kittitas County and proposes building a maximum of 120 wind turbines about eight miles north of Ellensburg to generate at least 180 megawatts of electricity.

Developers say Kittitas County is a perfect location for wind farms because — in addition to being windy in the foothills east of the Cascade Mountains — it has Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines. Easy transmission is a key to making wind power affordable. It is also fairly close to the Seattle area, where there is high demand for power.

Part of the frenzy to acquire wind power is because of the cost. Coal can cost $50 to $55 a megawatt hour, and natural gas costs $60 to $70. Wind is cheaper, with PSE estimating it will cost $45 a megawatt hour after a tax credit.

Developers of wind farms are hoping Congress will renew a tax credit of $14 for each megawatt hour of power they generate. The credit, which expired last December, gives the developer a tax benefit for the first 10 years of the project and helps offset the cost of building a wind farm.

The American Wind Energy Association said the number of wind farms built since the expiration of the tax credit has dropped dramatically. Last year, the wind industry built a near-record 1,687 megawatts, but since the expiration of the credit, less than 30 megawatts of new capacity has been built, with no more than 350 megawatts in new projects expected by the end of the year.

Still, developers have proposed several new projects in Washington state, leading some residents to complain that the gigantic wind turbines will hurt their property values.

Protecting views, wildlife

Imagining the windmills repeated three times in Kittitas County, near Ellensburg, has upset some residents.

Opponents are organized under the name of Residents Opposed to Kittitas Turbines. They show up for public hearings and talk about how the area is a scenic national byway, how their land is a few hundred feet from the nearest turbine and how their property values will decrease.

They also talk about a threat to wildlife — specifically, birds who are killed when they fly into the spinning blades. Fewer birds have been killed since the turbines were made taller, but there is still some risk of bird deaths.

Ed Garrett, spokesman for the opponents, isn't convinced that Kittitas Valley is the only place where Zilkha can build its farms.

The power lines that span the valley don't bother residents, Garrett said, but the turbines do. The nearest turbine is about 400 feet from his property, Garrett said, and nearly 60 percent of his view of stars — one of main reasons he moved to the valley — is blocked.

The Kittitas Valley project has received the most complaints, Garrett said.

"Our issue is about the siting," he said. "Build in an area that's unpopulated."

Garrett's argument, said Zilkha project manager Chris Taylor, is a typical "not-in-my-backyard" complaint.

"Wind is great as long as you can't see it," Taylor said. "One of the reasons we thought that particular site wouldn't raise any visual objections [is that] most of the turbines are around existing transmission towers. They say they don't notice those anymore.

"The argument we'd make is once [the turbines] go in, in a few months or a year or two, they'd adjust to that and stop noticing them, too. You can't miss them, obviously — it would change the perspective — but people get used to them."

[James Bond Agent 007]

Puget Sound Business Journal
October 4, 2004
Alcoa accord saves 400 Wenatchee jobs

Alcoa Inc. has reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers of America and the Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council, an affiliate of the USWA, that the company and the union said will save about 400 jobs at Alcoa's idled aluminum smelter in Wenatchee.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said in a news release that it rescinded the 400 layoff notices it issued July 26, after reaching the tentative agreement.

Employees at the facility will be placed on Alcoa's "select benefits" health-care benefits program beginning in January 2005 and until the company's master contract agreement with the Pittsburgh-based Steelworkers is renegotiated in 2006. The master contract agreement covers 15 Alcoa facilities and 8,900 employees.

The new tentative agreement is subject to approval by union members. It will be explained to Wenatchee Aluminum Trade Council members through a direct mailing, as well as a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Voting on the proposal could be completed by Friday, the union said.

Upon approval of the agreement, Alcoa said it will take immediate steps to restart the smelter, which has been idled since July 2001. Two of the four lines at the smelter are expected to be restarted, based on the availability of acceptable power contracts, Alcoa said.

The ramp-up to two lines is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.

Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum maker, also said it no longer plans to record a pre-tax charge of $20 million in its 2004 third quarter to cover the costs of the previously planned layoffs, which were announced last month.

[destroybananas]

7E7 subcontractor to add jobs at Frederickson plant
Toray Composites said it plans to expand its Frederickson composite materials manufacturing plant in Pierce County, which could result in an additional 100 positions.


Toray is ramping up production in Frederickson after being chosen to supply the structural material for much of the 7E7 Dreamliner for Renton-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group. The expansion will double the plant's capacity, officials said.

Toray established the existing plant 10 years ago, and already supplies some composite materials for Boeing's 777 and 737 aircraft. The expansion project is scheduled to be completed in February 2006. Boeing plans to deliver the first 7E7 in 2008.

"Many of us have dreamed of the day when an aircraft would be made primarily of composites," said Sadayuki Sakakibara, president and CEO of Toray Industries, the parent company of Toray Composites. "A few years from now, that dream will be realized."

[destroybananas]

Home sales continue to top year-ago volume
Western Washington's pending home sales in September increased 6.3 percent over the same month a year ago, despite fewer homes being marketed, according to new data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.


Key indicators in the latest figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service are mixed: inventory is down from 12 months ago, pending sales are up, closed sales are down slightly and prices continue to rise.

Twelve of the 15 counties in the NWMLS market area improved on year-ago volumes, with only Kitsap, Mason and Grant counties reporting fewer pending sales. Together, NWMLS members in September tallied 8,647 pending sales of single-family homes and condominiums during September, a gain of 515 transactions from the same period a year ago.

At month end, the selection of dwellings on the market included 24,965 properties, down 12.4 percent from a year ago, with 10 of the 15 counties reporting shrinkage in inventory.

The median asking price for current inventory (including single-family homes and condominiums) is $274,950, up $26,000 (about 10.4 percent) from a year ago when listings had a median price of $248,950.

In the four-county Puget Sound region consisting of King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties, which accounted for about 80 percent of the NWMLS market's sales in September, pending sales rose 5 percent, despite Kitsap County's decline, NWMLS said.

King County added 4,395 properties to the inventory, and at month's end had 9,230 active listings. King County's 3,586 pending sales accounted for 41 percent of the total. During September, 3,480 deals closed at a median price of $299,610.

[JiminyCricket II]

King County added 4,395 properties to the inventory, and at month's end had 9,230 active listings. King County's 3,586 pending sales accounted for 41 percent of the total. During September, 3,480 deals closed at a median price of $299,610.

I wonder what % of that is within Seattle city limits? I'm interested.

[destroybananas]

here is something from Seattletimes.com hmmm maybe a housing crunch in the near future?

Buyers scramble for homes around Puget Sound

By J. Martin McOmber
Seattle Times business reporter





E-mail this article
Print this article
Search archive
Most read articles
Most e-mailed articles

After looking at house candidate No. 30, Karen O'Bryon was feeling, well, desperate.

Relocating from the Bay Area, she, husband Patrick O'Bryon, and their three children wanted a nice-sized place with a good layout and a flat yard on a cul-de-sac.

Good luck.

Around Puget Sound, the number of homes on the market this year has been down significantly compared with 2003. The supply has fallen about 25 percent in North King County and 19 percent in Seattle and on the Eastside, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) reported yesterday. The group tracks home sales in 15 Washington counties.

The rather slim pickings are making a difficult task even harder for many homebuyers.

"There was really nothing there," Karen O'Bryon said. "It was kind of depressing."

The O'Bryons eventually found a place in Woodinville, but only after a real-estate agent managed to turn up a couple of homes that hadn't even hit the market.

The shrinking number of listings is taking a toll on sales.

September sales dropped 5.7 percent in King County compared with the same period last year, the MLS says. Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties saw similar declines.

"Clearly that lack of inventory means you have prospective buyers in the market looking and being dissatisfied with what they are finding, which is holding back the sales rate," said Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington State University Center for Real Estate Research.

But demand remains strong, and that has helped propel home prices upward while trimming the average time homes are on the market. In King County, the median house price in September rose 9.4 percent to $299,610 compared with the same month last year.

Finding the right home under these conditions means acting fast, said Susan Jones of Windermere's Bellevue West office. Jones, who worked with the O'Bryons, said it is common these days for agents to look for properties that haven't been listed.


"The inventory is limited across the board," Jones said. "This time of year, there is less inventory coming on the market."

The supply in some neighborhoods is almost nonexistent, said Kevin Caskey, an agent with John L. Scott Real Estate.

"If there is nothing, I'll even knock on doors on occasion," Caskey said. "That is just one of the techniques you use to find properties."

The dearth of "For Sale" signs could change after the holiday season, when more homeowners tend to put their properties on the market. And pending sales — deals that have been struck but haven't closed — climbed at least slightly in many areas of King County, suggesting that September's closed sales lull could be a blip.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/10/06/2002056181.jpg

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/10/06/2002056180.jpg

[destroybananas]

Washington unemployment plummets to pre-9/11 levels
Washington's unemployment rate in September dropped 0.6 percent to 5.6 percent, the largest September drop recorded in more than 25 years.

"After hovering at or above six percent since March of 2001, Washington's September unemployment rate is now just two-tenths of a percentage point above the national rate," said Sylvia Mundy, commissioner of the state's Employment Security Department. The last time the state rate was this close to the national rate was in June 1998, Mundy said.

On a year-over-year basis, the drop is even more pronounced. September has historically been one of the highest unemployment months of the year. In 2003, the September rate was 7.6 percent, and in 2002 it was 7.4 percent.

The number of people estimated to be unemployed in the state in September is 178,700, compared to 198,100 in August. One has to reach back to February 2001, when 176,600 people were out of work, to find a lower number of unemployed people in the state.

Contributing to the employment increase of 20,500 workers between August and September was an increase of 17,000 in state and local government educational services, while private education services added another 5,600 workers, Mundy said.

"We are pleased that the state's unemployment rate dropped significantly in September," Mundy said in a statement. "We do remain cautious given the continuing financial problems in the commercial air transportation industry, announced layoffs, and negative economic impacts of oil price increases."

[destroybananas]

Primaris Airlines places $3.8B order for 737s, 7E7s
Primaris Airlines Inc., a startup, low-cost airline based in Las Vegas, has placed a firm order with Renton-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group for 20 737-800s and 20 7E7s, worth about $3.8 billion at list prices. The airline also took options for an additional 25 737s and 15 7E7s, Boeing said.


The first 737 deliveries will begin in 2007, while the 7E7s will be delivered beginning in 2010, the company said.

Primaris becomes the first low-cost airline to order Boeing's new Dreamliner, and also becomes its first American customer.

Japan's All Nippon Airways is the launch customer and Air New Zealand has put in an order.

Primaris plans to equip the 737s with 94 seats in an all business-class configuration, while the 7E7s will seat approximately 150 passengers in all business class. The domestic carrier intends to serve domestic and international business travelers beginning next year.

[destroybananas]

Alaska Air Group profit up 51 percent
Alaska Air Group Inc. posted third-quarter net income of $79.2 million, or $2.94 per share, which compares with $40.7 million, or $1.52 per share, a year earlier.


Total operating revenues at the Seattle operator of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air rose to $773.8 million from $702.2 million in 2003.

The results blew past estimates by analysts polled by Thomson Financial Network, who expected $1.55 per share and revenues of $764 million.

"We achieved the best year-over-year reduction in unit costs excluding fuel and unusual items since initiating cost-reduction efforts following Sept. 11 and we continue to outperform the industry in terms of revenue," said Bill Ayer, chairman and CEO, in a statement.

The quarter's results include one-time items including $32.8 million in net fuel hedging gains and net restructuring charges of $15.8 million and a $6.3 million net refund of disputed navigation fees. Without these items, company officials said net income would have been $55.9 million, or $2.08 per share.

On the operations side at Alaska Airlines, revenue passenger miles (the number of available seats actually sold, which is a measure of an airline's traffic) rose to 4.6 million from 4.1 million a year earlier, and passenger load factor rose to 76 percent from 72.5 percent. The airline paid $130.2 million for fuel in the latest quarter compared with $83.3 million in 2003.

At Horizon Airlines, revenue passenger miles rose to 601,000 from 466,000 in 2003 and passenger load factor rose to 72.4 percent from 66.5 percent. Horizon's fuel costs rose to $18.2 million from $13.5 million a year earlier.

[JiminyCricket II]

Apple growers hit state sales record at $1.16 billion

By SHANNON DININNY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YAKIMA -- Washington apple growers sold a record $1.16 billion worth of fruit in 2003, as total sales of Washington farm products increased slightly, the state Agricultural Statistics Service reports.

It was the third time that Washington apple sales topped the $1 billion mark. The state is the nation's top apple producer, growing about half the U.S. crop.

Overall, the total value of Washington crops in 2003 was $5.75 billion, a 3.1 percent increase from the previous year. The mark was short of the record $5.88 billion in 1995.

"The value of agricultural production is up almost $200 million, and that's good news. Agriculture continues to be a strong, stable mainstay for our state's economy," Valoria Loveland, director of the state Agriculture Department, said in a statement.

"All around, we held our own. Considering weather, shifting markets and changing crops, we're not losing economic ground. We're staying strong," she said.

Apples represented 20 percent of the total value of Washington farm products. The $1.16 billion figure was up 12.9 percent from 2002. After apples, the top crops were milk at $675 million, wheat at $521 million, potatoes at $489 million and cattle and calves at $475 million.

The top five Washington farm commodities remained unchanged in 2003 from a year earlier, representing 58 percent of the total value of Washington crops.

In addition to apples, several fruit crops posted record highs in 2003, including cherries at $176 million, pears at $129 million and blueberries at $12 million.

Other fruit crops did not fare as well. Grapes, which include wine grapes and those grown for juice and jellies, declined slightly to $131 million, and peaches fell off the list of the top 25 products with a 31 percent decline to $9 million. Other big losers were dry edible beans and peas, which posted 37 percent and 19 percent declines.

Among major categories, field crops such as wheat, hops and potatoes accounted for $1.72 billion in sales, followed by fruits and nuts at $1.61 billion, commercial vegetables at $389 million and berry crops at $65.7 million.

Livestock and livestock products totaled $1.44 billion. Specialty products, which include forest products, Christmas trees, floriculture, nursery and other horticultural products, and mushrooms, had a combined value of $522 million.

[destroybananas]

InfoSpace reports Q3 growth; upgrades outlook
Bellevue Internet services company InfoSpace Inc. said third-quarter net income rose to $13.4 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, from last year's third-quarter net income of $1.6 million, or 5 cents per diluted share.


Revenue soared to $67.2 million, an increase of 115 percent over $31.2 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2003.

"Third quarter was a record revenue quarter for InfoSpace, and we are raising guidance for the fourth quarter," said Jim Voelker, chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. "We are excited about our markets in search, directory and mobile, and look forward to continued growth."

The search and directory division, which for the first time included a full quarter of operations from recently acquired Switchboard, reported revenue of $42 million, compared with $23.8 million a year ago.

Mobile division's revenues were $25.1 million in the third quarter of 2004, compared with $5.6 million a year ago, attributable to growth in the company's media download business, which sells ring tones, graphics, wallpaper and games to wireless users.

For the fourth quarter, InfoSpace said it expects revenue of between $71 million and $73 million, and income from continuing operations of $14 million, or 38 cents per diluted share.

For the full year, the company expects revenue of between $241 million and $243 million, an upgrade from earlier guidance of $227 million to $237 million. The company also upgraded its guidance for income from continuing operations to about $46 million, compared with the earlier prediction of $36 million to $40 million.

Plum Creek Q3 profit jumps on high demand
Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. said third-quarter earnings increased dramatically as demand for its logs and timber products pushed prices and revenue higher.


Third-quarter earnings were $77 million, or 42 cents per diluted share, compared with last year's third-quarter earnings of $45 million, or 25 cents per diluted share. Revenue was $363 million, up 25 percent from $290 million a year ago, Plum Creek said.

All of the company's businesses contributed to the better results, officials said.

"Each business segment successfully executed strategies to help achieve long-term value creation for the company, and each reported improved results compared to the last quarter as well as the third quarter of last year," said Rick Holley, president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

The northern resources segment saw an increase in operating earnings of 93 percent as tight supplies of logs sold to mills commanded higher prices.

The manufacturing segment reported operating profit of $23 million, up from the $2 million loss reported a year ago. Continued strong housing activity and improved industrial demand increased prices of the company's manufactured plywood, fiberboard and other manufactured materials.

[destroybananas]

Office of Economic Development releases
Healthcare Industry Economic Impact Study

SEATTLE - The City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development released an economic impact study on Seattle's healthcare industry that reveals that in 2002 the industry directly contributed nearly $6.37 billion to the local economy and directly employed 74,600 workers in the health care provider core.

"Seattle's healthcare industry is clearly a strong generator of revenue and jobs to our local economy," stated Mayor Greg Nickels. "I want to support the creation of additional training and education to ensure Seattle citizens get those jobs."

"Seattle's healthcare industry has a projected growth of 10,100 new jobs in the next ten years," said Office of Economic Development's Director Jill Nishi. "We will work with industry leaders to address challenges of workforce shortages and make sure we are prepared to support this growth. We will also explore other options to foster this important industry."

"The study highlights the healthcare industry's important economic contributions to Seattle and the region," said Troy Hutson, Executive Director of Health Work Force Institute, a co-sponsor of the study. "It also shows us opportunities in the workforce development area, which I look forward to working with our partners to address with proactive action steps."

The economic impact study commissioned by the Office of Economic Development highlights that:

The healthcare industry supports 74,600 jobs in Seattle's healthcare provider 'core', spanning a wide range of occupations, including doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, therapists, dentists, nutritionists and public health administrators; the average salary of these jobs is $40,470;

In addition, another 21,800 jobs exist across the healthcare industry, with companies focusing on biotech, medical devices manufacturing, medical services and training and research;

In total, these 96,400 jobs across the broader healthcare cluster pay an average salary of $43,330;

Seattle has competitive advantages that can be leveraged, including superb regional hospitals, research institutes and academic medical centers, and opportunities to collaborate with world class biotech research;

The local healthcare industry is projected to grow by 10,100 jobs in the next ten years in areas such as residential health facilities, hospitals and health clinics, in-home care and medical technology.
The healthcare study is one of a series of economic impact studies commissioned by the City’s Office of Economic Development.

For more information and a full copy of the study, please visit the Office of Economic Development's website at www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment.