Published June 2001

Business Briefs

Covington Farms Apartments
sold for $24 million
Northgate-based CV Associates LLC has purchased the 352-unit Covington Farms Apartments in south Everett for about $24 million, said Alex Welles, owner of Welles, Learned & Rinning, a real estate brokerage company that represented the buyer.

This is not the first such purchase for Jones & Murphy Inc., the buying entity for CV Associates, Welles said.

“They’ve been a real estate syndicator, primarily in multifamily, since the early ’70s,” he said, adding that just last year, the company was involved in the purchase of Glen Park, a 464-unit complex in Federal Way.

The sale, finalized May 8, is part of former owner Covington Farms Apartments LLC’s plan to exit the multifamily housing market and purchase commercial real estate in the Seattle area, said Ed Delava, Chief Financial Officer of ACF Property Management, the managing member of Los Angeles-based Covington Farms Apartments LLC.

ATG opening Everett office
Advanced Telcom Group (ATG) finished remodeling its downtown Everett office building at Colby Avenue and Wall Street and opened for business June 1. Sales staff already had been signing customers in the area, but the company now has a storefront site where people can visit to explore or sign-up for services, according to ATG’s local Vice President and General Manager for Northern Washington markets, John Love.

The company is a new player in the telecommunications field in Snohomish County, offering service to residential and business customers that includes local and long-distance telephone service, fiber-optic cable broadband service, and Internet and data messaging options.

Mill Creek Country Club
gets new owners
The American arm of a Japan-based hospitality college has agreed to buy the Mill Creek Country Club and operate it as a private course.

The deal will allow the college, Trajal USA, to offer its students training in golf course operations, said Katsu Nishimoto, the school’s top executive, who has been a member at Mill Creek since 1988.

It also will mean little change in how the club operates, Nishimoto said. The only likely change is that the new owners want to offer equity memberships to new and current members.

Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the sale price was close to the $7 million that golf course developer United Development Corp. had sought, according to a statement from the company. The deal will close this month.

Everett Farmers Market to begin season
The Everett Farmers Market opens its eighth season June 3 at the Everett Marina, featuring handmade and homegrown goods including farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, organic produce, flowers, plants, honey, baked goods and crafts.

The market will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 30 at Port Gardner Landing on West Marine View Drive.

John L. Scott opens Lynnwood office
John L. Scott Real Estate recently opened its Lynnwood West office at 5611 196th St. SW. The office, owned and managed by Jim Fultz, was formerly a franchise of local real estate company Home Realty.

To reach the Lynnwood West office, call 425-778-7440.

Bayside News and Books
closes in Everett
Owner Jack Donnellan has closed Bayside News and Books at 2820 Colby Ave. in Everett, two-and-a-half years after moving into the downtown space previously occupied by Port Gardner Bay Books.

“There are no big retail anchors downtown. It’s a great financial and government center, but there’s not enough people shopping downtown to keep it going,” Donnellan said, “particularly on the weekends.”

US Marine plans weeklong shutdown
US Marine in Arlington will shut down for the week of July 2 as part of a move by parent company Brunswick Corp. to aggressively slash costs.

All eight Brunswick boat-building plants nationwide will shut down for one to five weeks this year, in an effort to clear out inventory, spokesman Dan Kubera said.

Another 170 jobs nationwide are being eliminated, he added. He didn’t know how many layoffs will occur at Arlington, where the company has more than 400 workers.

The announcement came as Brunswick, the nation’s No. 2 boat manufacturer, announced a 38 percent decline in first-quarter profits and lowered expectations for full-year earnings amid what it expects to be a 10 percent drop in marine sales for 2001. Other cost-reduction moves include a hiring freeze, reduced bonus accruals, travel restrictions, the sale of noncore assets and delay of nonessential capital projects, the company said.

Windows 2000 class offered
The Everett Community College Applied Technology Training Center is offering a course in Windows 2000 Network and Operating System Essentials that will run from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays beginning June 6 and running through June 16. Cost of the class is $575.

For more information or to register, call 425-267-0150.

Cascade Bank opens 15th branch
Cascade Financial Corp. last month opened its 15th bank branch, in Bellevue. The new Cascade Bank branch will be in Bellevue’s Crossroads area, inside the Top Food & Drug store at 15751 N.E. 15th St. It will be Cascade’s second Bellevue branch. Mary Kay Reynolds will be the Branch Manager.

Besides Bellevue, Everett-based Cascade has branches in Arlington, Clearview, Issaquah, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Mukilteo and Woodinville.

Frontier joins Nasdaq Financial index
Frontier Financial Corp., the parent company of Frontier Bank, has become a component of the Nasdaq Financial 100 Index.

The index tracks the performance of 100 of the largest financial companies that sell their stock on the Nasdaq exchange.

Its members include a few nationally known institutions, like Safeco and T. Rowe Price, and a number of lesser-known ones, such as Independence Community Bank Corp. of New Jersey and Zions Bancorp. of Utah.

The Everett Clinic buys surgical center
The Everett Clinic has purchased the Everett Surgical Center on Rucker Avenue in downtown Everett, following its closure earlier this year due to financial problems.

Buying the center provides The Everett Clinic with its second location for outpatient surgeries, increasing the clinic’s surgical capacity by two-thirds, said Mark Mantei, Chief Operating Officer.

About $600,000 will be spent upgrading the facility, which will have space for four operating rooms, a recovery area and a waiting room. The new outpatient facility, which has not been named, is expected to open by the end of October, he said.

As part of the purchase agreement, The Everett Clinic will take over the surgical center’s license, which allows doctors from throughout the community to perform procedures there.

‘Women and Investing’ seminar set
A seminar on “Women and Investing” will be held June 13 at the NorthWest Telco Credit Union, 2821 Hewitt Ave., in Everett. Sponsored by the credit union’s MEMBERS Financial Services Program, the seminar will include the fundamentals of investing. For reservations call 425-297-1083.

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