Published June 2003

Business Briefs

B/E Aerospace’s
passenger-seat design wins honors
B/E Aerospace Inc., the parent company of Flight Structures in Marysville, has won an award for outstanding design for its Shell Flat aircraft passenger seat. I.D. Magazine selected the business-class seat as a winner in the magazine’s Annual Design Review.

The seat, designed for Japan Airlines, also has received the Good Design Award from The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design.

Japan Airlines has begun installing the B/E Aerospace Shell Flat seat on its international feet of Boeing 747s and 777s.

Centennial Trail gets boost
from federal government
The proposed Centennial Trail extension through Snohomish got a boost recently, thanks to the federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to assess the site for hazardous materials, saving the city about $20,000.

The Puget Sound Regional Council also approved a $450,000 federal grant toward acquiring the right of way from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

The city has plans to extend the trail through the city.

Nastech revenue soars 53%
Fast-rising sales of a treatment for vitamin B12 deficiencies propelled Nastech Pharmaceutical Co.’s first-quarter revenue up to $2.3 million, an increase of 53 percent over the same period in 2002.

The Bothell-based company said its vitamin B12 nasal gel, Nascobal, recorded a fivefold increase in sales compared with last year’s first quarter. Despite the improved revenue, the developer of nasally inhaled drugs recorded a quarterly loss of $2.3 million, or 29 cents a share, almost exactly the same loss recorded a year ago.

LapLink out of bankruptcy
LapLink, a small software firm based in Bothell, said in May that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after being bought by a former Microsoft executive.

Thomas Koll, the company’s new owner and chief executive officer, also announced the company’s new name of LapLink Software Inc. The maker of file-sharing software filed for bankruptcy in March, when it reported assets of less than $1 million and liabilities of $6.6 million.

Seattle Genetics proposes
$40 million stock sale
Seattle Genetics Inc. of Bothell has agreed to sell $40 million of stock and warrants for future stock purchases to a group of investors, doubling the biotechnology firm’s cash reserves. As of March 31, the company held $38.5 million in cash in its bank account.

The stock-placement deal will give the new investors, led by JP Morgan Partners and Baker Brothers Investments of New York, ownership of about one-third of the company’s shares. Their cash, in turn, will fund ongoing clinical trials, research and development, and future growth, said Clay Siegall, Seattle Genetics president and chief executive officer.

The investors will buy 1.6 million shares of preferred stock, which are convertible into 16 million shares of common stock. They also will receive warrants to purchase another 2 million shares.

Upon completion of the deal, which is subject to approval by Seattle Genetics stockholders, two managing partners from the investing firms will join Seattle Genetics’ board of directors, Siegall said. If stockholders reject the financing deal, the investors group still has the right to purchase just under 20 percent of the company’s shares.

Engineering Support Personnel
wins Navy contract
Engineering Support Personnel Inc. of Lynnwood has received a five-year, $22 million contract to operate and maintain flight simulators used to train crews on the U.S. Navy’s P-3C patrol aircraft.

The company will do the work at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, along with Navy air bases in Brunswick, Maine, and Jacksonville, Fla., and a Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

It is the second five-year contract for the company, which has been involved with the training program since 1998.

Fred Meyer buys
Mill Creek, Bothell stores
Fred Meyer recently purchased its store sites near Mill Creek and Bothell for a total of more than $40 million, according to Snohomish County property records.

The retail chain, based in Portland, Ore., paid nearly $24.5 million for the 167,000-square-foot store at 12906 Bothell-Everett Highway. It also paid nearly $15.8 million for the 131,000-square-foot store on the Bothell-Everett Highway near Thrasher’s Corner, according to Snohomish County property records. The seller was Delaware-based Wilmington Trust Co.

Previously, Fred Meyer leased the locations through an arrangement known as a synthetic lease, spokesman Rob Boley said. The arrangement allowed Fred Meyer to lease properties with the first option to buy them when the leases expired. Because synthetic leases appear as a lease from an accounting standpoint, but as a loan from a tax standpoint, it can be financially beneficial for a company. Because the lease doesn’t show up on balance sheets, it can artificially boost a company’s performance.

Boley said the local store sites were among more than three dozen Fred Meyer locations covered by the synthetic lease agreement between Wilmington Trust and Fred Meyer, with the company purchasing the stores gradually since 2000.

The acquisition of the store locations changes nothing besides the fact that Fred Meyer, which is part of Ohio-based Kroger Co., now owns the properties, he added.

Everett golf Web site gets a makeover
Left-Tee Golf.com, an Everett-based business devoted to left-handed golfers, launched the newest version of its Web site in May.

Mark Johnson, Left-Tee’s founder and president, said the revamped site features the Internet’s only combined auctions and classified ads area for left-handed golf equipment. Enhanced content on the site, www.left-teegolf.com, includes articles and golf tips from PGA professionals and a daily diary following left-handed LPGA Tour player Angela Buzminski.

Contour Aerospace’s
parent company plans merger
The parent company of Contour Aerospace in Everett is merging with another aircraft parts manufacturer.

The Aerostructures Corp. and Vought Aircraft Industries announced in May that they plan to merge on July 1.

Both are part of the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm. Terms were not disclosed.

No immediate changes are planned, said Lynne Warne, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Vought. However, a transition team will study how to integrate the two operations over the next few months.

Contour Aerospace is a division of Aerostructures Corp. Its two plants in Everett and California both machine small aircraft parts.

The Everett unit, at 1415 75th St. SW, employs about 100 people and manufactures a myriad of components.

Vought is the largest independent aerospace parts supplier, with 5,000 employees and annual sales of more than $1 billion. It creates wing and fuselage subassemblies, engine nacelles and other components for jet builders, and Boeing is by far its largest customer, Warne said.

Nashville-based Aerostructures employs 1,400 people nationwide and has annual sales of more than $300 million.

Logo approved for events center
The Everett Public Facilities District board has approved a blue-and-white logo for the Everett Regional Events Center featuring the arena’s distinctive 220-foot-high masts and sloping roof.

The new logo design was originally meant only for construction workers’ helmets. But the more PFD Executive Director Fred Safstrom looked at the design over the past few months, the more he thought it would be a good emblem for the arena itself. He recently began attaching 2-by-1/2-inch stickers of the logo to his business cards.

The logo will soon be placed on the PFD’s Web site and letterhead, and on its promotional materials. It may also appear on a marquee sign with electric light display messages that the PFD is considering, Safstrom said. And if the PFD cannot find a company willing to pay the PFD’s price for the right to name the arena before the Everett Silvertips play their first home game in October, the logo might appear in the center of the arena’s ice.

In January, Seattle-based LMN Architects, which designed the center, held a contest among its 13 project team members to develop a logo to put on helmets, said Tom Burgess, arena project manager for LMN. Architect Jon McNeal’s design won.

CyberRead expands services
with acquisition of eBookstand
Mukilteo-based CyberRead Inc., which specializes in selling electronic books, has acquired eBookstand, a print-on-demand book company based in California.

Marilyn Jenkins, CyberRead’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said print on demand is a relatively new technology that enables a complete book to be printed and bound in a matter of minutes. That makes it cost-effective to produce printed books in small numbers, rather than in a run of several thousand.

Adding that service will allow CyberRead to offer authors a range of formats in which to sell their publications, Jenkins said.

Terms of the acquisition deal between the two privately held companies were not announced.

Fluke Networks’ OptiView
honored by Network Magazine
Fluke Networks’ OptiView Integrated Network Analyzer was name Product of the Year for 2003 in the troubleshooting category by Network Magazine.

It’s the third year the Everett-based company has been selected for recognition by the magazine’s editors.

Loan program helps companies
whose employees went off to war
Small businesses with essential employees returning from active duty in the armed services have 90 days to apply for Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to a news release issued by the federal agency.

The filing period ends 90 days after the date the employee or owner is discharged from active duty. Loans from the program go toward operating costs that would have been covered, but cannot be met because an essential employee was called to active duty during a period of military conflict in his or her role as a military reservist.

Eligible small businesses can apply for MREIDLs of up to $l.5 million, the SBA said. The interest rate on these loans is 4 percent or less, with a maximum term of 30 years. The SBA determines the amount of economic injury, the term of each loan and the payment amount, based on the borrower’s financial circumstances.

To download the application, visit the Web site, www.sba.gov/disaster. Local businesses also can call 800-488-5323 to obtain an application.

Pacific Northwest Bancorp
to merge with Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Co. announced in May that it was acquiring Pacific Northwest Bancorp through a merger.

Wells Fargo will pay each Pacific Northwest shareholder $35 in Wells Fargo stock for each share of Pacific Northwest stock, making the deal worth about $590 million. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, pending approval from regulators.

The merger would add Pacific Northwest’s network of 58 branches in Washington and Oregon to the 351 branches that Wells Fargo already has in those states. Wells Fargo had $370 billion in assets last year, compared to Pacific Northwest’s $3.1 billion.

Officials with Wells Fargo said the merger is a good fit because Pacific Northwest’s emphasis on business banking will complement Wells Fargo’s other financial services.

As part of the merger, Pacific Northwest Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Fahey will become chairman of regional banking for Wells Fargo in Washington. Other executives also will take jobs with Wells Fargo.

Pacific Northwest Bancorp started as InterWest Bank in Oak Harbor in the 1950s. A savings and loan, it began acquiring other community banks in the late ’90s as it moved to transform itself into a commercial bank.

Locke signs shoreline bill into law
In May, Gov. Gary Locke made a visit to the Port of Everett’s pier to sign the Everett Shorelines Bill into law.

Under the new law, the Growth Management Act and Shorelines Management Act are given equal weight, allowing for a range of waterfront development called for under a 1995 state law — future development that could, in part, determine whether Boeing decides to stay in the region.

City, county and port officials have said a proposed pier is essential to the long-term viability of the Boeing Co.’s Everett factory. The bill’s signing means there are fewer regulations that would block the pier’s construction.

Locke said he would ask for $16 million from the state’s $2 billion capital construction fund to help pay for the pier.

Supporters of the bill described its passage as critical to the city’s economic development and a piece of key legislation that could help create a new Everett pier to receive aircraft parts without using Seattle ports, then barging them to Everett.

New businesses, locations
n Silver Lake Physical Therapy has outgrown its current location and is moving to a larger, centrally located facility at 207 19th Ave., across the street from Costco. The larger facility will provide a wider variety of exercises and an increase in therapy services for patients, clinic officials said. Part of Integrated Rehabilitation Group, the Silver Lake location is a full-service orthopedic physical therapy clinic. For more information, call Carol Haakenson at 425-337-3166.

n The Bronze Salon, a new tanning business owned by longtime local residents Joan and Mike Miles, has opened at 436 N. West Ave., Suite 4, in Arlington. Daughter Shelley Miles, who previously managed another tanning salon, is managing the business. Both she and Joan Miles are certified indoor tanning facility operators. The Bronze Salon has new tanning beds and equipment, including a 10-minute stand-up tanning booth. The salon also offers permanent cosmetic treatments by a licensed cosmetologist. For more information, call 360-474-9826.

n Arbor Place at Silver Lake, 12806 Bothell-Everett Highway, will offer extended care at its new wellness center in a facility formerly occupied by Providence Health System. The center will offer a wide range of services, including chiropractic care, a doctor who accepts new Medicare patients, physical therapy and laboratory services.

n Doug Schaenherr has purchased the Monroe Lee Myles Transmission and Auto Care franchise at 19003 Lenton Place SE. It’s open Monday through Saturday and can be reached by calling 360-805-4680.

n Three new stores have opened at Alderwood Mall: Ruby’s Diner, Build-A-Bear Workshop and Aeropostale. The diner features a ‘40s theme; Build-A-Bear allows customers to customize their own stuffed animals; and Aeropostale offers clothing and accessories for young adults.

n JoAnn Brisbane has opened a new mental health counseling office in the Stanwood Camano Medical Center, 9631 269th St. NW. Her practice encompasses all age groups, but her specialty is in children and adolescents. Call 360-629-5813 for more information.

n Barbara Derry and Crystal Nolan have opened Derry, Nolan & Associates, a new health-care and business consulting firm, at 16107 74th Place W., Edmonds. The company will focus on a variety of ways to save businesses money, including waste reduction, strategic planning and recruitment. For more information, call 425-774-4893.

n Bartell Drugs has opened a new store at SW 100th Street and Edmonds Way. The store is 15,000 square feet and features drive-through services.

n Cold Stone Creamery has opened in the Everett Mall. The store is part of a franchise system based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that features a smooth and creamy ice cream that’s neither soft-serve nor hard-packed.

Back to the top/June 2003 Main Menu