Business Briefs

World War II bombers to host
executive team-building adventure
Rare, World War II bombers will be on display at Paine Field the weekend of June 23 through 26, offering personal flights for a $425 tax-deductible donation. It’s all part of the 17th annual “Wings of Freedom” 120-city tour, courtesy of the Collings Foundation.

The Paine Field visit also offers opportunities for businesses to use the B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine-O-Nine” or the B-24 Liberator “Witchcraft” as a memorable venue for corporate team-building experiences.

Instead of “boot camp” or “survivor” team-building roles on the ground, up to nine people can fly together on the B-17, or eight on the B-24, surrounded by roaring engines, aerial scenery, 50-caliber machine guns and team stations throughout the plane.

For a tax-deductible donation of $4,905 on the B-17 or $4,360 aboard the B-24, companies can book executive team flights with a package that includes embroidered bomber jackets along with a “certificate of mission completion” for each of the company’s crew members.

Reservations for individual flights can be made by calling the Collings Foundation at 800-568-8924. For team-building flights, contact Stuart Stark at 800-568-8924 or by e-mail to sstark@collingsfoundation.org. More information is available from the Collings Foundation at www.collingsfoundation.org.

Marysville to get new Big 5 store
Big 5 Sporting Goods’ new store in Marysville will open June 29, according to the California-based chain. The leading sporting goods retailer in the Western United States has taken over 13,000 square feet at 9620 State Ave., which previously hosted Dollar Plus.

Big 5 also has stores in Everett, Lynnwood and Monroe.

Office Depot, Circuit City
coming to Lakewood Crossing
The roster of national chain stores coming to the expansive Lakewood Crossing shopping center now officially includes Office Depot, Circuit City and La-Z-Boy.

In all, the city of Marysville has issued building permits for another 160,000 square feet of retail space to be built alongside new Target and Costco stores at the development located along the west side of I-5 south of 172nd Street NE. Michaels arts and crafts store, Petco, Linens ’n Things and Red Robin restaurant also are among the names coming to the center.

The overall plan for Lakewood Crossing calls for building up to 476,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space — more than twice the size of Marysville Town Center.

The exterior of a new 127,000-square-foot Target store is largely done, with work just starting at the Costco site. Both stores plan fall openings.

Country Charm Dairy store remains open
Although Arlington’s Country Charm Dairy has shipped its 500 dairy cows to Idaho buyers and stopped milk and ice cream production, its popular “milk barn” store continues to operate from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays.

Hank and Betty Graafstra have retired after running the dairy at the northeast edge of the city limits since 1973.

Through an agreement with Edaleen dairy in Lynden, the store is selling milk and dairy products along with other grocery items. The store is being managed by the Graafstras’ daughter, Susie, and farm manager Fidel Perez.

WaMu cutting 850 jobs
at Bothell call center
Washington Mutual is eliminating 850 jobs at its regional call center in Bothell’s Canyon Park, sending those positions overseas and to other states to reduce costs.

The Seattle-based bank began notifying workers May 23 that their customer service jobs will disappear by the end of July. It also is cutting 550 jobs at a similar center near Jacksonville, Fla.

The closures are part of a companywide effort announced last fall to reduce administrative costs and improve efficiency, said spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot.

Some of the lost jobs in Bothell will be outsourced to a third-party call center in the Philippines, and others will go to Washington Mutual facilities in other states. Donahoe-Wilmot would not say specifically how many jobs would go overseas.

Laid-off employees will receive severance packages and job placement help, according to Washington Mutual.

Last month, the bank laid off about 100 people from the Canyon Park call center.

Donahoe-Wilmot said the job cuts announced in May won’t result in the closure of the Canyon Park facility, which will have about 100 to 200 employees left after July. Other operations also may be moved there in the near future, she said.

ICOS shareholders get director vote
Shareholders of Bothell’s ICOS Corp. approved a resolution at their annual meeting in May that will allow them to vote on all of the company’s directors each year. Previously, the terms of the directors were staggered so that only a portion of the board was up for re-election at a time.

The resolution had been introduced by the comptroller of New York City, representing several city pension funds that own ICOS shares. The company’s board had recommended against the measure.

Sales increase for Eden Bioscience
Eden Bioscience Corp., which makes and sells protein-based crop- and plant-growth enhancers, reported first-quarter net sales of $1.6 million, up 43 percent from the same quarter of 2005. The Bothell company recorded a net loss of $1.1 million, or 13 cents a share, compared to $1.7 million last year.

Opening of new Everett Mall
movie theater postponed
The opening of Everett Mall’s new 16-screen movie theater, a big piece of the shopping center’s redevelopment and expansion, has been postponed.

Barring any more delays, the new Regal Cinemas could open in mid- to late June, said Julie Tennyson, the mall’s marketing director.

Wet weather during the winter and early spring months along with other construction delays combined to push back the building’s completion, she said.

“We had too many rainy days, and that hurt us,” General Manager Linda Johannes said. “We probably lost three weeks.”

Regal Cinemas theater had planned to open the theater in time for Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kickoff of the summer movie season.

The new theater, fronted by a 60-foot-tall facade, will feature stadium-style seating and state-of-the-art sound systems.

It replaces the three-screen theater inside the mall and the torn-down theater just west of the mall. That site is now home to The Village, the complex west of the mall that hosts Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart and other retailers.

Conference center renamed
for former Everett mayor
The name of the Everett Events Center Conference Center was changed to the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center in May. The Everett City Council unanimously approved the change in honor of Hansen, the former Everett mayor.

The change was made in conjunction with the city’s Public Facilities District, which owns the Everett Events Center. The conference center is part of the events center.

Hansen is widely credited with bringing the events center and the attached conference center to Everett’s downtown.

The center, which opened three years ago, has brought an array of concerts and other events as well as the Silvertips hockey team.

Zumiez acquiring
Texas-based retail chain
Everett-based Zumiez Inc. is buying a chain of skateboard-oriented stores, giving the rapidly expanding retailer an additional 19 locations at once.

Fast Forward, with headquarters in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, has 16 stores in that state, two in Oklahoma and one in California.

Zumiez, which operates 180 stores, did not disclose how much it will pay for privately held Fast Forward, but it will fund the acquisition from cash on hand. The company believes the new stores could lift per-share earnings by up to 2 cents this year and by 8 to 9 cents next year.

Gerry Anderson, co-owner of Fast Forward, said the 22-year-old retailer aligns well with Zumiez, which sells sports clothing, equipment and accessories geared toward skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers.

Rick Brooks, president and chief executive officer of Zumiez, added in a statement that the acquisition gives his company “instant access” to customers in Texas. At present, Zumiez has just three stores there, two of which are located near Fast Forward stores.

EvCC board names five finalists
in presidential search
Everett Community College’s board of trustees has selected five candidates as finalists in the college’s presidential search. The finalists are:

• Gerald Pumphrey, president, Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham.
• David Beyer, consultant, Boise State University in Boise, Idaho.
• Gena Glickman, vice president for instruction and student services at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Ill.
• Steve Hanson, president of Spokane Community College in Spokane.
• Constance Mierendorf, senior vice president for academic affairs at Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch, N.J.

The board named the finalists in May after reviewing recommendations provided by EvCC’s Presidential Search Advisory Group. The advisory group was formed in February to help gather feedback from the campus and community, as well as screen and recommend finalists to the board out of a pool of 40 applicants.

The Presidential Search Advisory Board will develop a timeline in early June for finalists to visit the campus and for community forums. The college board may consider additional applicants as the search process continues.

EvCC’s former president, Charlie Earl, was selected in December as the executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and left EvCC at the end of January. Michael Kerns is serving as the college’s interim president.

Bartell Drugs opens
12th store in county
Bartell Drugs opened its new store on Seattle Hill Road in southeast Everett in May.

Located at 5006 132nd St. SE, the new store is the family-owned company’s 12th location in Snohomish County.

The Everett store will employ about 25 employees and will be managed by Pat Ryan, formerly the manager at Bartell’s Redmond Town Center location.

Magellan Architects designed the store, and JR Abbott is the general contractor.

Mountain Pacific Bank
receives regulatory approval
Organizers of Everett-based Mountain Pacific Bank have received conditional regulatory approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Washington state Department of Financial Institutions to begin operations as a financial institution. As a result, Mountain Pacific Bank has begun raising capital through the sale of stock.

The bank expects to raise between $12.5 million and $15 million in capital. Since March, Mountain Pacific has obtained more than $15.6 million in commitments to purchase stock through nonbinding letters of intent, leading the organizers to consider an increase in the maximum capitalization to $16.5 million to accommodate the demand.

Mountain Pacific Bank, which will be led by its president and chief executive, Mark Duffy, expects to open for business in early July in the new Everett Gateway Center at 38th Street and Broadway.

The Maids’ Everett franchise
recognized for growth
The Maids Home Services of Everett, a professional residential cleaning service owned by Dianne and Michael Bjorn, recently was honored with the company’s President’s Club and Crystal Vacuum Awards for outstanding achievement in franchise sales and growth during the past year.

The awards were announced during The Maids Home Services annual convention, with the Bjorns’ franchise selected as one of the best among more than 160 Maids franchises throughout the United States and Canada.

Day Wireless Systems marks
opening of Everett shop
Day Wireless Systems in May celebrated the grand opening of its new Everett shop, at 2902 Hewitt Ave.

Once a gas station and convenience store, the site has undergone a $350,000 remodel, turning it into a clean and modern technical services building that will be a center for communications equipment supporting Snohomish County public safety, education and businesses, the company said.

“Day Wireless Systems is proud to do business and invest in the city of Everett, as we have for the past 25 years,” said Gordon Day, the owner of Day Wireless Systems.

The extensive update included new landscaping, reconfigured parking and additional space to total 4,149 square feet.

Company eyes Everett
for citywide wireless Internet
Anacortes-based Maverick Wireless wants to make Everett the first city to boast Wi-Fi that company founder and President David Schmelke said is “far faster, far more reliable, far more secure with far better coverage” than what is offered by other wireless providers.

Maverick is negotiating with the Snohomish County Public Utilities District to rent space on utility poles for wireless hardware. If all goes well with the PUD, Maverick could have the first phases of wireless service operating within months.

Maverick likely would offer free wireless Internet for a limited period of time each day. Paid subscribers would get faster service, but those rates haven’t been released. Schmelke said it would be cheaper than DSL or cable.

Schmelke said his company, which would relocate to downtown Everett if the city becomes its first wireless project, would ultimately provide between 45 and 60 access points per square mile citywide.

County jobless rate drops to 4 percent
Continued hiring by the Boeing Co. and a host of other Snohomish County businesses sent the local jobless rate plunging in April, state officials reported.

The county’s unemployment rate, already low at 4.7 percent in March, dropped seven-tenths of a percentage point to 4.0 in April, according to the Employment Security Department.

The 4.0 percent rate is considered by some to be full employment, but labor economist Donna Thompson said it’s too early for that sort of talk.

“I think the drop was a little steep,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a slight correction next month.”

Thompson, who studies the county’s job scene for Employment Security, said she’d want to see several months of a 4.0 percent jobless rate before she declared things close to full employment, meaning most of the people who want jobs and are capable of doing them have work.

Most of the key industries in the county added jobs or kept employment at a high rate in April. They included aerospace, garden stores, building materials shops and restaurants and taverns.

Snohomish County added 600 jobs in April, continuing at a relatively high rate of job growth — 5.1 percent. The state is growing at a rate of 3.4 percent.

County YMCA awarded
$20,000 Kimberly-Clark grant
YMCA of the USA and Kimberly-Clark Corp. awarded the YMCA of Snohomish County a $20,000 grant to support its progressive work to improve the physical health and wellness of individuals in Snohomish County.

Thirty Kimberly-Clark Everyday Healthy Day Grants totaling $300,000 are being awarded this year to YMCAs across the country as part of Kimberly-Clark’s $3 million commitment to YMCA Activate America over the next two years.

“This support from Kimberly-Clark is helping our YMCA support people in their efforts to eat healthy foods and be physically active,” said Jerry Beavers, president and chief executive of the YMCA of Snohomish County. “The work of YMCA Activate America will help Y’s like ours better address the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual health and well-being of Americans nationwide.”

“Kimberly-Clark is proud to recognize the YMCA of Snohomish County and its work to help families achieve healthier lifestyles right here in one of Kimberly-Clark’s hometowns,” said Scott Helker, mill manager of Kimberly-Clark’s Everett facility.

Partnership adds funding options
for development association
Evergreen Community Development Association is partnering with Minneapolis-based Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) USA to bring more economic development financing options to the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle-based nonprofit association said.

“Evergreen is excited to offer this avenue of financing to our commercial lending partners and their clients,” said Phil Eng, president of the association, which acts as an intermediary for federal government loan programs to help create jobs and stimulate growth in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

“The (Small Business Administration) 504 loan program is terrific. It is designed to help small businesses expand while conserving working capital, but regulatory constraints on the use of these funds sometimes prevent us from assisting very deserving companies that are creating jobs and adding to the economic vitality of their communities,” Eng said. “The CRF product is modeled after the strength of 504, yet it fills some of those regulatory gaps.”

Under terms of the partnership, CRF will purchase community development loans Evergreen makes to qualifying small-business owners, providing the community development lender with the private capital needed to finance more loans and drive more dollars into disadvantaged communities.

Nonprofit receives grants
for its drug, alcohol education program
Nonprofit organization Choice & Consequence recently received a number of grants to bring “The Real Inside Story” to Puget Sound area schools. “The Real Inside Story” uses human organs to illustrate the damaging effects that alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse have on internal organs.

A grant from The Everett Clinic Foundation for $18,000 will enable “The Real Inside Story” to be delivered to more than 20 schools and several community youth events in Snohomish County.

The Tulalip Tribes have made a donation in the amount of $7,500 that will serve about eight schools in Snohomish County.

A grant from the Providence General Foundation in the amount of $5,000 will bring “The Real Inside Story” to about six schools in Snohomish County.

The Squaxin Island Tribe has given the group $2,000 to travel to the Shelton area to present at two schools.

For more information on Choice & Consequence, go online to www.choiceandconsequence.org or call 360-435-7250.

State gains new resource
in fight against cyber crime
The first Washington state chapter of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association recently was established, with founding members representing Microsoft, Safeco and various law enforcement agencies.

The association is a partnership between law enforcement and private industry and serves as a venue for members to share their collective experiences as well as techniques for fighting and investigating computer-related crimes, according to the group. Members will be developing and maintaining training programs related to computer crime, computer security and cyber-related terrorist activities.

The chapter will be providing regular training sessions to members on topics such as investigating network intrusions, surveillance of network and Internet activity, identity theft, financial fraud and gathering evidence from cell phones and personal digital assistants.

Edmonds Community College has donated meeting space and resources for the chapter to use.

For more information on the Washington state HTCIA, go online to www.wahtcia.org.

Local auto repair facilities
receive AAA Top Shop awards
Evergreen Auto Works in Mill Creek and Harbour Pointe Lincoln Mercury in Everett recently received the 2006 AAA Top Shop Award for their professionalism, business practices, shop cleanliness and overall customer satisfaction.

Before shops are even considered for AAA’s Top Shop Award, they must meet high standards to participate in AAA’s Approved Auto Repair program. Currently, there are 292 Approved Auto Repair, 52 Approved Auto Body and 30 Approved Auto Specialty shops that have met the program requirements.