Published July 2004

Around the County

“Around the County” is a sampling of short items about people in business, news events and commercial construction that Snohomish County Business Journal staff members encounter in their visits around Snohomish County. — John Wolcott, SCBJ Editor

Award-winning barn a backdrop
for events business
North Snohomish County has a new events facility in Tazer Valley Farm, which has opened at 7314 300th St. NW in Stanwood. The business, run by Crete Tazer and her husband, Tom, offers a picturesque setting for tented weddings, special receptions and business banquets, with a newly constructed, 60-by-60-foot cedar barn as a backdrop.

“It’s not for animals of the four-legged kind — we’re using it for caterers to work out of,” Crete said.

The building, which was designed by Tom Tazer and constructed last year by Spane Buildings Inc. of Stanwood, recently won Best Overall Project and Accessory Building Style of the Year honors from the Skagit and Island Counties Builders Association.

For more information on Tazer Valley Farm, call 360-629-4657 or 360-391-3352, or go online to www.tazervalleyfarm.com.

Countdown to opening
of Holiday Inn Express
Just a month to go before the Holiday Inn Express opens in south Everett.

The 99-room hotel, complete with 15 suites, is set to open in early August just west of I-5 at the 128th Street exit, developer Dan Mitzel said.

With its business center and free high-speed Internet access in each of its guest rooms, the hotel is looking to compete for the business travel market, said Mitzel, whose Burlington-based company, Mitzel & Associates, is general contractor of the $6.4 million project.

As for competing in a marketplace that posted an occupancy rate of just under 55 percent in March, Mitzel said he isn’t worried.

“It’s not a concern, because my opinion of the marketplace is that the brands that are doing well nationally are doing well in Snohomish County,” he said.

Dwayne Lane’s new autoplex
At Smokey Point in Arlington, Dwayne Lane’s new Northsound Autoplex is open for business on the east side of I-5 for used-car sales.

State Street project update
Most of Marysville’s extensive widening of State Street is completed between Grove Avenue and Fourth Street, bringing an end to months of detours, bumpy driveways to businesses and blocked streets. Overall, it’s a great improvement visually and will make a major difference in handling the city’s increasing traffic flow.

Although merchants in that stretch of downtown are now past the stress of construction that slowed their sales for so long, a few blocks of widening work still remains south of Fourth Street to the Marysville City Center mall.

Newberry Square rising
In Lynnwood, the skyline is changing dramatically at I-5 and 164th Street, west of the Ash Way Park-’n’-Ride, where buildings are rising in Newberry Square. Designed to provide high-density living close to shopping and service businesses, the model urban center development is well along.

The project includes 124 apartments in two buildings, separated by an open plaza, with a small park behind the residential structures. Within easy walking distance, an 18,000-square-foot retail center is also rising, to be joined by 11,000 square feet of office space.

La Palmera up and running
at Mill Creek Town Center
La Palmera is open and serving a varied menu of Mexican food on the second floor of Red Jacobsen’s new office building in the Mill Creek Town Center.

The restaurant is one of the largest tenants in the structure, offering balcony dining and views of the further construction of the community’s new “downtown.”

Jacobsen also has permit approval now to begin construction soon on new buildings and a public plaza in Town Center a few blocks north of his office building, which also houses Jacobsen Development Co.’s new offices.

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