Published September 2006
Business
Briefs
Market
Street Catering
opens Marysville production facility
Market Street Catering, a division of Haggen Food & Pharmacy stores, has
opened a second production kitchen in Marysville to better serve Snohomish
County customers, according to the company.
Llodia Guerra was
appointed catering production manager in Marysville. Guerra previously
worked at Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue. Roseline Coats was named assistant
catering production manager.
For more information,
visit the Market Street Catering kiosks inside the Haggen Food & Pharmacy
stores in Marysville, Arlington, Lake Stevens and Stanwood or call toll
free at 866-912-2233.
Comcast
to open Lynnwood call center
A new Comcast call center in the Opus Northpointe business park in Lynnwood
could eventually employ more than 500 people after it opens next year.
The new facility,
a $20 million investment, will not replace the company’s call centers
in nearby south Everett or Fife. Instead, Comcast said it needs all three
to keep up with a growing number of customer service calls.
The company, which
is Snohomish County’s primary cable television provider, signed a 10-year
lease with Opus Northwest LLC, which will construct a new 87,000-square-foot
building at its business park north of 164th Street SW. After making interior
improvements and setting up equipment and furnishings inside, Comcast
hopes to have the new center in operation a year from now.
Initially, about
325 people will work there, Comcast said. That will include about 70 people
now working at Comcast’s regional headquarters in Bothell, which will
be moved. Some employees also will be shifted from the Everett call center.
Zipfizz
expands retail reach
with recent deals
Zipfizz Corp., the maker of a powdered energy drink mix, said it has reached
agreements with Walgreens, QFC and Bed Bath & Beyond to carry the company’s
product in their Northwest stores.
The Mill Creek-based
company’s drink mix, sold in compact plastic tubes, already is carried
by Costco, 7-Eleven, Bi-Mart and some GNC stores.
In addition to its
unique packaging, Zipfizz has gained a following by promoting itself as
a healthier alternative to the average energy drink. When added into a
bottle of water, its flavors have only five to 10 calories, a couple of
carbohydrates and no artificial sugars. The mix is also loaded with vitamins
B12, B6 and C, along with potassium and magnesium.
Bank
catering to Asian-American
customers in the works
Organizers of UniBank, a new bank catering to Asian-American customers,
hope to open an office along Highway 99 in Lynnwood by the fall.
Organizers submitted
their charter application with the state Department of Financial Institutions
in May, said Andrew Ghim, UniBank’s president and chief executive officer.
“We’re waiting to hear from the regulators.”
Assuming the bank’s
charter is approved by the state, UniBank hopes to raise up to $20 million
in capital by the fall.
“Our target client
is the Asian-American sector, which is one of the fastest growing sectors
in Western Washington,” said Ghim, who has more than 25 years of experience
in banking.
Wesmar
to relocate to Lynnwood
Snohomish County is gaining a new manufacturing business, Wesmar Co. Inc.
of Ballard.
The 38-year-old company,
a manufacturer of cleaning and sanitizing chemicals for the food processing
industry, has a factory near the Ballard bridge but plans to close it
by next spring, moving to a small industrial park in Lynnwood.
Executive Vice President
Daryl Funston said the formerly industrial area in Seattle was rapidly
becoming filled with apartments and retail stores, changing the character
of the manufacturing area.
Funston said he thought
the move also would lower his operating costs, particularly in city taxes.
The firm had revenues of around $10 million last year, a level Funston
expects to increase by around 10 percent this year.
Sound
Transit breaks ground
on freeway station
Sound Transit and its partners broke ground for a new transit freeway
station at I-405’s Bothell-Everett Highway interchange in August. The
project is expected to improve transit speed and reliability in the I-405
corridor, cutting an estimated five minutes off average commuting times,
according to the transit agency.
The new freeway station
and pedestrian bridge, along with upgrades to the southbound on-ramp to
Interstate 405 from northbound SR 527, will improve transit access and
minimize delays for buses normally traveling through congested local intersections.
Everett-based
Garlic Jim’s
to expand into Texas
Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza said in August that a Texas franchise
group plans to open at least 45 of the chain’s stores in Texas within
the next seven years.
The Everett-based
pizza chain, which began the year with 19 locations, is on track to end
2006 with more than double that number.
“We’ll have 40 stores
open for sure by the end of this year,” said Dwayne Northrop, Garlic Jim’s
president and chief executive officer. “That’s right on with our projections.”
That includes stores
in Monroe, Mukilteo, Mill Creek and Bothell. Stores for south Marysville
and Lake Stevens are scheduled to open next year.
The expansion into
Texas will be overseen by franchisee QSR Ventures Inc., based in the Dallas
area.
Port
of Everett honored
for communications programs
The Port of Everett was among 27 seaports recently selected by the American
Association of Port Authorities for exemplary projects, programs and initiatives.
The port received
a Direct Mail Award of Merit for its Marine Terminals Master Planning
Brochure and an Honorable Mention in the Newsletter category for Port
Gardener Wharf Construction.
The awards will be
presented at a Sept. 13 luncheon in conjunction with AAPA’s 2006 annual
convention in New Orleans.
Scuttlebutt
brews earn top honors
Scuttlebutt Brewing Co.’s amber ale and barley wine recently were recognized
by the North American Brewer’s Association during the organization’s 12th
annual North American Beer Awards Competition.
The Everett-based
brewery’s Scuttlebutt Amber Ale received a gold medal, and its Barley
wine won a bronze medal during the event, in which more than 550 beers
were judged by a panel of brewers, certified judges and qualified professionals.
Port
to approve dome lease
An agreement to lease a storage dome and loading equipment to Lehigh Northwest
Cement Co. to store cement imported from China won endorsement in August
from the Port of Everett commission.
Commission members
said the 20-year deal should bring in a minimum of $1 million a year in
operating revenue. The lease has four optional five-year extensions.
Workers will start
renovating the former alumina ore storage dome right away. It’s expected
to be ready for cement this coming spring. The cement shipments should
ease a shortage in the Northwest that has occasionally required rationing.
Johnstone
Supply opens
Johnstone Supply Inc., a cooperative wholesale distributor of HVAC/R parts
and products, recently opened an Everett location, its 300th store nationwide.
Serving local contractors
and HVAC/R supply needs throughout the Everett area, the store is owned
by Greg Popma, who also owns and operates 11 Johnstone Supply stores on
the West Coast, primarily in Oregon and Washington, and was one of the
original founding members of the Johnstone Cooperative.
“Everett is a growing
city with increasing opportunities for HVAC contractors, which makes it
a great spot for a new Johnstone Supply location,” said Ron Kline, Everett
store manager.
For more information,
go online to www.JohnstoneSupply.com.
Everett
environmental firm sold
Environmental testing firm CCI Analytical Laboratories could expand modestly
after being acquired by a Utah-based company.
DataChem Laboratories
of Salt Lake City paid $2.3 million in cash for CCI, which is located
just east of Evergreen Way in south Everett.
Ken Olson, DataChem’s
president and chief executive officer, said the Everett lab is a good
addition to the privately held company. Among other things, CCI’s location
in the Puget Sound market adds a new region to DataChem’s business.
Olson said DataChem
is looking to slightly expand CCI’s capabilities, but otherwise will let
it run mostly independently.
Education
panel votes
for 4-year independent university
A panel of community leaders chosen to recommend a proposal for the higher-education
needs of the region voted in August to make its top priority a four-year
independent university.
The university would
have a focus on science and technology, similar to California’s polytechnic
state universities in Pomona and San Luis Obispo. It also would offer
liberal arts and other programs.
The panel’s work
was part of a $500,000 study ordered by the state Legislature last year
to address the long-term higher education needs of north Snohomish County
and Island and Skagit counties.
The recommendation
approved in August will go before the state’s Higher Education Coordinating
Board for a vote in October. The state board’s vote will be sent to the
Legislature for possible action.
Two
county companies
win HomeStreet awards
Two Snohomish County companies were named winners of HomeStreet Bank’s
Small Business Spotlight Awards, which were offered in conjunction with
KOMO News Radio. The program recognized five small businesses with 100
or fewer employees located in the Puget Sound region.
The local winners
were Everett-based Terra Resource Group, which was honored for its innovative
efforts to make itself a great company to work for, and Lynnwood-based
Compendium Inc., which was honored for its employee- and family-oriented
culture.
The three other winners
were Redmond-based Westhill Inc. Design/Build and Seattle-based Giant
Campus Inc. and Concord Technologies.
County’s
unemployment rate
drops to 4.2 percent
Snohomish County pushed further toward full employment in July, adding
900 jobs and knocking back the unemployment rate to 4.2 percent.
“This is just the
tip of the iceberg,” said Donna Thompson, a labor economist with the state
Employment Security Department.
Thompson said she
and a co-worker have been keeping a list of businesses that will be moving
here or expanding “because we can’t keep it in our heads anymore.”
The list includes
job fairs under way with Kohl’s, Target and Costco, which are all getting
ready to open new stores. She also mentioned the $70 million Berlex prescription
drug factory that will open next year in Lynnwood, a new Jaguar-Land Rover
dealership, three aerospace companies, four restaurants, several hotels,
a Comcast call center, developments on the riverfront and on Port Gardner
Bay and all the freeway construction.
The county jobless
rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point from June, when it was
4.5 percent. The state’s rate moved up to 4.9 percent, or 5.3 percent
when adjusted for seasonal factors.
B/E
Aerospace buys 787 supplier
A German company that was looking for an Everett-area site to assemble
787 components has been bought by another aerospace firm with local ties,
B/E Aerospace.
It’s too soon to
tell what that means for Draeger Aerospace’s plans for a new plant here,
a spokesman said.
B/E is the parent
company of Flight Structures Inc. of Marysville, which does engineering
and some assembly work for the company’s other divisions.
Florida-based B/E
said in late July that it paid $80 million cash for Draeger, which was
a subsidiary of Cobham PLC of the United Kingdom.
Draeger is a leading
supplier of oxygen supply systems for both civil and military aircraft.
Combining it with B/E’s existing oxygen business will allow the company
to offer the broadest line of oxygen supply systems in the industry, B/E
executives said.
B/E now supplies
Boeing oxygen systems from a plant in Kansas.
VOA
receives $300,000 grant
Volunteers of America has received a 10-year, $300,000 grant from the
Washington Families Fund to help recently homeless families with job hunting,
family budgeting and other skills aimed at preventing them from becoming
homeless again.
The money will be
used to continue job and family services for people living in 15 units
of the Lincoln Way Apartments at 2721 Lincoln Way in Lynnwood.
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