Two employees buy Spokane Valley fire protection concern
Two employees of Creighton Engineering Inc., a Spokane Valley fire protection consulting company, have bought the company's assets and have formed a company named S.O. Creighton Engineering Inc.

The employees, Robert Olson and Chris Singley, recently bought the company's assets from Creighton Engineering founder Scott Creighton, Olson says. Singley, an electrical engineer who has worked at Creighton Engineering for 14 years, recently earned his fire protection engineering license from Washington state, enabling him to become the principal fire protection engineer at the company. Olson previously was the company's program manager.

Altogether, the new company has two full-time and four part-time employees, all of whom were hired from Creighton Engineering, and the operation will remain in the same 2,600-square-foot leased space Creighton Engineering occupied at 210 N. University, Olson says.

Scott Creighton has wanted to reduce his role at his company for some time. Creighton had worked in the field for a number of years before incorporating Creighton Engineering in 1996, and will continue to work part time for the new company, Olson says.

Olson says Creighton Engineering had revenues of about $700,000 last year, and the new company hopes to do more business nationwide. S.O. Creighton currently has clients mainly in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.

Former city official starts public relations, communications firm
Susan Ashe, former director of legislative affairs for the city of Spokane, has started Ashe Public Affairs LLC, a communications consulting firm here.

The firm offers government-relations communication services such as issues and public opinion research, policy analysis and development, coalition building, grant writing, state and federal appropriations requests, and overall campaign management, says the company's Web site.

Additionally, Ashe offers public relations services for private and nonprofit organizations. Those services include communications planning, media and community relations counsel, and event planning.

Prior to working for the city, Ashe was employed by Kaiser Aluminum Corp. for more than 20 years, advancing to the position of Northwest regional public affairs manager.

Ashe says she currently is working from a home office and is "taking it one step at a time" for now.

Real estate company moves into Fernwell
Spokane-based Dowers Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. has moved its office into a space in the six-story Fernwell Building, at 505 W. Riverside, from a space it previously occupied in the Paulsen Building, at 421 W. Riverside, according to a press release from Fernwell's management team.

Dowers Commercial Real Estate Group is owned and operated by Lisa and David Dowers, and specializes in representing tenants and buyers in the real estate acquisition process.

Tenants of the Fernwell Building share the costs of overhead expenses such as reception services, Internet access, and secretarial services. That approach lowers the costs businesses normally would incur if they paid for everything individually, according to the Fernwell Building's Web site.

"Overall, we feel the move will result in a better return on our office space investment," says David Dowers.

The Fernwell Building was built in 1891, and its office suites range from 750 to 7,000 square feet in size.

Internet provider here moves into new office
Ptera Wireless Inc., a Liberty Lake-based wireless Internet service provider, has moved its operations into an about 850-square-foot leased space at 22721 E. Mission from a small-business incubator space it previously occupied at 1421 N. Meadowwood Lane.

Arthur Stephens, senior sales technician for Ptera Wireless, says the company affixed a 40-foot-high tower to the roof of the building on Mission, but no other improvements were necessary for it to use the space.

Ptera Wireless offers wireless Internet service to residential and commercial customers in the Spokane area by mounting a satellite dish-like antenna on the roof of a home or business and linking it via radio signal to one of its towers, which are scattered throughout the area. Stephens says the company has about 15 major towers, which range from 40 to 200 feet in height, and numerous smaller towers. The smaller towers are used to transmit information between a customer's location and a major tower if no direct line of sight is available.

Ptera Wireless has two full-time employees and began operating here in 2002, says Stephens.

Event planning venture begins operating here
Mission Possible Events, a small Phoenix-based event planning company, has begun operating here, says Teresa Bacal, who founded the business with her sister, Loree Bischoff, before moving to the Spokane area.

Bischoff continues to work in Arizona.

Bacal currently is operating the company's Spokane office from her home here, but says she would like to move into an office space and hire a couple of full-time employees in the future.

Bacal says the company coordinates events for groups of all sizes, from as few as 25 people to as many as 25,000. Some of the types of events the company has planned include training meetings, press events, dealer meetings, new product introductions, large expos, and sales incentive trips, says Bacal.

Prices differ depending on the services clients desire, she says. Those services range from a one-time day consultation to planning an entire event, and jobs range from "very complicated to very simple" depending on what the client's needs are, she says.

Bacal, who has more than 18 years of hospitality experience, says she often travels to cities such as Portland, Ore., for work, and has a team of independent contractors she works with depending on the size of a job.