Fueled by attractive interest rates and the chance to fill niche and underserved housing markets, developers here recently have proposed or begun work on a healthy number of new apartment projects in the Spokane area. Real estate observers say

Clarkston, Wash.-based defense contractor Isothermal Systems Research Inc. has leased a building in Liberty Lake and plans to begin moving its corporate headquarters there next month. The company expects to employ 120 to 150 people in the facility

Itronix Corp., the Spokane maker of rugged computers, has leased a 2-year-old building in Liberty Lake that telecommunications equipment maker Telect Inc. owns and had occupied until scaling back its operations last year.Dave Bergman, Itronixs

World Wide Packets, of Spokane, found itself within the fallout radius of the technology-industry meltdown last year, and since then has been trying to wait out what founder and CEO Bernard Daines describes as a nuclear winter.He remains in

The story of a Spokane venture started by a self-described homebody begins a half a world away.It was early 2000 when Pete Smith founded the business, called Mainstream Watergarden Construction, out of his Spokane home. Instead of relying on and

ICT Group Inc.s big Spokane Valley call-center operation is in the process of hiring 100 additional workers here to handle customer relations for a new nationwide wireless-telephone service thats being launched by Virgin Group, the quirky and a

Though the regulatory maze remains tortuous for some, developing property in the Spokane area appears to be getting easier, industry and government officials say.That may be most evident in comments by developers, contrasted by time.Its a

After first claiming that it had no record of involvement in suspect power-trading schemes, Avista Corp. has told the U.S. government that it was used by Enron Corp. in the Death Star power-trading strategy in April, May, and June made the

A small group of Spokane investors is buying an older, four-story building downtown and plans to redevelop it into about a dozen loft condominiums.Steve Thosath, one of the investors, says the group expects to close shortly on the purchase of at

LOI Distributing Inc., a Lakewood, Wash.-based discount retailer that operates the Dollar Store chain, plans to open its third store here and is looking into eventually opening three more outlets in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.Bill LOI vice