The International Trade Alliance, a Spokane economic-development group, is organizing a 12-day trade mission to the United Kingdom in June in an effort to help businesses here make or enhance trade contacts in that European region.The Spokane is

Buckeye Beans & Herbs Inc., of Spokane, has fired nine employees, including its president, and has shut down all dried-soup and pasta production, as part of a decision to get out of the specialty-food market, says its CEO, George G. Van Houten, who

A managed-service organization formed three years ago to help small orthopedic practices in Spokane survive in a managed-care marketplace has taken on a new name and is studying the idea of opening its own surgery center here.The organization, a

In response to an alarming 10 percentage-point drop in hotel and motel occupancy rates here during the past two years and a nudge from the Spokane Hotel-Motel Association, the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is looking at placing more a

In a strong showing thats contrary to other published numbers, Spokane County employers had an average of 4,200 more people on the job last year than they did in 1997.Employers here kept an average of 188,900 people at work in 1998, up from in

Canadian eye surgery clinics are invading the Spokane market with advertisements aimed at luring across the U.S-Canada border patients who are seeking elective, laser vision-correction surgery.In a bid for patients in an area of medicine thats

The federal government has denied the city of Spokanes application for designation as an empowerment zone.Started in 1993, the empowerment zone program offers qualifying communities $100 million in federal grants over 10 years, and tax breaks

Lincoln Partners LLC, a development company launched by Spokane developer Joe Stanek and his brothers, Steve, Frank, and Tim Stanek, has doubled the size of a proposed Mead-area shopping center, named Mount Spokane Plaza, because of interest from 2

Cavanaughs Hospitality Corp. is adding 40 stations to its call center here, increasing the number of stations to 75, says Jack Lucas, the Spokane companys vice president of entertainment services.Meanwhile, the call center has increased its of

Garco Construction, of Spokane, has begun offering development services through a new affiliate company, called Garco Development Services, and has bought two projects, at Liberty Lake and in Pasco, Wash.Those projects include the planned of a &