Cost Plus Inc., an Oakland, Calif.-based retail chain that sells imported home dcor and specialty items, appears to have firmed up earlier reported plans to enter the Spokane market.A city of Spokane building-plan reviewer says the city is to a

The nations financial institutions are in an unenviable positiontheyre a favorite target of Y2K doomsday activists.Yet, they say theyre probably better prepared than any other U.S. industry for the advent of the millennium.Banks of

Spokane-area businesses will be hit with health-plan rate hikes again this year to no ones surprise, but the storm clouds meager silver lining is that the increases will be smaller in some cases than in 1998.Representatives of some of the 4

Payday loan centers are opening in the Spokane area faster than you can say, Show me the money.At least 12 payday loan stores have set up shop here within the last yearnine of which have opened since Novemberand another eight such are to

The owner of the Wolf Lodge Inn Restaurant, a North Idaho establishment long known for its big steaks, plans to open a steakhouse this spring in the building that the Otter Restaurant & Beach Club Lounge currently occupies.Wolf Lodge Inn owner a

Sterling Savings Bank, of Spokane, plans to open item-processing centers in Spokane and Seattle within the next two months, allowing the bank to do its own check processing and statement printing, which it currently pays others to handle.Heidi a

CKE Restaurants Inc., of Anaheim, Calif., says it plans to open between eight and 12 Carls Jr. fast-food restaurants in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area during the next two years.Suzi Brown, CKEs director of public relations, says the company

Hanson Industries Inc., of Spokane, has bought 113 acres of vacant land along Interstate 90 on the Idaho side of the Washington-Idaho state line, and has commissioned a study to determine the best use of the land, says Bob Boyle, the companys is

The downtown Metro Block, mostly vacated last year by Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., is to be renovated into a creative business incubator that would seek to attract artists, writers, designers, and some high-tech to a is

A new draft plan for the future of downtown, slated to be unveiled tonight, envisions substantial growth in retail, office, and housing space; development of a public square in the former J.J. Newberry Co. location; and designation of Howard Street