In just five weeks, a Dallas-based health-care provider called Matrix Rehabilitation Inc. quietly has become a force in the Spokane physical therapy market. In that time, it has bought one physical therapy business here, started up five of a

Malt-O-Meal, the Minneapolis-based company that makes cereals such as Marshmallow Mateys, Coco Roos, and Toasty Os, is negotiating to open a large distribution facility in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park.Were working to put a

Cogentrix Energy Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based power producer, has bought about 107 acres in Rathdrum, Idaho, where it plans to build a $100 million electricity-generating plant. If it can arrange the necessary financing, the company hopes to

Empire Securities Inc. of Washington has signed a consent order issued by state securities investigators that allows the troubled Spokane brokerage firm to remain open but on a short regulatory leash. Also, four of Empires employees or a

Future Shop Inc., which is in the process of implementing a new strategic plan that has resulted in the closure of five stores and will involve the renovation of others, says that its two Spokane-area stores will remain open.Gary chief of

The city of Medical Lake has awarded a nearly $5.7 million contract to a joint-venture partnership headed by Hoffman Contractors Inc., of Spokane, for construction of a new wastewater treatment facility that will serve the Medical Lake which

Southland Corp., the Dallas-based convenience-store chain, plans to develop a 7-Eleven gas station-convenience store at the northeast corner of Division Street and Second Avenue. The site formerly housed a Perkins restaurant.Work on the is

New York-based Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America has agreed to lease a new 14,000-square-foot building at Cedar Creek Village, near Guardians big Spokane operations center on the citys North Side.Kathleen Greco, Guardians top to