It was great while it lasted.That might be the refrain of Spokane employers, who this year are being hit with health-care plan rate hikes averaging 8 percent to 12 percent after several years of shrinking, stable, or modestly rising of a couple

Three additional restaurants and seven new retailers have agreed to open outlets at the Spokane Valley Mall within the next seven months, and another four potential tenants are negotiating to sign leases, says Wendy LePiane, marketing director for

Rosauers Supermarkets Inc., of Spokane, plans to close its grocery store at 8517 E. Trent by the end of March, says Larry Geller, Rosauers president.The store has been ravaged by competition over the last several years, says Geller.The

Coldwater Creek Inc., the Sandpoint, Idaho-based catalog retailer, plans to open a new $6 million facility in Coeur dAlenewhich it says will be completed by next falland move its Coeur dAlene call center there from leased quarters in a

Real estate investor and developer Rob Brewster Jr. says he has bought the long-vacant Holley Mason Building in downtown Spokane and plans to rehabilitate the historic six-story structure.Brewster, who grew up in Spokane but now lives mostly in

A Spokane company called Sierra Development LLC, which is headed by prominent local developer Dick Vandervert, has just begun work on one retail development in Millwood and plans to start work on two othersone each in Cheney and Liberty spring. a

Internet service providersthe companies that connect Internet users to the information superhighwaysay theyre now maneuvering through heavier competitive traffic here and anticipate some aggressive lane changes in the road ahead.Not only A

Bullhide Liner Corp., a Spokane maker of a spray-on, pickup truck bed liner, is planning an aggressive expansion, fueled in part by money its attempting to raise in an initial public offering launched in December.Ron Grossman, Bullhides says

Northwest Strawboard Inc., a Pasco, Wash.-based company thats been formed to develop three plants in Eastern Washington to make particle board out of straw, hopes to raise $5 million in a stock offering to help pay for the first of the plants, in

Dakotah Direct Inc., the big Spokane telemarketing company, plans to hire 300 additional insurance agentsmost of them in Spokaneover the next eight months to handle increased telemarketing business from insurance companies.Connie Browning, a