With lending criteria and mortgage-insurance premium rules tighter now for conventional loans, home buyers increasingly are turning to federally-backed mortgages, for which rules are less strict, lenders here say.Meanwhile, declining property a

John Ferrell and Joe Wing started "turning," or making components for, pens as a hobby. Now, as business partners, they're hoping to turn a profit.Ferrell and Wing opened JJ's Pen Place LLC this year in the Eagle Plaza, at 14415 E. Sprague, they

Ownership groups led by Spokane developers Dick Vandervert and Lowell McKee plan to start work soon on three major commercial projects in the Tri-Cities area with a total value of $34.3 million.The planned projects include a hotel and an office

A development company headed by the president of Spokane-based Scafco Corp. wants to develop a commercial and industrial park with up to 800,000 square feet of floor space and 800 parking spaces, at the former site of the Playfair horse racing in a

A Spokane-based investor group plans to develop an $11.5 million office building on the West Plains and expects to begin work on the project soon, says Lowell McKee, one of the investors.The planned two-story, 47,000-square-foot structure, to be

Coeur d'Alene-based North Idaho College has placed its college-credit and noncredit trades- and industry-related training programs under joint management and plans to construct a new building so it can expand and move some of its courses off last a

Smart Smoke Inc., an electronic cigarette retailer here that targets longtime tobacco smokers, has enjoyed strong growth in its first year of operation, says Aaron Rollins, director of sales and marketing.Smart Smoke, which opened its first in a