Three small Spokane companies have raised about $400,000 in start-up capital and have launched Safe Harbor Publishing LLC, to produce and market a video and travel kit designed to keep travelers safe in the U.S. and abroad.


Additionally, more in-depth and regionally-oriented packages could follow in the future, says Randy Spivey, owner of RS Consulting LLC, a Spokane concern that does business as National Hostage Survival Training Center. RS Consulting controls the majority of stock in Safe Harbor.


Included in the first package, which will sell for between $50 and $60, will be a 30-minute-to-40-minute DVD telling travelers how not to become a target for abduction and how to survive if they do, a travel companion resource guide, a passport neck-wallet security pouch, and an informational CD, says Spivey. That initial package will be called Safe Passage.


Spivey spent from 1997 to 2002 as the policy and operations chief for all hostage programs for the U.S. Department of Defense, including the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, he says. He left that job in November 2002 and immediately began RS Consulting.


The other two partners are Corporate Resources Inc., whose owner, Gary Fievez, is the management consultant for Safe Harbor, and Corner Booth Productions Inc., which will film the project, says Mark Forman, of Corner Booth. Corner Booth is owned by business partners Frank Swoboda and himself, Forman says.


Safe Harbor will operate independently of the other three companies.


The initial DVDs and CDs will be produced in English, with the possibility of Spanish-speaking materials being made later, says Forman.


The DVD is being filmed both in Spokane and Los Angeles, Forman says. The Spokane footage is being filmed in a home, at Spokane International Airport, and at the Davenport Hotel, he says. The Davenport is being used to add an international flavor and to add quality to the scenery, he says.


Filming in Los Angeles was completed last week and included shots in Chinatown, the garment district, and a part of the city heavily influenced by Latin culture, Forman says.


The company plans to sell its product in packaging similar to that used for software, and market it through a major public-relations agency, over the Internet, and through trade shows, says Forman. Spivey hopes the product will be carried by such major chains as Costco Wholesale Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.


The first Safe Passage product will be launched Oct. 2 in New York City, Spivey says. He says the media in such metropolitan areas is very interested in hostage survival.


We anticipate selling from 50,000 to 200,000 packages in the first year and a half, he says.


Spivey says the company is working with other firms, including one in Spokane, to determine what vendor will duplicate and manufacture the product. He says Safe Harbor would like to keep such work within the U.S.