Avista Corp. generated a welcome, arguably overdue sigh of satisfaction when it announced late last month that it formed a new subsidiary to explore the liquefied natural gas market. 

The subsidiary, called Salix Inc., will focus on the wholesale and business-to-business markets and serve as a new vehicle for growth, one that’s not subject to state utility regulation. 

News of a large Spokane-based company launching a new venture that it views as having broad market potential is good in its own right, but it’s especially refreshing in light of most other announcements by large employers here during the past year. While the economy has been improving steadily, big companies often have made moves signaling losses in jobs and corporate identity for the Inland Northwest.

Avista itself disclosed plans in late May to sell its energy-management subsidiary Ecova Inc. for $335 million to Cofely USA Inc., a French multinational utility company GDF Suez. Ecova employs about 1,500 people, roughly half of which are based in Spokane. The two companies completed that acquisition earlier this week.

The previous month, Portland-based Umpqua Holdings Corp. completed its acquisition of Spokane-based Sterling Financial Corp., parent of Sterling Bank, in a transaction valued at $2 billion. Prior to the acquisition, Sterling employed 2,650 people, including 625 at its downtown Spokane headquarters. 

In both cases, the acquiring company stated a commitment to maintaining a strong presence in the Spokane market. Also, both deals benefit shareholders in the ventures that germinated here and grew through the years to become attractive acquisition targets. Such acquisitions, one could argue, are the culmination of successful business growth and maturation.

In the case of the Umpqua-Sterling merger, however, lost is part of the Spokane business community identity. More tangibly, gone are some of the top-paying, executive-level positions. 

The acquisitions, of course, are far better than the few instances of companies pulling out of the market altogether. Vivint Inc., a Provo, Utah-based home-automation system maker that opened an operation in Liberty Lake last year with aspirations to employ 400 people here, closed its operations here last month. At last report, the company employed 90 people here. 

In April, Sandpoint-based publicly-traded retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began liquidating its inventory. A New York-based private equity firm bought its brands the following month. 

Nobody knows yet the market potential and employment possibilities for Salix or whether it will become a positive contributor to Avista’s quarterly earnings, as Ecova has been in recent years.

Regardless, it’s encouraging to see a large, publicly-traded company here stepping into a market it views as promising. Let’s hope more news of this kind begins to bubble up in the Inland Northwest this year.