Spokane-area home builders say the West Plains is the new Mecca for residential-development activity.Unlike the South Hill, the North Side, and the Valley, where undeveloped land is getting harder to find and has become more expensive when it a

Leone & Keeble Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder on a contract to expand and remodel Whitman Hospital & Medical Center, in Colfax, Wash.Still, Jon Davis, administrator of Whitman Hospital, says Leone & Keebles bid of $15.3 million

Spokanes tight labor market, with the countys average annual unemployment rate at 5.6 percent in 2005 and 5 percent last year, hasnt spurred employers here to sweeten their benefit packages noticeably yet to attract the workers they need, say

A new Spokane Valley company named Independence Home Center Inc. has opened a Fleetwood Homes manufactured-home dealership just south of Interstate 90 near Barker Road.Peter Zeman, who owns Independence Home Center, says the new dealership is a

Sylvan Furniture Co., a 62-year-old family-owned Spokane business, is closing its doors, according to a flyer distributed by the company. The flyer, advertising a five-day liquidation sale held earlier this month, says the business lost its at

Olympic Foods Inc., a 41-year-old Spokane company, says it has signed a letter of intent to sell its assets to Johanna Foods Inc., a privately owned manufacturer of chilled juices and beverages based in Flemington, N.J.Terms of the tentative a

A longtime Spokane garment manufacturer that now employs just one-fifth of the 450 workers it once did says it has righted itself against tall odds and tough overseas competition and again is on solid financial ground.Joe Doohan, president of a

After three months on the job, Rex Fuller, the new dean of Eastern Washington Universitys College of Business and Public Administration, already is implementing changes to attract more business students to the school.Business majors, not in 8

Tom and Leslie Allen, both animal lovers themselves, have buried or cremated thousands of pets since buying Family Pet Memorial Gardens, north of Spokane near Colbert, in 1980dogs, cats, horses, parakeets, rabbits, pigs, and even rats. Yet, a

The city of Spokane racked up an 11.7 percent increase in taxable retail sales in the third quarter of 2006and preliminary full-year figures put the citys growth in such sales in 2006 at their highest percentage gain in 23 years.Both the in