William Schara doesnt merely crunch numbers for a living. Hell help you crunch your personal budget numbers, too, so youll know precisely when youve blown your entertainment budget or need to hold off on a clothing purchase.The Spokane a

Big plans are in the works that could spur revitalization at the east end of downtown Spokane, but developers have led a resurgence on their own in recent months with a passel of smaller projects.A handful of companies and businessmen have old a

Jim Sheehan, a longtime Spokane attorney, has bought the former Birkebeiner Brewing Co. building at 35 W. Main in downtown Spokane and has started a $1 million renovation project there.The remodeling project involves converting the three-story,

Ranch & Home Supply Inc., a Bozeman, Mont.-based company that operates a small chain of Big R Ranch & Home Supply stores, has broken ground on a 51,000-square-foot outlet along U.S. 2 near Mead.John Murdock, owner of Ranch & Home Supply, says to

Spokane developer and architect Ron Wells says Wells & Co., which he heads, is close to buying the Fairmont Apartments building downtown and hopes to convert the gutted six-story structure into an upscale office building with retail space on the by

Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc., a New Jersey-based home merchandise and furnishings retailer, is close to securing space at Franklin Park Mall for its first store in the Spokane area, says Lance Taylor, a Dallas-based development partner with P.OB. & &

MSC incorporated as Premera Blue Cross, one of Eastern Washingtons biggest health insurers, has leased the entire third floor of the nearly completed Northpointe Office Building on Spokanes North Side for expansion of its operations here.The

A few years ago, commercial builder Jim Elmer gave good friend Ken Scott some scrap wood for a nebulous experiment, and Scott more than returned the favor by creating what would become the foundation of a new business venture for the two long-time

Avista Advantage Inc., an Internet-based billing and information-management company here, has a new home for its quickly growing corporate headquarters and Spokane operations center. The company, which is a subsidiary of Spokane-based Avista has

Cisco Systems Inc., the huge San Jose, Calif.-based Internet network-systems company, plans to move its Spokane regional office into a bigger space soon in anticipation of substantial growth here over the next five years.Mike Peterson, who the a