Ten years ago this month the Snohomish County Business Journal still was known by its original name, The Herald Business Journal, but its county-wide coverage of business news was much the same as it is today.
From aerospace and biotech industries to retail, construction, economic development, banking and population growth, the journal kept tabs on the business community. Here is a sampling of some of the news events and topics covered in that Sept. 1998 issue.
EDC President John Thoresen resigns
News that month included the resignation of John Thoresen as the long-time president of the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County. Thoresen left to become president of a new county-based venture capital business, Mutual Bancshares Capital, formed by the holding company of Everett Mutual Bank.
United Way launches annual fundraising drive Dozens of volunteers for United Way began the community service agency’s 59th annual drive to raise funds to support its operations and member agency needs for the coming year.
The goal was $11 million, up from the $10 million raised in 1997 and $9 million raised in 1996. In recent years, United Way has raised an average of $10 million annually. It’s new 2008 campaign, announced this month, has a goal of raising $10 milion to help provide support for a variety of service agencies throughout the county. Frontier Bank celebrates 20th anniversary
Frontier’s merger with the Bank of Sumner expanded the Everett-based bank’s branches into Pierce County. Its fifth acquisition since its founding in 1978, the merger added four branches and $97 million to Frontier’s assets, giving it 23 offices in Pierce, King, Snohomish and Skagit County.
Today, as of June 30, 2008, Frontier has passed $4 billion in assets and now operates more than 47 offices in nine counties, including the four of a decade ago plus Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Thurston and Whatcom County.
Eagle Hardware plans $8.1 million store
Smokey Point is to be the site of a new Eagle Hardware &Garden Inc. store at 169th St. NE, adjacent to Interstate 5. The hardware also had stores in Everett, Lynnwood and Mount Vernon at that time.
In recent years, that store — and others in the chain — have carried the Lowe’s Hardware branch name, following the sale of the regional Eagle Hardware business to the national Lowe’s Hardware chain.
Alderwood, Everett Malls added more retail
Alderwood and Everett malls announced the addition of several new retail tenants, which contributed to ; and 1997 taxable retail sales for the county increased more than 16 percent over Sept. 1996, from $5.5 billion to $6.4 billion, according to an announcement in September 1998 by the Washington State Department of Revenue. Clear Image in Marysville adds equipment
Joe Gogal, Clear Image owner in Marysville, had neaarly a quarter-million-dollars worth of photoprocessing equipment in his business in 1998 and operated branches in Everett and at Smokey Point north of Marysville. Yet, even then the shift to digital photography had begun, the technology shift that closed all but Gogal’s Marysville store by 2008 and pushed him out of the photofinishing business.
Today, however, he uses digital cameras himself in his remaining business. Digital technology allows Gogal and his staff to concentrate on his portrait studio and sports team photos, a new era for Clear Image that he said is going well for him.
Reid Middleton engineering firm prospers
After 35 years in Edmonds and a decade in Lynnwood, engineering firm Reid Middleton moved north to south Everett’s Quadrant I-5 Corporate Park where they operate today. In 1998, the business was well known for projects that included the I-5 and 196th Street SW interchange improvements, the Port of Edmonds Marina, Port of Everett Marina, Naval Station Everett, 30 years of projects at Paine field, Kamiak High School in Mukilteo and the Port of Everett’s Jetty Park.
Executive coaches developing their niche
Just as golf pros help golfers improve their game, executive coaches such as Marlene Harris of Mountlake Terrace and Irene Leonard of Edmonds were making inroads in promoting the relatively new concept of customized executive coaching to help top business people improve such things as their business practices, self-improvement and sales goals.
Snohomish County business Webs increasing
As the popularity of the Internet increased, more and more Snohomish County businesses began launching their own Web sites, according to a feature in the journal, including auto dealer Dwayne Lane; Bargreen Coffee Co. in Everett; Cyclebarn in Lynnwood; Kasilof Fish Co., Marysville, and Creative Light Design, Marysville, a designer of Web sites.
Call centers grow in Snohomish County
Among the new call centers opening in the county in 1998 were ones operated by GTE (now Verizon) in Everett with 700 employees, and Washington Mutual Savings Bank, with 260 people in Lynn-wood.
Washington Mutual’s center involved creating training programs through Edmonds Community College, working with the Snohomish County Private Industry Council (today the Workforce Development Council) and the Washington State Department of Employment Security.
New construction projects for Everett
Everett developer Craig Skotdal, president of Skotdal Real Estate, announced plans to build an apartment complex in downtown Everett within the next five years on a parcel of land in the 3100 block of Colby Avenue, behind Charter Title Co. Today, Skotdal’s project is completed, a six-story residential building at 3120 Colby Ave. just south of Pacific Avenue. Economic trends reflect county growth
Charts on the journal’s Economic Trends page showed employment growth of 5.5 percent as of June 1998 compared to a year prior, including manufacturing jobs, up 7.5 percent; transportation, up 10.8 percent; wholesale and retail trade, up 4.9 perent; finance, insurance and real estate jobs up 5.5 percent; service industries, up 3.7 percent and government jobs, up 3.8 percent.
The unemployment rate in July 1998 was 3.1 percent, about the same monthly level as in the prior year. Residential building permits totaled 639 in July, down sharply from 908 in June.
Single-family home sales totaled 939 in July 1998, up 14.8 percent over the prior year, while the average price was $203,406, up 7.8 percent and the median price was $175,000, up 4.2 percent.
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