APRIL 2009

Tri-Cities Real Estate -

hanging in there!

Credit crises, mortgage scandals andhome prices falling like a rock...in someplaces. Yet Pasco and the Tri-Cititescontinue to avoid the worst.Mortgage money is still availablelocally—though you do need a reason-able credit score to get it. Homes arestill selling locally—though for slightlyless money and in a slightly longer time. Just under 3,000 homes sold in theTri-Cities last year, at an average price$1400 lower than the year before—about a one percent drop from 2007to 2008.Tri-City Association of Realtors PresidentGlen Clark says the disparity betweennational media coverage and localexperience is because, “all real estatemarkets are local. We get some effectfrom national news, but the local marketis holding up well.”The Tri-Cities appears to be dodging abullet in terms of foreclosures, too. InPhoenix, for example, nearly 100,000homes appear to be headed for foreclo-sure. Locally, the number is closer to afew hundred.Clark points out that one Hanfordcontractor recently announced theimminent addition of 3,000 jobs. Also,hundreds of jobs will be added in Con-nell in the next year. With only 1200 -1300 homes for sale and rentals gettingscarce, the Tri-Cities could quicklybecome a seller’s market.

As a side note...

As this newsletter wasgoing to print,

Fortune

magazine—quoting Manpower, Inc.—reportedthat the

number one and two marketsnationally for employment growth inthe 2nd quarter of 2009 would be,respectively, Yakima (21%) andTri-Cities (19%).

CBC StudentsLearn to Innovate

“Most businesses are snorkelingtoday. It isn’t till they take the‘deepdive’ that it makes sense.”Instructor Gene Holand’s expla-nation of CBC’s Business 299“Innovation Institute” programneeds a deep dive of its own to beunderstood—and that is coming upthis month.

Monday, April 13th,

Holand will address the PascoChamber’s monthly luncheonattendees on innovation and CBC’s

new ve-week program.

Innovation Institute curriculumis based on a “design thinking”process developed by California-based design consultant IDEO tohelp clients objectively examinethe way they do business. They’veearned considerable national presslately, including a Harvard BusinessReview article and listing in FastCompany magazine’s Top TenMost Innovative Companies.The program is sponsored locally

by John Heaton, Pay Plus Benets’pres-ident. Its rst student project

was to develop suggestions for theredesign of a Ti-Lite wheelchair.Holand is currently seeking real-world business challenges for futureinstitute classes to tackle.

Ryan

Ryan Brault, PresidentPasco Chamber of Commerce

Spring Ahead...

After a cold winter, I was starting towonder if spring would come. Well, it ishere and yes, we are still in the beauti-ful Tri-Cities.So, did you go out on a limb and trysomething new and innovative in yourbusiness this last month? If not, it's nottoo late. Make a plan today and stickto it.It won’t be long before we have ourannual auction, presented this year by

Gesa

and held at

Preston PremiumWines

Winery.We at the Chamber are very excitedbecause our

membership growth for2008 was over 200%

of what it was in’07, attendance at our monthly luncheonsis up 35% and as our membership grows,

so does the benet to our members.

The

Small Business Awards Banquet

is coming up soon and we are lookingforward to yet another great event. Thisis where the Alliance of Chambers andthe business community throughout theTri-Cities and surrounding areas cometogether to celebrate the success of local small businesses, which are thebackbone of our communities.

Racing Limos of the Tri-Cities

wasnamed Franchi-see of the Yearby Racing Limos,Inc. The fran-chise is ownedby

Gary and Karen Davis

Darci Nilson, CPA,

has been promotedto Manager of the

LeMaster Daniels

Kennewick ofce.

Charlie Johnson

joined Pasco’s

ViperAircraft

as Director of Business Devel-opment. He is a former President andCEO of Cessna.

John LaFemina

and

Connie Eckard

were 2008 recipients of the

LeadershipTri-Cities Alumni Exemplary Leader-ship Award.Darroll Clark

of theFranklin PUD is the newVice-President of thePasco Kiwanis club.

The law rm of Miller

Mertens Spanner &Comfort has changed itsname to

Miller, Mertens& Comfort

.The Association of Washington Businessnamed Pasco’s

BogertInternational

the state’sSmall Manufacturer of the

Year. The rm is owned

by brother-sister team

Richard

and

CathyBogert

. They manufac-ture heavy-duty jacks.

David Morgan

, aDigital Technology andCulture student at WSUTri-Cities, submitted thewinning design for thenew Associated StudentBody logo. Morgan iscurrently interning with

Sara Nelson Design.American Family Insurance

opened

an ofce at 1060 Jadwin Ave, Suite 200,

in Richland. The company also addedthree new agents:

Chris Andrus, BrettTurner

and

JoshBruggeman

.Chamber President

Ryan Brault

EdwardJones

is now an Accred-ited Asset ManagementSpecialist.

Karen & Gary DavisClark

WORTH MENTIONING

MorganBrault

New Members

Dura-Shine Clean,

owned by

CarlosMartinez

, provides commercial, resi-dential and industrial janitorial services.They serve the Mid-Columbia from

ofces in the Tri-Cities and Othello.

www.dura-shineclean.com

The Sand-berg EventCenter &Gardens

inWest Rich-land is owned by

Skip and May Sand-berg.

The facility is ideal for weddings,rehearsal dinners, meetings, reunions orother celebrations.

www.thesandberg.com

Joe and ColleenLane

, a.k.a.

“TheLane Real EstateTeam”,

moved tothe Tri-Cities fouryears ago from Cali-fornia.

www.joelane.com

Colleen & JoeThe Sandberg

C. Bogert R. Bogert

Renewing Members

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESSTIDEWATERMIDDLETON ORCHARDSSPRING GREEN LAWN CARESOUTH COLUMBIA BASINIRRIGATION DISTRICTIRRIGATION SPECIALISTSTRI-CITY DUST DEVILSFRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETYFROM THE HEARTBI-STATE SIDING AND WINDOWSGESAHERTZ CAR SALESBEST WESTERN PASCO INN & SUITESFRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERSSHOWCASE SPECIALTIESCOLUMBIA RESEARCH ANDEDUCATION ASSOCIATESRIVER REALTY, INC.ROACH LAW OFFICES, LLPWESTERN MATERIALS, INC.TRI-CITIES UNION GOSPEL MISSIONWILLIAM R. WILKINS, INC.

WORTH MENTIONING

Bone-HarrisBalcom

Members may contribute to this column by emailing news to info@pascochamber.org

Marsten

Syngenta

is building a $42 million seedprocessing plant at Pasco ProcessingCenter. The plant will have a full-timestaff of about 35.

Debbie Bone-Harris

of the

Franklin PUD

is thePasco Chamber of Com-merce representative onthe 2009 Tri-Cities Visi-tor & Convention BureauBoard of Directors.

Bank of the West

has opened a Com-