Posted By C.R. Roberts on November 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm Share this

Beginning this week, commercial real estate broker GVA Kidder Matthews will be reviewing the quarterly state of industrial space in Thurston County.

For the third quarter, the brokerage reports 7,549,941 square feet of space available in the county, with 1,260,613 million square feet vacant.

This compares to figures from Jan. 1, which marked 7,186,047 square feet available, and 928,469 vacant. This works out to a vacancy rate of 16.7 percent on Oct. 1, compared to a vacancy rate for industrial space of 12.92 percent on Jan. 1.

Also, the brokerage reports no industrial space under construction as of Oct. 1, compared to 363,894 square feet under construction on Jan. 1.

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Posted By C.R. Roberts on November 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm Share this

Commercial real estate broker GVA Kidder Matthews is out with the latest quarterly report on commercial and industrial activity in the Puget Sound region.

According to the latest figures form Pierce County – as of Oct. 1 – there were 16,625,916 square feet of office space available, with 1.9 million square feet vacant. This works out to a vacancy rate of 11.62 percent, which compares to a vacancy rate of 11.1 percent on Jan. 1.

As to rents, GVA Kidder Matthews said, “There is a growing feeling in the market that rent levels are close to or at the bottom.” In its Pierce County review, the brokerage said, “It will be difficult for the market to attract a major institutional tenant like Russell (Investments), and their space will provide two to three years of inventory at historic absorption levels.”

For industrial space, “Pierce County vacancy improved during the third quarter from 11.91 percent to 11.19 percent, thanks to the completion of Whirlpool’s new facility in Fredrickson.”

There were 48.35 million square feet of industrial space in the county as of Oct. 1, with 5.3 million vacant.

There were also 137,284 square feet under construction, which compares to 1.06 million under construction on Jan. 1

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Posted By John Gillie on November 20, 2009 at 1:28 pm Share this

Several thousand Boeing workers laid off since May 22, 2008, have been granted extra federal training and unemployment assistance benefits, the International Association of Machinists said today.

The union, Boeing's largest, filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Labor seeking benefits for Boeing workers under the Trade Adjustment Act. That act provides extra assistance for workers who've lost their jobs because of foreign competition.

The Labor Department ruled that the laid-off workers are workers are eligible under that act. The ruling also applies to workers that will be laid off in the next two years.

The benefits include:
• Up to $16,000 for training (if needed) for an in-demand industry;
• An additional one to two years of payments similar to unemployment insurance if a laid-off worker needs it to finish training or find employment (up to 156 weeks);
• An 80-percent tax credit on healthcare coverage premiums;
• Job Search assistance including help to cover travel expenses to a scheduled job interview and up to $1,500 in job search allowances.
• Support to help relocate to take a new job; and,
• A partial wage subsidy for workers over 50 who are re-employed in a lesser-paying job.

The benefits apply to most people who have been laid off by Boeing whether they're union members or not.

Fifteen orientation sessions have been scheduled for workers potentially eligible for the new aid. A schedule of those session is available through WorkSource or the Machinist Union.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 20, 2009 at 12:45 pm Share this

Holiday travel numbers are expected to drop this season, but don't expect getting to where you're going will necessarily be any easier this year than last.

If you're traveling by air, for instance, don't expect to find open seats next to you on the plane.

Airline statistics show that planes are operating closer to capacity this fall because airlines have reduced the number of flights. Sea-Tac Airport's largest carrier, Alaska Airlines, for instance reported that passenger volumes were off 6.4 percent in the third quarter, but the "load factor," the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers, rose from 79.5 percent in the same quarter in 2008 to 82.3 percent this year. Other airlines reported similar increases as they trimmed less popular flights from their schedules.

Alaska has said its holiday season bookings are looking to be brisk this year with advance bookings looking better than in past years.

To expedite your holiday trip through the airport, Sea-Tac Airport has posted a helpful tips page at www.portseattle.org/seatac/traveler/traveltips.shtml.
Those tips include making sure the names on your IDs match those on your tickets, using advance check-in facilities at home or in the parking garage to avoid queues at the counters and making sure you comply with the rules for carrying liquids and gels in our carry-on luggage. (Gels and liquids must be in containers no larger than three ounces and be placed in a single quart-sized zipped transparent plastic bag.)

For train riders, Amtrak has scheduled 10 extra trains during the Thanksgiving period between Seattle and Portland. All of those trains will stop in Tacoma and East Olympia.

Motorists will likely see fewer cars on the road predicts AAA, but the costs of travel will be higher. Average regular gas prices in Tacoma today were $2.835 a gallon, 78.1 cents more per gallon than at this time last year when unleaded regular was selling for an average of $2.054 a gallon in the Tacoma area.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 20, 2009 at 9:49 am Share this

Boeing broke ground this morning in North Charleston, S.C., for a second assembly line for its 787 jetliner.

The assembly line will be the first outside the Puget Sound area for Boeing's commercial jets.

The company announced that North Charleston won the contest for the second line over Everett just three weeks ago. In establishing another assembly line outside of Washington, Boeing is firing a shot at its combative Machinists Union which has struck multiple times in the last two decades.

Boeing and the Machinists had talked about an extended labor peace pact for Everett and Renton, its two assembly sites in Washington, but were unable to reach agreement. Boeing's South Carolina plant is likely to be non-union.

"Today's event marks the beginning of an expansion plan that will strengthen the 787 program and allow us to continue building on the footprint we have established in South Carolina with Boeing Charleston and Global Aeronautica," said Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

While Charleston was a contestant in the 2003 derby for the original 787 assembly line, Boeing came to the state through the back door. Two of its major partners in the 787 program, Vought Aircraft Industries and Global Aeronautica, built plants in Charleston to build 787 components.

When Vought failed to successfully manage its plant, Boeing bought out the Texas company's plant and its half interest in Global Aeronautica.

The new 720,000-square-foot factory is expected to begin producing three 787s a month in 2012. Until then, Boeing will open a temporary second 787 assembly line in Everett. When Charleston is running well, Boeing will close the second line in Everett keeping the first line running there.

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Posted By C.R. Roberts on November 19, 2009 at 4:14 pm Share this

Amid a surf-n-turf lunch of chicken and salmon at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau celebrated its 20th year Thursday by naming the annual Tourism Celebrity Award winners.

• Presented by County Executive Pat McCarthy, the Community Unity Award went to Denise Dyer of the county’s Economic Development Division.
• Presented by Katherine Kertzman, co-chairman of the Washington Tourism Commission, the Tourism Professional of the Year Award went to Craig Perry of the Dock Street and Delin Docks.
• Presented by Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, the Allen C. Mason Tourism Visionary Award went to David Graybill, President and CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber.

Earlier in the day, attendees heard the bureau’s annual report, delivered by President and CEO Tammy Blount, and also a progress report on the Tourism Promotion Area initiative, which may soon earn final approval (and could thereby nearly double the bureau’s income and spending power).

Attendees also participated in a series of “expert industry panels,” one of which (by way of full disclosure) featured a panelist from The News Tribune.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 19, 2009 at 9:20 am Share this

Horizon Air, a regional carrier headquartered in SeaTac, will launch services to two California cities from Spokane next spring, the airline announced this week.

The new flights will serve Sacramento, the California capital, and San Jose.

One flight will serve Sacramento non-stop and continue onward to San Jose. The other will serve San Jose and continue on to Sacramento.

The new flights will begin March 26.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 19, 2009 at 9:15 am Share this

Boeing delivered Wednesday the first of five long-range 777-300ER to GE Capital Aviation Services and its leasing customer Philippine Airlines.

The twin-engine jet, packed with hurricane relief supplies was flown from Everett where it was built to Manilla.

The aircraft carried supplies to victims of Typhoon Ketsana from three non-profit agencies, AmeriCares, Humanitarian International Services Group and Kids Against Hunger.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 19, 2009 at 8:53 am Share this

Boeing employment will continue downward through 2010, Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney told a Middle East business publication today.

The employment reduction is unlikely to match the 10,000-person payroll reduction goal Boeing set for this year, he said.

"We've talked about the 10,000 and then maybe so more," he told Arabian Business. "Not in the magnitude of another 10,000, but there will be a continuation of the trend line through to the end of the year."

Boeing has yet to cull 10,000 jobs this year. Through the first nine months of the year, the company lost 4,636 workers through layoffs, retirement and attrition. In Washington, the company's largest state for employment, the payroll fell from 76,417 at the end of December last year to 72,923 at the end of October. That's a difference of 3,494 workers.

Boeing is cutting back because defense programs have been reduced and because airlines are ordering fewer new airliners because of the travel slump.

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Posted By John Gillie on November 19, 2009 at 8:33 am Share this

It was business as usual -- maybe even business a little better than usual -- at Sea-Tac Airport this morning despite a nationwide Federal Aviation Administration computer glitch that blocked airlines from filing flight planes early today.

Portland's Flightstats.com reported no flight departure cancellations at Sea-Tac from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and rated the airport's "Delay Index" as very low.

Flightstats records show most aircraft left their gates on schedule or before. In the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. period, of the 38 flights scheduled, only two, a Virgin America flight to San Francisco and a Continental flight to Houston were delayed at the gate longer than 15 minutes, the standard for on-time departures.

In the 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. period, just three of the 51 flights were delayed, two Horizon Air flights, one to Reno and the other to Spokane, and a Continental flight to Houston.

The computer failure occurred at 2 a.m. West Coast time. The FAA got the system up and running again within a couple of hours. Eastern airports such as Atlanta and those in the New York area were most affected.

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