The median asking price for a business in the Seattle area dipped from $213,000 in in the first quarter of 2011 to $180,000 at the end of March, an online business broker reported this week.

In its quarterly report, BizBuySell.com. also said:

• Among businesses listed for sale in the area, the first quarter 2012 median revenue was $322,489, down from $401,818 a year before.

• Business owners in the Seattle area typically ask for an average revenue multiple of 0.89 (up from 0.69 a year before) and a cash flow multiple of 3.05 (up slightly from 3.03 year over-year). …

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Twenty Puget Sound innovators, business leaders, doctors and artists will be sharing their “ideas worth spreading” at the first Washington event sponsored by a local group patterned after a national idea-sharing group called TED.

The event is scheduled from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm Tuesday at the Museum of Glass. A two-hour reception will follow. The independently organized event is sponsored by TEDx Tacoma.

Speakers, whose talks will be limited to 18 minutes, include such area idea leaders as Tacoma tech entrepreneur Janine Terrano, Donald Byrd,artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater and Joe Mirabella, campaign manager at Change.org.

TED is …

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An array of dignitaries from Sen. Maria Cantwell to Hilltop Business District President Eric Crittendon, gathered under a rain-battered tent Wednesday to break ground for the first major commercial structure built in the business district in more than a decade.

They and dozens of health care workers, patients, politicians and civic leaders wielded shovels to mark the symbolic beginning of construction of the $26-million Hilltop Regional Health Center.

The three-story, 54,000-square-foot center will be part of Community Health Care’s network of clinics serving low-income and uninsured persons in Pierce County with health and dental care.

Cantwell called the new …

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Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System’s newest facility, the 24,000-square-foot Covington emergency department, will hold a public open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

The 19-treatment-room facility is the latest addition to MultiCare’s medical campus at 7700 S.E. 272nd St.

The emergency department will open to treat patients starting at 7 a.m. April 3. The emergency department will be open round-the-clock, seven days a week.

The open house this week will feature self-guided tours of the new facility as well as music, entertainment and family-friendly activities, MultiCare said in a news release.

Highlights include the Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder …

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Boeing is negotiating with a Charleston International Airport for a huge tract of land near its existing 787 Dreamliner assembly line to build a second assembly plant, the head of Charleston County Aviation Authority has told authority members.

The Charleston Courier and Post reports that Chip Limehouse, who is also a South Carolina state representative, said Boeing is interested in a big site adjacent to its existing plant.

Boeing declined to discuss the subject when the newspaper asked for comment.

“”Boeing is going to come here and build another line,” Limehouse told authority members.

Boeing is beginning production of its …

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A letter last week was the official end of plans for a new apartment building and city-owned parking garage next door to McMenamins’ Elks Temple.

In a one-page letter dated March 21, Tacoma city manager T.C. Broadnax informed Rick Moses, Grace Pleasants that the development agreement struck in 2009 is dissolved. That agreement was the official reflection of the three-party deal Pleasants and Moses brokered that brought Portland-based brewpub McMenamins to town.

“The City appreciates your efforts in trying to make this tri-party Project work even in challenging economic times,” Broadnax wrote.

Lest we all get confused, McMenamins has maintained …

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Gig Harbor’s Rush Commercial has begun design and permitting work on a new division office and truck maintenance facility in Fife for Murrey’s Disposal.

Once the design is complete, Rush will begin construction on the facility. The facility’s opening is scheduled for early next year.

The project will consist of a two-story, wood-framed, 15,020 square-foot headquarters office which will house the refuse company’s service center, operations, accounting and drivers’ training and gathering rooms. The project will also include a 15,000 square-foot structural steel maintenance building where Fife transfer station trucks will be maintained.

The new facility is located at 70th …

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For those of you who are following the efforts by the City of Tacoma to replace the 85-year-old Puyallup River Bridge with something bigger and less decayed, here’s a new rendering of the cable-stayed structure that will replace part of the bridge.

First phase of Puyallup River Bridge replacement.

The Port of Tacoma Commission Thursday pledged $500,000 toward the $38 million cost of the first phase of the replacement. The city hopes that local money will help attract federal money to fill the $13 million funding gap between the money the city

…

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