Albers Mill, the historic cereal plant that was renovated into lofts, has been sold at a foreclosure auction for $1.4 million.

The sale happened April 16, and the buyer is a group called GMAB LLC. I’ve been trying to contact one of the principals of GMAB for several days to find out more, but hadn’t heard back.

Albers Mill was owned and operated by companies involving Grace Pleasants, who was the original force behind its renovation. She most recently was part of an attempt to build apartments near the planned McMenamins Elks Temple after she helped broker the deal to …

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Washington’s largest refinery, shut down since February, may soon be producing gasoline again, sources close to the business said today.

That refinery, BP’s Cherry Point facility near Bellingham, produces 3.5 million gallons of gasoline a day when it’s running at full production. The refinery’s fire-related shutdown is credited in part with pushing gas prices in Washington and along the West Coast to the highest levels since 2008.

The refinery’s process are partially restored with full function now tentatively set for as early as this weekend, people with knowledge of the situation said today.

A BP spokesman, Scott Dean, was more …

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Low-cost carrier Allegiant is finally coming through with long-rumored flights from Bellingham to Hawaii.

The Las Vegas-based carrier announced that service from Bellingham to Maui will begin Nov. 14 and service to Honolulu will begin Nov. 15.

Alaska Airlines, based in SeaTac, already connects Bellingham non-stop to Honolulu.

Allegiant plans introductory specials of $159 to Honolulu and $199 to Maui one-way.

The Nevada airline already connects Bellingham with Los Angeles, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Oakland, Las Vegas and San Diego.

The leisure-oriented airline has built its business by connecting smaller cities to vacation destinations often with less-than-daily flights.

The Bellingham …

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An office technology company will move its 25 employees from Fife to downtown Tacoma this summer.

Pacific Office Automation, which sells printers, copiers, faxes and software to business, will lease about 11,000 square feet on the ground floor of 1114 Pacific Ave., as first reported by the Tacoma Daily Index.

Fife branch manager Russ Meyers told me this morning that he thinks downtown Tacoma is growing, and he wants his business in the thick of it.

“We’ll get better exposure” downtown, he said. “We’re putting up some big signs.”

Pacific Office Automation operates in six states. Its headquarters …

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SeaTac-based Alaska Airlines was one of four airlines to win federal Department of Transportation approval today to fly new long-distance routes from Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport.

Alaska had applied for two routes from the close-in Reagan Airport — the other route was to San Diego — but won only one.

The DOT instead allowed US Airways to trade an existing flight from Reagan to Dallas for a flight from Reagan to San Diego’s Lindbergh Field.

Flights from Reagan are strictly controlled by the DOT because of limited capacity at the airport, which is much closer to the nation’s …

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Last week we speculated that the Port of Tacoma’s updates to its Pier 3 infrastructure would allow the port to host Maersk Line’s new “Triple E” containerships, the world’s largest vessels.

The Port of Tacoma had been recruiting Maersk to return to Tacoma after it left two years ago to join its containership partner CMA CGM at the Port of Seattle.

But now Port of Tacoma spokeswoman Tara Mattina says Maersk has signed a contract that will keep it calling at the Port of Seattle for several more years.

The huge new ships being built in Korea for Maersk are …

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High-level master planning of the Martin Luther King Jr. neighborhood continues, and next week people can see the communitity’s priorities for business and housing development there.

Plan to attend an open house on Thursday, May 24, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Evergreen College Tacoma Campus, 1210 Sixth Ave. The meeting will be in Lyceum Hall, room 105.

People can review and comment on the key issues identified for the future of that area.

Using a $100,000 federal grant, the City of Tacoma earlier this year embarked on an 18-month process to establish a vision for future public …

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Pilots and flight instructors at Boeing’s Flight Training Services division have voted to join a union, the Airplane Manufacturing Pilots Association bargaining unit of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

SPEEA represents more than 22,000 Boeing engineers and technical workers in Washington, Oregon, Utah and California.

In a vote supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, pilots gave the union 48 ‘Yes’ and 11 ‘no’ votes. The expanded bargaining unit, which had already represented other Boeing pilots now includes 105 members.

The new union members are responsible for all technical, safety and flight standards, along with instructing …

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