Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland articles from December 2004

Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland archives from December 2004

Portland City Council approves formation of urban renewal area.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl The Portland City Council has unanimously approved the formation of a new urban renewal area in an industrial sector of Northwest Portland, clearing the way for the city's 11th urban renewal area. The 696-acre...

Sustainability advocate William McDonough to speak in Portland.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl William McDonough, the only individual to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, will speak next week in Portland. McDonough is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners,...

Port of Vancouver budgets for marine, industrial expansion.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough While the Port of Vancouver USA is only about one-fifth the size of the Port of Portland, it makes up for it in a variety of ways. But with more than $15 million in capital investments planned for the upcoming year...

Beach house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright comes down in Michigan.
December 1, 2004... Byline: DJC staff For more than 30 years, architects and historic preservationists have fought with success to save houses designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright from falling to the demolition ball. The run ended in November...

Nomination deadline for Oregon's construction recycling awards down to the wire.
December 1, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Today is the deadline for submitting nominations for the Construction Recycling Awards. The awards, a new competition sponsored by the regional government agency Metro and the Oregon-Columbia chapter of Associated...

Colorado claims first LEED-certified hospital.
December 1, 2004... Byline: DJC staff When it comes to earning recognition for leading the pack in green building, Portland has claimed its fair share of "firsts" in categories in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System....

Port of Portland officials travel to Vietnam for trade relations.
December 1, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Port of Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt and Port of Portland Commissioner Junki Yoshida have both traveled to Vietnam this week to further trade relations with the Southeast Asian country. While in...

New parking facility opens at Portland's Station Place.
December 2, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough City and community officials gathered Tuesday to celebrate the grand opening of the latest project to open in Northwest Portland's Pearl District. The celebration was for the Station Place Parking Garage, which...

New Bybee Boulevard Bridge opens in southeast Portland.
December 2, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough After nearly 10 months of demolition and construction, the new Bybee Boulevard Bridge opened last week in southeast Portland replacing the old bridge that stood for nearly a century. The bridge, which is the...

Study: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design projects use most-affordable green products.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Projects that obtain LEED certification routinely avoid the green or sustainable features that are most costly to implement and frequently make use of less expensive measures, according to a Portland author's new...

Kerridge to leave Portland's Bureau of Development Services for Sacramento city job.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Ray Kerridge, director of the city of Portland's Bureau of Development Services, announced Wednesday that he has accepted the position of assistant city manager in charge of development for the city of Sacramento,...

Stoel Rives attorneys honored in law publication.
December 3, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Of the 242 Oregon lawyers honored in The Best Lawyers in America 2005-06 publication, 58 Stoel Rives attorneys in 62 categories were named. Stoel Rives ranks second among U.S. law firms for the number of attorneys...

New federal hazardous materials rules will affect truckers.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Starting next month, thousands of truckers from around Oregon - and millions of truckers nationwide - will have their fingerprints taken as new federal rules go into effect that require truck drivers be...

U.S. appeals courts to charge $150 national membership fee.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Donna Walter, Kansas City Daily Record Beginning Jan. 1, a $150 national membership fee will be collected for attorneys admitted to practice in any circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The fee was imposed under the direction of the...

American Bar Association survey looks at lawyers' use of technology.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Barbara L. Jones, Minnesota Lawyer The American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center has released the results of its most recent survey on lawyers' use of technology. During the fall of 2003, the center mailed...

ABA committee determines lawyers must report non-practicing lawyer misconduct.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Kansas City Daily Record Staff Lawyers have an ethical obligation to report misconduct by other lawyers, if the misconduct raises a substantial question about the offending lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness to practice...

Both doctors and lawyers claim victory in tort reform battle.
December 3, 2004... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson, Lawyers Weekly USA Election results in four states where lawyers and doctors battled over whether medical malpractice awards should be capped resulted in a virtual tie, with both sides claiming victory. ...

Portland's Building Owners and Managers Assn. event focuses on local taxes and Measure 37.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Building industry professionals gathered last week in Lake Oswego to gain a better understanding of how local taxes and Measure 37 will affect business in the Portland area. The event - which featured two...

Bend developer fined for failure to handle asbestos safely.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl A failure to safely handle asbestos-related materials has led to more than $60,000 in environmental fines for a Bend-based property development company. Crown Investment Group LLC has been hit with $64,523 in...

Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries presents annual Employment Law Conference.
December 6, 2004... Byline: DJC staff The 20th Annual Employment Law Conference will be presented by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Dec. 7 and 8 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The two-day conference, which is sponsored by the...

Portland-based Hoyt Street Properties president joins TriMet board.
December 6, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Hoyt Street Properties President Tiffany Sweitzer has been appointed to a four-year term on the TriMet Board of Directors. Sweitzer will represent TriMet's District 2, which includes North, Northwest and portions of...

Institute of Real Estate Management's 17th Annual Forecast Breakfast to be held Dec. 16 in Portland.
December 6, 2004... Byline: DJC staff The Oregon-Columbia River Chapter #29 of the Institute of Real Estate Management will hold the 17th Annual Forecast Breakfast 2005 Dec. 16 at the Portland Marriott Downtown hotel. The panel of guest speakers - who...

SEC rule change is looming for corporate real estate values.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Mark Anderson Ellen Herman is starting to gear up for a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule change that she thinks is on the horizon, a shift that would produce major changes in real estate accounting and boost the role...

Legislators take a trip through Portland's Big Pipe.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Portland legislators last week took a trip underneath the Willamette River, and it was an opportunity they'd all rather not have again. Not that the experience was a bad one. But the legislators' trek through a...

OSHA continues to form alliances with monitored groups.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough In an effort to increase cooperation between itself and the businesses and organizations that it monitors, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has stepped up its alliance program and signed...

Port of Vancouver creates environmental director position.
December 7, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Officials from the Port of Vancouver USA announced last week that they had created a new environmental director position that will represent a renewed commitment to environmental management at the agency. The...

Portland's New Columbia redevelopment project reaches halfway point.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough After about two years of construction and demolition work, the New Columbia redevelopment project in North Portland's Portsmouth neighborhood has reached the halfway point. "We have two years behind us and two...

Quadra Mining will settle into Vancouver Port facility.
December 8, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Port of Vancouver USA officials announced late last week that they have lured a new bulk customer to the Port's export bulk facility, which is operated by Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals. The new customer, Quadra...

Sustainability advocate tells Portland audience that designers lack 'humility'.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Speaking to a Portland audience that he said "gets it," a sustainability advocate Tuesday encouraged designers in all fields to embrace "humility" if they wish to overcome what he called "wasteful" work. One of...

Washington high-tech parts maker fined for waste spill.
December 9, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl A Washington high-tech parts manufacturer must pay a $40,000 fine for spilling polyester styrene resin into a Sedro-Woolley city sewer system earlier this year and not reporting it. The Washington Department of...

Oregon State Univ. report says antitrust laws may threaten ecosystem management.
December 9, 2004... Byline: DJC staff More than a century ago, the federal government created antitrust laws to foster free trade and fair competition among large corporations But those same laws are creating modern-day barriers that threaten the success...

Wash. County bridge replacement could come sooner than expected.
December 10, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl The Oregon Department of Transportation and other agencies have expressed support for Washington County's plan to replace the Phillip Harris Bridge, county employees said, possibly clearing the way for construction...

Oregon DEQ loans $6.9M to Portland for sewer improvements.
December 10, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality recently announced it will loan the city of Portland more than $6.9 million to fund two sewer improvement projects and a watershed improvement and land acquisition...

Skanska USA Building divisions join Oregon OSHA program.
December 10, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Oregon OSHA, the state's Occupational Safety and Health Division, announced last week that the central and southern Oregon project divisions of Skanska USA Building Inc. have joined the agency's Safety and Health...

West Eugene Wetlands Program wins sustainability award.
December 10, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl A West Eugene wetlands management program has won the Oregon chapter of the American Public Works Association's top sustainability award for projects. The West Eugene Wetlands Program, which has acquired about...

Corvallis riverfront park captures national attention.
December 10, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Portland may have a "pearl" of a district, but Corvallis can now lay claim to a jewel of its own: the Corvallis Riverfront Commemorative Park. The park recently won an honor award in the 2004 Excellence on the...

Law publication honors Oregon attorneys from Lane Powell, Holland & Knight.
December 10, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Attorneys in the law firms of Lane Powell Spears Lubersky LLP and Holland & Knight LLP are featured in The Best Lawyers in America 2005-06 publication, which includes more than 18,000 lawyers in 30 different specialities...

More attorneys conduct mediation by videoconferencing because nothing is lost.
December 10, 2004... Byline: Michelle Lore, Minnesota Lawyer (This article originally ran in Dolan Media's Minnesota Lawyer, Minneapolis, MN). Finding the right mediator for a particular case can be a challenge. It's an even greater challenge, not to...

Preston Gates & Ellis LLP joins forces with Taiwanese firm.
December 10, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Preston Gates & Ellis LLP has announced its office in Taipei, Taiwan will join with Taiwan Commercial Law Offices to form Preston Gates & Ellis Taiwan Commercial Law Office. Preston Gates & Ellis officials said the...

Joe Charter appointed Justice of the Peace in Jackson County.
December 10, 2004... Byline: DJC staff Gov. Ted Kulongoski has appointed Joe Charter as the Justice of the Peace for the Southern Justice Court of Jackson County. The appointment is effective immediately. In March, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners...

Co.-founder of Portland-based Otak Inc. optimistic about Iraq offices.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough More than six months after opening two offices in Iraq, Nawzad Othman, the president, chief executive officer and co-founder of the Portland-based architecture, design, planning and engineering firm Otak Inc., is...

ODOT releases applications for public transit grants.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough The Oregon Department of Transportation's Public Transit Division recently announced that it has released grant application packets for the 2005-2007 biennium of its Public Transit Discretionary Grant Program. ...

FirstService Corp. acquires 70% interest in CMN International.
December 13, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff FirstService Corp. has acquired a 70 percent interest in CMN International Inc., the largest member of Colliers International. Senior management, active brokers and employees will retain the remaining 30 percent interest...

Abandoned metal shop in Portland becomes nuisance property.
December 14, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough With shards of broken glass, rusty pipes and barrels and a variety of other debris and garbage littered around the property, the former Columbia American Plating metal shop, located on 35th Avenue in Northwest...

Mayor Vera Katz takes Portland State Univ. visiting fellow position.
December 14, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Outgoing Portland Mayor Vera Katz announced last week that she will join Portland State University, following completion of her third and final term as mayor, as a Dean's Visiting Fellow in the College of Urban and...

Study: Veterans starting new businesses.
December 14, 2004... Byline: Adina Genn (This article originally ran in Long Island Business News, Long Island, NY, another Dolan Media publication). While in the military, veterans often had to take orders from their superiors. But for some who have...

Engineering center rising on Portland State University campus.
December 15, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough With the last of several large steel column sections - each weighing in excess of 50,000 tons - now in place for Portland State University's Northwest Center for Engineering, Science and Technology, the structure is...

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry embraces sustainable materials for newest exhibit.
December 15, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Three years after officially embracing the "triple bottom line," the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry has its first sustainable exhibit. Led by its president, Nancy Stueber, OMSI in 2001 adopted a...

Portland's Metro Council approves land rules protecting fish and wildlife.
December 15, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough The Metro Council approved a land-use resolution last week that will protect fish and wildlife habitat in the Portland metropolitan region. The resolution was recommended earlier in the week by the Metro Policy...

Portland's The ReBuilding Center seeks donations for facility expansion.
December 15, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff The ReBuilding Center has made a business out of providing used building materials for homeowners and contractors. But now the nonprofit organization in North Portland is looking for some of those materials to deck...

Southwest Portland's Telegram Building begins to fill up.
December 16, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough With its signature red brick and 48-foot-tall clock tower, Southwest Portland's Telegram Building, located at 1101 S.W. Washington St. in downtown Portland, has stood out architecturally ever since it was...

Portland's Wilson Pool overhaul under way.
December 16, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl A popular Portland swimming pool that has been closed since earlier this year will return in 2005 with a brand new look - not to mention several upgrades that won't be visible to the naked eye. Wilson Pool, which...

Delta offers new jet service to Medford, Redmond/Bend.
December 16, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Delta Air Lines announced this week that beginning March 1, 2005, Delta Connection carrier SkyWest Airlines will introduce new daily nonstop jet service between Salt Lake City and Medford, and between Salt Lake City...

Washington state allocates $26.7M for salmon projects.
December 16, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff Washington state Gov. Gary Locke last week announced the award of $26.7 million in grants to local communities across the state to protect and restore salmon habitats. The grants, ranging from $26,000 to more than $1...

Businesses begin to see benefits of new federal quick check-clearing process.
December 16, 2004... Byline: Brad Carlson, Idaho Business Review (This article originally ran in The Idaho Business Review, Boise, ID, another Dolan Media publication). The new law that speeds up check processing and makes consumers wary of reduced "float"...

Oregon Halfway House project finally nears completion.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough After taking nearly four years to secure a site and about a year to attain financing for the project, Oregon Halfway House will move into a new 75-bed residential work-release facility in Northeast Portland next...

Portland leaders offer positive office real estate forecast.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl While job growth should boost Portland's office market in 2005, the city's residential leasing agents may not find the coming year to be a good one, economists and business leaders said yesterday at the Institute of...

Lewis & Clark Law School seeking donations for loan assistance program.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff The Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark is seeking donations for its Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The purpose of the LRAP is to ease the debt burdens incurred during law school by...

Legal pundits predict first shakeup of U.S. Supreme Court in more than a decade.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Nora Loskwood Tooher With the resignation of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist seemingly imminent, and the possible retirement of several other justices within the next four years, legal pundits are predicting the first shakeup of...

Merritt Yoelin listed in Best Lawyers publication.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Merritt Yoelin of Samuels Yoelin Kantor Seymour & Spinrad LLP has been featured in The Best Lawyers in America 2005-06 publication, which includes more than 18,000 lawyers in 30 different...

Oregon chapter of The American Society of Landscape Architects holds bone marrow drive.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff The Oregon chapter of The American Society of Landscape Architects will hold a bone marrow donor drive to help colleague Dean Christensen, who is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia. ...

Volunteers needed for Multnomah Bar Association's Imprint Program.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff The Imprint Program, designed to bring young lawyers together with a class of middle-school- and high-school-aged students, is a new program of the Multnomah Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section....

Multnomah Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section hosts Young Litigators Forum.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff The Multnomah Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section is hosting its annual Young Litigators Forum from January through March next year. The weekly, one-hour seminars for novice litigators on...

New technology lets construction projects proceed when the cold sets in.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Claude Solnik Although winter remains the slowest season for construction, with frozen ground making it difficult to dig foundations and concrete more difficult to pour, experts say new technology is helping projects proceed full...

Portland developer plans apartment complex in Reno.
December 17, 2004... Byline: Daily Journal of Commerce Staff The Portland office of Capstone Partners LLC announced this week that it has reclaimed a 9.27-acre former drinking water treatment plant near downtown Reno, Nev., and will turn the property into a...

Portland plans move to renewable energy to fuel government operations.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl The city of Portland last week announced plans to make renewable energy generation its sole source of electricity, a move that would make Portland the first large city in the country to use only renewable power to...

Oregon Governor appoints new executive director of Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board OWEB.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Last week, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced that he has appointed Tom Byler as the new Executive Director of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Pending Senate confirmation, Byler will assume the duties as...

Hillsdale Branch Library project earns prestigious gold rating.
December 20, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff In the classic fairy tale, Rumplestiltskin, the main character shows a young woman how to spin straw into gold. The Hillsdale Branch Library, which probably houses more than a few volumes of the fairy tale, has taken...

Portland-based ScanlanKemperBard acquires $36 million property in California.
December 20, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff ScanlanKemperBard Cos. recently acquired $36 million to purchase Westgate Village Center in San Leandro, Calif. The Portland office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP helped ScanlanKemperBard acquire the necessary financing....

Oregon workers' compensation costs continue to decline.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough Results of a newly updated study by the state Department of Consumer & Business Services have revealed that Oregon workers' compensation rates have continued to improve relative to the rates of other states and the...

Oregon State Bar gets third-ever woman president.
December 21, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough For the first time in about a decade, and only the third time in the organization's history, the Oregon State Bar will have a woman as its president when the current president-elect of the organization, Nena Cook,...

Portland-based McMenamins Pubs & Breweries 'making progress' on ADA issues.
December 21, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl City of Bend officials believe Portland-based McMenamins Pubs & Breweries is "making progress" on correcting 21 disability-access issues with the Old St. Francis School in downtown Bend, assuaging concerns that the...

Portland-based McMenamins Pubs & Breweries must correct disability-access issues.
December 21, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Portland-based McMenamins Pubs & Breweries has until Jan. 18, 2005 - the date its temporary Certificate of Occupancy permit expires - to correct disability-access issues at its Old St. Francis School in downtown...

EPA works with states to improve water permitting program.
December 21, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff The federal Environmental Protection Agency is implementing a nationwide assessment to improve the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit program. The assessment, Permitting for Environmental Results,...

Pacific West Bank opens branch in I-205 corridor.
December 21, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff Pacific West Bank has opened a branch in West Linn for small businesses and individuals wanting a more responsive community banking option. The bank serves small- to medium-sized businesses, professional corporations, and...

Oregon's Metro Council forms groups to deal with Measure 37.
December 22, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough The Metro Council approved a resolution late last week to create a working group of representatives from local jurisdictions and Metro staff to address the regional government's role in implementing Measure 37. ...

Lake Oswego moving ahead on bridge replacement.
December 22, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl Plans to replace a crumbling bridge over the Oswego Canal are "on schedule," a Lake Oswego official says, with completion of the project likely "a year from now." With city councilors having approved design...

Three Rivers School District in Grants Pass ready to save energy.
December 22, 2004... Byline: DJC Staff A Corvallis-based engineering firm is rounding out 2004 by wrapping up a four-year project for the Three Rivers School District in Grants Pass. Endex Engineering is in the final lap of its portion of a $3 million...

Mediation increasingly used to settle construction disputes nationwide.
December 22, 2004... Byline: Brian Johnson (This article originally ran in Finance and Commerce, Minneapolis, MN, another Dolan Media publication). In the world of professional football, a disputed call is often cleared up with the use of instant replay....

Portland's Brewery Blocks wins award for Sustainable Design.
December 23, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl The Brewery Blocks, a $300 million mixed-use project that spans five blocks in Portland's Pearl District, has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects for its sustainable design. A new award from...

Springfield project helps to revitalize downtown area.
December 23, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough After almost 25 years during which no new construction projects were built in Springfield's downtown area, the Oregon city now has its first new downtown structure. Lane Transit District opened its $3.73 million...

Fairview apartment complex receives rare allowance.
December 24, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough When the architects of The Lodges at Lake Salish in Fairview started designing the high-end apartment complex, they realized they would need to build more units than what the city of Fairview's current codes would...

Survey: Northwest leads nation in green power sales.
December 24, 2004... Byline: Justin Stranzl The Pacific Northwest continues to lead the nation in green power sales, according to a survey jointly issued by Portland State University and BetterBricks. The survey of green buildings and sustainable programs...

Oregon-OSHA seeks final federal approval.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Cody McCullough After 31 years of operating in coordination with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division has requested final approval to be the primary authority...