A couple of banks were shut down by government regulators this afternoon - Charter National Bank in Illinois and SCB Bank in Indiana. That makes nine so far in 2012. I’ll update with a new post if others are shut down before I leave the office today.

Performance Driving School of Lynden has opened an office in Bellingham.

The new Bellingham office is in the Discovery Park center at 1420 King St., near the northbound Interstate 5 onramp. The school, which offers five-week long classes on how to drive a vehicle, is offering a grand opening special with a $50 discount. The school has three instructors and two cars. Performance Driving Schools has had an office in Lynden for 10 years.

“We’ve been real successful in Lynden, and thought there was an opportunity in Bellingham,” said Owner Cole Price. “We’re excited to be here in Bellingham.”

The courses are currently offered in the evening, although the driving school is considering adding afternoon options for students. The main instructor in Bellingham is Tom Loeffler.

For more information about the school, visit performance-drivingschool.com or call 360-318-8667.

Here are a few things I found while putting together my Sunday Retail TipSheet column:

– The clothing store Rue 21 and Vans Shoes have been approved for tenant improvement permits to go into Bellis Fair mall. Rue 21 is going into the Macy’s wing, while Vans is slated for a spot near Victoria’s Secret. The two join clothing stores Torrid and Forever 21 as the latest tenants filing building permits to go into the mall.

– A tenant improvement permit was also issued for Mikol’s Hair Salon, which is going in at 2833 Meridian St., near the Meridian Haggen store.

– According to its Facebook page, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Lynden (at 8082 Guide Meridian, near Starbucks) is planning to be open on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

I regularly get e-mails from readers asking about Whole Foods coming to Whatcom County. There’s been no announcement about that, but I thought I’d pass along a link about its expansion plans in the coming years, written up in the trade publication Supermarket News. Here’s the (link). The company expects around 27 new store openings this year and around 32 openings in 2013.

The newest Whole Foods store in Washington state is going into Lynnwood, and is expected to open sometime this spring.

Here’s the news release from the Port of Bellingham. Will follow up with further details later:

Frontier Airlines announced today that it plans to begin offering non-stop flights from Bellingham International Airport (BLI) to Frontier’s hub in Denver, Colo.

The daily flights will begin on May 24, 2012, and are scheduled through September 16, 2012. This seasonal service will test the local market for this new destination.

With this announcement, Denver will become the ninth non-stop flight destination out of Bellingham and Frontier will become the third commercial airline offering services from the Port of Bellingham’s airport.

The Port of Bellingham’s Board of Commissioners must approve the terms of the business agreement with Frontier at an upcoming Commission meeting before the new operation may begin.

“Local travelers have been asking for a daily eastbound flight out of Bellingham and we are very pleased by this announcement,” said Port Executive Director Charlie Sheldon. “This new service will deliver our passengers to a large transportation hub, which will be a great benefit for business travelers.”

Frontier Airlines announced today that it plans to use a 124-passenger, Airbus A319 aircraft. The service would arrive at Bellingham at 10:10 a.m. and depart at 10:55 a.m. seven days a week.

Denver-Bellingham (May 24 to Sept. 16, 2012)

Route Departs Arrives Frequency Aircraft

DEN-BLI 8:20 a.m. 10:11 a.m. Daily A319

BLI-DEN 10:55 a.m. 2:29 p.m. Daily A319

“Although the announcement today is for a seasonal four-month service, we hope Frontier will offer ongoing flights out of Bellingham,” Sheldon said, noting that the port has been recruiting airlines for an east-west connection for several years.

In addition to announcing seasonal service to Bellingham, Frontier yesterday also announced new service to airports in Illinois, Iowa, Montana and Pennsylvania. Frontier now offers 67 nonstop routes out of its Denver hub. For more information or to purchase a Frontier flight, visit FrontierAirlines.com.

Introductory fares begin at $90* each way for Denver-Bellingham service. The intro fares are available at FrontierAirlines.com through Feb. 29, 2012, for travel through mid to late June, depending on the market. The new flights are currently available only on the airline’s website and through its Reservations centers; they will be for sale through other ticketing channels this weekend.

In 2011, the Bellingham airport had 511,756 outbound passengers and 2012 is expected to be even busier. Frontier Airlines will join Alaska Airlines and Allegiant Air at the airport. Last month Alaska Airlines announced it would launch seasonal summer non-stop flights to Portland, Ore., from June through August.

News release from KeyBank:

KeyBank’s Ferndale branch is newly remodeled and will celebrate Thursday, Feb. 9, with an all-day open house and a Ferndale Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours from 5 to 6:30 p.m.  A ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off the event at 5 p.m.

The remodel is one of 22 that KeyBank undertook throughout its Seattle-Cascades District in 2011. From 2009 to 2012, Key is updating more than half its Puget Sound area branches and building about 20 new ones.

(more…)

Bellingham will be home to a seafood conference that connects regional commercial fishermen with seafood buyers.

The 11th annual Wild Seafood Exchange is a day-long conference that will be at the Best Western Lakeway Inn on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

The conference will include a panel of restaurant owners and retailers discussing what they look for in seafood products. Other panels include new commercial fishing technology as well as experts talking about processing, distributing and marketing of seafood.

After 10 years of being in Seattle, the conference moved to Bellingham this year after organizers met with the Port of Bellingham and were im-pressed by its commitment to the commercial fishing industry, said Peter Philips, event programmer and publisher of Fisherman’s News.

The goal of the conference is to connect small, independent buyers with commercial fishermen, Philips said, adding that it is set up in such a way to allow for plenty of networking between the panel discussions. One of the challenges for commercial fishermen is finding the time to market their product because they spend so much time fishing, so this conference is a way to address that by having buyers in one place.

“Often a restaurant will develop a relationship with a local fisherman or a group of them,” Philips said, adding that this kind of conference helps create those relationships.

About 80 people are expected to attend the conference, most of them being commercial fishermen.

Registration information about the conference can be found at wildseafoodexchange.com or by calling Fishermen’s News at 206-284-8285.

Alaska Airlines  will launch daily nonstop service between Seattle and Philadelphia, starting Monday, June 11, and between Seattle and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., beginning Monday, July 16.

“Philadelphia is one of the largest cities we don’t currently serve from Seattle while Fort Lauderdale is a popular departure point for cruise ship passengers,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing, in a news release.

With the introduction of Seattle-Fort Lauderdale service, Alaska Airlines will discontinue flights to Miami, a city the carrier has served from its Seattle hub since 2002.

“Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports are about 27 miles apart, so changing the airport we serve should have little effect on our customers,” Sprague said. “By redirecting our flight to the lower-cost Fort Lauderdale airport, we can serve the same geographic area and continue to offer our customers low fares.”

The number of Whatcom County residents filing for bankruptcy rose in the first month of 2012.

Last month 63 local residents filed for bankruptcy, up from 54 in December, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District in Seattle. It’s also up from a year earlier, when 55 filings took place.

In recent years, Whatcom County bankruptcy filings peak in the first quarter of the year. The five-year monthly peak was in February 2010, when 83 filings took place.

In the western district, which includes Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver (Wash.), 1,592 bankruptcy filings took place last month, down 16.1 percent compared to the same period as last year. Skagit County had 37 filings last month, down from 43 a year earlier.

Local commercial real estate agent Neal Swanson has an interesting blog post on the Fairhaven Commercial website about a new lease signing for Chuckanut Bay Distillery. Here’s the (link).

The lease is for a building on Railroad Avenue, near Boundary Bay Brewery (in the Rumors building at 1115 Railroad). On its Facebook page, Chuckanut Bay Distillery said it plans to be open sometime this year and mentioned that it will be a wind-powered facility.