The Bellingham Herald

Here’s the latest list of companies registering to do business in Bellingham (April 24-30). Most are new businesses entering this market, but some are existing businesses that have had a change of address/ownership.

Sexton Construction, Mark R Sexton, 1253 Jamison St., Lummi Island

Jimmy’s Vietnamese Sandwich Bar, Jimmy’s Personal Care LLC, 1327 11th St #C2,  Bellingham

Mt Baker Surgery Center, 4029 Northwest Ave #301, Bellingham

Pinnacle Pain Services, 4029 Northwest Ave #301, Bellingham

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Whatcom County’s real estate market had a sluggish April compared to the rest of the state, according to the latest report.

Last month local real estate agents sold 163 single family homes and condominiums, down from 186 in March, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Whatcom was also down slightly from a year earlier, when 166 units were sold.

Whatcom was one of the few Washington counties the NWMLS serves that experienced a year-over-year decline. Last month 5,177 units were sold in the 21 NWMLS counties, a 13 percent increase compared to a year earlier.

While sales slowed in Whatcom County, prices edged upward. Last month the median price locally was $245,000, up 1.3 percent compared to a year earlier. Across the NWMLS, the median price was $240,000, also up 1.3 percent from a year earlier. It’s the first time in more than four years that the NWMLS area experienced a year-over-year increase in the median price.

In Skagit County, 103 houses and condos sold last month, a 15.7 percent increase from a year earlier. The median price for those sales was $190,000, down 9.5 percent compared to April 2011.

Halibut Henry’s Café is now opened for business at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal and plans to provide seafood and other Northwest foods from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

On Fridays and Saturdays, when the Alaska State Ferry is in Bellingham, the café will remain open until 5 p.m.

The café name is operated by Vicki Rogers, who also owns the cruise terminal gift shop, Inside Passage; a Fairhaven kitchen store, Pacific Chef and a Bellingham Airport café, Halibut Henry’s. Rogers’ gift shop was one of the first businesses in the cruise terminal, opening 23 years ago. Rogers employs more than 30 people in her Bellingham businesses.

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A couple of Worker Adjustment Retraining Notifications issued by the state Employment Security Department:

Company: Davis Wire Corporation (Kent) will lay off 57 employees,  effective June 19, 2012. Date of Notification: April 27, 2012

Company: BAE Systems (Keyport) will lay off 61 employees, effective June 30, 2012. Date of Notification: April 27, 2012

Here’s a (link) to an interesting article in Vancouver’s The Province about British Columbia’s minimum wage increase. Before May 1, 2011, B.C.’s minimum wage was $8 an hour. Today that minimum wage is $10.25 an hour. That’s a boost of nearly $4,700 a year for those making minimum wage up there.

B.C. also repealed a “first job” law, which allowed employers to pay less than the standard minimum wage to young, first-time workers.

Will update with a few more details later on the home page:

BELLINGHAM – A longtime Whatcom County auto dealership was sold to an Oregon company.

Jerry Chambers Chevrolet Cadillac was sold to Lithia Motors Inc. of Medford, Ore. The sale was completed over the weekend and the Chambers dealership was closed on Monday, April 30 for employee training and getting operations transferred over to Lithia’s system. The dealership will open at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1 and operate under normal hours, said John North, vice president of finance and corporate controller at Lithia.

North said they are planning on a seamless transition with no major changes at the dealership. The 55 employees at the dealership will remain in place. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The dealership has been a fixture in Whatcom County for decades. In 1973, Jerry Chambers joined Roy Robinson as part owner of Robinson-Chambers Chevrolet in Ferndale. Chambers assumed full ownership in 1983, moving the dealership to Northwest Avenue in Bellingham in 1987. Chambers died in February 2007 and has been operated by the Chambers family for the past five years.

Lithia was founded in 1946 as a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge dealership in Ashland, Ore. The company steadily grew across southern Oregon and became a publicly traded company in December 1996. It’s currently one of the largest automotive retailers, with more than 100 dealerships listed throughout the West and Midwest on its website.

North said the company tends to look at markets around Bellingham’s size and smaller when looking for dealerships, because that’s how the company itself started. He said they were particularly interested in the Chambers dealership and its roots in the community.

“It’s a store that fits our profile,” North said.

Below is a news release from NW Security and Sound, which moved from its Bellingham office to Snohomish. The company will continue to offer services to this area, however, stretching from Whatcom County to Tacoma:

Trusted local security and sound systems company NW Security and Sound will reopen in a new location on Tuesday, May 1.

NW Security and Sound specializes in low-voltage systems of all kinds, and are leaders in their professional industry. NW Security and Sound has been providing clients with custom-designed products and systems for over 15 years, from basic home security to full in-home audio-visual systems, from total integration systems with touch-screen displays.

The company’s technicians are fully-licensed, have passed rigorous background checks, and stand ready to assist you with your project, whether it be large and commercial, or your own family home. Service includes 24-hour, on-call assistance, and the support of NW Security and Sound’s exceptional sales, service, support and administrative personnel.

Many of NW Security and Sound’s clientele have been referred to the company by satisfied, existing clients. All new inquiries are welcome! Contact NW Security and Sound today for more information on products, services, and how their professional staff are waiting to help.

NW Security and Sound’s offices will open Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 1208 10th St., Snohomish. For further details, call 360-691-4200.

Government regulators closed four banks earlier this afternoon (two in Maryland, one in Minnesota and one in South Carolina), making it 21 so far in 2012. I’ll update with a new post if more are shut down today before I leave the office..

AB Crepes is now open for business at 1311 Railroad Ave., in the former pawn shop space near Avenue Bread.

The restaurant was started by two Western Washington University seniors, Adalberto Avelar and Bayly Peterson. Both were interested in starting a business and liked the idea of focusing on crepes, which can be filled with a variety of ingredients. They were able to transform the space themselves, remodeling the space while going to school.

Although they opened on Friday, April 20, they’ve already received quite a few inquiries about its “ABC’ auce,” a sweet cream-cheese topping that can be used as an alternative to Nutella for the sweet crepes. They’ve also had an Alphabet Challenge: Two people sitting down and eating 26 crepes (one for each letter of the alphabet) within an hour. Those that are successful will get their money back, an AB Crepes t-shirt and a picture on its wall of fame.

Along with indoor seating, AB Crepes has a walk-up service window in the front.

The restaurant is open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, 8 a.m. to after midnight Wednesday through Saturday, closed on Monday. For de-tails, check out the company’s Facebook page.

Here’s a press release from Kidder Matthews about the Kimberly-Clark property in Everett:

Kidder Mathews and Binswanger have been retained by Kimberly-Clark Corporation to sell its exceptionally rare waterfront industrial property in Everett. Located on the central Everett waterfront at 2600 Federal Avenue, the Everett Waterfront Industrial Property boasts more than 2,500 linear feet of deep-water industrial shoreline area and a total land area in excess of 66 acres. The property is immediately adjacent to Naval Station Everett, home of the USS Nimitz carrier battle group, and the Port of Everett main terminal.

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