Twigs expanding downtown Spokane restaurant
Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar will expand its space in River Park Square with a 1,400-square-foot platform extension over the mall’s atrium.
Called “The Landing,” the new dining area will run the length of the glass atrium facing Main Avenue and will seat 60, according to a news release.
The lounge and kitchen will also be expanded, bringing the total space occupied by Twigs in the downtown Spokane mall to about 8,000 square feet, up from 5,000 square feet now, the release said.
Construction will take place between June and August. The expansion will add about 30 full- and part-time jobs at the downtown location, the release said.
There are nine Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar locations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Utah. The River Park Square location opened in 2001.
River Park Square is an affiliate of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.
Hart Capital index drops by 3.4 percent
An index of the aggregate investment performance of the Inland Northwest’s major publicly traded companies dropped by 3.4 percent in the first quarter, according to Hart Capital Management Inc.
The Hart Capital Inland Northwest Index includes 11 companies; three dropped out during the past year because of bankruptcy (Coldwater Creek Inc.) and acquisitions (Intermountain Community Bancorp and Sterling Financial Corp.).
The first-quarter performance compares with a 0.4 percent increase in the S&P 500 index over the same period, according to Spokane-based Hart Capital.
Key Tronic Corp. returned 35.5 percent, the strongest performer in the index. The weakest performance came from Itron Inc., with a loss of 13.7 percent.
Over the past year, the Hart Capital Inland Northwest Index has increased by 5.5 percent compared with an increase of 10.4 percent in the S&P 500, the Spokane company said.
Bloomberg donates to anti-coal campaign
WASHINGTON – Billionaire Michael Bloomberg said he is donating an additional $30 million to a Sierra Club initiative working to reduce the nation’s use of coal.
The Sierra Club has a goal of replacing half the nation’s coal plants with renewable energy by 2017.
Bloomberg donated $50 million to the program in 2011. The latest donation, along with $20 million from others, will be spent over the next three years. He said reducing the number of coal plants will save lives and that job growth in solar, wind and natural gas can offset coal-related jobs.
Imax, Disney renew their agreement
NEW YORK – IMAX Corp. and the Walt Disney Co. renewed their multipicture deal that includes live-action and animated releases from Disney, Pixar and Lucasfilm.
The renewal begins this year and extends through 2017. Canada-based IMAX will be involved in the release of multiple live-action releases, along with animated films from Burbank, California-based Disney. The latest in the Star Wars series is a key film in the deal.