GreenCupboards moving to McKinstry
Online retailer GreenCupboards will be the first tenant in the McKinstry Innovation Center, a technology incubator located in the rehabbed electric railway depot McKinstry opened last year.
Seattle-based McKinstry designs, installs and manages mechanical systems. The company operates a similar innovation center in Seattle.
GreenCupboards was founded in 2008 by two Gonzaga University students and their adjunct professor after the concept won a regional college business plan competition. The company sells organic, fair trade, cruelty free and environmentally friendly products online.
The 38,000-square-foot innovation center is located in the rehabbed depot and a nearby fabrication shop at 850 E. Spokane Falls Boulevard.
Red Lion Hotels selling Denver location
Red Lion Hotels Corp. said Monday the company will sell its Red Lion Hotel Denver Southeast hotel for $13 million.
“The sale of a non-core property provides us with additional financial flexibility,” Red Lion CEO Jon Eliassen said in a news release. Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down debt, the release said.
Spokane-based Red Lion does not expect the buyer, which was not disclosed, to sign a franchise agreement.
Former NYSE chairman John Phelan dies at 81
PORTLAND – John J. Phelan Jr., the former New York Stock Exchange chairman credited with managing the chaos of the “Black Monday” market crash of 1987, died Saturday. He was 81.
The cause of death was not disclosed.
A former Marine who worked as a trader for years before leading the exchange, Phelan was best known for keeping the markets open following the historic crash on Oct. 19, 1987. That day, stocks suffered what is still the largest single-day percentage drop, with the Dow Jones industrial average crashing nearly 23 percent.
It was considered Phelan’s finest moment. Those who were there say panic gripped Wall Street as trading volumes soared, orders littered the floor and the Dow plunged. But Phelan worked with calm authority and resisted calls to close the exchange, which he knew would breed further panic. Later that day, he rang the closing bell himself, demonstrating leadership at a time when the eyes of the world were on the exchange.
“I think he went a long way in protecting us from a much worse situation,” said James Rutledge, managing partner of Rutledge Securities Group, who was there for the crash.
Europe’s Airbus to double U.S. spending
WICHITA, Kan. – European aerospace giant Airbus said Monday it plans to double the $12 billion it now spends with U.S. suppliers amid strong airplane sales, explaining that the company has a backlog that is “disturbingly healthy.”
Airbus America Chairman Allan McArtor told representatives from 114 companies at an aviation supplier conference in Wichita, Kan., that 40 percent of what his company uses to build its planes comes from U.S. companies.
“We’ve got a backlog that quite frankly is disturbingly healthy, because it is hard to sell airplanes when your delivery position is so far out,” McArtor said. “So we want to increase our capacity. We cannot increase our capacity without increasing our supply chain capability. We cannot increase our supply chain capability unless we approve more qualified suppliers. And that is precisely why we are here.”