Our top business stories of 2014

The companies submitted their permit application to the evaluation council in August 2013. The council is expected to release the oil terminal’s draft environmental impact statement in May 2015. The public will then have an opportunity to comment on the draft. Eventually, the council will make a recommendation to Gov. Jay Inslee, who may approve or deny the project, or send it back to the council for more work. Opponents may appeal the governor’s decision to the state Supreme Court.

2) Employment makes comeback, but wages stagnant

Clark County’s economy continued to show signs of progress, as employers expanded payrolls and the jobless rate headed downward.

But strong job growth has yet to translate to fatter wallets, according to an analysis by Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department.

The median hourly wage for jobs in Clark County ($20.05 in 2013, adjusted for inflation) has remained flat even as the economy has recovered lost jobs and added more after the end of the Great Recession. Meanwhile, the makeup of jobs in the county significantly shifted from 2007 to 2013, with more than 700 middle-income positions vanishing and with more than 1,000 lower-income jobs going away.

Clark County’s flat-lining median hourly wage (half of all jobs in the county paid more, half paid less) is part of a decadelong, national trend. Behind that trend, experts say, are several factors, including loss of bargaining power over pay because of the decline in private-sector unions; increased automation of routine jobs, which has reduced the need for labor; and the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

3) Grain terminal labor impasse settled

A bitter two-year labor dispute that engulfed everyone from Vancouver police and Washington’s governor to state and federal agriculture officials ended, as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Northwest grain terminal operators reached a contract agreement.

In Vancouver, the deal restored normal export operations at United Grain Corp. at the Port of Vancouver. United Grain, the West Coast’s largest grain elevator, had been all but shut down since July 7, when the state Department of Agriculture stopped providing grain inspections in response to threats from picketers.

Gov. Jay Inslee praised the settlement, saying it allowed grain inspectors to immediately resume their work at United Grain.

4) Integra puts down roots in Vancouver

It’s rare for midsized companies to relocate headquarters, but Clark County landed one company HQ, with Integra relocating from Portland, and secured another corporate headquarters for 2015, when Banfield Pet Hospitals will move across the river from Portland.

Telecommunications company Integra returned to its Clark County roots by moving more than 500 employees from Portland to a new headquarters at the former Hewlett-Packard Co. campus in east Vancouver. The company is occupying 85,000 square feet of newly renovated space at 18110 S.E. 34th St. And look for another new corporate headquarters in 2015, when Banfield Pet Hospitals relocates from Portland.

5) Port ends talks with BHP Billiton but holds on to Northwest Packing

A lucrative lease deal at the Port of Vancouver that was projected to generate thousands of temporary construction jobs and to garner at least $250 million in private capital investment fell through.

The port said that it and BHP Billiton, the Australian mining giant, ended nearly four years of exclusive negotiations to export potash, a crop fertilizer, at the port. The two parties allowed an agreement that gave BHP exclusive rights to nearly 100 acres of property at Terminal 5 to expire, according to the port.

Meanwhile, the port and Northwest Packing Co. reached an agreement on a 25-year extension of the company’s lease on its fruit-packing plant at the port, ending three years of sometimes tense negotiations over a new lease.

6) Papa Murphy’s goes public, Barrett Business Services falters

The initial stock offering by Papa Murphy’s, the take-and-bake pizza chain, went as well as could be expected for the Vancouver-based company, with its stock price staying above its $11 per share opening price throughout the session before closing at $11.05.

Following the ringing of the opening bell by company CEO Ken Calwell, the company’s stock ranged in price from $12.10 to $11.03 over the course of the trading session. The company uses the trading ticker FRSH. The company, which had hoped to raise up to $70 million to finance an aggressive growth strategy and to pay off debt, raised about $63.8 million in the offering.

Meanwhile, Barrett Business Services Inc., the Vancouver-based provider of employment services, took a huge hit in its stock price following its release of third-quarter earnings showing a net loss of $37.7 million, largely due to an $80 million increase in reserves for payments of drawn-out worker compensation claims.

Subsequently, investors in Barrett filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging it violated federal securities laws by misleading shareholders about its market value.

7) Downtown attracts real estate investors

The demise of the Columbia River Crossing was a disappointment to downtown boosters, who had hoped that light rail would give downtown a boost. But investors were willing to bet on downtown even after the collapse of the massive bridge crossing. The former City Hall building became Block 56, an office building with an improved exterior facade. Another former city building, the Esther Short site, also was renovated for private offices. The well-known Sparks Home Furnishings building is transitioning into shops and offices.

Meanwhile, Menashe Properties of Portland purchased one of the city’s signature office buildings, the black-clad Main Place at 1111 Main St., a move that’s a sign of confidence by investor confidence in Vancouver’s downtown. And downtown also attracted new residential development, including Elie Kassab’s Prestige Plaza and OTAK’s apartment building for low-income residents, now under construction at 15th Street and Mill Plain Boulevard. Food cart sightings became more frequent, and new restaurants included Luxe, and The Grocery Cocktail & Social.

8) Sparks, Steakburger fade into history

Two longtime local businesses, Sparks Home Furnishings and Steakburger, closed their doors after a combined run of 190 years.

Sparks has been in downtown Vancouver since 1882, when Marshall Rowe Sparks came here from Iowa and opened a tinsmith shop. Tom Craig, company president who represented the fourth generation of family ownership, oversaw the sale of the furniture store during the summer. New owner Ryan Hurley is converting the building at 1001 Broadway into a multi-use development.

Steakburger, with its adjoining miniature golf course, was a landmark at 7120 N.E. Highway 99 since 1956. It was removed to make room for a $5 million project that includes two restaurants.

A third business seemed ready to joint the list when owners of Luepke Florist, which has been at 1300 Washington St. for 105 years, announced that the shop was closing by the end of the year. However, the new property owner says that a floral shop will remain part of any new retail development.

9) County development fee waivers show little results

More than a year after county commissioners voted 2-1 to eliminate traffic impact and permitting fees for commercial building projects, the debate continues over whether the program is working.

It was approved in June 2013 as a way to spark the local economy by waiving fees that developers normally pay. As the unemployment rate began to drop in 2014, county commissioners pointed to the program as the reason for the positive signs. But according to a report released in November by the Clark County Auditor’s Office, there’s no evidence the program is the reason for the county’s job growth.

According to the report, the county is losing money by not collecting fees. The report says that most of the newly created jobs linked to the fee waivers are in low-paying service sectors.

Commissioner David Madore, among the program’s most ardent defenders, continues to speak highly of fee waivers despite the release of a report criticizing them. Madore says the commissioners are working to make Clark County the most business-friendly county on the West Coast. He has pointed to reports by Scott Bailey, a regional economist with the Washington Employment Security Department, showing the county’s economy grew faster than others over the year as a sign that the waivers are working.

10) Housing developers turn heavily to apartments

The housing market continued its steady recovery from the depths of the recession in 2009, when the city issued just 499 housing construction permits. That number had increased to 2,276 housing permits in 2013 and 1,910 this year through October, the most recent number available.

The biggest difference from a decade ago is the much higher percentage of new multifamily housing. Through October, 37 percent of housing permits were for multifamily housing and in 2013 that number peaked at 42 percent. In the previous decade, the highest percentage of multifamily housing permits came in 2003, with 21 percent. That number dropped to just 6 percent in 2004.

Housing demand remained relatively strong with new listings, pending sales, and closed sales all higher through November than during the same period a year ago. November’s median sales price of $255,000 was up 13.3 percent from a year ago.

Columbian staff reporters Aaron Corvin, Tom Vogt, Tyler Graf, and Gordon Oliver contributed to this story.