NewWest.Net Business and the New Economy

The Grid Gets a Brain

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:31:00 MDT

If all goes as planned Boulder will become the world’s first “fully integrated Smart Grid City,” says regional utility Xcel Energy. Envisioned as the first true innovation in electricity distribution in close to a century, the Smart Grid movement is essentially developing ways to bring digital Internet-based technology to power lines, giving utilities and business and residential customers greater control and efficiency in the flow of electricity. Ultimately, once the Smart Grid takes over a significant chunk of the existing power distribution infrastructure, utilities and governments will be able to use the power of the Web to better manipulate how electricity is generated and delivered. In other energy news: Democrats ready populist energy legislation; Colorado eyes fine print on electricity bills; and O&G executives foresee oil-price downturn by the end of the year.

Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:23:00 MDT

It's 2:30 a.m., and Bud Boyce, 75, fumbles in the dim light of the pickup cab for the controls of the mounted spotlight. Outside, the beam cuts the blackness, illuminating clouds of warm breath and glassy eyes as it pans from left to right, then back again across a herd of more than 250 Angus-Hereford cows, all pregnant and ready to give birth. The cattle huddle in dark masses. Bud plays the light across them, carefully watching for a cow in labor or a newborn calf. With no signs of a delivery-in-progress and no new calves since the last check three hours ago, he wheels his pickup back toward the house and lurches down the frozen drive. In three hours, he'll do it again. Then, ranch hand Mike Horst will take over. It's a grueling schedule, part of what makes ranching a lifestyle, not a job.

Montana’s Cash Cowboy

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:34:00 MDT

If you didn't know any better, you might think William Patrick (Bill) Foley II was just another retiring baby boomer looking for golf courses, open spaces and the chance to recapture an idealized childhood of summertimes on the family ranch. A frank man with an almost goofy charm, he speaks of his love for Montana, his concern for the landscape -- and the joy he gets bombing around the backcountry on an ATV or a snowmobile. But the truth is, Foley isn't very good at leisure. He's got the fancy log home on Whitefish Lake, five West Coast wineries, the huge cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, and the requisite private jets, but he can't seem to help turning everything into a business. Foley appears to be in a much better spot than most of the Wall Street moguls, Silicon Valley financiers and high-rolling property developers who see the surging "amenity economy" in the Mountain West as the next great capitalist frontier. In some ways, he's representative of the breed: a very rich man who's become enamored with the West, and whose first instinct is to buy it.

Montana Banks Remain Remote from National Crunch

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:21:00 MDT

Ask Tom Welch, president of Pioneer Federal Savings and Loan (offices in Dillon and Deer Lodge, Mont.) about his mortgage portfolio: "Great," he says, "As good as it's been. I can't tell you the last time I've had a foreclosure." Even as risky national lending practices and the collapse of the housing bubble have pulled the national economy into recession, lenders in Montana remain largely unaffected by mortgage losses. Banks in the state haven't been hurt much by the credit crunch, either, because few swing big leveraged financial deals, bankers say. "Montana has some foreclosure hot spots," said Helena branch president Paul Drake of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "But we haven't seen the kind of issues like Arizona or Nevada, not even close to it."

The Secrets of Social Networking

Mon, 05 May 2008 15:27:00 MDT

If you're reading this story, you're probably Internet-savvy enough to know that the hottest thing online is "social networking." Facebook and MySpace are the kingpins of this phenomenon, but social networking happens in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of places on the Web. And if you think social networking is mostly about flirting and dating, well, you'd be surprised. Here in Missoula, Hank Green of EcoGeek, Steven Sundheim of Modwest and Grupthink, and our very own Courtney Lowery have been at the forefront of the social networking phenomenon. In addition to the highly successful EcoGeek blog, Hank has created a hugely popular social network called Nerdfighters. Steven and his compatriots at the Web hosting company Modwest have built a unique social Web site called Grupthink. Courtney, for her part, is in charge of all things community here at NewWest.Net and has dipped her toes in almost everything new on the Web. Please join Hank, Steven and Courtney for a discussion and, yes, networking reception on what online social networking can mean for you, your business, and your social circle. It happens May 13 at 5:00 p.m. at the Missoula Art Museum. Please call 406-829-1725 for more information, or email info@newwest.net We look forward to seeing you there.

Idaho’s Village Green Development Files for Bankruptcy

Mon, 05 May 2008 12:22:00 MDT

The Village Green at the Valley Club, a new high-end subdivision and golf course development in Ketchum, Idaho, filed last week for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing more than $24 million to its creditors. The development plan includes 43 custom homes -- valued at about $3 million each -- and a nine-hole Tom Fazio golf course, but so far only 13 homes have been completed and only seven of those have been sold, according to developer Henry Dean. "We expected to do a lot better," Dean said. "We just fell off of our pro forma." It's the latest in a string of bankruptcies among developments in the West, from Tamarack Resort in Idaho to Promontory Club in Utah, further evidence that the high-end real estate market in the West has been deeply affected by the credit crunch.

The High-End Real Estate Market: They Went Bankrupt?!?

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:58:00 MDT

The national real estate pullback and the credit crunch, combined with several years of sky-high construction costs, have some luxury developments in the New West on the ropes. While bankruptcy is an imperfect prism through which to view the effects of the market slowdown, these five cases offer rich glimpses into the operations and financing problems. More bankruptcies are undoubtedly on the way. The B-word has even been thrown around as a possibility at the vaunted Yellowstone Club, where the divorce of owners Tim and Edra Blixseth has compounded its woes.

Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom

Sat, 03 May 2008 08:09:00 MDT

There's a certain optimism and sense of limitlessness to Chairman Chief Allan's air that explains, even better than statistics or testaments to his business acumen, just how the once-destitute Coeur d'Alene Tribe has become an economic power and political player in Idaho. In his office the 35-year-old smiles boyishly. He's speaking about the tribe's immutable bond to the rolling Palouse region of North Idaho and his sense of mission as chairman: "We look at this tribe as a Fortune 500 company, but it's not ours. We're not doing it for us. We're doing it for our kids." In the past 10 to 15 years the 2,000-member tribe has undergone an impressive turnaround. Tribal enterprises' total revenue surpassed $300 million in its most recent fiscal year, with about $100 million in earnings. With 1,400 people on its payroll, the tribe is the second-largest employer in Idaho's five northern counties. In 1989, unemployment among tribal members was close to 70 percent. This year, it's in the single digits.

On the Agenda In the Panhandle: Youth, Growth & Silver

Sat, 03 May 2008 07:04:00 MDT

The decline and near demise in the 1980s and '90s of logging and mining in North Idaho left a landscape of company towns -- Sandpoint, Priest River and Clark Fork among them -- almost bereft of companies. The towns searched for new industries and leveraged the area's newfound resort profile with hopes of establishing a diverse and more stable economic base. "If you go back to 2000, and you compare Bonner County to the rest of the state, we've grown manufacturing jobs faster and added more manufacturing jobs than anywhere else," says Karl Dye, the president of the Bonner County Economic Development Corp.

Oil Price Off the Rails

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:26:01 MDT

The convergence of record high gas prices ($3.60 a gallon average across the U.S.), a presidential campaign, obscenely high earnings reports from Big Oil, and the prospect of $4 gas during the summer driving season has led to some rampant silliness, including the proposed “gas-tax holiday” being backed by candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Congress plans to get into the act, pledging to bring forth legislation to offer low-income Americans relief from high prices at the pump – legislation that President Bush will almost certainly veto. The price surge is also leading to an alarming question: has the oil industry jumped the rails of basic economic laws? According to economics, soaring prices would, in normal times, lead to increased output of oil, reduced demand and a subsequent reduction (or at least a flattening) in prices. But prices haven’t followed suit. In other energy news: Colorado Wildlife Commission weighs in on oil and gas production; Xcel plans to shutter coal plants opposed by consumer-protection agency; and Colorado will study the economic effects of new oil and gas regulations on the industry.