Business

Southeast Alaska’s maritime economy provides more than a quarter of the wages paid in the region. That’s according to a new study published by the Southeast Conference.

Frank Foti,  president and CEO of Vigor Industrial, says the Ketchikan Shipyard is “Alaska’s newest and best ship-building facility.”

He’s biased, since his Portland-headquartered company owns Alaska Ship and Drydock. He elabarated during a speech celebrating last spring’s opening of a new ship-construction hall.

“After the collapse of the timber economy here, these leaders saw an opportunity for growth and jobs and economic prosperity, while others saw only derelict infrastructure and a dying industry,” he said. (Watch a time-lapse video of the hall’s construction.)

A new study shows the shipyard is a key contributor to the region, with about 120 employees and $37 million in annual revenues. It’s part of Southeast’s maritime or “blue” economy. (Click here to read the report.)

“So who are we. What sets us apart from other places and makes our resources unique. Is there one thing that defines our people, geography and economy?” asked Meilani Schijvens, who researched that question as part of Juneau-based Sheinberg Associates.

She spoke at last month’s Southeast Conference annual meeting in Sitka, where the study was released.

“We are here today to tell you that there is. We are a maritime economy and a maritime region,” she said.

That’s no surprise, given Southeast’s geography.

But the study has the details to prove it. The report shows about 400 maritime businesses and government agencies employing more than 8,000 people. Their total annual wages come close to half a billion dollars, with individual wages averaging about $50,000 a year.

Researcher Barb Sheinberg says this is the first thorough study of the blue economy. It includes commercial fisheries, ferries and marinas.

“When you think of the visitor industry, that includes whale-watching cruise staff. When you think about construction that’s our marine welders. When you think about government, that’s our Coast Guard folks,” she said.

Not included were on-shore businesses relying on cruise ship passenger traffic or barged goods.

She says ocean harvests dominate the maritime economy.

“That’s our seafood processors and commercial fishermen, the mariculture workers, that’s where half of the maritime jobs and wages are,” she said.

Sheinberg says the blue economy is larger than mining, timber, construction or any other sector in Southeast.

Schijvens says shipbuilding and repair jobs have doubled over the past five years.

“This growth is not accidental, but resulted from strategic planning and targeted investment,” she said. 

Like Ketchikan, Wrangell is a former logging town that’s found new opportunities.

State and federal grants, as well as private investments, have paid for seafood plant improvements, a marine service center, a travel lift and a new harbor.

Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore says that’s brought unexpected benefits.

“Now we have transient moorage space. So now we’re seeing yachts coming to Wrangell, because before, we never had that ability,” she said. “Commercial fleets were being rafted 3 or 4 deep. Well, the yachts don’t want to tie up to the commercial boats. But now we’re seeing this huge increase of yachters coming to Wrangell. It’s added an extra element to our tourism industry.”

She says growth hasn’t been easy. Grants take years. Community planning can be contentious. And it’s natural for people to become impatient.

“Recovery is very slow, as you are all are very painfully aware of. It has taken 20 years for our community to start rebounding,” she said.

Wrangell isn’t all the way there. It still hopes to see development at the sites of its old mill and a former Bureau of Indian Affairs school.

Rushmore says that could include expansion of the city’s blue economy.

Juneau’s downtown dining scene has some new additions while a couple established eateries are making changes.

Coppa is the Italian word for cup, when referring to a cup of ice cream, which was Marc Wheeler’s main inspiration. Wheeler’s decision to open the shop with his wife Jessica Paris is partly based on the success he had selling homemade rhubarb sherbet during this summer’s Food Truck Fridays.

“It was so rewarding to make something with your hands, make people happy, and make money at the same time,” Wheeler says.

Coppa specializes in homemade ice cream and sherbets, baked goods, and espresso drinks, which requires the work of two baristas and a baker. It opened at the end of September.

“I knew it would be some work to build this place, but I didn’t know how much work. I had no idea of how much work and all the decisions you have to make to basically build a place from nothing,” he says.

Wheeler says he’s invested about $75,000 into renovating the space and buying kitchen appliances, including a brand new $10,000 batch freezer that makes six quarts of ice cream in eight minutes.

Coppa is located on Glacier Avenue in the same building as Seong’s Sushi Bar near the Federal Building. It opened a week before the government shutdown which Wheeler says has caused business to decrease by 20 percent. He says that wasn’t part of his business plan.

Wheeler is a semi-finalist in the Path to Prosperity business competition. If he’s selected, he’ll have access to a consultant to develop a business plan. He hopes to get into the wholesale ice cream business.

In the heart of downtown on Seward Street, Venietia Santana has been serving Mexican fusion at V’s Cellar Door since the end of August.

Santana took over the space that formerly housed Olivia’s de Mexico. She pulled the carpet out, bought new furniture, added lighting, and changed the color scheme.

So far, she says, business is better than expected.

“Apparently people like it and keep coming back. It’s not just my friends feeling bad for me,” Santana says laughing. “It’s actually people who enjoy the food and keep coming back, so it’s been really, really busy. We’ve been meeting or exceeding our goal every day.”

Santana employs seven people including two cooks and three wait staff. Aside from trying to keep prices down – dinners are around thirteen dollars – Santana says her main priority is customer service, “I want people to come in here and feel comfortable. I want them to know that they’re going to be able to get what they want and the way they ordered it and everything is top notch.”

The biggest challenge for Santana is getting ingredients. She says her menu includes Mexican dishes infused with other cuisines, like Korean and Italian. Most of the supplies she can’t find locally are mailed by friends and family in the lower-48.

“Some has come from Korea that we’ve had to wait weeks for,” Santana says.

Santana says the Small Business Administration (SBA) helped her a lot, “The SBA really does the paperwork with you and that foundation, that groundwork that makes you okay with and plan for how do you get your doors open. They’re a free service for business. Without them I wouldn’t be open.”

B’s Bakery and Bistro on 2nd Street was closed last week for touch up work on the kitchen.

Owner Rebecca Gaguine says when customers return this week, they won’t notice any changes since most of the work was done in the back. B’s currently has 9 part-time employees.

The eatery most known for its cupcakes also serves breakfast and lunch.

“During the summer, we had a really good breakfast crowd, so I’m excited to see what it’s like during the legislature,” Gaguine says.

Around the corner and down the street, Rockwell is currently undergoing a major renovation.

Co-owner Deb Barry says Northwind Architects came up with a design that involves new walls, a new bar, a stone fireplace, and a tin ceiling. She says everything will be different, including the menu.

“We’ll be adding to the menu. We’ll have a lot more ability to do steaks and seafood and things like that,” Barry says.

The renovation will increase dining room seating capacity to about 80. Rockwell’s 20 employees include six cooks. Rockwell, which has been open for about a year, serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Barry says she hopes to reopen Rockwell in early November.

A dozen Southeast entrepreneurs will attend an economic boot camp this month to learn how to develop a business plan.

The 12, from six communities, won the first round of a competition designed to help build rural communities.

It’s part of a program called Path to Prosperity, sponsored by Sealaska’s Haa Aani Community Development Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

Haa Aani’s Alana Peterson says the 12 were chosen from among 59 applicants.

“We know there’s a lot of great ideas out there in the region. A lot of individuals and entrepreneurs have some really great business ideas that can help satisfy the needs that we have in this region,” she says.

The free business boot camp takes place October 11th to 13th in Juneau.

Peterson says it will include workshops on business-plan writing, financing and sustainable business practices.

“We want to see that they’ve looked at how their business affects the society as a whole, the environment and that they really try to add shared value in all the activities they do. We want these businesses to be businesses that improve their communities all around,” she says.

The 12 semi-finalists include a mill, two farms, two guitar-makers and a feed-and-seed business. Four are from Haines, three from Hoonah, two from Juneau and one each from Craig, Wrangell and Sitka.

Peterson says small-town proposals were considered first, then those from larger cities.

“Really, the main goal is to create the long-term positive social and economic impacts in the rural communities. And we really believe that entrepreneurship is the path to achieving that goal,” she says.

Two winners will be announced in late January. They will receive up to $40,000 for consulting and technical services to develop their businesses.

Path to Prosperity will begin a new round of competition soon after that.

Business                                      Location            Principal Applicant

1) 7 Echoes Homestead                Haines                Carol Tuynman

2) Glacier Ground Rocknobs       Haines                 Debra Schnabel

3) Shaan Seet, Inc.                       Craig                    James Carle

4) Chilkoot Indian Enterprises    Haines                 Scott Hansen

5) Icy Straits Lumber & Milling   Hoonah               Wesley D. Tyler

6) Tongass Guitars                       Wrangell              Stephen Helgeson

7) South East Alaska Produce      Hoonah               Chelsea Schoonover

8) Raven Guitars                           Hoonah               Kevin Skeek

9) The Sawmill Farm                    Sitka                     Bobbie Daniels

10) Coppa                                      Juneau                Marc Wheeler

11) Shelter Island Family Farm   Shelter Island     Nathan Soboleff

12) Klehini Grange Feed & Seed  Haines                 Tamsen Cassidy

Leaders of Alaska’s visitors’ industry will gather in Sitka Oct. 7-10.

More than 400 excursion operators, tourism managers and cruise officials are expected to attend the Alaska Travel Industry Association’s conference.

Sarah Leonard is president of the ATIA.

“It’s the annual time where our industry partners and managers gather to learn about trends and projections and network and get excited for the next season,” she says.

The conference offers business, marketing and public relations sessions for those in the industry.

International tourism consultant Lenwood Sloan is a keynote speaker. Leonard says he will address what’s called heritage tourism.

“He’s going to be talking about how communities can weave those characteristics into their destination and help highlight their destinations around cultural tourism,” she says.

Click here for the tourism conference agenda.

Leonard says Alaska’s visitors’ industry is slowly growing, bringing about 1.8 million people to the state. Close to one million tourists cruise the coast, while others arrive by plane, car or RV.

The travel industry association does not have numbers for this year yet. But she says tour operators have told her it was a good summer.

Leonard is optimistic about the 2014 season.

“We see, hopefully, increases in international visitation through some new services like the state’s partnership with Iceland Air and bringing that new air service to Alaska. So we’re very excited about that,” she says.

She says government and private advertising campaigns are increasing interest in the state. She says Alaska “reality” TV shows are also helping spread the word.

An Anchorage superior court judge has approved a deal allowing Lynden Inc. to buy out its shipping competitor, Northland Services.

Right now, there are basically two ways to ship a lot of stuff in and out of Southeast Alaska: Alaska Marine Lines or Northland Services.

So when Lynden, AML’s parent company, announced in April it was buying its competitor, the risk of a regional shipping monopoly raised a red flag at the Alaska Department of Law.

The department put together a deal that leaves Southeast Alaska with two competing carriers: AML and the soon-to-expand Samson Tug & Barge.

The plan requires AML to assist Samson with its expansion into Southeast. The specifics are confidential, but Samson would buy assets from AML, lease space aboard AML barges, have a guaranteed barge charter from AML during peak shipping seasons, and have the option to rent AML terminal facilities and storage in Southeast and in Seattle.

A 60-day comment period closed last week with no formal objections. Judge Andrew Guidi approved the deal on Monday.

Samson Vice President Cory Baggen says she’s excited about clearing the last major legal hurdle in her company’s expansion.

“Right now, our tentative plan is to start service into Southeast Alaska on November 8th,” she said. “I admit, we’re still working out some of the final details, since the decree did just go through on Monday. So we’re still working through some of the last, last minute details.”

The buyout may not change much in Southeast, but AML President Kevin Anderson has said it will help his company in western Alaska and Seattle.

The parties have 60 days to finalize and execute some contracts in the plan. But otherwise, Assistant Attorney General Ed Sniffen says the transaction is complete.

Alaska’s online health insurance marketplace can help the uninsured, underinsured, or even those with medical coverage who want to shop around.

But the Affordable Care Act will not change the insurance you currently have.

Enrollingalaska.com goes live today.  If you enroll by December 14, the federal insurance will start January 1, 2014.

Assistance will be available in several places in Juneau to help individuals, families, and small businesses sign up for federal health insurance.

Starting October 7, a navigator will be located at the NAMI office at 9000 Glacier Hwy, Suite 201.  Appointments can be made by calling 463-4251.

NAMI stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness. The organization also will hold a community forum on the new Alaska Healthcare Exchange next month.

Next week, Enroll Alaska agents will be at Bartlett Regional Hospital and Walmart to help people understand the options, the cost and help them enroll.

Southeast Alaska Natives will continue to receive medical benefits through Indian Health Care, but the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, has two people on staff to answer questions on ACA.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium will help Alaskans navigate health care sites, or email healthreform@anthc.org

The Alaska Division of Insurance can help.

By phone:

24-hour hotline corresponding to the healthcare.gov website  is 1-800-318-2596.

United Way of Anchorage is making information available via the 211 Alaska information referral line.