Burnin'

Grant McOmie from Travel Oregon stopped in (with camera crew) to Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) in SE Portland recently. He notes in the video above that HUB is one of only three fully sustainable breweries in the state. I’m thinking Laurelwood must be one of the other two.

Luzon Building, downtown Tacoma

If you’re a real estate investor with a penchant for saving important old buildings, the city of Tacoma needs you. According to Tacoma News Tribune, The Luzon Building at 13th & Pacific in downtown Tacoma is one of two remaining West Coast buildings designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root.

The unoccupied structure is being offered for sale for $400,000. Yes, it needs repairs.

Burnham and Root were pioneering designers of some of Chicago’s first high-rises. After Root’s death, Burnham designed such monumental structures as Washington, D.C.’s Union Station and several buildings at the Chicago World’s Fair.

photo by Faith Cathcart

Ryan Frank, The Oregonian’s real estate writer, looks at the commercial real estate situation on Portland’s NW 23rd Avenue and paints a not pretty picture.

The 23rd Avenue shopping strip, Portland’s palace of posh, is fraying under the weight of the recession. Empty storefronts are now as visible as double lattes.

From every street corner between Everett and Raleigh streets — 13 blocks — shoppers can spot a “For Lease” sign or plywood-covered window. Demand has fallen far enough that a head shop called Mary Jane’s House of Glass can now afford a 23rd Avenue storefront.

Let’s look on the bright side. Frank points out that things were worse during the Dot Bust of ‘01; easy access to a head shop isn’t necessarily a bad thing; and enterprising businesses in need of space can find good deals on rent right now.

Trendythird wasn’t always an expensive shopping district. In fact, not long ago at all, it was a forest. Tomorrow, it’ll take on another hue.

Portland Business Journal has a story that paints the current state of the craft brewing business as sour mash.

Less than six months after Woodinville, Wash.-based Redhook Ale Brewery Inc.’s merger with Portland’s Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., the new company has written down the value of the Widmer brand by more than a third.

Last week, the company that resulted from the merger, Portland-based Craft Brewers Alliance, released its 2008 annual report. For the year, the company lost $33.3 million on $86 million in revenue.

Yet there’s reason for hope on the home front. Widmer just started making its Drifter Pale Ale available and it’s doing well.

Yet, December and January shipments for all Oregon craft brewers fell by 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively. But in January and February, shipments for all beer in Oregon actually rose by 10 and 20 percent, respectively.

“It would appear trading down from higher-priced, locally-made beer has already begun in earnest,” said Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild.

Our friend Colleen treated us to a private tour and tasting at Lemelson Vineyards on Saturday. It was a special treat for my 44th birthday and it was an honor to be welcomed as VIP guests from the minute our party arrived.

Colleen is Lemelson’s National Sales Manager, which means she travels to accounts non-stop to act as the winery’s ambassador. And from what we saw on Saturday, she’s quite the ambassador. In fact, it’s clearly time to start calling her Madame Ambassador.

First, Colleen showed us the facility’s vaulted high tech room where the grapes are destemmed and put into large stainless fermentation tanks. Then we descended like gravity to lower rooms with more tanks before reaching various cellar rooms where Colleen explained in great detail what was inside all the expensive French Oak barrels. Lucky for us, we tasted straight from the barrels so our education would be complete. After the tour we soaked up the day’s warm sun on the deck and let some of Oregon’s finest wine flow down our gullets.

It was a great time to put it mildly. If you have yet to experience a glass of pinot noir from Lemelson, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and let the good times roll…

While our focus here is clearly on Oregon wine, beer and coffee, the great state of Washington is right across the river, just a few miles from Portland. Therefore, it can’t hurt to become knowledgeable about the liquid goings on there.

According to Ruth Zschomler of The Oregonian, Washington ranks second in the U.S. after California in wine production. The wine industry contributes more than $3 billion to the state’s economy and provides 14,000 jobs.

The state recently licensed its 600th winery. By comparison, Oregon has nearly 400 wineries.

Clark County, near Portland, has six commercial vineyards with three more underway and an eye toward earning a designation as an American Viticultural Area. The local growers in Clark County have formed the Southwest Washington Winery Association, a nonprofit, to help attain AVA status.

The winery association is working on viticulture education in Clark College in Vancouver. The college’s corporate and continuing education program offers 13 classes in wine education.