Anchorage’s retail flagship, Nordstrom’s, closes Sept. 13
Anchorage’s flagship retail store, Nordstrom’s, will close Friday, Sept. 13. The only luxury retail department store in Alaska, Nordstrom’s closing is not only a big hit on local morale – it seems symbolic of economic malaise – but it will leave a big, 97,000-square-foot hole in a prime downtown location at 5th Avenue and C Street. The store acts as a feeder to smaller nearby shops and to restaurants, and is connected to Anchorage’s Fifth Avenue Mall. While it’s a blow, city officials said Nordstrom’s decision was based on national trends and industry changes, like the growth of on-line retail, and is not connected to local economic conditions. Nordstrom’s has weathered far worse in Anchorage, such as the sharp 1986-88 regional recession. The space is unlikely to remain empty for long, and retail has a way of reinventing itself, such as is being done at Anchorage’s midtown mall, formerly the Sears Mall. That mall has been redeveloped since Sears closed its big retail store and is now growing with REI moving in and expanding, and a new Carrs/Safeway planned. Sources within Nordstrom’s said the store was profitable but that corporate changes required a consolidation of stores.

Another downtown change is that J.C. Penney is selling its downtown parking garage which is near Nordstrom’s and the downtown J.C. Penney department store. A closing on the sale is expected at the end of October.

First customer for AIDEA’s new ship repair financing program
UnCruise Adventures, a small operator of regional cruise tours in Southeast Alaska, has negotiated the first loan under a new Alaska shipyard financing program initiated by the state’s Alaska Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, in June. The $3.6 million financing will include upgrades to two vessels operated by the company to be done by Vigor Alaska at the Ketchikan shipyard. The shipyard is owned by AIDEA and operated by Vigor under a lease. AIDEA, the state’s independent development finance group, offers six-month and one-year financing for ship work done in Alaska.

State: Visitors expected to be up 16.5 percent this year
Alaska visitors are expected to be up 16.5 percent this year, state commerce commissioner Julie Anderson said in an Op-Ed. This would be a healthy increase over 7 percent growth last year. The industry is now fueling an expansion of infrastructure. In Hoonah, facilities to handle a second cruise ship docking and added activities for visitors are being built. Hoonah Totem Corp. built a private cruise facility at a former cannery near the Southeast village. Over 70 percent of workers at the facility are Alaska Native shareholders of Hoonah Totem, the Native village corporation for Hoonah.

Ward Cove group plans for cruise ship passengers next summer
Ward Cove Dock Group is in discussions with Ketchikan city officials over transport arrangements for cruise tourists landed at a new $50 million cruise ship dock facility at Ward Cove, in Ketchikan. Floating dock facilities will be ready in time for the 2020 summer season. Norwegian Cruise Lines has an agreement with Ward Cove and will dock four of its vessels at the new facility starting next year. Three Norwegian Cruise Lines ships now land at Ketchikan’s city-owned cruise docks, so there will be a net expansion of ship calls starting next year. City officials have estimated that the ship dockings at Ward’s Cove will require transport services to the city center for up to 4,000 visitors a day.

Rare event – a cruise ship visits Cordova
Cordova had a medium-size cruise ship visit this summer, its first in years. The 466-foot French-owned Le Soleal, with 264 passengers, called on Aug. 1 for the first of two visits. City officials had been notified of the stop but the local business community was caught by surprise. Chamber of Commerce officials hustled to Cordova’s dock with information handouts on local sights and dining options. The visitors’ highlight was seeing Cordova’s numerous sea otters up close. Cordova has discouraged visits by large cruise ships because of the impacts of large numbers of tourists. Small and medium-sized vessels are welcomed, however.

After compensation study update, Ketchikan city employees get raises Oct. 1
Ketchikan will give its city employees a raise beginning Oct. 1 based on an update of a 2014 employee compensation study by Ralph Anderson Associates which showed employees being paid, on average, 6 percent below market rate for job classifications. Not all city employees are happy. Building maintenance people say their pay scale is actually 20 percent below market and the new increase gives them only a 3 percent raise. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said they were displeased with how the study was done.

Congressional delegation to probe Pentagon decision to cancel missile interceptors
Alaska’s congressional delegation will review a Pentagon decision to cancel a $1 billion missile interceptor contract award to Boeing. Many of the new missiles were to be installed at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency launch facility at Fort Greely, east of Fairbanks. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she was told the planned expansion for the Missile Field Four at Fort Greely will proceed. The missile contact was cancelled because of design problems with the interceptors, the defense department said. Most of the nation’s missile interceptors are at Fort Greely because the Interior Alaska location is well positioned to intercept missiles launched from Asia that target the U.S.

UAF completes first FAA-approved beyond-line-of-sight unmanned aircraft survey
University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists completed the nation’s first beyond-line-of-sight Federal Aviation Agency-approved unmanned flight July 31. The 30-minute flight by UAF’s Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, was to survey a four-mile section of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. The FAA has authorized short-range commercial operations of unmanned aircraft for about three years under a set of general regulations – prior to that, operations were allowed in case-by-case approvals – but the Alaska flight was the first extended operation beyond visual control of operators. Unmanned aircraft operated remotely are common in the military but civilian application of the technology for uses like remote aerial inspections of infrastructure is still in its infancy. The Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration is part of UAF’s Geophysical Institute.

Alaska Farmland Trust closing in on large acquisitions to preserve agricultural lands
Alaska Farmland Trust, the Palmer-based nonprofit that buys development (non-agricultural) rights on farm lands in the state, is in the final stages of closing on a 70-acre tract of land north of Palmer, in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and hopes to have the deal completed by the end of the year. The group also has a larger purchase of rights, on 90 acres, in the works. By purchasing commercial development rights Alaska Farmland Trust benefits landowners while helping keep land in farming rather than, for example, residential housing development. Mat-Su is a small but traditional farming area that supplies the Anchorage area with vegetables during the summer growing season. However, as the region’s population has expanded there is demand for new housing and residential lands, at the expense of land available for crops.

To date the Trust has concluded deals to protect 315 acres, so the two pending transactions would significantly expand the protected lands in the Mat-Su. Federal land conservation funds pay half the cost of purchases but the remainder must be raised through local donations.