Bellevue Reporter, May 01, 2015

Page 1

[ 03 ]

Brazen morning heist

BELLEVUEREPORTER.COM

News

REPO ORTER RTER FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015

A man wearing a ski mask robbed the U.S. Bank in Factoria Tuesday

Settling in

BELLEVUE

Fire destroys AutoNation Ford

[04 ]

Econ director makes keeping businesses 2015 top priority Henderson forming team to support companies BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER

With a lot of help from volunteers, police have moved the Crossroads substation down the street

Business

the heavy debris left by a collapsed showroom and burned up vehicles. Bellevue firefighters responded to the fully ablaze AutoNation Ford — formerly Prestige Ford — shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday, after emergency dispatchers received reports from police and residents in the Bravern Towers, according to a Monday news release; the showroom roof collapsed 25 minutes later, with large commercial gas meters severing minutes after that. It took four hydrants — at full capacity — to

Bellevue Economic Development Director James Henderson says it may be too late to keep Expedia from moving to Seattle, but he believes he can draw and keep more businesses here through a retention and expansion program that will be his ofJames Henderson fice’s top priority in 2015. “I think a BRE (Business Retention and Expansion) program is a really great way to say to businesses, ‘We’re here to support you in the long term,’ ” Henderson said. The Bellevue native said he’s borrowing from a program he employed in San Antonio, Texas, where he worked as an assistant economic development director before taking his position with Bellevue in December, using an economic development action team to assess and address the needs of local businesses and those looking to relocate.

SEE AUTONATION, 16

SEE DIRECTOR, 10

[ 12]

A peak at progress

Courtesy photo, Bellevue Fire Department

Bellevue firefighters responded to a three-alarm fire at the AutoNation Ford dealership at Northeast Fourth Street and 116th Avenue Northeast Saturday morning. The dealership is being called a total loss. Lake Hills Village developer shares latest on shopping center revitalization

Sports

[ 19 ]

A formidable force

Company to support employees until temporary sales lot opens BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER

An investigation into the three-alarm fire that destroyed the AutoNation car dealership on 116th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue early Saturday morning will take a considerable amount of time, given

Analysis supports moving forward with Energize Eastside Newport freshman scraps soccer to focus on bettering her skills on tennis court

Council to hear details of findings on Monday BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER

@BelReporter

An independent consulting firm has published a report that supports Puget Sound Energy’s claims — and

the method used to reach its conclusion — that population growth and energy consumption will likely cause capacity issues for the power company in the near future and winter outages for customers as soon as winter 2017. The city commissioned Utility System Efficiencies in December — at up to $100,000 — to determine if

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PSE’s Energize Eastside project was necessary within the timeline provided by the energy company and whether its estimated load forecasts correctly identified capacity issues in the future. The independent study was partly prompted by the Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy, who argue running 18 miles

of 230kV lines between Redmond and Renton isn’t necessary, and that PSE has inflated its need for electrical capacity to benefit outside interests in places like Canada. According to USE’s independent technical analysis, PSE’s 2014 forecast was better at improving SEE ENERGIZE, 10


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