North Bay Business Journal

Commercial real estate leases and sales in the north San Francisco Bay Area

Unemployment rates in the six North Bay counties edged upward or remained unchanged in November, according to state figures released this morning, as lower employment in farming and processing winegrapes after the harvest helped offset hiring in retail for the holidays.

Despite the dip in farming employment, Sonoma County continued to have among the fastest annual job growth in the state last month.

NAPA — Responding to growth in numerous practice areas, the law firm Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty has added five attorneys over the last six months as it seeks to bolster its ranks for what hopes to be a busy 2013.

NORTH BAY — The North Bay housing market continues to show improvements, including rising home prices and a decrease in the number of new foreclosures, according to reports released today by market tracking firms RealtyTrac in Irvine and San Diego-based DataQuick.

PETALUMA — Redwood Community Health Coalition recently took part in a pilot project testing a mobile health application that enrolls patients in public assistance programs, a potentially pivotal development for the public health sector. The accelerating convergence of mobile technology and health care will likely open new avenues of access to underserved populations, which could in turn help states with implementing key pieces of health care reform, officials said.

United Healthcare will roll out its Signature Value Alliance network geared toward smaller employers in all of Northern California in 2013, with Sutter Health serving as the foundation for the HMO product, the Minnesota-based health insurer said.

HEALDSBURG — Foley Family Wines Inc. today announced it added to its growing portfolio for the third time this month, completing the acquisition of the Langtry Estate & Vineyards and Guenoc brands and related assets on the sprawling property straddling Lake and Napa counties.

Unemployment rates for North Bay counties were largely unchanged in October from the month before, but Sonoma County continued to lead all of California in job growth, helping the entire North Bay grow by 2.5 percent from the previous October, according to state figures released this morning.

NORTH BAY — Foreclosure rates are falling across the North Bay, California and the United States, according to a report today from Irvine-based real estate data tracking and listing firm RealtyTrac.

A North Coast winegrape season that was not too hot, too cold or too wet combined with steady demand for grapes and wine following two short crops led to a rare conjunction in recent years, possibly the most tonnage since the 2005 peak year and a number of wineries eager to find room to buy as much as they could.

ST. HELENA — Adventist Health’s St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley campus is in the midst of a $20 million upgrade that will both add capacity and bring much-needed enhancements to patient care, hospital officials said.

ST. HELENA — The Northern California Network of Adventist Health has laid off 48 employees this year across its St. Helena region, which includes Vallejo, St. Helena and Clearlake, in an effort to close a budget gap of $6.48 million across three campuses.

Allen Wine Group LLP, a wine industry business advisory service and CPA firm, appointed Bill Atwood as general partner. …

Sunergy, Inc. appointed of Gary Houck of Napa to its board of directors and to the Sunergy management team. …

Carlton Jacobson has been appointed vice president of finance for the St. Helena Region for Adventist Health’s Northern California Network. …

Paul Selivanoff has been appointed vice president of finance, revenue management and physician services for the Northern California Network for Adventist Health. …

Tricia Williams has accepted a new position with the St. Helena Hospital Region for Adventist Healh, becoming the regional vice president of behavioral medicine and population health. …

Gastroenterologists Sumit Kohli, M.D., Paul W. Hornberger, M.D., R. Logan Faust, M.D., and Richard M. Auld, Jr., M.D., have joined Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation, part of the Sutter Health network. …

Art Peck, the current president of Gap North America, has been appointed president of the new Innovation, Digital Strategy and New Brands Division. …

Christopher Huber has been named director of private client sales and marketing for Hanzell Vineyards. …

NORTH BAY — While the overall North Bay unemployment rate remains relatively high — like much of the state — a handful of sectors are seeing growth and helping reduce the amount of joblessness claims across the region.

Unemployment rates across the North Bay dropped slightly in September, with markedly better estimates for each of the six counties than a year before and slight improvements over the month, according to state figures released this morning.

More than half the 2012 North Coast winegrape crop is off the vine and most of the rest is expected to be arriving at wineries by early November.

Many North Coast growers and wineries were surprised to find the crops were much bigger than expected around the beginning of the season.

Randy DeCaminada is the executive manager for PG&E across the North Coast. He has been involved in Sonoma County business and community affairs for more than 30 years, including top positions with businesses, professional and charitable organizations. He has served in a variety of managerial positions with the PG&E and is currently responsible for all gas and electric distribution operations, customer service, community and governmental relations for Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt, Napa and Marin counties

SANTA ROSA — Nearly 660 staff nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital went on strike Tuesday morning at Sonoma County’s biggest hospital as the St. Joseph Health-owned facility and the union representing the nurses, Staff Nurses’ Association, failed to reach agreement on a number of employment-related issues.

FAIRFIELD — Partnership HealthPlan of California will expand into Lake County, giving the nonprofit managed Medi-Cal plan a foothold in all six North Bay counties and more than 200,000 enrollees throughout Northern California.

Sutter Health, which operates a number of North Bay hospitals and other care services, has filed plans with the state to launch its own health maintenance organization by 2014 and aims to offer a commercial health plan to employer groups.