North Bay Business Journal

Sonoma County recently has seen a sharp increase in craft beer makers opening alongside well-established producers, helping a region synonymous with wine tap more into a business with brewing demand across California.

In recent months, scores of startup breweries have emerged while the big three — Lagunitas, Russian River Brewing Company and Bear Republic — all mull expansion or increase capacity.

Demand continues to outpace supply for housing markets in the North Bay and the Bay Area, and housing prices continue to climb skyward at double-digit rates, according to a monthly housing report by San Diego-based DataQuick.

Shipments of wine directly to consumers from wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties, accounting for 69 percent of such shipments from U.S. sources, last year grew at 8.0 percent and 10.1 percent in value, respectively, helping push U.S. winery-to-consumer shipment value past that of wine exports for the first time, according to a new study.

While many businesses, homebuyers and individuals have benefited from the Federal Reserve’s continuing effort to keep interest rates low, that same economic policy — along with heightened pressure from regulators and tepid demand for new loans — has added up to a time of historic challenge for community lenders in the North Bay and beyond.

Executives at North Bay financial institutions said they saw no clear end for the current conditions.

Several large retail construction projects are reaching completion or getting started in Sonoma County this year in Petaluma, Sebastopol and Windsor.

PETALUMA — A key outcome from the recent Manufacturing Trade Fair Feb. 20 was that a majority of exhibitors had jobs ready to be filled, with more on the way.

State water-quality regulators this afternoon announced the withdrawal of a proposed conditional waiver program for vineyards in the Napa River and Sonoma Creek watersheds from state-set limits on erosion and plans to regulate vineyard water runoff under more general requirements.

ROHNERT PARK — In his annual economic forecast at the Sonoma State University Economic Outlook Conference, Dr. Robert Eyler, director of the university’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis, said that the six North Bay counties of Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Mendocino and Lake could expect “broad growth” across various sectors through 2014.

Executives of Sonoma County businesses are more confident about the current and near-term future prospects for the local economy than 2006, when the local economy started slowing, and are even more positive about their own industries, according to report released today.

And the business outlook over the next six months for Sonoma County is positive in several industries, according to a periodic survey commissioned by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

As North Bay lodging businesses look to the year ahead, most are expressing confidence for continued improvement, with occupancy rates and revenues showing steady gains across Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.

U.S. wine exports, 90 percent from California, last year increased 2.6 percent in winery revenue to a record $1.43 billion from 2011, but at the same time, shipment volume dipped 4.9 percent, a major wine trade policy advocacy group announced today.

Throughout the debate and the recent implementation of health care reform, health experts and politicians alike have touted the shift away from the fee-for-service model to more coordinated care, leading to better outcomes and lowered spending.

Beginning this year, however, the financial health of hospitals will likely depend on just how well care is coordinated, as a relatively little-known yet critically important piece of the Affordable Care Act is enacted: the “Hospital Value-based Purchasing Program,” overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

New California legislation known as the “homeowner bill of rights” helped the rate of new foreclosures to plunge in the North Bay and beyond in January, while home prices and sales in general continued a steady upward climb, according to reports released today by Irvine-based foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac and San Diego-based real estate data service DataQuick.

SANTA ROSA — Direct Flow Medical, Inc. today said it has received approval to use its transcatheter aortic heart valve replacement in Europe.

NAPA — Petaluma-based Pure Luxury Transportation is establishing a Napa Valley base of operations for up to a quarter of its 100-plus limousines, sedans, SUVs, buses and, soon, motorcoaches as part of a Bay Area expansion plan amid a double-digit increase in revenue last year.

SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa Junior College is embarking on a multi-year strategic planning process that participants say is of unprecedented scope in the college’s 95-year history, with hope that widespread community participation will strengthen a longstanding spirit of collaboration between the college, the regional business community and other stakeholders throughout the North Bay.

SANTA ROSA — While the 2012 winegrape harvest in Sonoma County appears to have been among the county’s largest ever, the market for grapes continues to be active early in the 2013 buying cycle, yet rising costs and uncertain ability to increase retail prices is crushing wine producer margins, according to industry supply and finance experts at a major seminar.

North Bay home prices continued to climb upwards in 2012, part of an overall 32 percent year-over-year boost for housing prices around the Bay Area and the fastest median price increase in more than 25 years, according to a monthly real estate market report. Combined with a continued decrease in foreclosure rates, as indicated by a separate monthly report by Irvine-based foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac, the trend points towards gradual but steady recovery for the region’s housing market.

ROHNERT PARK — In roughly a year’s time, Sonoma County will be home to the Bay Area’s largest casino, a prospect that has some people and businesses anticipating a significant economic boon to the region while others still vow to block a project in the making since 2003.

SANTA ROSA — Higher numbers of inbound flyers and an uptick in private aviation at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, together with record airline passenger volume in 2012, point towards a deeper recovery for activity at the North Bay’s only commercial airport.