North Bay Business Journal

Allen Wine Group, LLP, a Calistoga-based wine industry business advisory service and CPA firm, now offers bookkeeping services. …

Nine Marin County communities recently qualified for national “Green Power Community” recognition by the Environmental Protection Agency due to the countywide switch to renewable electric service from Marin Clean Energy. …

Rohnert Park-based sheet metal engineering and fabricator ASM Precision, Inc., purchased and installed a new AMADA EMLK 3610NT punch and laser combination machine. …

Zap Jonway Automobile (ZAAP), manufacturer of electric vehicles and other new energy vehicles with operations in Santa Rosa and China, is exhibiting at the 15th International Shanghai Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition. …

The city of Santa Rosa earned the highest achievement for its economic development programming — the Award of Excellence — from the California Association of Local Economic Development. …

Healdsburg’s SHED, a multifaceted market, café, coffee bar, fermentation bar and “modern Grange” event center is now open to the public. …

FAIRFIELD — Solano County is enjoying a resurgence in jobs and taxable sales, but high home foreclosure rates and indications of job importation are among regional improvements needed for the local economy fully to rebound, an economist said Thursday.

FAIRFIELD — The five privately operated hospitals in Solano County make up more than 11 percent of the local economy, making health care a key driver that could be even more important in the future, according to a new study that details the economic impact of Solano County’s hospitals.

NORTH BAY — Unemployment rates across the North Bay either dropped slightly or remained the same in July from the month before, as most counties saw yearly job growth in a number of industries, according to figures from the state Economic Development Department.

SANTA ROSA — A public-private Sonoma County partnership aimed at spurring job growth plans to survey 100 local businesses in as many days on what they need to stay and thrive in the county.

Share your thoughts: Should North Bay local governments provide financial and other incentives to attract and retain businesses?

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. today announced it asked state regulators for the right to offer a competitive electric rate to attract large employers to California and convince other large employers already in the state to maintain or expand their operations rather than leave.

A look back at three decades of new and expanded manufacturing facilities in California leaves us scratching our head. What’s the state’s next big game changer? Our investment highs this decade equal our lows of the ’80s and ’90s.

SONOMA COUNTY — The Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce today announced the appointment of Carolyn Stark as executive director of the Building Economic Success Together program, a countywide economic development organization created to spur job growth while making Sonoma County more economically competitive.

SANTA ROSA — A list of viable business enhancing proposals, that could help jump start the local Santa Rosa economy and be implemented quickly, is being actively considered by the Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Competitiveness.

SANTA ROSA — Despite concerns from some members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors about more spending at a time of county budget cuts, the board this morning voted 4-1 for a three-year grant for $100,000 annually to the economic development program Building Economic Success Together, or BEST.

SANTA ROSA — Natural prepared foods maker Amy’s Kitchen plans to open a $63 million, 700-employee production plant in Greenville, S.C., in January 2012, according to an announcement today by South Carolina officials. Acquisition of a 125,000-square-foot former bakery includes land that could accommodate a plant twice that size, according to a commercial real estate agent involved in the pending deal.

Marin County’s economic recovery is under way slowly with some sectors improving but employment lagging, according to the Spring Economic Bulletin released tonight by the Marin Economic Forum.

SANTA ROSA — A proactive and coordinated effort from the public and private sectors targeting job growth, Sonoma County BEST – “Building Economic Success Together” — officially kicked off with a breakfast this morning at Santa Rosa Junior College.

MARIN – The Marin County Board of Supervisors has approved giving the Marin Economic Forum $150,000 to continue its work.

The Santa Rosa City Council is expected next week to approve a package of rule changes designed to help business, such as fee deferrals, zoning extensions and waiving some parking requirements.

The efforts are welcome and the relief badly needed. And they are a validation that the devastated budgets of the city and other public agencies are inextricably tied to the success or lack thereof a community’s businesses.

SANTA ROSA — The Santa Rosa City Council has agreed to explore what are being labeled by city officials as “aggressive” additions to a plan for kickstarting the city’s economy.

NORTH BAY — The good news is that the worst part of the recession generally is over for the local construction industry, according to conference panelist Rob Eyler, chair of the Sonoma State University Economics Department and director of the institution’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis.

Dr. Eyler will be one of the panelists at the Business Journal’s annual Construction Conference on Wednesday, offering opportunities for the North Bay economy and its significant construction industry to prepare for the next business cycle.

NORTH BAY — The North Bay Business Journal has selected 10 women from Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties for its 10th annual Women in Business awards honoring leaders, innovators and visionaries across a wide range of professions.

NORTH BAY – Registration for the SSU Economic Outlook Conference, produced in collaboration with the Business Journal, closes on Friday. The event is on Feb. 25 from 7:30 to noon, and tickets are $49 per person and include continental breakfast. To register, contact Linda Perkins at events@busjrnl.com or 707-521-5264, or register online at www.NorthBayBusinessJournal.com.

The conference will center on the need for business leaders to come together and take action on creating a regional economic development organization, including strategies for spurring growth at a local level. An outlook for the local and national economies will also give information on how businesses can best prepare for what is to come, and a panel discussion will examine in detail modes of stimulating job creation, retention and entrepreneurism.

The North Bay has no shortage of dedicated business leaders who work diligently every day on behalf of making their communities better places to work and live.