North Bay Business Journal

SAUSALITO — A new broom on the Sausalito waterfront wants to sweep new, boat-friendly development into place in time for America’s Cup race spillover.

NORTH BAY — North Bay SBA lending — both 504 and 7a — increased by 35 percent in dollars and 21 percent in volume year-over-year for the first half of fiscal 2011 that began in October.

Cliff Lede’s Breggo Cellars purchased Savoy Vineyard, a 52-acre pinot noir and chardonnay property in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley. Fruit for the single-vineyard Breggo brand comes from the property. … Pinot noir producer Kosta Browne is expanding in Sebastopol, moving from one former apple processing plant to another. … In the April 11 issue, the Business Journal asked panelists of the April 28 Wine Industry Conference about trends in mergers and acquisitions and in direct sales and social media. Panelist Bill Foley, founder of Foley Family Wines, now provides his insights. … The Hess Collection in Napa gave a $10,000 grant each to The Land Trust of Napa County and the Napa County Student & Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship program (SLEWS). … The Napa Valley Vintners trade group is set to arrive in mainland China with 40 vintners from the county on a weeklong trade mission, including stops in Shanghai and Beijing to meet wine trade representatives, media, targeted consumers and political leaders. … Wine People notes

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute is expanding its reach nationally and internationally, first by making certificate courses available online for far-flung professionals then as one of a three business schools worldwide to be a host site for a traveling wine MBA program.

The winners of the Business Journal’s fifth-annual Forty under 40 awards were selected from more than 100 nominees and represent new honorees not previously chosen in 2007, 2008 or 2009 and 2010.

This fall Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute plans to launch a three-level online Wine Business Management Certificate series of courses.

NORTH BAY – The body that oversees and makes recommendations on workers’ compensation rates recently submitted a filing of cost drivers, a move that could be the first step before it recommends brokers raise premium rates by as much as 40 percent.

Currently, the 2011 grape markets in Sonoma and Napa have become more active. Market discussions and more transactions occurred in the first quarter of 2011 than during the same period in 2009 and 2010.

High-deductible health plans lead to significantly lower spending on health care, but consumers also cut back on preventative services, according to a new study.

Could wine be the next thing Stewart and Lynda Resnick help take to even greater heights than it has already achieved?

Increased wine mergers and acquisitions activity anticipated this year likely won’t be dominated by troubled-finance sales, according to one of the experts at the Business Journal wine business conference Thursday.

NORTH BAY – Pisenti & Brinker, a Santa Rosa-based accounting firm, and the Business Journal are partnering on two “Nonprofit Boot Camps” in May in Napa and Sonoma counties aimed at informing the leadership of organizations about governance, employment and financial issues.