A local farmer’s market is what Snohomish County’s farmers have been saying they need for years. Thanks to developer Lobsang Dargey, it’s what they’re finally getting.

Pagoda Village, a 425,000 sq ft mixed use development that includes a hotel and 220 apartment units, as well as the year-round farmer’s market with a commercial kitchen and two restaurants, broke ground last fall and is expected to be completed within 18 months, just in time for spring of 2014.

The distribution center at the market is intended to be a way for local farmers to compete with out-of-state crops; currently, for example, local grocery stores are selling lettuce trucked in from California, which doesn’t help the local farmers or the local consumers the way that being able to locally distribute in volume would.

Financed thus far entirely by EB-5 investors from China, the development is clearly going to enhance Everett’s downtown and its community life while allowing the city to focus their money on other improvements to the downtown core, though they are considering targeting the Pagoda Village hotel with federal new market tax credits the city secured several years ago.  A condition of EB-5 investment is that the investors must put at least $500,000 into a project that will create 10 or more new jobs, a figure Pagoda Village is easily going to exceed, and by quite a lot.

Professors Amit Bandyopadhyay and Susmita Bose of Washington State University (WSU) are becoming world leaders in the field of 3D printing research. In fact, their research is out of this world. The WSU researchers made headlines late last year after they devised a way to use artificial moon dust, supplied by NASA, in a 3D printing device. The project was meant to test the capabilities of building parts for a potential moon base. The collaboration between NASA and WSU caught the attention of the European Space agency which is also now investigating the possibility of building a moon base using 3D printers.

More recently WSU established a partnership with Aerojet to explore ways 3D printers could manufacture parts for satellites while in orbit. Aerojet is a world leader in rocket and aerospace manufacturing.  The partnership is supported by the Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI), an state initiative meant to connect academic research with industry. Washington’s state legislature established JCATI in 2012 to make sure that Washington remains a global leader in aerospace innovation.

PACCAR Inc. is getting a boost from international markets, thanks in part to demand for more efficient and specialized vehicles that the company is producing, particularly in Europe. Demand for the smaller, more efficient engines is also trending up in North America.

The company’s Renton plant is increasingly devoted to producing “off-road” vehicles used in forestry and other sectors involved in natural resource  in places like China, Indonesia and Australia.

In addition to its multiple production facilities in North America, the Bellevue-based company has subsidiaries which manufacture trucks in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and in Brazil where a new 300,000 square foot factory is soon to be completed. PACCAR generates around half of its revenue outside the United States.

PACCAR expects demand for these smaller more efficient engines to rise as builders look for cheaper ways to supply the growing number of construction sites in the U.S. Such innovations are helping PACCAR trucks remain some of the most in-demand trucks across the globe.

The recent beautiful weather is reason alone for international visitors from destinations far and wide to flock to the Greater Seattle region. Indeed, tourism was up in 2012, with international tourists contributing $1.9 billion according to the Washington State Tourism Alliance. Of course, credit can’t be given to weather alone, but with summer right around the corner, now is an excellent opportunity to come together and brainstorm even m0re ways of getting the word out about all the things the region has to offer.

The City of Seattle’s ‘City Business Casual’ this week on May 9th is a great opportunity to do just that. Representatives from the tourism and hospitality sector, including business, government and industry associations, will be gathering at 5pm at the Washington State Convention Center for an evening of networking and idea sharing.

For more information about this week’s City Business Casual, visit  http://www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment/citybusinesscasual.htm. No RSVP necessary, just come on down!

At least 1.5 million mobile applications are surfing around in the world, according to applications analytics firm App Annie. Seattle-based Big Fish Games stands out in this industry and is developing some of the most valued games for mobile in the world.

The company’s Casino app is the top-grossing app in the world for iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) according to App Annie.

Demand for this app is international. According to Geekwire, sales in the UK boosted profits over the top, where players use real money to gamble with. In the US players use fake chips.

Big Fish Games has offices in Canada, Ireland and Luxembourg as well as the US.  In 2012 the company had $220 million in bookings, up 20 percent from 2011 and its 10th straight record year.  It is part of a cluster of companies in the Puget Sound region that have mobile gaming apps as part of their portfolio, and are finding success. Seattle-based Double Down offers a casino game on Facebook, and generated $128 million in revenue in the past year.

Apps like the Casino app are cementing Big Fish’s place as a leader in the mobile gaming industry and making it one of the top software companies in the Greater Seattle area. The Puget Sound Business Journal ranks Big Fish as the 7th largest software company in the region. Big Fish’s global reach gives it a solid foundation on which it is poised to continue growing.

The Greater Seattle health industry is making a name for itself in China, thanks to Columbia Pacific. The Seattle-based real estate development and operating company, announced last week that it will be building a senior care facility in China. The 60,000 square foot and 110-bed facility will open this summer in southeast Beijing.

Columbia Pacific’s China-based affiliate, Cascade Healthcare, is partnering with Chinese developer Sino-Ocean Land to both develop and operate the facility. Cascade Healthcare is based in Seattle with offices in Tacoma, and is the first fully licensed foreign-invested senior care company in China.  Its partnership with Sino-Ocean land is the first time a foreign senior living operator is working with a major Chinese developer.

Cascade Healthcare has already opened a senior care facility in Shanghai in 2012 and will open another one in Shanghai’s Pudong District this fall.

According to some estimates, China’s senior population will grow to 280 million people over the next 10 years.

is located in Seattle!

Located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the new Bullitt Center provides a true model for sustainable commercial development. All of the functions that run a commercial building – water supply, power, waste management, temperature control – are supplied as much as possible by onsite systems and technologies. The building also monitors the amount of electricity it produces vs. consumption. It feeds left over power into the Seattle City Light grid.

The majority of the building’s power is supplied by solar arrays. Waste is treated and composted onsite and features composting toilets. The building’s water needs are served by rainwater catchment systems.

Owned by the Bullitt Foundation, the new building aims to meet the requirements of the Living Building Design Challenge, an international sustainable building certification program. It is more rigorous than green certification provided by LEED.

This building is emblematic of Greater Seattle’s leadership in sustainability and its strong clean tech sector. Customers of public utility firms such as Snohomish County Public Utility District get their power from multiple sources including hydroelectric, biomass, wind and solar. Clean tech companies specialize in green building materials, renewable energy generation and storage, environmental assessment and remediation, aviation biofuels, clean sources of power for emerging economies, and more.

The relationship between Greater Seattle and Korea is a rich one, spanning trade, culture, tourism and educational exchange. The sister city relationship between Seattle and Daejeon spans over two decades, and Seattle is home to the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, as well as Morning Star Korean Cultural Center, a premier center for Korean cultural events in the US.

On April 22nd, Daejeon is reaching out to her Seattle sister city with a one time performance by the visiting Daejeon Yeonjeng Municipal Orchestra at Benaroya Hall. The performance will spotlight the diversity that is traditional music in Korea: music from the ancient Silla dynasty; traditional folk dance music; improvisational music of rituals, royal court music and more.

The Trade Alliance and the Seattle Metro Chamber had the opportunity to visit Daejeon and Seoul in 2010 with the International Leadership Program. Delegations from the City of Daejeon and the National Science Museum have also visited Greater Seattle in the last several years.

Admission to the program is free and open to the public.  To register for tickets, visit http://koreafantasy.eventbrite.com.  More information is also available via the Morning Star Korea Cultural Center’s website.

Washington State has a thriving craft beer industry, ranking 8th in the United States for most breweries per capita in 2011. In fact, the first American microbrewery was started in Yakima. But now, our state isn’t the only place you can enjoy a Washington beer, as the industry starts to expand globally.

According to the Brewers Association, American craft beer exports increased by a record-breaking 72% in 2012, with a value of close to $50 million. Washington State helped lead the charge, with breweries like Airways Brewing Company, Two Beers Brewing, and Scuttlebutt Brewing exporting their flagship beers.

Not surprisingly, Canada was the largest export market in 2012. Sweden and the United Kingdom follow as #2 and #3. However, exports to Asia-Pacific region grew by 162% – strong gains were made in Australia, China, and Hong Kong, as well as Thailand and Japan.

Exports don’t seem to be slowing down in 2013. Back in February, Spokane’s No-Li Brewhouse announced it will start exporting its beer to Sweden. There is also a new company dedicated to exporting American beer called CraftCanTravel, which recently signed an agreement to export Washington State’s Red Hook Brewery beer to Europe and Asia. Breweries can also take advantage of the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Export Assistance Program, which helps food-producing small businesses increase exports to Chinese, Mexican, Korean, and Japanese markets. Now that’s something we can all toast to!

Some of Washington State’s trade data has been released, and the results are both enlightening and mostly encouraging. According to the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, the top 5 countries that Washington exports merchandise to is 1) China 2) Japan 3) Canada 4) UAE 5) South Korea.

China led as Washington’s #1 partner by importing close to $14.2 billion worth of merchandise. However, when removing pass-throughs (products that were not produced by Washington State but simply passed through for shipment), Japan ends up soaring to the top spot.

Looking at the statistic further, it is clear that aerospace plays a huge role. Of Washington’s top 10 trading countries, aerospace was the main import from our state for 9 of them. Our exports to the UAE, totaling over $5 billion, was thanks primarily to aerospace products. Other important commodities included fuel, industrial & electrical machinery, wheat, and wood products.

A last thing of note is the promise that Mexico holds as an up and coming trade partner. In 2012, Mexico imported over $2.8 billion worth of merchandise from Washington State, which is a 109% increase from 2011 and making it our 7th largest trade partner. That was the largest increase of any other country.