Strictly business: Valley business news, July 6

New hires, apartment building sale, airport news and more.|

Landlord wanted: The 42-unit Madrone Apartment complex in Glen Ellen is for sale for $9.95 million. Situated on 2.87 acres, the property consists of seven single-story buildings on two parcels plus a community laundry room and pool. Built in the 1960s, there are adjacent 12 and 30 unit complexes operating as one property and being sold as a package. The broker is Scott Gerber of Bradley Real Estate.

New hire: Jennifer Richards, former general manager at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Rosa, has joined Sonoma County Tourism as its vice president of sales. Richards also previously served on SCT's board of directors. Richards started her hospitality career at the then-privately owned Sonoma Mission Inn. SCT is a private, nonprofit marketing and sales organization dedicated to sustaining the hospitality economy in Sonoma County.

Tourism stats: Tourism in Sonoma County generates in excess of $2.09 billion annually for the local economy, over $177 million in government revenue, and supports more than 22,690 jobs. For more stats, visit www.sonomacounty.com.

Impact news: The grant-making collective Impact 100 recently elected three new members to its now 16-member board of directors. Sarah Carroll will serve as Assistant Membership Chair, Marney Malik will serve as Co-Treasurer and Dana Simpson-Stokes will serve as Co-Community Grants Chair. A complete list of Impact100 Sonoma board members can be found at www.impact100sonoma.org/about-us/board-of-directors/.

A national problem: Property-market analysts polled by Reuters have found that house prices in the U.S. are rising twice as fast as the rate of pay, and the housing supply hasn't been able to keep up with rising demand, making home-ownership less and less affordable. This problem is not unique to Sonoma.

Promotion: North Bay Credit Union has named Steve Sanders to manage construction loans and mortgages. Sanders has spent 33 years in real estate sales and mortgage lending. He will oversee mortgage lending for the credit union's new Sonoma Valley branch, scheduled to open in Nino Marco Square this summer.

Medical news: Dr. Alex Rainow has joined Sonoma Valley Hospital as the Medical Director for the Cardiopulmonary Department, replacing Dr. James Price, who has retired. In other news, Sonoma Family Practice became part of the Sonoma Valley Hospital's group of Specialty Clinics, effective July 2. In weight-loss news, Dr. Scott V. Perryman and Dr. Crystine Lee, have opened a new practice in Sonoma dedicated to bariatric (weight loss) surgery at 651 First St. W. (online at whweightloss.com). Information sessions are held on the second Wednesday of each month at Sonoma Valley Hospital beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Airport news: Alaska Airlines, which has been serving the Santa Rosa airport for 11 years, has upgraded some of its planes flying in and out of Sonoma County to first class and has added inflight WiFi, insight entertainment, bigger windows and larger bins.

New hire: Ted Witt (previously of Clif Bar) has joined Sonoma Brands' Smashmallow team as its vice president of operations. Previous to Clif, Witt held the same title at Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, an international grower and shipper of organic produce.

Email business news to lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.