July 2022 Volume 21 | Issue 7
Kennewick company answers the call when remote workers hit the road By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
A specialty publication of the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business Page C1
Science & Technology
PNNL patents method of extracting lithium from water Page A23
Real Estate & Construction
$40M senior complex takes shape near Canyon Lakes Page B1
NOTEWORTHY “This is real science that is directly helping the public.” - Jillian Legard, lab supervisor, Benton-Franklin Health District
Page A27
Muncie, Indiana, is offering $5,000 cash for remote workers who move to the town an hour northwest of Indianapolis. Muncie, home to Ball State University, is one of dozens of towns in dozens of states competing for well-paid workers on MakeMyMove.com, a website helping towns woo remote workers who can live anywhere. John Heaton, president and founder of Pay Plus Benefits Inc., a Kennewick-based company that serves as the HR department for hundreds of clients, relishes the offerings and their flowery language. Muncie, for example, touts its Cornerstone Center for the Arts, noting it “provides opportunities for creative expression.” It is the reputed birthplace of Garfield the cat, served as a model for “Parks and Recreation” and Ball State claims David Letterman as an alum. Heaton laughs because the come-hither offers seldom disclose the downside to moving across state lines with an existing job: Each state has its own unique mix of income taxes (or not), workers’ compensation, family leave, health insurance and other requirements. Employee and employer can easily run afoul of the rules of the new state if they don’t go in with their eyes open and the rules followed.
Finding a niche Pay Plus Benefits spied an opportunity to serve companies with remote workers when Pew Research statistics indicated the share of remote workers interested in moving rose to 17%, up from 9% in 2020. Heaton doesn’t think remote work is going away. He noted Amazon and other employers recruited Tesla workers upset over orders to return to the office. “The genie is out of the bottle,” Heaton said. Heaton’s new business line, Out-of-State Easy, manages the rules for a growing list of clients with workers who want to decamp from high-cost communities to lower-cost ones, or to be closer to family. It is set up to employ uPAY PLUS BENEFITS, Page A13
Photo by Wendy Culverwell Laurie McCoy, left, owner of Mail by the Mall, and Ashley Bobiles, store manager, celebrate the move to a new location near the Olive Garden. Their old building on Gage Boulevard stood in the path of the future Center Parkway extension, which will link Gage to Tapteal Drive near Columbia Center mall.
Mail by the Mall moves out of the path of Center Parkway extension By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Mail by the Mall, the feisty, independent mailbox business in the path of the future Center Parkway extension, has moved. The business started by Laurie McCoy and her late mother Dee is staying true to its name after moving into leased quarters “by the mall” at 1360 N. Louisiana St., Suite A. The new spot is near Olive Garden, Artfetti Cakes and the AMC Classic 12 movie theater. “My name is ‘Mail by the Mall,’ so I had to be close to the mall,” said Laurie McCoy, whose family agreed to sell the old location, 8220 W. Gage Blvd., to the city of
Richland in January for $745,000 through an eminent domain action. It was one of several parcels the city purchased in its bid to connect Center Parkway to Tapteal Drive across Port of Benton-owned railroad tracks. Richland, the lead on the $6 million project, took possession of the building and will award a road-construction contract in early August. The contract will include demolishing the now-vacant building. The new road could be open next spring, linking Gage Boulevard to Tapteal Drive near Columbia Center mall. But for Mail by the Mall, the only thing uMAIL BY THE MALL, Page A4
New commercialization director brings can-do spirit to PNNL tech transfer By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
With apologies to the Farmers Insurance ad, Christina Lomasney knows a thing or two because she’s seen a thing or two. She studied physics to become a professor, then launched two businesses that overcame improbable odds to success. As director of commercialization for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, she draws on all her experience to push technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory into the commercial marketplace, part of its mission to bolster the U.S. economy and national security. Lomasney brings the experience of leading two successful ventures in Seattle to the post. In 2015, Fortune named her one of the World’s Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs.
By that time, Lomasney had weathered challenges that would have tested most young ventures. Instead, she and her teams fought through the setbacks and built thriving companies. She moved to the Tri-Cities in 2020, after leaving her latest venture, Seattle-based Modumetal Inc. She was intrigued by the area and because her now-husband, Gen. James Mattis, lives here. Before joining PNNL, she joined the Entrepreneur in Residence program at Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland and got to know the PNNL commercialization team and the “amazing” array of discoveries within the lab. When her predecessor, Lee Cheatham, left in January, she jumped at the chance to lead the commercialization program. uLOMASNEY, Page A11
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