The Next Generation of Spokane

The Indian pharmaceutical company, Jubilant Organosys, announced last week that it paid $122.5 million cash (cash!) for the laboratories of HollisterStier, a Spokane-based pharmaceutical company. HollisterStier specializes in allergy-treatment shots, and Jubilant is an enormous pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Jubilant plans to complete a $30 million expansion (which began last year), adding 50,000 square-feet to the 150,000 square foot plant.

In other Spokane news, fifty-one low-income residents in a downtown Spokane building are wondering whether or not California-based BlueRay Tecnologies will be taking over the building. The company has already madea deposit on the three-story commercial building, and would like to drop $12 million to turn it into a manufacturing facility. The plant could employ up to 150 workers.

There is a catch, of course. BlueRay is trying to figure out whether the residents and the factory can coexist. The building was formerly an annex to a local hotel, featuring single-occupancy rooms that were subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. BlueRay's plans include disc-making equipment in the basement and facilities on the first floor, which could allow residents to remain upstairs

BlueRay makes "next generation DVDs." Now, what are next generation DVDs? Apparently, they have much more memory than regular DVDs. One reviewer wrote:

. . .the picture was crisper, the colours more vibrant and there was an almost hallucinogenic 3D-like quality to the film.

The high capacity of both new formats - 50GB for a dual-layer Blu-ray disc and 30GB for a dual-layer HD-DVD - also means that there is a potential for even more content.

This is an interesting project because this part of Spokane is known to have a higher crime rate, and most of the residents in the building suffer from mental illnesses and drug and alcohol abuse problems. If the company decides that they can't co-exist, it could be a struggle to find alternative housing. If they can coexist, BlueRay could be a role model for this type of expansion.

SOURCES: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Spokesman Review, BBC