René Ancinas stepped into the top job July 1, completing a planned succession by the family-owned forestry and real estate business. The company is based in Seattle.

Subsidiary Port Blakely Communities started to develop the highlands in the mid-1990s. The community now houses more than 7,000 people.

Ancinas, 45, succeeds James Eddy Warjone, a third-generation family member and CEO for 32 years. Ancinas has served as president and chief operating officer since December 2008. He is a fourth-generation member of the Eddy family, Port Blakely Companies’ founders and owners.

Ancinas manages and oversees forestry and real estate businesses in the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand. The operations include Port Blakely Tree Farms in Washington and Oregon, the Blakely Pacific forestlands in New Zealand, Port Blakely Communities and Pacific Lumber & Shipping, a log export business.

City planners approved the initial permit to modify the former La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries and Pacific Fabrics spaces along East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast. The city announced the approval Aug. 11.

Best Buy plans to use 38,830 square feet of the available 45,440 square feet for a store. The leftover space will remain available for a future tenant.

Besides changes to the interior, the project calls for revisions to the delivery and service driveway, and loading dock, behind the building. The plan also includes modifications to the building exterior.

The plan does not include any proposed changes to the parking lot or the access from the retail center and the road.

The applicant has requested additional signage for the store. The city plans to handle the signage issue as a separate permit.

Planners continue to review separate permits for interior and exterior alterations, plus proposed public works changes.

In February, Best Buy — headquartered in Richfield, Minn. — announced plans to open a store in Issaquah. La-Z-Boy closed in June.

The nonprofit organization plans to use the grant dollars to upgrade computers and software at the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank. The upgrades should make the client-intake process smoother.

The track record of the food bank and associated programs impressed the fund and advisory committee members, Glynda Brockhoff, philanthropy coordinator for Fred Meyer stores and the fund, said in a news release.

“We hope this community grant will help Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank continue the important work it is doing to enhance the welfare of the community,” she said. “We are proud to be part of the Issaquah community and are committed to helping where we can.”

The advisory committee includes local Fred Meyer employees. The group researches nonprofits and then awards the grants.

Employees and customers fund the grants through donations. Customers donated the money by dropping their change into coin boxes located at Fred Meyer check stands.

The fund assists nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping children and reducing hunger in communities served by 129 Fred Meyer stores in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Mark Mullet, owner of Zeeks Pizza, now plans to bring a taste of Vermont to the Issaquah Highlands. The city councilman will open a Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop next month.

The local branch of the eco-conscious company famous for punny flavors — Cherry Garcia, anyone? — and social activism will open near Caffe Ladro, inside a former home sales center about mid-September. Plans call for about 40 seats spread across 1,300 square feet.

“I think Ben & Jerry’s and Issaquah are a natural fit,” he said.

Before Mullet can start serving scoops of Chubby Hubby and Chunky Monkey, he had to attend Scoop University, the training facility for franchisees in Vermont. There, the former bank executive learned to mix milkshakes and shape waffle cones.

The biggest challenge for Mullet: cursive writing. He said another employee should handle the frosting messages atop ice cream cakes.

Edward Jones ranked highest in investor satisfaction

For the fifth year out of the past six, financial-services firm Edward Jones, including 12 financial advisors in the Issaquah area, ranks highest in investor satisfaction with full-service brokerage firms, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study.

The study measures overall investor satisfaction with full service investment firms based on seven factors: investment advisor, portfolio performance, account information, account offerings, commissions and fees, website and problem resolution. The J.D. Power and Associates study found that Edward Jones “performed particularly well across the two highest-weighted factors: investment advisor and investment performance.”

The 2010 Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 4,460 investors who primarily invest with one of the 12 firms included in the study. The study was fielded in May.

Edward Jones, which ranked No. 2 on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2010, is headquartered in St. Louis. The firm has been on the list for the past 11 years.

Goddard School teams with National Geographic

The Goddard School, with a branch in Issaquah, will play an integral role in developing a new book from the National Geographic Society.

Filled with magical science and nature adventures, the book will offer multisensory experiences for children.

The Goddard School community will help select the title and cover design, share ideas about classroom projects, test activities and contribute a collection of their own childhood memories. The book will be available this spring at retail outlets.

New mobile dog groomer debuts

Barbara Buglioli, of Issaquah, recently debuted her business, Groucho Barks Mobile Pet Grooming. She works individually with each client, offering discounts for multiple dogs and cats in the same neighborhood. Buglioli said her prices are the same or lower than many salons.

Buglioli makes the job fun for her and her clients by posting legendary Groucho Marx movie posters, postcards and other creative art on the walls around the van’s plentiful windows and high ceilings.

Buglioli also volunteers at the Seattle Humane Society, in Bellevue, helping groom dogs and cats waiting to be adopted.

Book your dog at www.grouchobarksgrooming.com.

Highmark Medical Center building opens

HighMark Investments has opened the Highmark Medical Center — a medical building spread across three floors and 46,000 square feet at Northwest Maple Street and state Route 900.

The building, across from the Issaquah Transit Center, has been certified gold under the LEED environmental rating system.

“A culmination of more than two years of careful planning and thoughtful design in protecting and enhancing the community, adjacent wetlands and staying true to preserving the environment, leads us to the end result of providing Issaquah a beautiful new state-of-the art building,” HighMark CEO Mike Kerby said in a news release.

The building houses locations for Northwest Asthma & Allergy Center, Lake Washington Vascular, Medical Arts Group of Issaquah, TLJ Aesthetics, Washington Imaging Services and Restorix/Innovative Health. About 80 percent of the building has been leased.

Texas company buys Issaquah pawnshop operator

Issaquah-based Maxit Financial — operator of the Pawn X-Change chain in Washington and other pawnshops in Arizona — has been sold to a Texas company for $70 million.

Cash America International, based in Fort Worth, and the Issaquah company announced the decision Aug. 2. The companies expect the deal to be finalized by the fourth quarter.

The chain operates 29 stores in Washington, and 10 in Arizona under the Maxit Pawn & Retail name. Cash America boasts more than 1,000 locations nationwide, including five in Washington.

Pawn X-Change started in 1993 and has since grown into one of the largest privately-owned pawnshop chains in the nation.

Pomegranate Center joins Walla Walla project

Through a collaboration with Walla Walla-based nonprofit Commitment to Community, Issaquah’s Pomegranate Center is working with residents of a neighborhood in Walla Walla to transform a misused open space in their neighborhood.

This project comes on the heels of a similar project in Walla Walla, where Pomegranate Center collaborated to build a neighborhood gathering place in one week. That project received the 2009 Washington State Evergreen Award for groundbreaking collaboration.

Mark Mullet hopes to bring a taste of Vermont to the Issaquah Highlands. The city councilman plans to open a Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop in the neighborhood next month.

Mullet plans to open the local branch of the eco-conscious company famous for punny flavors — Cherry Garcia, anyone? — and social activism near Caffe Ladro, inside a former home sales center. He hopes to open the shop in mid-September. Plans call for about 40 seats spread across 1,300 square feet.

“I think Ben & Jerry’s and Issaquah are a natural fit,” he said.

Before Mullet could start serving scoops of Chubby Hubby and Chunky Monkey, however, he had to attend Scoop University, the training facility for franchisees in South Burlington, Vt. There, the former bank executive learned to mix milkshakes and shape waffle cones.

The biggest challenge for Mullet: cursive writing. He said another employee should handle the frosting messages atop ice cream cakes.

Mullet opened a Zeeks Pizza franchise in the highlands last June. In November, he became the first highlands resident to serve on the City Council.

Creating art on company time doesn’t get you into trouble at Issaquah-based Artitudes Design Inc. — in fact, it’s just the opposite.

Employees at Artitudes spend a lot of their time creating luxe graphics campaigns, but they also spend it making sparkly CD fish, clothespin-animal picture holders and bean mosaics in schools.

Carrie Meredith (left), executive assistant with Artitudes Design Inc., of Issaquah, looks over the progress of a student’s art project during an art docent campaign classroom visit. Contributed

Why, you may ask? In a time of severe budget constraints for local and state governments, Andrea Heuston, Artitudes Design owner and creative principal, said it’s important to shell out to save art in public schools.

“Today, a lot of teachers are so fixated on tests and scores, and they are so fixated on trying to meet benchmarks, that art gets taken out to meet those other needs,” Heuston said. “Our job is to put it back in.”

For three years, her employees have been leaving their desks to bring art projects into struggling elementary and secondary school classrooms as part of the Artitudes in Action: Art Docent Campaign.

Since 2007, the company has donated $22,500 in supplies and paid employee volunteer hours to four schools in the Northshore, Sultan, Highline and Snoqualmie school districts.

It is a personal mission, she said, adding that she was influenced to embark on her career by art teachers and classes while she was in school.

“Not everyone is a math person and the teacher may not be an art person, so some children may not get to do art in their class,” docent and executive assistant Carrie Meredith said. The program “gives everyone the opportunity to learn something different and grow.”

Docents from Artitudes come prepared with everything for an art project; supplies, tools, lesson plans and a volunteer to give teachers a much-needed break, she said.

But more than something to fill time, art docents work with teachers to make projects relevant to what children are learning in class, whether it’s science, math, literature or history.

For instance, “the sixth-graders at Woodin Elementary were learning about Egyptian gods and Egyptian history. They hadn’t studied it before, so the teacher didn’t have a project,” Meredith said. “So, to help them, we had a guide that showed them how to write their name, and then we had them create an Egyptian god and come up with a symbol for it.”

While not every employee becomes a docent, everyone participates in the program, Heuston said.

Employees contribute by bringing supplies, said Lori Hudson, business operations manager and a docent.

Since many supplies are actually recyclable items, like egg and milk cartons, there is a lot of participation. What isn’t donated, like googly-eyes, pipe cleaners, paints and sparkles, the company spends its own money on.

While using recyclables saves money, it also shows children they can create art from nearly anything, Hudson said.

The company’s Monday meetings also start by making a craft, instead of giving reports, Meredith said, so docents get to try out new art projects before bringing them into classrooms.

But there’s the added benefit of boosting employee morale, too.

“Everyone loves the craft projects,” she said. “It’s something hands-on that we create together.”

High morale and the opportunity to make a difference is the reason, Heuston said, the company has earned numerous awards for being a great place to work.

While the docent program helped more than 400 children create art projects this year, Heuston said she would like to see that number grow.

To do that, the company is creating a nonprofit organization in the next few years to allow other businesses to donate supplies, funding or allow their employees to volunteer time, too.

“We have so many of our clients that want to be involved and who think art is important,” she said. Because “without art in schools, who will be our next generation of artists?”

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

On the Web

www.artitudesdesign.com

Joey Nicole Boudoir features photographer Joey Nicole, a University of Washington graduate from the Bellevue area. Nicole studied under internationally recognized photographer Bob Davis.

She attended the Boudoir Divas Conference in San Diego, Calif., where she worked with leaders in the industry to master the art of working with women in all aspects of shooting boudoir photography.

While many initially book a shoot with the intention of giving Joey’s famed Little Black Book as a gift, many clients say, “I booked this for him, but after doing the shoot I now realize this was so much more for me.”

Nicole’s boudoir photography studio offers clients a comfortable environment, as well as on-site professional makeup application by ILoveBlush.com, a unique-to-you playlist of music to help put you in the mood, nearly instant photo viewing after the shoot, free parking directly outside the studio and more.

Learn more at www.joeynicoleboudoir.com.

The magazine lauded Aegis, saying the Redmond-based company places emphasis “on seniors living with dignity, and special programs and facilities at each location ensure that assisted living, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients are afforded the opportunity to remain active members of each community.”

The company operates 12 senior communities in Washington, including Aegis of Issaquah, 780 N.W. Juniper St.

“We are proud to be recognized by our community, it means so much to all of us here at Aegis Living,” Dwayne Clark, company chairman and CEO, said in a news release. “It is just another example of the hard work and compassion our employees bring to our communities and the way ‘We Make Life Better’ every day for our residents and their families.”

Best Buy seeks to remodel the former La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries in the shopping center along East Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast.

Plans call for Best Buy to occupy the former furniture store and the long-empty Pacific Fabrics space. The store should open by early 2011.

Best Buy has proposed to modify the front of the building, as well as the truck-loading dock in the back. In order to accommodate the updated delivery area, the chain has proposed added landscaping to the north, east and west sides of the building.

In February, Best Buy — headquartered in Richfield, Minn. — announced plans to open a store in Issaquah. La-Z-Boy closed last month.

Confetti Cupcakes & Confections opened at 94 Front St. N. in late June. The shop offers frosting-slathered cupcakes and drinks in a bright, airy space. Linger in the summer sunshine at the bistro table perched outside. During the early weeks after the shop opened, patrons lined up for moist cupcakes capped by a variety of homemade frostings.

The lineup includes classics — think carrot and red velvet cupcakes — and updates on standbys. Chocolate cupcakes, for instance, come bedazzled by crushed Oreos or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Learn more at www.confetti-cakes.com or e-mail info@confetti-cakes.com.