The week in review – What’s happening around town related to North Idaho real estate?

The strong real estate market is holding, with leaders in the industry still growing:

The top three Inland Northwest builders of single-family homes—Viking Construct­ion Inc., Sullivan Homes Inc., and Green­stone Corp.—all saw their total building-permit values rise last year, compared with 2006, says an annual list compiled by Cedar City, Utah-based Construction Monitor Inc. The combined value of permits obtained by the area’s top 10 builders last year was $177.8 million, down from $180.7 million the year before.

Another company growing and expanding, creating more jobs in the area:

Magnuson Hotels, a 5-year-old Spokane-based company that markets and provides reservation management services to independent hotels, says its business has soared since it launched a branding campaign last September.

About 100 hotels across the country currently are in various stages of changing their identities to the Magnuson Hotel brand, says Tom Magnuson, CEO of the company, which portrays itself as a low-cost alternative to expensive franchise chains. Another 500 hotels are affiliated with Magnuson Hotels, but aren’t using its brand name, he says.

Manufacturing is increasing slowly but surely:

A Rathdrum Prairie company that makes foam insulation and packaging materials is expanding its manufacturing complex considerably and plans to hire five to six additional workers once the expansion is completed.

The company, FMI-EPS LLC, which formerly was known as Foam Molders Inc., is having a 31,000-square-foot plant built for it just east of its current, 45,000-square-foot facility at 9456 McGuire Road, which is just south of Hayden Avenue and north of the city of Post Falls. The total cost of the project, including a $900,000 piece of equipment that will be installed in the new building, is about $3.4 million, says Gary Bremer, who co-owns FMI-EPS with his wife, Glenda.