INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS.

Alaska Division of Agriculture

The Totchaket Agricultural Project on state land near Nenana is going forward. The state Division of Agriculture expects to hold land sales around midsummer on 30,000 acres of the 140,000-acre project, with tracts ranging from 5 to 5,000 acres but mostly around 40. A new bridge across the Nenana River made the area accessible, and Doyon, Limited built a road, initially for oil and gas exploration. Unlike previous state-led agricultural projects at Delta and Poinl Mackenzie, Division Director David Schade says landowners will have more flexibility to define "agricultural use," with no rigid timelines for development.

dnr.alaska.gov/ag/nentot/

Imaging Associates

Advanced MRI is empowering physicians and improving patient experience at Imaging Associates in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The MAGNETOM Vida 3T MRI with BioMatrix technology has a 70-centimeter bore and a new magnet design that lets the scanner adapt to patients of all shapes and sizes. Imaging Associates CEO Ward Hinger says the technology delivers a personalized MRI experience with greater diagnostic accuracy, decreasing the need for re-scans.

imagingak.com/mat-su-valley-iocation

Sonic Drive-In

Fans of fast food served on roller skates need not travel all the way to Wasilla anymore. Sonic Drive-ln opened its second Alaska location at Huffman Road in South Anchorage. As usual when a new chain restaurant arrives, customers lined up around the block on opening day.

sonicdrivein.com

Port of Alaska

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) must pay the Municipality of Anchorage $367,446,809 because of defective construction at the city-owned Port of Alaska. A judge granted the city's full request in February, following a December ruling by the US Court of Federal Claims which found that DOT's Maritime Administration breached its contract to ensure defect-free open-cell sheet piles. Defects halted port construction a decade ago.

portofalaska.com

Ucore

The next phase of developing a facility near Ketchikan to separate rare earth elements is proceeding without the team that invented the technology. Three top executives of Innovation Metals, which was...