INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS.

Three Bears Alaska

The retail chain serving Alaska's smaller towns is expanding, though exactly where is not yet clear. Three Bears Alaska announced more new stores in the next three years, thanks to a recapitalization deal with Seattle-based Westward Partners. Three Bears, originally based in Tok, operates nine stores in Alaska--from Ninilchik to Healy--and one in Butte, Montana.

threebearsalaska.com

ACDA

More housing returns to Anchorage's original townsite with the construction of a five-floor apartment building in the heart of downtown. A groundbreaking ceremony in March marked the start of construction on the Block 96 Flats project at 8th Avenue and K Street. The Anchorage Community Development Authority (ACDA) owns the land and formed a partnership with Debenham Properties, which is building the 48-unit apartment complex. That section of downtown, just north of the Delaney Park Strip, has not had any new market-rate (that is, nonsubsidized) housing since the '80s. Block 96 Flats has a price tag of $11.6 million. acda.net/projects

CITC

A video game developed by Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) is a recipient of a 2022 Peabody Award for Digital and Interactive Storytelling. The awards for excellence in broadcast storytelling expanded last year to include achievements in interactive media. The inaugural class includes "legacy" awards for past years, including the 2014 release Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna). The video game, based on a traditional Inupiaq story about a young person who fights a great blizzard, was developed by CITC's for-profit subsidiary. Upper One Games, in cooperation with gaming company E-Line Media. Revenue from Never Alone helps fund CITC's nonprofit programs.

citci.org

ANTHC

The omnibus federal spending bill contains huge earmarks for Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC). Out of Senator Lisa Murkowski's forty special requests, the largest single item is $27.7 million for ANTHC to expand the emergency department at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. The consortium also gets a combined $37.5 million to provide water and wastewater service in six rural villages. Another $27 million earmark (not for ANTHC) pays for a 15-mile road out of Kotzebue to the site...