Inside Alaska Business
Sea Mart
The Hames family has owned Sea Mart, the largest supermarket in Sitka, for generations, but they’re selling to Albertsons/Safeway. The handover will include other Hames Corporation establishments Watson Point Liquors, Market Center, and Cascade Convenience Center in Sitka and Newtown Liquor in Ketchikan. The company was established in 1949 by Hopewell and Clarence Rands; their daughter Barbara Hames passed away last July at age 95 but was reportedly involved in the sale discussions. Current co-owner Roger Hames says Albertsons/Safeway intends to retain current employees and branding.
Cook Inlet Housing Authority
The Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition honored Brewster’s Apartments in Anchorage with a 2025 Recognition of Housing Tax Credit Excellence award in the Small Metropolitan Area category. Cook Inlet Housing Authority converted the former Brewster’s Clothing & Footwear store in the Mountain View neighborhood into nineteen one-bedroom apartments and two studio apartments, mostly reserved for tenants earning half the local median income (about $24,650 per year). The award also recognizes the contributions of Northrim Bank, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, and R4 Capital.
JAG Marine Group
After twenty years of management by Vigor Alaska, the Ketchikan Shipyard is poised for reinvigoration by JAG Marine Group. The facility’s owner, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, notified Vigor Alaska last March that it would not exercise a final ten-year extension to its public-private partnership, pointing to declining employment. As the new operator, JAG aims to triple or quadruple revenue coming into the shipyard in the next two years and increase employment by 100 full-time positions or more. The Michigan-based company has a maritime construction presence in Ketchikan, Seward, and nationwide.
Jacobs
A five-year contract extension retains global engineering firm Jacobs as Program Management Consultant for modernization at the Don Young Port of Alaska. Jacobs continues to manage planning, design, procurement, and construction services. “We’ve advanced a critical modernization effort in one of the world’s most challenging marine environments,” says Jacobs Global Transportation Market Director Patrick King. Jacobs has supported port modernization since it began in 2014. Next phases address the replacement of the first of the Anchorage port’s two primary cargo berths.
Nova Minerals
Winter gave Nova Minerals time to transport equipment via snow road to its Estelle project in the West Susitna area. Trucks, earthmovers, a crusher and screening plant, an ore sorter, a mill, and flotation and gravity recovery units are being set up at the site, plus a second ore sorter at Port MacKenzie. The company received a $43.4 million federal grant under the Defense Production Act to fast-track mining and refining stibnite, the source of antimony trisulfide used in explosives and lubricants. “We’re currently ahead of schedule, moving towards our first expected production by 2026/27 with urgency,” Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen said last fall.
Vizsla Copper Corp.
Since bowing out of the Palmer Project last year, American Pacific Mining Corp. found an interested buyer. A $15 million deal gives British Columbia-based Vizsla Copper Corp. full ownership while continuing a partnership with longtime local operator Constantine Mining, owned by American Pacific. Vizsla Copper expects to proceed with exploration of the zinc, copper, gold, silver, and barite prospect in the Chilkat Valley, provided it raises $25 million from investors. If exploration uncovers commercial quantities, American Pacific would earn another $15 million. American Pacific took over in 2022 when DOWA Metals and Mining, a Japanese zinc smelting company, exited.
Mexico in Alaska
After more than fifty years in business, a South Anchorage restaurant said “Adios” in September. At age 85, Mexico in Alaska owner Maria-Elena Ball is concerned that her health prevents her from taking care of customers consistently. She migrated to Alaska from the Mexican state of Michoacan in the ‘70s and opened the restaurant (originally in the Mountain View neighborhood) to serve authentic mole and tacos de lengua. The company also sold its salsa wholesale through Carrs-Safeway and New Sagaya stores.
SEARHC
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) submitted plans to the Haines Borough to construct a hospital, medical clinic, and employee housing on 12 acres. In its permit application, SEARHC describes the existing Haines clinic as requiring “drastic improvements or complete replacement.” SEARHC says the new facility would be a “critical access hospital,” which would qualify for certain federal perks such as increased Medicare compensation. Construction would begin this spring; four single-story duplexes could be finished by the end of the year, but the clinic will take until fall 2028 to complete.
Harvest Midstream
The first export terminal for liquified natural gas on the US West Coast is changing hands from Marathon Petroleum to Harvest Midstream, the pipeline affiliate of Hilcorp. When the purchase of the 100-acre Kenai property was finalized in November, CEO Jason Rebrook called it “another milestone” in advancing both Alaska’s and America’s energy infrastructure. Harvest plans to convert the terminal, which exported LNG to Japan from 1969 to 2017, to accept imports while preserving export potential. Pending federal approval, a final investment decision is expected this year. The first LNG imports would arrive in 2028.