Inside Alaska Business
4T% Ranch
Days before the impending shutdown of the only US Department of Agriculture-certified meat processing plant in Southcentral, a Soldotna rancher came to the rescue. Ben Adams of 4T% Ranch committed to buying Mt. McKinley Meat & Sausage in Palmer. The previous owner, a joint venture with a Delta Junction hog farmer, announced last September that they would take no more customers after November 1, citing the high cost of feed for livestock awaiting slaughter. Adams, who has amassed a herd of more than 250 cattle since starting his ranch a few years ago, says he plans to alter the business by processing wild game as well. He says the slaughterhouse will help put his beef in front of more customers at stores and restaurants, which can only accept meat from a certified processor. Alaska has only two others: Delta Meat and Sausage in Delta Junction and AK’s Midstate Meats in North Pole.
Pacific Seafood
Kodiak’s largest seafood processing plant has a new owner. Trident Seafoods reached a deal in October to sell the Star of Kodiak plant to Pacific Seafood. Seattle-based Trident announced a major restructuring in December 2023 which included selling four plants in Alaska, or one-third of its facilities in the state. The Kodiak sale was the last after Trident unloaded seasonal facilities in False Pass, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. Oregon-based Pacific Seafood already owns a smaller plant in Kodiak, and President and CEO Frank Dulcich says the acquisition is an opportunity to expand operations.
Red Onion Saloon
A former Klondike-era brothel turned pizza restaurant and bar in Skagway entered a new era in October. Jan Wrentmore retired as owner of the Red Onion Saloon, handing the business over to Tracy LaBarge of Juneau, who also owns Tracy’s King Crab Shack. Wrentmore was one of the few women to own a Skagway bar when she opened Red Onion Saloon in 1980. LaBarge has had her eye on the venue since working in Skagway more than thirty years ago.
Alaska Public Media
The transmitter on a Midtown Anchorage tower that broadcasts KTVA on channel 11 is becoming part of Alaska Public Media. The nonprofit agreed to acquire the license and equipment from Denali Media Anchorage Corporation, a subsidiary of GCI, pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission. Alaska Public Media will continue to broadcast KAKM on channel 7 from a tower at Goose Bay, north of Anchorage, while the added signal from Midtown will extend coverage for viewers without cable or streaming connections. KTVA has been carrying rerun network Rewind TV since September 2021, a year after its CBS affiliation was acquired by Atlanta-based Gray Media, owner of Anchorage’s NBC affiliate, KTUU channel 2.
ConocoPhillips Alaska
The Nanushuk formation underlying the North Slope’s most promising new developments has revealed a new pool. ConocoPhillips applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for a pilot enhanced oil recovery project of the reservoir named Minke. The application notes that the significance of the Minke pool was overlooked despite wells drilled into the formation, on the western edge of the Colville River unit, since the late ‘90s. The oil-in-place estimate is up to 150 million barrels. ConocoPhillips plans to develop the pool from its CD5 site.
Hilcorp | Doyon
Alaska’s newest oil slope could be on the flats. Hilcorp Alaska is set to explore this summer in the Yukon Flats on land owned by Tihteet’ Aii, the village corporation for Birch Creek, south of Fort Yukon. Regional corporation Doyon, Limited owns the subsurface rights. Hilcorp submitted a spill discharge plan for state approval, in advance of drilling 10 to 15 miles north of the village. The US Geological Survey estimated in 2004 that the region could hold up to 600 million barrels of oil, but most of the land is protected by the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, except for some Alaska Native inholdings.
Blackbull Native Store
The Alaska Federation of Natives presented its Small Business of the Year award to Daphne Nicholai of Oscarville, owner of Blackbull Native Store in Anchorage. The shop sells fry bread, fireweed tea, berry pickers, and qaspeq jackets among other hyper-local merchandise. Nicholai started the business by selling smokeless tobacco, called iqmik, by mail order. Calista Corporation, which gave its own Business of the Year award to Nicholai in April, nominated her for further recognition at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in October.
Goldbelt
Hours after the City and Borough of Juneau finalized October election results that showed voters rejecting “ship-free Saturdays,” Royal Caribbean joined with Goldbelt, Inc. to announce a new cruise port for the capital city. Rather than further crowd Juneau’s waterfront, the new facility would be located on the far side of Douglas Island, where the Alaska Native urban corporation owns nearly 2,000 acres. Preliminary designs have two floating berths, and visitors would be transported to a recreated Tlingit village circa the 1800s. Goldbelt is also proposing on-site employee housing, which could drive demand for a second bridge across Gastineau Channel. The developers anticipate having financial estimates and concept designs by next spring, aiming for completion for the 2027 cruise season.