Inside Alaska Business
Credit Union 1
Two Alaska credit unions approaching their 75th anniversaries are joining forces. Credit Union 1 (CU1) intends to merge with Fairbanks-based MAC Federal Credit Union, uniting more than 112,000 members, more than $1.6 billion in assets, and nineteen branch locations. Both CU1 and MAC were founded in 1952. MAC originally served military and civilian employees at Fort Wainwright; in 2021 and 2022, it extended beyond Fairbanks with new branches in Wasilla and Palmer. Meanwhile, CU1 opened branches in Wasilla and Skagway in April after the grand opening in February of a Kotzebue branch.
Global Federal Credit Union
Regulatory approval puts Global Federal Credit Union on track to acquire Renton, Washington-based First Financial Northwest Bank by mid-year. Per the January 2024 purchase agreement, the transaction is structured as an all-cash consideration of $231.2 million. First Financial Northwest will dissolve and distribute assets (including cash proceeds from the purchase) to stockholders, and customers will become members of Global. First Financial Northwest serves the Puget Sound region with fifteen full-service banking offices. Global, formerly Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, has grown by acquisitions to serve more than 750,000 members through more than seventy branches across Alaska, Washington, Idaho, California, Arizona, and three US military installations in Italy.
ARG Industrial
Anchorage-based hose and rigging supplier ARG Industrial is stretching farther south. A new branch location in Salem, Oregon, is the southernmost for the company, and the second in the Beaver State. ARG Industrial acquired a Portland location in 2021, when the employee-owned company was known as Alaska Rubber Group. The Salem location becomes the fourteenth in the organization. CEO and President Mike Mortensen says, “Salem is experiencing significant growth, and we feel like we’re just the company to support the industries that are growing there.”
Alaska Geothermal Partners
After pioneering hot springs as an Alaska resource, Chena Power is starting Alaska Geothermal Partners to help others tap into the Earth’s heat. The subsidiary arises from the stalled Makushin project in Unalaska, which Chena Power was developing jointly with Ounalashka Corporation and the Qawalanging Tribe until last year, when the city government cancelled a power purchase agreement while moving ahead without Chena Power. “When that project was put on hold, we decided to form a new company to reach out to communities or regions about their geothermal potential and to share our expertise,” says David Matthews, business and contracts lead for Alaska Geothermal Partners.
Providence
Providence Alaska is selling three extended-care homes in Anchorage to Ensign Group, a California-based network of assisted living facilities. The sale of Providence Horizon House, Providence Transitional Care Center, and Providence Extended Care is pending approval by state regulators. Providence Alaska cites rising costs, shortfalls in reimbursement, and a shortage of caregivers as reasons for the transfer. Ensign says the 328 employees, who care for 225 long-term patients, will be given job offers under the new ownership.
Alaska Regional Hospital
The Alaska Department of Health denied a Certificate of Need for Alaska Regional Hospital’s proposed emergency room in South Anchorage, a five-bed facility, questioning whether the location was necessary, whether it could provide sufficient care, and whether the finances penciled out. Alaska Regional, part of HCA Healthcare, applied last summer to build a $17.4 million facility at Huffman Road and Old Seward Highway. A year earlier, state officials rejected a proposed twelve-bed facility. Alaska Regional has been trying to expand emergency services in Anchorage since 2015.
Hilcorp
The Sterling gas field north of Soldotna could return to production. Hilcorp is proposing two new wells and re-drilling an old one, but the company needs an exemption from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to drill within 1,500 feet of the property line. Hilcorp took two producing wells offline in 2014, a year after it acquired Sterling, first developed by Marathon Petroleum Corporation in 1962. The US Bureau of Land Management terminated Sterling as a unit in 2017. Meanwhile, to the south, Hilcorp is buying the North Fork natural gas unit, inland from Anchor Point, from Vision Resources, a subsidiary of Louisiana-based Gardes Holdings. The deal includes the North Fork Pipeline, but current owner Anchor Point Energy needs regulatory approval to revoke the pipe’s common carrier certificate.
Spruce Root
The Path to Prosperity business plan competition in Southeast selected two winners for 2024. Spruce Root is awarding $20,000 prizes to help Sitkana and Ravens Nest Regalia grow their businesses. Lance McMullan of Juneau owns Sitkana, which manufactures hydrokinetic energy devices that generate electricity with underwater turbines. And the owner of Raven’s Nest Regalia and Art, Dzijúksuk Debra O’Gara of Petersburg, creates Northwest Coast and Tlingit art, specializing in Ravenstail, Chilkat, and cedar bark weavings and regalia, robes, and vests.
Lucky Wishbone
The James Beard Award recognizes the classiest eateries in the land, and the humble Lucky Wishbone near Downtown Anchorage qualifies. The chicken and burger restaurant was honored in February with a 2025 American Classics Award, one of six nationwide, to the surprise of co-owners Heidi Heinrich-Lervaag and Carolina Stacey. The longtime employees of the late George Brown, who founded the restaurant in 1955, plan to attend the awards ceremony in Chicago on June 16.