A8
BUSINESS & TECH
East Oregonian
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Pendleton advertising director pitches Western gallery
Building purchased
by Jordan Schnitzer
of Portland in 2016
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The director of a local
advertising agency is pitch-
ing an idea to fill one of
Pendleton’s most prominent
vacancies.
At a meeting Tuesday,
Jeff Lorton of Duke Joseph
told the Pendleton City
Council about the West-
ern Arts Gallery, a “con-
ceptual project” to fill the
vacant bank building at 156
S. Main St.
“It’s a gallery space ded-
icated to the celebration,
and the perpetuation, or the
continuation of the Western
traditional arts manufac-
turing in downtown Pend-
leton and its surrounding
areas,” he told the council.
“This would be a gallery
that would celebrate silver
artists, bit and spur engrav-
ers, leather workers of all
kinds.”
Lorton said he’s lived in
downtown Pendleton since
2016 and has often thought
about ways to bring more
tourists and sustainable
businesses to the downtown
area.
His thoughts turned
to the vacant South Main
building, which has only
seen sporadic use in the 21st
century after Wells Fargo
moved out.
“This building is like an
empty JC Penney in a mall,”
he said at the meeting.
In an interview after the
meeting, Lorton said his
interest is in helping “mak-
ers” promote their wares
and increase their values.
Lorton said artisans from
Hamley & Co., Staplemans,
and Rod Retherford Sad-
dlery and Cowboy Art are
all interested in including
their products in the gallery.
Since it’s early in the
project’s development, Lor-
ton said nothing is set in
stone.
But he envisions the gal-
lery as being a nonprofit
venture with a board even-
tually comprised of inter-
ested parties like the Pendle-
ton Downtown Association,
the Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce, and the Pendle-
ton Round-Up Association.
Once it’s up and running,
Lorton could see the second
floor featuring a “demon-
stration bar” where arti-
sans could show their craft
to audiences. He wants it
be open to the public seven
days per week.
This wouldn’t be the
first time Lorton has been
involved in a local project.
Duke Joseph partnered
with the city on the Future
Farm Expo for a few years
before funding for the agri-
cultural drone conference
ran out.
Lorton
said
he
approached the council to
talk about the Western Arts
Gallery to make sure mem-
bers didn’t have any objec-
tions and to open the door
for future funding through
Ground-breaking Chevy
Volt runs out of juice
GM has stopped
making the electric
car with a gasoline
backup motor
By TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer
DETROIT — As their
company was swirling
around the financial drain
in the early 2000s, General
Motors executives came
up with an idea to counter
its gas-guzzling image and
point the way to transpor-
tation of the future: an elec-
tric car with a gas-engine
backup that could travel
anywhere.
At Detroit’s auto show
in 2007, they unveiled the
Chevrolet Volt concept car,
not knowing yet whether
they had the technology
to pull off a major break-
through in battery-powered
vehicles.
It took nearly four more
years, but the first Volt —
a longer-range version of
a plug-in hybrid — rolled
off the assembly line late
in 2010. GM had hopes that
customers would be ready
for a car that could go 38
miles on electricity before
a small internal combustion
generator kicked in.
They weren’t. On Tues-
day, the last Volt was built
with little ceremony at a
Detroit factory that’s now
slated to close. Sales aver-
aged less than 20,000 per
year, not enough to sustain
the costly undertaking.
The Volt wasn’t the first
electric car, but it was the
first to conquer anxiety over
range at a reasonable cost.
GM’s limited-range EV1
came out in the 1990s, and
Tesla put out its 200-plus-
mile Roadster in 2008 for
more than $100,000.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File
General Motors has stopped making the Chevrolet Volt, a
ground-breaking electric car with a gasoline backup motor.
The last Volt will roll off the assembly line at a Detroit factory
with little ceremony on Tuesday.
The Volt was among the
first plug-in hybrids, many
of which can go only 20 or
so miles on electricity and
haven’t gained much popu-
larity among consumers.
Yet the Volt did serve a
purpose. It led to advances
in lithium-ion batteries simi-
lar to those that power smart
phones and computers. But
such advances ultimately
led to the Volt’s demise as
GM and other manufactur-
ers developed fully elec-
tric vehicles that can go 200
more miles per charge.
“While it was a finan-
cial loser, it did what was
intended,” said retired
GM Vice Chairman Bob
Lutz, who shepherded the
Volt into production. “We
viewed it as a stepping stone
to full electrics, which were
totally out of reach due to
the then-astronomical cost
of lithium-ion batteries.”
GM now has the Chev-
rolet Bolt, which can go 238
miles on a single charge,
and it has promised many
more electric vehicles in the
future.
The Volt did develop
a loyal fan base, many of
whom are upset with the
company for scrubbing the
project.
Richard
Winters,
a
65-year-old physician from
Poteau, Oklahoma, said the
Volt still is useful in areas
like Oklahoma and Arkan-
sas where electric vehicle
charging stations are few.
He bought his first Volt in
2016 for the 120-mile round-
trip commute from home to
the Arkansas hospital where
he works.
He bought another one
last year, a revamped model
that can go 50 miles on elec-
tricity before the gas gener-
ator starts. Because he can
recharge at work, most of his
commute is done on battery
power. Winters routinely
goes 1,400 miles between
gas station fill-ups, which
he likes. And it costs only
around $1 worth of electric-
ity to charge the battery, he
said.
Winters had always
wanted an electric car, but
like many, was afraid he’d run
out of juice and get stranded.
“When the Volt came out
I was happy,” he said of its
nearly unlimited range.
the urban renewal district.
The gallery also has the
support of the Pendleton
Downtown
Association.
Wesley Murack, the asso-
ciation’s director, told the
council that he was work-
ing with Lorton to apply for
grants that could help fund
the gallery.
The one entity the gallery
doesn’t have support from
yet is the building’s owner.
Harsch Investment Prop-
erties, a real estate company
owned by Oregon philan-
thropist Jordan Schnitzer,
bought the building in 2016
and has been marketing it
for lease since then.
Lorton said he plans
to present his concept to
Schnitzer by the end of the
month.
Harsch Director of Mar-
keting Christina Blaser
didn’t directly respond to a
request for comment on the
gallery, but said they would
notify the East Orego-
nian when they were ready
to make an announcement
about the property.
EO file photo
Jeff Lorton, a Pendleton advertising director, pitched a plan
to the city council to develop the old bank building at the
corner of Main Street and Dorion Avenue as a showcase for
Western artisans.
At Kraft Heinz, a fed investigation
and a $15.4 billion write-down
PITTSBURGH
(AP)
— Kraft Heinz disclosed
an investigation by federal
regulators and said it will
slash the value of its Oscar
Mayer and Kraft brands
by $15.4 billion, major set-
backs for a company try-
ing to revitalize its stable of
household-name brands.
A wave of bad news,
which also included a div-
idend cut and a weak out-
look for the year, sent
shares plunging 26 per-
cent at the opening bell Fri-
day, their largest decline in
a single day. Before noon,
the company had lost $16
billion of its market value.
Kraft Heinz cited the
impairment charge for
a stunning $12.6 billion
fourth-quarter loss.
Kraft Heinz said the
investigation by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission is related to its
accounting practices in the
division that handles inter-
actions with suppliers. The
SEC declined to comment.
The steep write-down
and loss in the quarter is
a devastating recognition
that efforts to change the
trajectory of the company
have not been as successful
as once thought.
Kraft Heinz and other
food makers that domi-
nated grocery shelves for
much of the post-World
War II era have been whip-
sawed by a seismic shift in
what consumers want.
Families, particularly
in the U.S., have pivoted
away from familiar pack-
aged foods amid a prolifer-
AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File
Shares in Kraft Heinz are expected to plunge when mar-
kets after the consumer goods company said it was being
investigated by U.S. regulators and it reported a massive
loss. Kraft Heinz said it received a subpoena in October
from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related
to an investigation of its procurement operations, which
cover deals a company makes with outside suppliers.
ation of products marketed
as being more wholesome,
or that promise new tastes.
The trend hasn’t been good
for some of Kraft Heinz’s
standbys like Jell-O and
Kool-Aid and Oscar Mayer
hot dogs.
In the fourth quarter,
Kraft Heinz said lower
prices in the U.S. helped
boost sales volume. Its
overall global sales also
edged up, but its profit
when excluding one-time
charges still fell short of
Wall Street expectations.
The tie-up of Kraft and
Heinz was engineered in
2015 by Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway and
3G Capital. The Brazilian
investment firm is known
for taking over companies
and improving results by
slashing costs.
But the strategy appar-
ently didn’t work as
planned at Kraft Heinz.
“We were overly opti-
mistic on delivering sav-
ings that did not material-
ize by year end,” said Kraft
Heinz CEO Bernardo Vie-
ira Hees. “For that, we take
full responsibility.”
JPMorgan analyst Ken
Goldman said the results
cast doubt on 3G Capital’s
strategy of chasing growth
by cutting costs.
“Investors for years
have asked if 3G’s extreme
belt-tightening model ulti-
mately would result in
brand equity erosion,”
Goldman wrote.
Goldman
said
the
answer may be in the $15
billion intangible asset
write-down for the Kraft
and Oscar Mayer brands.
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