A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021
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BRIEFING
Shake Shack sets
opening for first
Oregon restaurant
Shake Shack, one of
the world’s best-known
burger brands, will open
its first Oregon restaurant
in Beaverton on April 16,
the company announced
Wednesday. In December,
the company’s proposal
to turn a former vitamin
store across from Pow-
ell’s City of Books was
approved by the city of
Portland.
But that downtown lo-
cation, with its proposed
patio, bicycle parking and
outdoor pingpong table,
was not to be Oregon’s
first. As first reported by
The Oregonian, construc-
tion was already under-
way at the Cedar Hills
Crossing shopping com-
plex in Beaverton.
Shake Shack first
opened in New York City
in 2004, building its rep-
utation on “classic” road-
side American fare includ-
ing burgers, hot dogs,
fries and frozen custards,
only with higher quality
ingredients and plenty of
local touches. The chain
can be found in around
30 states, as well as other
countries including Mex-
ico and Kuwait.
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OREGON | PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Bill would put state out front of price control
BY HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
A bipartisan group of Or-
egon lawmakers is backing a
proposal to tackle unafford-
able prescription drug prices
that would go further than any
other state in the nation.
Several legislatures around
the country are considering
or have looked into similar
proposals to create drug-pric-
ing boards this year, based on
a milder version Maryland
passed in 2019.
The possibility that the Or-
egon Legislature could vote
on such a plan has attracted
national political spending for
and against it, most visibly in
the form of digital and print
ads paid for by the pharmaceu-
tical industry.
Drug pricing control “hasn’t
happened at the federal level
so states are saying, ‘Let’s do
something here, what we can,’”
said Sen. Deb Patterson, a first-
year Democrat from Salem
and one of four sponsors of the
bill. “Health care continues to
be one of the most expensive
parts of people’s budgets.”
Senate Bill 844 would cre-
ate a state Prescription Drug
Affordability Board with the
power to set upper limits on
how much Oregon buyers
would be allowed to pay for
particularly high-priced drugs.
Payment limits would apply
throughout the health care
system, from wholesalers and
pharmacies to physicians, hos-
pitals and nursing homes, ac-
cording to another bill sponsor,
Rep. Rachel Prusak, a Dem-
ocrat from West Linn. For
patients, the proposal could
reduce what they pay for high-
priced drugs.
If insurers, pharmacy benefit
managers or individuals want
to opt out of the payment limit
for a drug, the proposal would
allow them to do so. Bill lan-
guage instructs the board to set
up “a simple process” to allow
opt-outs.
Lawmakers were scheduled
to vote Wednesday afternoon
on whether to move the bill
out of committee and send it
the full Senate for a vote.
See Prescriptions / A12
River cruises thrive
on the Mississippi
Grants Pass diner
fined $18K
A Grants Pass diner
was fined almost $18,000
Tuesday for what state
regulators called a “will-
ful” violation of COVID-19
rules.
Oregon Occupational
Safety and Health said
Gold Miner Restaurant
allowed indoor dining on
or about Feb. 14 at a time
when it was illegal and
continued to do so ille-
gally for almost a month,
The Grants Pass Daily
Courier reported.
The agency says Ore-
gon OSHA Administrator
Michael Wood exercised
his discretionary author-
ity under state law to
issue a $17,800 fine —
double the minimum
penalty for such a viola-
tion. A fine of $100 also
was issued for a mask
violation.
During the inspection,
the restaurant’s owner,
Nancie Bowers, said she
was aware that allowing
indoor dining during the
extreme risk period went
against workplace health
requirements, the news
release said.
It wasn’t immediately
known if the restaurant
owner plans to appeal
the fine.
Many Americans
gain coverage
More than a half mil-
lion Americans have
taken advantage of the
Biden administration’s
special health insurance
sign-up window keyed
to the COVID-19 pan-
demic, the government
announced Wednesday
in anticipation that even
more consumers will gain
coverage in the coming
months.
The reason officials
expect sign-ups to keep
growing is that millions
of people became eli-
gible effective Apr. 1 for
pumped-up subsidies to-
ward their premiums un-
der President Joe Biden’s
coronavirus relief legis-
lation.
The special sign-up op-
portunity for Affordable
Care Act plans will be
available until Aug. 15.
With the number of
uninsured Americans ris-
ing during the pandemic,
Biden reopened the law’s
heath insurance markets
as a backstop.
— Bulletin wire reports
Barb Gonzalez/For The Bulletin, file
Passengers stand on the bow of the SS Legacy looking over the navigation lock at the Bonneville Dam in 2016. The American Queen Steamboat Co. may add a cruise on
the Columbia and Snake rivers.
BY FRAN GOLDEN • Bloomberg
O
n the fancy new 245-passenger American Countess riverboat, passengers sip complimentary mint juleps on a top deck, masks
wrapped around their wrists like bulging bracelets, while the ship’s big, red paddle wheel churns through the Mississippi. It’s
a post-pandemic sight to behold — even if these are not quite post-pandemic times.
Still, its mere occurrence puts
John Waggoner, founder and chief
executive officer of the four-ship
American Queen Steamboat Co., in
the catbird seat as far as the cruise
industry is concerned.
On long, white-and-red-painted
boats with open decks, decorated
with fanciful Victorian-style ginger-
bread trim, Waggoner sells hardcore
Americana that’s steeped in U.S.
history. It’s a hot product under the
current circumstances, he says.
“There’s a big push to buy in
America,” Waggoner said in an in-
terview. “So: U.S.-flagged vessels,
built in America, manned by U.S.
employees. I think there’s a big move
towards that.”
There’s also the fact that he’s al-
lowed to operate while much-larger
competitors cannot, including Royal
Caribbean International, Carnival
Cruise Line, even mega-river cruise
line Viking River Cruises. Since the
cruise industry shut down in March
2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has blessed
only cruise ships carrying fewer
than 250 passengers and crew. Wag-
goner’s four ships are among few
of these in the U.S., making them a
rare option for millions of Ameri-
can cruise lovers who are otherwise
stuck in a holding pattern.
See Cruises / A12
Nike contractors file $100M in liens over expansion
BY JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
A host of construction
companies and design firms
have filed liens against Nike
and its general contractor
alleging they’ve been short-
changed as much as $110
million for work performed
on the company’s mammoth
campus expansion near Bea-
verton.
At the top of an extraordi-
nary list of disgruntled com-
panies is Hoffman Construc-
tion, Nike’s go-to contractor
for decades. It says Nike owes
it more than $48 million.
Skylab Architecture, an-
other favorite of Nike, alleges
it has not been paid $7.1 mil-
lion.
“I think what is extraordi-
nary here is that if you looked
at the people involved in this
project, you have some of the
all-stars of Oregon construc-
tion,” said Darien Loiselle,
a construction lawyer with
Schwabe Williamson Wyatt.
“The key question is, why
would so many of these all-
stars have similar problems
getting these buildings built
and then getting paid what
they’re owed?”
Loiselle is representing
Skylab in this case.
Nike’s headquarters expan-
sion is one of the largest con-
struction projects in state his-
tory. It took six years to plan,
design and build the four new
structures on site.
See Nike / A12
This photo
provided by
Nike shows a
portion of its
world head-
quarters in
Beaverton.
Nike