Oregon Business Team

City efforts to reduce barriers to construction along with some substantial loans to downtown projects have helped boost Eugene’s economy.

Oregon gained about 75,000 more residents than it lost from 2003-2008 with Californians accounting for the lion’s share of immigrants.

The pro football draft day of 1994 was the worst day of Brian Cassidy’s life. Once ranked among the top prospects in the nation, Cassidy watched as player after player was drafted and he was overlooked.

Big deals, mergers and transactions of the month.

The ongoing construction of a $124 million geothermal plant near Neal Hot Springs was made possible by a $102 million Department of Energy loan this summer, the largest of its kind given to a geothermal project in the country. The DOE investment and other proposed government incentives are making geothermal development in the state more feasible after years of complications from large overhead costs and environmental concerns.

SAM Medical Products in Wilsonville created a better way to treat battle injuries after its co-founder, Sam Scheinberg, served in Vietnam as a medic and saw how poorly splints worked on burned skin.

Private land in Lincoln, Benton and Polk counties has been exchanged for state land to allow for better road placement and easier management.

Two new grant programs backed by Beaverton-headquartered Nike, one local and the other global, are pouring seed money into projects from Clatskanie to Kenya.

When developer Richard Singer was 3 years old, he and his two siblings received a building on NW 23rd Avenue as a gift from their grandfather, Harry Zell, one of the two brothers for whom the now-closed Zell Bros. Jewelers was named.

The cost of workers’ compensation insurance for most Oregon employers will remain flat in 2011, according to the Department of Consumer and Business Services, which sets those rates for every industry in the state.