New Pedersen's Outlet to Debut This Month

Burnaby, British Columbia-based Pedersen's Party Rentals plans to open a 15,000-square-foot operation in Seattle on April 1 to serve a large market that has been sold short, according to vice president of customer service Rhonda Pedersen.

Located at 4604 Fourth Ave. S., the new rental operation will offer a broad range of inventory including tables, linens, serving pieces, plates, glassware and tabletop items such as lamps. The style will be trendy, upscale stuff, Pedersen said.

The Seattle store can call on inventory from the Burnaby store as needed while the company builds inventory appropriate to the new market. That way, if silver doesn't rent in Seattle, we won't have bought it, she explained.

We will hopefully do more custom kinds of work, Pedersen added. We will ship out mock table displays to caterers, so if the bride wants everything in white, we will send them their vision and let them play with their own table at their convenience.

Like the operation in Burnaby, the Seattle store will have its own Web site, offering online swatches, Pedersen said.

Pedersen's also plans to commission Pacific Northwest artists to make serving equipment exclusively for the Seattle store. It will be a taste of the Northwest, available only from us, Pedersen said.

Pedersen's Party Rentals
50 - 3711 N. Fraser Way
Burnaby, BC V5J 5J2
604/324-7368
Web site: www.pedersens.com

NEWS & NOTES

Production Resources Inc., which has offices in New York and San Francisco and specializes in staging, production, media development and broadcasting for large-scale events, and Buffalo, N.Y.-based Crowley Webb and Associates, a marketing communications firm, announced they will partner on projects while retaining existing ownership and management. CWA's New York office now will be located in PRI's Manhattan office; its main office will remain in Buffalo. 322 Eighth Ave., Suite 1500, New York, NY 10001; 212/366-1358.

The City of Louisville, Ky., has issued a request for proposal for a new, upscale convention headquarters hotel of at least 600 rooms connected to the recently expanded Kentucky International Convention Center. Louisville and Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 400 S. First St., Louisville, KY 40202; 502/584-2121.

The New York Web site of the BizBash.com Idea Center, a media outlet targeted to corporate event planning and business entertaining professionals, went live in February. The site offers free news, information and a resource directory. 30 W. 26th St., Second Floor, New York, NY 10010; 646/638-3602.

Atlanta entrepreneur Steve Weindorf purchased All-Star Entertainment, also of Atlanta, a full-service talent booking and production agency specializing in providing live entertainment for corporate and social events. P.O. Box 5630, Atlanta, GA 31107; 770/476-0744.

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Send your news items to Lisa Hurley at fax: 310/317-0264, e-mail: lhurley@intertec.com.