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“Nabbefeld”
Joe Nabbefeld
Real Estate Editor

May 18, 2000

Real Estate Buzz

California group buys Sabey properties

Seattle-based Sabey Corp. sold two industrial complexes to a California investment group led by Richard Nathan for $20.5 million, according to King County property records.

Investors assembled by Nathan's Los Angeles-based Commercial Ventures Inc. paid $12.5 million for West Valley Corporate Park on South 190th Street in Kent.

Sabey Corp. head Dave Sabey developed the 226,000-square-foot West Valley in 1989 as headquarters for his silk-screening company Sun Sportswear. Sabey sold his interest in Sun and eventually re-filled the two-story manufacturing warehouse.

Envelope maker MailWell occupies the first floor and the Internet travel company Lowestfare.com rents all but 20,000 square feet of office space on the second floor, according to Arvin Vander Veen, a Colliers International broker who arranged the two sales to CVI along with Colliers colleague Steve Sutherland. The price equals $55 per square foot.

West Valley totals 10.2 acres.

Sabey Corp. said it sold the two parks to "freshen" its portfolio.

In the second part of the transaction, the CVI investment group paid Sabey $7.99 million for the South Seattle Business Park on East Marginal Way in South Seattle. The complex, which Sabey built in 1983 and sold once before, totals 108,270 square feet on 2.7 acres. The price, therefore, equals $74 per square foot.

The $20.5 million price paid for the two projects together comes to $63 per square foot.

Sabey sold South Seattle Business Park in the early 1990s but remained liable on the mortgage. He took the property back in 1993. The property is fully leased to a mix of tenants, with Clayton Environmental and Arena sports as the largest, Vander Veen said.

Nathan's investors own about 3,000 apartments in the Seattle area.

Vander Veen got to know Nathan last year when Vander Veen represented ST Corp. in selling the newly built, 106-unit Bokar by the Lake apartments in Renton to Nathan and his partners for $8.5 million.

Nathan indicated they wanted to buy other types of property here, said Vander Veen, who responded by bringing them the deal to buy Sabey's two industrial complexes.

CB Richard Ellis brokers Ed Hogan and Tim Good represented Sabey in the sale.

Nathan has an appetite for more Seattle-area properties. "I'm his broker," Vander Veen said. "Anybody with property (to sell to hungry Southern California investors) should call Arvin Vander Veen at 654-0251."

Bentall's Summit offices will have lots of hang space

To distinguish its rapidly coalescing downtown Bellevue office project from others in hot pursuit of high-flying tech tenants, Bentall Corp. will emphasize "lots of hang space."

So says local Bentall head Gary Carpenter, who's job now includes attempting the occasional techno-speak, at least when it applies to digital offices, er, cool space.

"There will be large lobby-type areas with lots of hang space," said Carpenter about Bentall's proposed 500,000-square-foot Summit Ridge project, for which Bentall is feverishly bearing down on a Sept. 1 construction start date. "They'll be two-story spaces, real people friendly."

The two-building complex will also provide about three-quarters of an acre of outdoor plaza with lots of grass, a volleyball court and "some other amenities that tenants may dictate like a climbing rock, a basketball court," Carpenter said.

Stay tuned for what the "outdoor plaza" cyber-morphs into.

The Summit Ridge site is on the southeast corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast. A 70,000-square-foot office building occupies part of the site and will remain there at least through construction of the two buildings. Bentall's Bellevue offices have moved there from Bentall's Newport complex.

Bentall plans to first build a 300,000-square-foot, 13-story building at Summit Ridge.

The Vancouver, B.C.-based development firm applied for city permits more than a year ago. Carpenter expects to receive the shoring and excavation permits in late August.

Publicly-traded Bentall can finance the construction start itself, giving it freedom to begin more quickly and without a signed tenant. Once the first building is well under way, Bentall plans to construct Summit Ridge's 200,000-square-foot, 10-story second structure.

Carpenter declined to provide the cost of the project, but at today's rates, the structure could cost as much as $125 million to build. Seattle-based LMN is the architect. Bentall has hired Sellen Construction as general contractor and KPFF as structural engineer. Brokers Bill Pollard and Kip Durell of Pacific Real Estate Partners have the job of finding tenants.

Schnitzer NW signs two

Schnitzer Northwest signed environmental testing company North Creek Analytical to 18,839 square feet at the Schnitzer North Creek business park in Bothell.

Also at North Creek, Voicestream Wireless expanded its lease by 26,147 square feet for a total of 63,433.

Both new leases were for Building 7 of the portion of the park called North Creek Business Center. Schnitzer said the leases complete changing Building 7 from industrial use by Brooks shoes to high tech-flex.

Brokers from Pacific Real Estate Partners of Bellevue put together both leases, with Don MacLaren of Business Space Resources joining them in representing North Creek Analytical.

Intracorp signs one

Intracorp signed the Internet infrastructure company net.world to 6,000 square feet at the CenterPoint Corporate Park in Kent. Pacific Real Estate Partners brokers represent CenterPoint. Chuck Wiegmann of JSH Properties represented net.world.

The deal brings CenterPoint to one-sixth leased.

Kimpton denies Marriott rumor

Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group Inc. of San Francisco, owner of three downtown Seattle boutique hotels, says a rumor down in The City that Marriott Corp. may buy Kimpton is not true. The rumor appeared in a San Francisco food critic's column. The column quoted a Kimpton representative saying it "is not true at this time," which has that obvious hedged tone.

A Kimpton spokeswoman yesterday initially sounded the same tone with "It's just that: Just a rumor." She clarified that she was saying it's not a true rumor.

Kimpton owns the Alexis, the Monaco and the Vintage Park here.



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