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“Nabbefeld”
Joe Nabbefeld
Real Estate Editor

June 15, 2000

Real Estate Buzz

Hey law firms, care to try Bogle's old space?

Some of the top floors on the Two Union Square skyscraper in downtown Seattle are starting to look like they might be hexed, at least when it comes to the fate of old-line Seattle law firms.

Bogle & Gates, then one of the oldest old-liners, disintegrated there last year.

Now 110-year-old Reed McClure, which dared to move into the same space after Bogle & Gates imploded, is falling apart.

The coincidence feels a little eery, said Pat McCabe, Unico Properties' manager of the 56-story building who expects to start luring new tenants into part of the space soon.

Reed McClure partners recently voted to downsize the 51-lawyer firm in response to market pressures to specialize instead of provide a full menu of services. The firm may shrink by half to concentrate on insurance and litigation.

After that vote, 12 Reed McClure lawyers, including former president and managing director Stuart Allen, left the firm en masse to join Portland-based Miller Nash's Seattle office.

McCabe said he's not sure yet how much Reed McClure space will become available, but it could range from 15,000 to 35,000 square feet. Bogle & Gates occupied floors 47 through 54.

The pension fund that owns Two Union Square may not mind, ultimately, since rising downtown rent rates often mean each time a tenant leaves the landlord can increase income by signing a new tenant at higher rent.

Two Union Square recently signed its first $50-per-square-foot lease, for a small space, and McCabe said it's possible the Reed McClure space could go that high.

Voicestream leases Newport Five

Bentall US LLC’s 1 million-square-foot Newport Corporate Center office complex on Interstate 90 in Bellevue reached full lease-up with Voicestream Wireless signing for the entire 283,000-square-foot Newport Five building.

Bentall executives wouldn’t comment about the lease, but knowledgable sources provided details.

Voicestream is a fast-growing telecommunications spin-off from Western Wireless. Voicestream occupies a small amount of space in another Newport structure and may move from office space in Eastgate, but mostly it will expand into Newport Five, which is under construction.

Broker Steve Schwartz of Pacific Real Estate Partners in Bellevue represented Western Wireless with Lisa Rowe of Bentall negotiating for Bentall.

Deposit books and money in one stop?

U.S. Bank said it will look into the feasibility of sharing its Ballard branch site with a Seattle public library branch and a neighborhood service center, said bank representative Barbara Nombalais.

The bank controls a full block at 22nd Avenue Northwest and Northewest 56th Street, kitty corner from the Ballard Safeway. The library wants to move into a better space and has targeted the bank’s block.

Harvard Market still for sale

Harvard Market, a QFC-anchored retail complex in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area, remains for sale a year after developer Don Milliken put it on the market.

QFC owns its portion of the project, so Milliken is selling 42,000 square feet occupied by a Bartell Drugs, various other retailers and 292 parking spaces.

Milliken listed Harvard Market at $14 million and recently said the asking price hasn’t dropped. The brokers marketing the complex have changed. Dave Speers and Andy Miller of Kidder Mathews & Segner have the assignment now.

Intracorp revs up Belltown machine

Intracorp has a particular liking for the section of Seattle’s Belltown housing district generally centered around Elliott Avenue and Clay and Cedar Streets.

In time, the Seattle-based developer expects to create no less than 630 condos in a cluster there.

Construction has begun on the first phase of The Elliott, which at full build-out will total 204 condos plus some apartments.

That’s project number one in the three-block stretch.

Intracorp has submitted a building permit application to start construction soon on 175 more condos in "the Vine Building." Number two.

And Intracorp’s going in soon for master use permits for two more structures totaling 230 condos. Three and four.

Su to buy Bellevue CBD residential site

Developer John Su appears to be the impending buyer of 2-plus acres which are prime for residential development on the north edge of downtown Bellevue.

ST Corp. last week told The Buzz that ST had a contract to sell the 100,000-square-foot plot but declined to name the buyer. A souce since then said Su has the site at Northeast 10th Street and 112th Avenue Northeast under contract at $7.8 million, or $78 per square foot.

Su said he’d rather not comment at this time.

Navy ready to ship off its armory

South Lake Union Planning Committee chairman Roy Nelson expects money to change hands soon for creation of a city park on the south shore of Lake Union in Seattle.

The U.S. Navy appears ready to deed its armory building to the city of Seattle for about $4 million, Nelson said.

Trendwest buys resort land from Jeld-Wen

Redmond-based Trendwest Resorts agreed to pay its majority shareholder $47.6 million for 7,400 acres near Cle Elum. Most of the land Trendwest plans to develop into the MountainStar Resort.

Trendwest signed a definitive agreement to buy the land from Oregon-based Jeld-Wen Inc., which owns 80 percent of publicly traded Trendwest, according to Trendwest Chief Financial Officer Tim O’Neil. Jeld-Wen principals started Trendwest.

Trendwest plans to start construction of MountainStar this summer, though a variety of project opponents continue actively seeking to prevent it.

The 6,200-acre resort would include two 18-hole golf courses, a hotel, conference space and numerous vacation homes and condos for use by Trendwest’s time-share affiliate called "Worldmark, The Club." MountainStar would be the largest among Trendwest’s 33 resorts.

The remaining 1,200 acres in the sale to Trendwest are within Cle Elum’s growth management boundary, O’Neil said.

"There is no other property available of this size which is as suitable for the planned uses and as accessible to the metropolitan area of Seattle/Tacoma," Trendwest CEO Bill Peare said of the 7,400 acres.

Newland buys 217 acres in Kennewick

San Diego-based subdivision developer Newland Communities bought 217 acres in Kennewick on which it expects to build a 600-home community called Creekstone.



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