As five intense years of work comes to an end, Pine Street Development officials now must decide what’s next for the group that formed to undertake one of downtown Seattle’s biggest redevelopments.

Managing Partner Matt Griffin says figuring out the future is one of his goals for 2000. "I really mean this," Griffin said. "I don’t know what will be next."

Whatever it is - if it is anything - it probably will be something in downtown Seattle and Griffin hopes it involves his current partners. Profitability, of course, will be a driving factor in the decision, but it won’t be the only one. He said a future project should be "something interesting and cool."

What he hopes it will not be is as "crazy and complicated" as the Pacific Place/Nordstrom project. Often he and his partners didn’t know if the $400 million project, the brainchild of former Pine Street partners Jeff Rhodes and Ken Himmel, would come together.

It wasn’t a case of tying together, say, nine of 10 prerequisites. "We had to get all of them nailed," said Griffin. "It was an uncomfortable 1996." Initially the project’s 15 local investors contributed $4.5 million each. Later they were asked to double that, and everyone did, according to Griffin.

Pine Street Development is mulling what's next after renovation of the Seaboard Building.

High-stakes ventures are not new for Griffin. Before he joined Pine Street, he was a principal at Wright Runstad & Co., where he was responsible for some marquee developments. Those included the 55-story Washington Mutual Tower, the 48-story tower that recently was renamed the Wells Fargo Center and the 34-story 1111 Third Avenue Building. He and another partner, Stuart Sloan, subsequently bought and redeveloped University Village, a shopping center.

Some people might assume Pine Street’s biggest hassles are behind Griffin and his team. Yes, Nordstrom moved into its new flagship store and Pacific Place opened in 1998. Last year, the old Nordstrom was renovated; all of the retail space has been leased and most of the office suites have been taken.

Now Pine Street Development is renovating the landmark Seaboard Building, the final portion of Pine Street Development’s first project.

When completed in early 2001, the triangular Seaboard Building will have residential on the top four floors, office on stories two through six, and retail on the first level. That sounds straight forward enough, but it’s not. Griffin jokes that the endeavor has created "more brain damage per square foot than any project I’ve ever worked on."

The landmark status of the 90-year-old, 100,000-square-foot building is one challenge. Converting it to a mixture of uses is another. There are code issues, the wooden window frames must be rebuilt and decks are being added to the north side of the building. "On the list goes," Griffin said.

It’s little wonder that Griffin wants to do something less intense. "It would be fun to find something else downtown." He talks about the energy that downtown’s retail renaissance has created in the last couple of years; now he thinks it’s residential’s turn and he personally wants in on the action. He and his wife, Evelyne Rozner, plan to move to the Seaboard Building once it’s finished.

Other assignments, such as the ongoing management of Pacific Place, remain for Pine Street Development. "We’ll own that for at least three to five years, if not longer," Griffin said of the entertainment center and retail complex.

The company also needs to decide what to do with the two office/retail buildings - the Fifth & Pine and the 1505 Fifth Avenue - it created out of the old Nordstrom store. Griffin said they may be sold.

Griffin, who says he would rather ski powder snow than anything, has been known to seek adventure after concluding major projects. In 1986-87, he and his wife bicycled around the world. Six years after that, they biked in South America. That won’t happen this time, according to Griffin. Or as his wife put it, "`I’ve done it twice and once was enough.’"