Jun 04, 2020

Prado expands to Seattle

McCormick

Prado Group of San Francisco recently announced that it was dispatching Bridgett McCormick to Seattle to become acquisitions manager for the Pacific Northwest region. Prado's Zach Felson said in a statement that the company would be focused on the Seattle market as it expands into the region. The 17-year-old company values its current and planned portfolio at about $2 billion. All of that appears to be apartments over retail in the Bay Area.

Urbanova

In Spokane, Urbanova hired Justin Bibb as chief strategy officer. Bibb has over 12 years of experience in government, corporate development, corporate strategy, consulting and community engagement. He was vice president of corporate strategy at KeyCorp and prior to that led the Global Cities Practice at Gallup. Urbanova is a public-private partnership focusing on opportunities and challenges faced by midsize cities.

Know Labs

Seattle-based Know Labs closed a $5.74 million financing round subscribed to by new and existing investors in the company. Know Labs directs structured light or radio waves through substances to capture molecular signatures used for identification, authentication and diagnosis. It is developing a noninvasive continuous glucose monitor that uses this technology.

Stoel Rives

Portland-based Stoel Rives launched its Main Street Relief Project, a no-cost legal service for independent restaurants, bars and small retailers affected by the economic shutdown in the communities where the firm has offices. Stoel Rives' pro bono committee is managing the program, which is available to small businesses in parts of Alaska, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Vacasa

In Portland, vacation rental management company Vacasa raised $108 million in Series D financing led by existing investor Silver Lake with participation from other existing investors including Riverwood Capital and Level Equity. Vacasa has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as people stayed at home and avoided vacations. The company says business is picking up, with May bookings at six times those placed in April. It also started a cleaning program that exceeds current CDC guidelines.

Willamette Valley Bank

Salem, Oregon-based Willamette Valley Bank recently processed 214 loans totaling $25.1 million under the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program. The bank, a subsidiary of Oregon Bancorp, estimated the loans have saved 2,854 jobs in the Willamette Valley.

Work starts on second Rainier Square tower

[enlarge]

It's no secret that Wright Runstad has been working on the 10-story 400 University office tower planned at Rainier Square. The tower crane went up in March, and the jobsite has been gradually coming back to life since work was paused that month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now it's official. The company, with new financial partner Intercontinental Real Estate, yesterday announced its official groundbreaking on the 122,000-square-foot speculative project. NBBJ is the architect and BNBuilders is the general contractor. Completion is expected by July 2021. Greg Inglin and David Abbott at Colliers are marketing the space. Jeffrey Weber and Jason Flynn of Eastdil Secured arranged the JV with Intercontinental, of Boston. (That firm, with a portfolio worth about $10 billion, recently acquired Roosevelt Commons in the University District for $157 million.) Wright Runstad's Walt Ingram said in a statement, “400 University reflects our continued belief in downtown Seattle and the long- term prospects for its economic growth and office demand.”

Caliber joins Compass

Ian Morell

Jillian Morell

Lazo

Albers

The newly renamed Caliber Group recently said that its 60 brokers have joined Compass. Caliber founders Zack Lazo, Ian Morell, David Albers and Jillian Morell announced the decision to merge. Caliber says it did about $312 million in deals last year. Compass is far larger, with national reach. Its 2019 deal total was around $91 billion.