Apr 01, 2021

Oakpointe Communities

Nelson

Oakpointe Communities of Bellevue announced that its in-house attorney Megan Nelson was recently elevated to general counsel. Company CEO Brian Ross said in a statement, “Her superb legal expertise and guidance will continue to be a valuable asset as we move forward with several developments throughout King and Snohomish counties.” Among those are Ten Trails, now with about 400 homes developed near Black Diamond, and LakePointe. The latter is now a 214-acre gravel pit near Covington that Oakpointe acquired last year for $28 million. The future plan there is about 1,500 residential units (both apartments and houses), 850,000 square feet of retail, hospitality and office space. Said Nelson, “This step forward in my career and with the company is an exciting one.”

ASH visits town

Design and development firm ASH NYC announced that its ASH Staging division has reached Seattle. Its first local project was a half-dozen units at the new Emerald condominium tower downtown, which is seeking to sell its few remaining units (of 262). Andrew Bowen leads ASH Staging from the firm's New York headquarters. ASH has, with partners, developed a trio of boutique hotels in historic buildings in New Orleans, Detroit and Providence, Rhode Island, along with mixed-use projects on the East Coast. It also designs furniture.

Spectrum Development Solutions

Boyce

Spectrum Development Solutions announced that its Kaitlin Boyce has been promoted to associate principal. She's been with the firm for seven years, working on entitlement, feasibility, financial analysis, design and project management. She's worked on past Spectrum projects including Decibel and Reverb, near Yesler Terrace, and on Canton Lofts — which is under construction in Pioneer Square by new owner Nitze-Stagen.

Local brokers honored

Industry website Connect Media recently named its top national brokers for the past year. The 2021 awards are broken out by region. In ours, the honorees include Thad Mallory of Newmark; Eli Hanacek of CBRE; Derek Heed, Gregg Riva, Bill Condon and Matt McGregor of Colliers; Scott Alan and Patrick Mullin of Cushman & Wakefield; and the Berkadia team of Kenny Dudunakis, David Sorensen and Ben Johnson. Connect said it honored 101 brokers from over 500 nominations.

Weingarten lands new tenant in West Seattle

Weingarten Realty owns the retail portion of The Whittaker, at 4755 Fauntleroy Way S.W., which was completed about four years ago. The company recently announced a new commercial tenant in the two-building, mixed-use complex: YogaSix, which is taking 2,302 square feet. The studio should open in mid-April. Amanda Blackwood of CARR represented the tenant; Weingarten's Andy Armstrong negotiated the lease. Named for famed mountaineer and West Seattle native Jim Whittaker, the complex is also home to a Whole Foods, and has 389 apartments. LMC was the developer, in a venture with Weingarten.

Albertsons

Albertsons and Google have formed a multi-year partnership to make shopping easier and more convenient for millions of customers nationwide. Google and Albertsons have been collaborating behind the scenes for the past year and, as part of the partnership announcement, are debuting several new enhancements to make the shopping experience easier. Albertsons has engaged with numerous teams at Google, covering a wide range of technologies and services aimed at making the customer experience more efficient — for example, integrating with Google Search and Maps to help shoppers more easily find what they need, making it easier to shop with Google Pay, and incorporating Google Cloud AI technologies. Boise-based Albertsons operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Ballard Food Bank

The Ballard Food Bank announced that Amazon has donated to its Hope Beyond Hunger capital campaign and formed a strategic partnership to bring food and assistance to people across northwest Seattle. The multifaceted partnership includes $750,000 in total funding for the future of Ballard Food Bank, Amazon employee volunteering support, and an exploration of innovative community programs and markets where families can shop and access healthy food. Amazon has provided grants totaling $500,000 for the Hope Beyond Hunger capital campaign to support Ballard Food Bank's future home — scheduled to open in fall 2021 — plus $250,000 to support programming for families and children in need. Ballard Food Bank's future location at 1400 N.W. Leary Way will serve an expanded area including Licton Springs through Bitter Lake and up to 145th Street. This will be the first building that Ballard Food Bank has owned — an effort that has brought together supporters including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the city of Seattle, the state of Washington, and many individual donors.

Liberty Northwest Bancorp

Liberty Northwest Bancorp, the holding company for Liberty Bank, has completed a private placement of $5 million in aggregate principal amount of fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes to certain qualified institutional accredited investors. The company will use the proceeds for general banking purposes with an emphasis on supporting the growth of the holding company and the bank. Liberty Northwest Bancorp was established in 2020 as a single bank holding company for its Washington state-chartered bank subsidiary Liberty Bank. Liberty Bank, headquartered in Poulsbo, serves clients throughout the West Sound and Puget Sound regions. Keller Rohrback served as counsel to Liberty Northwest Bancorp and Los Angeles-based MJC Partners served as the sole placement agent for the offering.

BitTitan

BitTitan, the developer of MigrationWiz and a provider of managed services automation, hired Khan Klatt as its director of engineering. Bringing more than 25 years of diverse technology experience, Klatt will lead development operations and release management for BitTitan. He will be based in the company's Bellevue office. For the past two years, Klatt served as the vice president of technology for the Committee for Children, a global nonprofit that promotes the safety, well-being and success of children. Before that, Klatt spent four years as the senior director of web application engineering for McGraw-Hill Education. BitTitan has offices in the Seattle area and Singapore.