Jun 29, 2000

Zebra Hill Marketing

Zebra Hill Marketing, a promotional products and services company based in Bellevue, has recently hired Shelley Stewart and Tanya Pearcy as account managers to develop and service new business representing a range of industries, from restaurants to high tech. Stewart worked at Catalyst Marketing and PremiereGroup. Pearcy comes to Zebra Hill with an extensive background in sales and marketing.

Aon Risk Services

Aon Risk Services, a holding company that comprises a family of insurance brokerage, consulting and underwriting subsidiaries, named Steve Denton managing director of its Seattle operation. Denton will be responsible for all of the company's operations in the state. He has more than 14 years of experience in the insurance and risk management industries.

vJungle

Hewlett-Packard Co. and vJungle of Redmond jointly launched a suite of e-services that help streamline business functions for small-to-medium business customers. Available on line, the new co-branded e-services include secure Web-based communications, collaboration and finance applications. vJungle is an application service provider for small-to-medium size business.

Olympic Venture Partners

Olympic Venture Partners, a Kirkland-based high technology and Internet venture capital firm, announced that David Chen has joined the firm as a new venture partner. Chen joins the four current general partners: Chad Waite, George Clute, Gerry Langeler and Bill Miller. He comes to the firm from GeoTrust, a Portland-based company working in the online business-to-business marketplace. Chen is co-founder of GeoTrust and current CEO.

The Home Depot

The Home Depot will open its second store in Tacoma today at 4602 Center St. The decision to locate a second store in Tacoma was based on growth in the area. The 113,000-square-foot warehouse center will offer Home Depot's newest merchandising and design elements.

LISC merger creates Impact Capital

Two non-profit groups that focus on funding for affordable housing projects have merged. The Puget Sound Local Initiatives Support Corp. teamed with the Washington Community Development Loan Fund to become Impact Capital. LISC's executive director, Tom Lattimore, became Impact's head. Washington Community's executive director, Alice Shobe, became Impact's deputy director.

Impact starts off with a newly formed $20 million Washington Community Investment Fund set up to help non-profit housing developers buy land quickly, build out commercial space and keep their projects moving. Public and private sources have so far put up $16 million for the new fund. Participants in the fund include Washington Mutual Savings Bank, the state Housing Finance Commission, the city of Seattle's Office of Housing and several banks: Northern Trust, Key, U.S. and Wells Fargo.

The fund "will be a bridge to create more affordable housing in the state," said WaMu executive Bob Flowers. "It provides financing that is not currently available."

Kidder Mathews & Segner

Linn Larsenhas become an industrial investment broker in Tacoma for Kidder Mathews & Segner. Larsen has 26 years of commercial real estate experience, mostly with his own firm. He recently served as president of the Washington chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

National Mortgage

Andrew Goodstein has been promoted to vice president in the Bellevue office of National Mortgage Co. Goodstein works in loan production.

Dupre+Scott

Patty Dupre was elected chair of the non-profit Central Puget Sound Real Estate Research Committee. Dupre, a principal in the Seattle-based apartment market research firm of Dupre+Scott, replaces Washington Federal Savings Executive Vice President Charles Richmond, who chaired the committee since 1995. The 51-year-old committee provides information on commercial and residential real estate trends via the twice-yearly Central Puget Sound Real Estate Research Report. Experts from a variety of disciplines head 15 specialized subcommittees that generate data for the reports. Dupre has been active with the committee since 1984.

"The committee pioneered the now-popular concept of open access to market information," Dupre said. The long-term health of real estate markets, which affect the entire economy, depend on "timely and reliable market information," she said.

ReFlex Communications

Seattle-based broad-band company ReFlex Communications landed a deal with Essex Property Trust to provide high-speed Internet access to the California REIT's 72 apartment complexes. "The agreement allows us to highlight our network quality and capacity, while rapidly continuing our build-out," said ReFlex President Jim Miller Jr. Reflex says it can install the connections with no disruption to renters. Essex's 72 complexes, totalling 15,804 apartments, range up the West Coast from Southern California to Seattle. Essex has another 1,044 apartments in development. ReFlex says it offers a hybrid wireless-fiber optic path that links directly into fiber optic networks, bypassing local Internet choke points.