Jan 31, 2002

Ellis Paguirigan Designs

Juma

Kristina Juma is the new operations manager for Ellis Paguirigan Designs. Juma was formerly an art director at Capital Communications. Paguirigan Designs is a branding and design agency based in Olympia.

Wells Fargo

Baltrusch

Brenda Baltrusch has been named senior vice president and senior trust administrator for Wells Fargo. Baltrusch worked for Bank of America, where she managed trust and private banking sales and service for northwestern Washington. Baltrusch is now responsible for sales and administration of investment management and trust services in north King, Snohomish, Skagit, Island and Whatcom counties, and is based in Everett.

Asia-Europe-Americas Bank

Kurabi

Ned Kurabi has been promoted to senior vice president at Asia-Europe-Americas Bank. Kurabi has more than 20 years of commercial and international banking experience, including senior management duties.

Miller Nash

Busch

Miller Nash has elected Richard J. Busch as a partner. Busch joined Miller Nash in 2000 as counsel in the firm's telecommunications practice group. His current focus is commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and regulatory matters.

Providence Hospice of Seattle

Sue Ellen Katz, Jill Lombardi, Jane Quirk and Linda Reeder have joined the Foundation Community Board of Providence Hospice of Seattle

Affordable Housing Advisory Council

Kazama

Blake Kazama became Alaska's three-year representative on Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle's Affordable Housing Advisory Council, which guides the bank's board on how it can help improve affordable housing in the west. Kazama works as executive director of the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority in Alaska and is president of the Association of Alaska Housing Authorities. "I want to see what the Home Loan Bank can do to help economic development in Alaska's rural communities," Kazama said. "We need help building up flagging local economies so people can have jobs and, in turn, become homeowners. I also plan to establish a method of tracking and measuring the bank's impact on Alaska's rural communities."

The latest housing heroes

Seven people received 2001 Washington Housing Hero awards for getting legislation passed to overcome hindrances to a 1999 law that exempted nonprofit low-income housing from paying property taxes.

The 1999 law removed property taxes on "very-low-income rental housing owned by nonprofit organizations financed with state or local funding that serve populations that are predominantly at or below 50 percent of the area median income," according to the hero awards' sponsors, the Washington Low Income Housing Congress and the Washington Low Income Housing Network.

Then-Department of Revenue Director Fred Kiga, now Gov. Gary Locke's chief of staff, "identified issues making it difficult to implement" the 1999 law, the two groups said. As a result, the Legislature last year passed House Bill 2098 and Senate Bill 6092 "to correct the technical problems in (the 1999) law," the two groups said. "Kiga made these bills a priority for the Department of Revenue."

For this, the two housing groups named Kiga as a housing hero along with the following legislators who pushed the bills through: state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle; Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane; Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park; Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle; Rep. Carolyn Edmonds, D-Shoreline; and Rep. John Pennington, R-Carrolls.

"Tenant incomes have not risen as much as maintenance, utilities and operating costs," said Carla Okigwe, executive director of the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County. "Without the property tax exemption, many nonprofit would have to raise their rents beyond the reach of current tenants. Given the shortage of low-cost housing, some of these tenants could have become homeless."

Lynn Davison, chair of the Low Income Housing Congress, described the 2001 legislative session as "very, very tough, and (yet) the housing agenda faired well."

Colliers International

George

Bruininks

Michael George was promoted to senior vice president in the Seattle office of the commercial brokerage Colliers International. George is an 11-year Colliers office broker working in office leasing and sales in south King County. He's a University of Washington graduate. In one of his bigger deals last year, he represented the Hanson family in their $9.7 million sale of the Valley Ridge Corporate Center to the city of Seatac, which intends to build its new City Hall there. Colliers also promoted industrial broker Brian Bruininks to vice president.

Microsofties talk to CREW Feb. 14

Microsoft real estate decision-makers may pull back the curtain slightly on the company's activities at a Feb. 14 Commercial Real Estate Women luncheon. Kevin Williams, Randy Hamblin, Jim Stanton and Martha Clarkson will talk as a panel at the noon event at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. Williams works as group manager for the Microsoft team that handles new construction and large renovations in the Puget Sound area. Hamblin works in design, permitting, leasing and acquisition of new facilities. Stanton works on creating the company's new Issaquah campus. Clarkson is workplace design manager. For more information, call CREW at (206) 361-6859.

Investing in home loans

Puget Sound Home Mortgage has scheduled a March 14 seminar about why investing in home loans can make sense. Dan McLaughlin and June Lu will talk at the event, which starts at 6:15 p.m. in Stewart Title's Seatac offices at 18000 International Blvd. For information, contact Lu at (425) 235-7540.