Jan 12, 2006

CREW Seattle

CREW Seattle, regional chapter of the national organization of Commercial Real Estate Women, has installed its 2006 board of directors. Patricia Parsons, a vice president with First American Title Insurance Co., is president. Other officers are president-elect, sponsorships and national delegate Peggy Dreisinger, Metropolitan Improvement District; secretary/treasurer Cathleen Meyer, RREEF; director of programs Patricia Loveall, GVA Kidder Matthews; director of membership Michele Guidinger, Cushman & Wakefield; director of community outreach Roberta Fuhr, KeyBank Real Estate Capital; director of publicity Melanie Corey-Ferrini, Dynamik; director of education/scholarship Lori Mason Curran, Vulcan Inc.; director of communications Shannon Skinner, Preston Gates & Ellis; senior national delegate and past president Lori Hill, Pacific Real Estate Partners; executive director, Eric Featherstone, CREW Seattle; and assistant director Ryan Rodruck, CREW Seattle. This is CREW Seattle's 20th anniversary. Membership is 256, up 50 percent over 2004.

Escapia

Seattle-based Escapia, maker of Web-based software for vacation rental management, has hired Chris Dukelow as vice president of operations and finance. He was formerly CFO of Aventail.

CB Richard Ellis

Jon Hallgrimson has been promoted to executive vice president, the highest title available for CB Richard Ellis brokers. In 18 years with CBRE, Hallgrimson has sold more than $2.3 billion of apartment properties and multi-family land, including the downtown high rise Metropolitan Tower and Harbor Properties' Site 17 in Belltown.

Vulcan Real Estate

Vulcan Real Estate says 2005 was a banner year for the development company, and 2006 is shaping up to be another busy one. The company said it expects to break ground this year on five commercial, residential and mixed-used projects with more than 1.2 million square feet. Last year, Vulcan said it had 900,000 square feet under construction worth $300 million, and three million square feet in the pipeline. Leasing last year totaled 300,000 square feet and 259 condo worth $138 million were presold. Three mixed-use residential projects totaling 670,000 square feet were announced. Construction will start this year on the second phase of UW Medicine Lake Union and two major mixed-use projects will be completed this year: 2200 and Alley24.

Purchase and sale agreements conference

Joel M. Gordon, a partner in the Seattle law firm of Buck & Gordon, and Jennifer D. Cobb, a partner at Jameson Babbitt Stites & Lombard, will co-chair a conference on "Advanced Real Estate Purchases & Sales" at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel on March 6 and 7.

Panelists will include Art Wahl, managing director in the Seattle office of CB Richard Ellis; Craig E. Kinzer, president of the Seattle-based real estate advisory services firm Kinzer Real Estate Services; and Andrew J. Miller, vice president in the Bellevue office of GVA Kidder Mathews.

The event is sponsored by Law Seminars International. For information, call (206) 567-4490 or (800) 854-8009 or visit LSI's Web page.

Jan 11, 2006

Cary Kopczynski & Co.

Whiteley

Cary Kopczynski & Co. promoted Mark Whiteley to principal. Whiteley has managed structural engineering on high-rise and mid-rise commercial buildings and parking structures. He is managing structural design of Cosmopolitan Tower, a 33-story tower in Seattle and Vegas 888, a 51-story tower in Las Vegas.

Mithun

Goldberg	Franko
Guenther	Bain

Mithun has promoted the following senior associates to principals: David Goldberg, Richard Franko, Debra Guenther and Brodie Bain. Goldberg, lead designer and project director, worked on Islandwood -- A School in the Woods and the Zoomazium at Woodland Park Zoo, set to open this spring.

Franko, project director and lead designer, focuses on projects that integrate sustainable strategies, community identity and innovative design. Recent projects include Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Urban Design Plan and Yesler Community Center for the Seattle Parks Department. Guenther, a landscape architect and urban designer, has worked on Zoomazium and High Point's Bataan Park. She is a nationally recognized for her work in sustainable site design practices. Bain, lead in campus master planning and pre-design and project director, worked on the University of Washington's Seattle and Bothell campuses and Duke University.

TVA Architects

Wolff

Hall

Malekzadeh

TVA Architects of Portland recently made the following staff additions: David Wolff, Aaron Hall and Roza Malekzadeh as architects. Wolff rejoins TVA to collaborate on the South Figueroa Towers, a mixed-use high-rise in Los Angeles. Hall, who is LEED accredited, has worked on Park Block 5, a proposed underground parking structure topped with a public park adjacent to Fox Tower in Portland, and the apparel company Chico's headquarters in Fort Myers, Fla. Malekzadeh, a native of Iran, is working on theater complexes in Texas and Missouri.

Otak

Otak has promoted 16 staff members. Otak's new associates in Kirkland are David Ojala and Keith Damann. The new senior associates in Lake Oswego, Ore., are Kay Van Sickel, Tonya Finley, Sinan Gumusoglu and Julie Morales. Others promoted in the Lake Oswego office are Gwynne Berkeley, John Gonzales, Katie Kersten, Kerry Lankford, Heather Robinson, Darrin Stairs, Linda Van Winkle, and Corey Charon in Bend, Ore.

The Blueline Group

The Blueline Group made three new hires: Carol Doggett as CAD manager and senior drafter; Justin Johnson as engineering drafter and Jennifer Samdal as business development manager. Deanna Gebhard recently became a licensed engineer in Washington. She specializes in civil engineering for site design, underground utilities, roadways, and lot/parcel layout for residential and commercial projects.

Crowley Maritime

Crowley Maritime said Alan Twaits has joined the company as vice president and general counsel. Twaits will be based in Jacksonville, Fla., and report to Art Mead, senior vice president and general counsel.

Melby, Cameron & Hull

Melby, Cameron & Hull, an association management firm headquartered in Edmonds, has purchased Cantrall & Associates, a Seattle-based association management firm, creating what it says is the largest firm of its type in the Northwest. Four employees from Cantrall & Associates also joined Melby, Cameron & Hull: Jane Kennedy, Chas Johnston, Duane Braconnier and Jillanne Bates. Jane Kantor, formerly sales and events manager at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, joined the firm as an association executive.

City of Renton

The Government Finance Officers of the United States and Canada said the city of Renton has received its Certificate of Excellence in Finance Reporting for the tenth consecutive year. An Award of Financial Reporting Achievement has been awarded to Linda Parks, Renton's fiscal services director. GFOA is a nonprofit professional association based in Chicago and Washington D.C.

VLST Corp.

Seattle-based VLST Corp., a biotech company focused on treating autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, and Accelerator Corp., an investment company that supports biotech companies, said Martin A. Simonetti has been named president and chief executive officer of VLST, and Steven Gillis, Ph.D., will join as executive chairman of VLST's board of directors. Simonetti worked for Dendreon, Amgen and Genentech.