Apr 27, 2007

Williams, Kastner & Gibbs

Law firm Williams, Kastner & Gibbs hired Marshall L. Ferguson as an associate in the Seattle office. Marshall was with Floyd & Pflueger. Williams, Kastner & Gibbs has more than 90 attorneys in Seattle, Portland and Tacoma.

Prepared Response

Seattle-based Prepared Response, a developer of crisis management planning and response systems, said it was awarded $7 million to install its Rapid Responder system in 1,000 schools in South Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Washington state. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education's Emergency Response and Crisis Management grant program and other government funding sources. Rapid Response provides emergency personnel with a database of facility information.

Downtown Transportation Alliance

The Downtown Transportation Alliance in Seattle hired John Resha as executive director and general manager of the Urban Mobility Group. The group is an alliance of the Downtown Seattle Association, the city of Seattle and King County Metro. It develops transportation benefits packages for downtown businesses and their employees. The Downtown Transportation Alliance is a membership group that works on transportation policies and programs designed to keep downtown attractive to businesses.

Apr 26, 2007

The Arboretum Foundation

The Arboretum Foundation hired Paige Miller as executive director. Miller was a commissioner at the Port of Seattle for 18 years. She plans to add gardens to the arboretum that reflect the Pacific Rim, including Australia, New Zealand and Chile. The Arboretum Foundation, founded in 1935, is the membership, fundraising and volunteer services organization for the arboretum.

Board of Park Commissioners

Seattle City Councilmember David J. Della appointed John Barber as a member of the Board of Park Commissioners and the full council confirmed the appointment. Barber is chair of the Parks and Greenspace Committee of the Leschi Community Council. Established in 1884, the Board of Park Commissioners is a volunteer advisory board.

Bastyr University

Bastyr University appointed Dan Leahy as interim vice president for academic affairs. Leahy has served as dean of the LIOS/Bastyr School of Applied Behavioral Science since 1997 and president of the Leadership Institute of Seattle since 2001. He stepped down temporarily from the deanship to assume this position, but remains LIOS president. Bastyr University also hired Wendy Marsh as vice president of development. Marsh has worked with enterpriseSeattle, Mercy Corps in Bellevue and United Way of Everett.

Banner Bank

Banner Bank promoted Vicki Hart to assistant vice president/commercial loan officer at its Renton branch. Hart has 27 years of banking experience and joined Banner Bank in 1996 as a personal banking officer. Banner Bank is a commercial bank headquartered in Walla Walla.

Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield of Washington hired Heather Mosebar as associate director of its valuation services group for the Puget Sound region and as a key member of the national residential development group. Cushman & Wakefield also hired three appraisers — Richard Sobczak, Sylvester Cann IV and Kevin Stoknes — to join the valuation services group, bringing the number of people in that group to 14. Mosebar has focused on subdivisions and condo valuations for 15 years. She was a commercial review appraiser for Sterling Savings Bank. Sobczak is a member of the agribusiness specialty group. He had his own appraisal firm specializing in rural and agricultural assignments. Cann was with McKee & Schalka Commercial Appraisal Services and Consultants. Stoknes was most recently a commercial real estate appraiser with Re-Solve.

The Staubach Co.

Andrew Harnish, CCIM, is the new vice president of Staubach Co.'s Pacific Northwest industrial services group and market leader for the logistics practice group. Harnish brings 11 years of corporate real estate experience to Staubach. He worked most recently for RREEF and prior to that, as a broker at Cushman & Wakefield in Portland.

Avalon Bay Communities

AvalonBay Communities of Alexandria, Va., was named 2007 Property Management Company of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders. AvalonBay was a finalist in three other categories: Best Garden Apartment Community 4 Stories & Under (Avalon Pines, Coram, N.Y.), Best Rental apartment Community 5 Stories or Less, Non-Garden (Avalon Juanita Village, Kirkland), and Best Multifamily Community Site Plan (Avalon Pines, Coram, N.Y.).

DSA forum on downtown housing

The Downtown Seattle Association breakfast forum on May 16 will be on residential development. DSA says the city center has about 55,000 residents, up about 61 percent in the last 16 years. More than 34 apartment buildings and condo projects are now under construction. A panel with Leslie Williams of Williams Marketing, Ada Healey of Vulcan Inc., Tom Parsons of Opus Northwest and Adrienne Quinn of the Seattle Office of Housing will look at who is moving downtown, business opportunities with this new customer base, affordable housing and how to make downtown more livable. The event starts at 7:30 and runs until 9 a.m. in Benaroya Hall, 200 University St. Cost is $35 for members and $50 for nonmembers. To register call (206) 613-3209.

NAIOP South Sound meeting May 11

The South Sound meeting of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties will be held May 11 at the Tacoma Club-Rainier Room from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The topic is the proposed Regional Transportation Improvement District roads package, with speaker Shawn Bunney, Pierce County Council member and chair of the RTID Executive Board. Reservations must be made by noon on May 7. Cost is $30 for NAIOP members and $45 for non-members. For information see the Web site at http://www.naiopwa.org.