May 15, 2009

Teavana

Atlanta-based tea emporium Teavana will open a store in Seattle in Pacific Place on Sept. 1. Teavana is a retail shop and tea room where guests can enjoy more than 100 varieties of loose leaf tea, and buy tea-related merchandise. The 1,000-square-foot store will open on Level 2 next to the Gymboree store. Teavana has over 100 tea emporiums, with three in this region.

D.A. Davidson & Co.

D.A. Davidson & Co. of Great Falls, Mont., is opening a new office in Burlington. Art Larvie is branch manager. He will oversee Kyle Reep, Scott Berg, Scott Elliott, Susan Johnson, Kendra Dobbs, Ann Berg and Heidi Agnew. The new office is at 195 E. George Hopper Road. D.A. Davidson is a full-service investment firm.

Gilmore Research Group

Gilmore Research Group, a marketing research company, has opened a new location for clients to do research testing at 2101 Fourth Ave., on the eighth floor. The space has three separate focus suites including client viewing rooms, lounges and office areas. Gilmore's corporate headquarters and research team is also in the new location.

Arnerich Massena & Associates

Arnerich Massena & Associates, a Portland-based independent investment consulting firm, added Jacob O'Shaughnessy to the institutional consulting team. He will also be a member of the Investment Committee. O'Shaughnessy has 10 years of experience and recently worked at R.V. Kuhns & Associates.

May 14, 2009

Great City Initiative

The Great City Initiative named Joshua Curtis as executive director. Curtis has been involved with Great City for three years as a volunteer, board member and co-chair. He replaces Michael McGinn, who resigned as executive director to run for mayor of Seattle.

WSU

The Washington State University Research Foundation and The University Funds, a venture capital fund and business accelerator, have agreed to collaborate in creating new ventures based upon research at WSU. The collaboration will accelerate commercialization of intellectual property developed at WSU with The University Funds.

Intermec

Everett-based Intermec hired Ian Snadden as vice president of sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Snadden has 20 years of technology sales management experience. He previously worked at Unisys UK.

Coast/Sperry Van Ness

Sean Straub has joined Coast/Sperry Van Ness as an office and retail leasing and sales advisor focusing primarily in the Everett/Mukilteo markets.

Heartland

John E. Shaw has become a director of Seattle-based Heartland LLC focusing on family real estate wealth continuity strategies, financial institution real estate repositioning and real estate litigation support. Tejal Pastakia has become a senior development manager at Heartland, leading teams engaged in strategic planning about property development. Pastakia has experience in mixed-use, multi-family, student housing, office and owner/user commercial projects.

HAL Real Estate Investments

Dana Behar, president of HAL Real Estate Investments, said his firm's 400,000-square-foot Triton Towers office campus has bucked current real estate trends by achieving 100 percent occupancy. He said in a press release that HAL renewed and signed seven new leases for 42,700 square feet at Triton Towers in the last six months. The Southend office market has a vacancy rate of 17.8 percent, according to CB Richard Ellis. Recent deals include leases with Guy F. Atkinson Construction, Horizon Lines, Manpower International, Eliot Management Group and First American Title. The Renton complex has three seven-story buildings. The property, formerly known as Renton Place, was nearly vacant four years ago. HAL said it renovated lobbies and common spaces, added new signage and renamed the campus.

The Bravern impacts: May 21

The Bellevue Chamber Business Lunch on May 21 will be on The Bravern and how it will change the retail landscape and impact business in Bellevue and the region. The event runs from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. Dan Ivanoff, founder and managing investment partner of Schnitzer West LLC, and Tom Woodworth, senior investment director and partner, will keynote the program. Reservations are required and can be made online at http://www.bellevuechamber.org or by calling (425) 213-1205.