Oct 15, 2010

Asian Bar Association

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Linda Lee will receive the 2010 Judge of the Year Award from the Asian Bar Association of Washington. The award honors members of the judiciary who support the legal interests of the Asian Pacific American community. Lee is a past president of the association.

WSU Small Business Export Centers

Washington State University will establish two export readiness centers to help small businesses get into overseas markets thanks to a $1.28 million, two-year Washington Export Assistance program grant from the Community Economic Revitalization Board. The grant was one of six awards totaling $3 million intended to help businesses start or expand exporting activities. Centers will be in western and eastern Washington.

Calistoga Pharmaceuticals

Calistoga Pharmaceuticals of Seattle, a developer of drugs to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases, hired Andrew Guggenhime as chief financial officer. Guggenhime spent the last 10 years as CFO for public companies, including Facet Biotech Corp. and PDL BioPharma.

Oct 14, 2010

Seattle City Council

Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen has added Bill LaBorde to his staff to work on transportation issues. LaBorde has been policy director and lobbyist for Transportation Choices Coalition, and has a law degree from Seattle University's School of Law.

Parkside Paper & Gift

Parkside Paper & Gift will open its first store this month at The Bravern across from Karen Millen and Tory Burch. Parkside designs, manufactures and wholesales greeting cards, tote bags, calendars and other specialty gift items.

Sterling Financial

Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane, the bank holding company of Sterling Savings Bank, has received regulatory approval for Robert Hartheimer to join the board of directors. Hartheimer has 30 years of bank regulatory and financial market experience. He is president of Washington, D.C.-based Hartheimer LLC, which provides senior-level counsel to banks, investment firms and financial services companies.

Puget Sound Blood Center

Puget Sound Blood Center announced changes for Northwest Tissue Services, a Blood Center program. Karyn Denton is operations director and Levi Anderson was promoted to national sales manager. Denton worked for Snoqualmie Valley Hospital as chief operating officer. Anderson previously served as satellite supervisor for NWTS in Montana.

Commerce Real Estate

Commerce Real Estate Solutions, a Cushman & Wakefield Alliance member based in Salt Lake City, hired Michele Guidinger Weber as chief human resources officer for western states. She will be based in Cushman & Wakefield — Commerce's Seattle office and oversee human resources for Washington, Utah and Nevada. She was regional operations manager for Cushman & Wakefield in Seattle. Other promotions in Cushman & Wakefield — Commerce in Seattle are: Ashleigh Sundet to associate on the Eastside office leasing team, Kristina Madayag to associate on the Southend industrial advisory services team and Chandra Wilson to associate with the downtown Seattle office leasing team. Ashleigh Kilcup joined the downtown Seattle leasing team as an associate. Kilcup was with Weber Thompson in Seattle. Inger Johnson joined the retail services group.

Banner Bank

Banner Bank and Todd Hull, the bank's assistant vice president of income property lending, won the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound's President's Award. Hull works in the corporate loan center in Bellevue.

Rider Levett Bucknall

Rider Levett Bucknall, an international property and construction consulting company with a Seattle office, has teamed up with Distressed Real Estate Solutions of Phoenix. Tom Vivaldelli, founder and president of DRES, said the new service will help owners, developers and financial organizations with distressed commercial real estate.

Presidio Residential Capital

Presidio Residential Capital of San Diego, which provides construction lending to home builders, plans to expand to other Western markets including Seattle. Founder Don Faye said non-recourse residential construction financing is virtually nonexistent for private builders. Faye said he has teamed with a long-term investment partner to offer alternatives. The company considers loans with a minimum commitment of $10 million.

Colliers International

Seattle-based Colliers International expanded when commercial real estate brokerage Anthony & Co., in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., joined the network. This is the eighth addition to Colliers this year. A subsidiary of publicly traded FirstService Corp., Colliers International has 15,000 employees in 61 countries.

Team Builder JLS

Officials of Rennie Marketing and Team Builder John L. Scott said all 278 condominiums at Canal Station and Canal North have sold. Continental Properties began building the $80 million complex in Ballard in 2005. Rennie and Team Builder marketed and sold the condos.

NAIOP fall seminar Oct. 20

Learn about some of the region's economic bright spots at NAIOP's fall seminar and breakfast meeting Oct. 20 at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. Continuing education credits are available. Scott Rusch, vice president of facilities and operations for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will speak at the 7:30 a.m. breakfast and first seminar. Bari Bookout, director of commercial strategy at the Port of Seattle, will speak at the 9:15 a.m. seminar. The 10:45 a.m. session will feature panelists from the video-gaming industry. Register at naiopwa.org.