Dec 30, 2010

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler

The San Diego and Portland offices of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler arranged a $21 million refinancing for a biotech/lab building in Bothell, and the company's Portland office arranged a $15.6 million refinancing for a 241-unit apartment property in Fife. Tim Wright, Tom Wilson and Zack Holderman secured the loan with Prime Finance for Nexus Properties, which owns the 152,000-square-foot Nexus Canyon Park in Bothell. The loan is a refinancing of a maturing loan. The property is fully leased to VoiceStream/T-Mobile, Immenex/Amgen, Epoch Pharmaceuticals and Acucela. Wilson and Casey Davidson arranged the loan on Rainier Pointe for a joint venture of Security Properties and Equity Resource Investments. Rainier Pointe is undergoing an exterior renovation and apartments are being upgraded. HHF placed the 35-year, fully-amortizing, 3.79 percent fixed-rate (excluding mortgage insurance premium) 223(f) FHA loan with AmeriSphere Mortgage Fianance LLC. The new permanent financing replaced a short-term bridge loan. Rainier Pointe is 88 percent occupied.

Multi-family investment symposium Jan. 14

NAI Puget Sound Properties and the University of Washington-Tacoma will host a symposium about multi-family investments in a recovering economy from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 14 at Carwein Auditorium on the UW Tacoma campus. Doug Smith and Hugh Winskill of NAI are presenting the event. Washington state Senior Economist Bret Bertolin will present the economic forecast. Among the other speakers are Karen McIver of Columbia Bank, who will talk about distressed properties; and Peter O'Kane of Roanoke Financial Group, who will discuss the commercial-mortgage backed securities crisis and whether apartment loans maturing in the next few years are foreclosures waiting to happen. For more information or to register, go to nai-psp.com/symposium.

KeyBank

Kenneth Ko has been named manager of KeyBank's new branch in Fremont. The former location of Baja Fresh at 601 N. 34th St. at Fremont Ave N. is being remodeled to accommodate the branch. The grand opening is scheduled for March 14. Ko began his career at KeyBank in 2006. For the past four years, he has managed the KeyBank branch at Greenlake.

The Hunt Club at the Sorrento Hotel

Chef Ivan Szilak has been appointed executive chef of the Hunt Club at the Sorrento Hotel. He will oversee the restaurant's culinary direction, hotel catering and private events. Szilak has 20 years experience in the culinary industry, most recently serving as general manager of Taverna Tagaris Restaurant and Winery in Richland.

Rainier Group Investment Advisory

Rainier Group Investment Advisory hired Michelle Rubesch as director of portfolio management. Rubesch has 20 years experience and was previously chief investment officer and equity strategist for Perkins Coie Capital Management in Seattle. The Rainier Group, a consulting firm, provides business transition and wealth advisory planning and related services.

Dec 29, 2010

Friday Harbor House

Friday Harbor House hired Michael Alexander as operations manager and Kyle Nicholson as chef of the boutique San Juan Island Inn and The Bluff Restaurant Bar Terrace. Alexander recently developed and managed The Portfolio Room, the fine dining restaurant of the Culinary Department at the Art Institute of Seattle. He has also instructed at FareStart and Edmonds Community College. Nicholson has 10 years experience in the culinary industry and recently managed a culinary program with Sur La Table in Salt Lake City.

Banner Bank

Banner Bank hired Jim McLean at the Bellevue Lending Center as senior vice president/construction and development lending manager. McLean will manage the company's commercial real estate construction lending activities. He has 20 years of banking and lending experience and was vice president/senior rehab officer for First Horizon National Corp.

University Place

The City Council of University Place voted to retain Stephen P. Sugg as the city manager effective January 1. Sugg has been a member of the city's staff for 14 years. He was recently interim city manager, following the retirement of Bob Jean, University Place's first city manager. Before that, he had been deputy city manager since 2006.

Pinnacle Consulting Group

Steve Fisher, senior project engineer and manager of design services at Pinnacle Consulting Group, has joined the ownership group as a principal after 18 years with the firm. He has 22 years of experience in facilities planning and industrial engineering. He has designed and managed projects with Seattle University and Navistar/International Truck & Engine Corp. Snohomish-based Pinnacle provides industrial engineering, facilities planning and material handling systems design.

ZGF Architects

ZGF Architects hired a number of employees in its Seattle office. Daniel Brindisi, Elisabeta Curea, Jessica Swann, Masaye Harrison and Katie Freels are new design team members. Christian Shoup was hired as a 3-D renderer and Kalyn Kelley as a marketing coordinator. Brindisi has experience in 3D modeling, digital rendering and media production. He is working on the General Services Administration, Federal Center South district headquarters. Most recently with Hinthorne Mott Architects, his experience includes low- to high-rise office and residential projects. Curea is working on Harborview Medical Center's Vascular Center of Excellence. Swann is working on the Federal Center South district headquarters. Previously, she was with H3 Studio in St. Louis. Harrison has a master's in architecture from the University of Oregon and is working on the North Lot mixed-use project in Seattle. Shoup is creating computer models, graphics and animations to support projects. Previously, he was a director at visualhouse in New York. Freels is working on the Elks on Broadway mixed-use project in Tacoma. Previously at Hinthorne Mott Architects, Freels experience includes design and planning of mixed-use, residential and health care projects. Kelley was most recently a marketing coordinator at Garvey Schubert Barer law firm.