Mar 10, 2011

Riddell Williams

The Seattle law firm Riddell Williams elected W. Ward Morrison as managing principal. Morrison has been with Riddell Williams since he began his legal career in 1990 and is chair of the Product Liability Practice Group.

FiberCloud

FiberCloud, an IP solutions company, hired Marcy Knott and Michelle Gibbs to its Seattle-based sales team. Knott has 15 years of experience in technology. The move expands the sales team to meet demand for cloud computing services.

Symetra Financial

Symetra Financial announced Glenn Black is vice president and leader of the tax department. Black joins Symetra from TIAA-CREF where he led corporate tax department and managed tax compliance, provisioning and planning.

NanoString

Life science company NanoString Technologies hired Chris Grimley as vice president of marketing and Katherine Webster as vice president of worldwide sales. Grimley worked with Agilent Technologies as senior director, genomics marketing. Webster was with Qiagen as senior sales director for the life science business.

Marcus & Millichap

Robert Sheppard of Marcus & Millichap in Seattle, again is the company's top-performing agent for all sectors out of more than 1,200 investment specialists nationwide. He's also the top multi-family investment specialist. This is the second straight year he earned the ranking. Armand Tiberio and Spencer Hurst, also in the Seattle office, ranked 14th and 30th, respectively. Sheppard, Tiberio and Hurst are in the Tax Credit Group, which helps clients with low-income housing tax-credit assets across the country. Last year, the group closed deals worth more than $295 million.

Shea Homes

Shea Homes, developer of Shea Homes at Jubilee in Lacey and Trilogy at Redmond Ridge, is one of 40 companies to win the J.D. Power 2011 Customer Service Champion Award. Shea is the only U.S. home builder to receive the award.

Holland Development

Vancouver-based Holland Development, which builds multi-family communities in the West, named Erik Hagevik partner in charge of the Colorado region.

Dune, TDI multi-family JV

Dune Real Estate Partners and TDI Real Estate Holdings formed a $1 billion joint venture to buy and develop multifamily assets in the U.S. The JV will target Class A investments in core markets. A Dune spokesperson said the partners won't say what markets or whether Seattle is among them. The managers are former executives of JPI, a national company that bought and built more than $11 billion of apartments over the past two decades. In 2003, when the market tanked, JPI closed its local office.

1201 Third Avenue Building

The 1201 Third Avenue Building was certified LEED platinum for existing buildings. About 70 percent of the tenants commute by means other than driving alone, and the high rise has bicycle parking and showers for cyclists. Landscaping is irrigated with ground water and stormwater and a satellite irrigation system controller has reduced water use 30 percent. Ninety-five percent of occupants participate in a recycling, composting and green products program. Beacon Capital Partners, Shorenstein Properties and Wright Runstad & Co. own the 55-story tower.

Quadrant

Quadrant Homes President Ken Krivanec will talk about how the company has adapted to a changing market at the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce lunch at noon March 16 at the Hilton Bellevue, 300 112th Ave. S.E. To reserve a space go to bellevuechamber.org or call (425) 213-1205.

ULI program on BRT

The Seattle District Council of the Urban Land Institute will hold a panel discussion on bus rapid transit March 22. The breakfast program begins at 8 a.m. at the W Seattle Hotel, 1112 Fourth Ave. The panel will look at BRT in Seattle, Kansas City and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Panelists are Kevin Desmond of King County Metro, Salima “Sam” O'Connell of Dakota County, Minn., and Danny O'Connor of the Kansas City Area Transit Authority. King County Metro opened the RapidRide A Line in South King County last year. More BRT lines are planned, though federal budget cuts could delay or cancel them. Registration deadline is March 18. Register at seattle.uli.org or by calling (800) 321-5011.