May 25, 2012

Frause

Whitesides

Seattle-based Frause hired Amanda Whitesides as senior account executive. Whitesides managed community outreach and public input for a large regional transportation project. Frause is an integrated communications firm.

Big Fish

Seattle-based Big Fish has added Bill Lee to the board of directors. Lee is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and technology investor whose recent investments include Tesla Motors, SpaceX and Social Concepts, which was acquired by Big Fish. Lee is on the advisory board of i/o ventures and was CEO and co-founder of Remarq. Big Fish provides Internet media delivery software and game services.

May 24, 2012

Washington State Hospital Association

Randy Revelle, senior vice president for policy and advocacy for the Washington State Hospital Association, will retire at the end of this year. He has worked as an association executive, a leader of health-care reform, an elected official and volunteer. From 1981 to 1985, Revelle was King County executive and served two terms as a Seattle City Councilman. Revelle has been an advocate of people living with a mental illness and was one of the first elected officials in the nation to publicly discuss his bipolar disorder.

Seattle-Northwest Securities

Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp. hired Karl Leaverton as president and CEO. Leaverton worked as management consultant with Blakely Management in Bellevue. He will replace Maud Daudon who has left the firm after 10 years of service. Seattle-Northwest Securities is an independent, employee-owned investment bank, broker-dealer and asset management firm.

Orion Commercial Partners

Butler

Clements

Investment brokers Scott Clements and David Butler, formerly of Grubb & Ellis, joined Orion Commercial Partners in Seattle. Grubb was acquired earlier this year and became Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Clements and Butler said several brokerages tried to recruit them, and they chose Orion because of its entrepreneurial character. They join Dan Foster and Matthew Hinrichs, who founded Orion two years ago.

New IREM publication

A new publication from the Institute of Real Estate Management looks at the future of real estate. Christopher Lee wrote “Transformational Leadership in the New Age of Real Estate.” Here are some of the predictions: 30 percent of the regional and local real estate companies that were around two years ago will be gone by 2020; real estate companies will generate more revenue from selling knowledge and access to customer bases; abundant capital will keep cap rates low through 2017; and a global eBay-like real estate company will be formed. Information is at http://www.irembooks.org.

Bellevue Towers

Bellevue Towers closed its 300th condo sale, putting it 12 sales away from receiving Fannie Mae approval, which would allow people to make lower down payments. To boost sales and get Fannie Mae approval, the project is lowering prices on some units in June. Sample prices range from $364,000 for a 1,049-square-foot unit to $1.02 million for a 2,144-square-foot unit. Prices have fallen as much as 41 percent. The two-tower complex has 539 units.

Bellwether Housing

The Seattle affordable housing provider Bellwether cut its energy use at one of its properties, Mercer Court on Capitol Hill, by 40 percent and has joined the Seattle 2030 District, a public-private group that wants to create a high-performance building district downtown. Bellwether used the free online Energy Star Portfolio Manager to measure energy use in its 29 buildings, and found utility costs at the 24-unit Mercer Court were high. The Enterprise Green Retrofit Program and Ecotope helped with an energy audit and other changes that cut annual energy and water costs by $10,000.

Housing issues briefing June 5

The 18th annual Housing Issues Briefing for state Legislature candidates and regional policy makers will be at 11:30 a.m. June 5 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Realtor associations from the four-county region are putting on the event. Economist John W. Mitchell is the keynote speaker. Other speakers are land use attorney Molly Lawrence of Van Ness Feldman Gordon Derr, Kreg Kendall of Windermere's Bellevue Commons office, Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis and public relations consultant Randy Bannecker. Register by calling 1 (800) 540-3277 or emailing dcrowell@nwrealtor.com.

DSA annual meeting

The Downtown Seattle Association's annual meeting will be at 4 p.m. June 12 at the 5th Avenue Theatre. It will focus on downtown development projects. Register at downtownseattle.org.