Feb 06, 2015

Denise Louie Education Center

Yang

Denise Louie Education Center named Susan Yang executive director. Yang succeeds Janice Deguchi. The center provides multicultural education programs, and annually serves more than 570 low-income and immigrant children and their families in over 12 different languages. Yang was with Thrive by Five Washington where she focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math projects.

Visit Seattle

Cerizo

Visit Seattle named Li Cerizo concierge, assistant manager, to help visitors and conference attendees at a Visit Seattle center. Cerizo was convention services coordinator for Visit Seattle and also worked in the hotel industry for Westin and Pan Pacific. Cerizo has a degree from Private Chinese Culture University in Taipei, and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

Feb 05, 2015

Washington State University

Washington State University said the WSU Women's Resource Center has been awarded $17,000 to help reestablish the National Education for Women's Leadership Summer Institute in Pullman. The Leadership Summer Institute is a six-day residential program that provides training to women interested in political roles and leadership positions. WSU hosted the institute until 2010 when it was cut during the economic downturn.

SmartRG

SmartRG, a Vancouver-based maker of managed broadband and home networking solutions for broadband service providers, said Tim Bennington-Davis has joined as vice president of engineering. He has worked at Ixia Communications, InFocus and Tektronix.

Southside Regional Tourism Authority

The Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority named the board of directors for the new public corporation to manage funding and tourism promotion for Des Moines, SeaTac and Tukwila. Board members are Barry Baxter, Ken Stockdale and Frank Welton. The officers are Chairperson Maureen Huffman of Embassy Suites Sea-Tac, Vice Chair Sanjay Mahajan of Radisson Hotel Seattle Airport, Secretary David Sullivan of Cedarbrook Lodge and Treasurer Barbara Brunetti of Ramada Tukwila.

Kodiak Fire Dept.

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — Interim Kodiak Fire Chief Jim Mullican has been appointed permanently to the top job. Mullican began his official duties as chief on Tuesday. Mullican began with the fire department as a volunteer in 1999 and became deputy chief in 2011.

HFF arranges financing for Smith Tower

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HFF said it arranged financing and represented the seller in the sale of Smith Tower, which Unico Properties bought for $73.7 million last month.

HFF's Gerry Rohm, Nick Kucha and James Childress marketed the building for sale for the seller. Tom Wilson and Erica Christensen of HFF helped Unico secure a loan from a foreign bank.

Smith Tower is protected by both local and national landmark designations. The facade and many interior finishes have been preserved.

Unico plans some improvements, including to the elevators, lobby, restrooms, and the Observation Deck and Chinese Room on top.

NAIOP talking hotels

The hotel construction boom will be the focus of the Washington chapter of NAIOP's breakfast meeting at 7 a.m. Feb. 11 at Sheraton Seattle Hotel, 1400 Sixth Ave. Andrew Olsen of Columbia Hospitality will moderate a panel that includes Tom Norwalk, president and CEO at Visit Seattle; Chris Burdett, senior vice president at CBRE; and Carla Murray, senior vice president at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. For more information, or to register for the event, visit: http://www.naiopwa.org/breakfast-meetings

Mortgage refinancing site comes to Washington

Lenda, a website that allows homeowners to refinance mortgages online, is now available in Washington. Previously, the site only covered California. Lenda says it eliminates the middleman in mortgage refinancing, the same way TurboTax does for taxes. Lenda has closed $25 million in refinancing loans since October. Lenda says it can close loans faster and with lower interest rates than traditional refinancing sources.