Oct 25, 2018

CREW gets modular

Image from Gensler [enlarge]

citizenM

The Dutch boutique hotel chain citizenM is building a modular 264-room hotel at 201 Westlake Ave. N., with Gensler as the architect and Mortenson Construction as the general contractor. The modules were made in Poland and shipped to the site. You can learn all about the project at CREW's next monthly luncheon, at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 at Motif Seattle hotel (1415 Fifth Ave.) On hand will be Lauren Boedeker and Cori Palmer from Mortenson and Sukyee Pang from Gensler. Details and registration: crewseattle.org.

Pinnacle promotes Tina Boone

Boone

Dallas-based Pinnacle Property Management Services has promoted Tina Boone to vice president in charge of the Seattle multifamily team. Boone began her property management career in Texas as a leasing agent, and worked in administrative positions before moving to Washington, working with Archstone, Indigo Real Estate Services and Thrive Communities. She joined Pinnacle earlier this year. Pinnacle's Eric Schwabe said Boone “has a keen ability to turn any asset into a top performing property.” Pinnacle now manages a portfolio with over 165,000 residential units and 2.75 million square feet. It has over 4,100 employees in 30 states.

Thrive hires Amy Williams

Williams

Multifamily property manager Thrive Communities hired Amy L. Williams as regional director. She makes the move from Security Properties, and has two decades of experience in the field. Thrive's Rose O'Dell said in a statement, “With a vast knowledge of the Pacific Northwest multifamily and condominium markets, Amy has incredible experience supervising a wide variety of real estate developments.” Thrive is the property management arm of Rise Properties Trust, a Canadian REIT with a Seattle office. Rise has lately been on a buying spree in this area, and now has about 2,000 units in its local portfolio.

(Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct Amy Williams' title.)

Broderick Smith to depart family firm

Broderick Smith

Broderick Smith, son of Urban Visions founder Greg Smith, has announced he will leave the firm in 2019 after about 12 years to pursue new, unspecified ventures. He said in a statement, “Urban Visions has another 2 million square feet of office development teed up in downtown Seattle. I will be excited and proud to watch it all go up over the next few years.” Broderick's grandfather Martin Smith was a longtime partner with the legendary Henry Broderick.

ULI's Emerging Trends is Oct. 31

Urban Land Institute's annual Emerging Trends presentation is next week, to be delivered by PwC's Mitch Roschelle. He'll survey the state of the market, with particular emphasis on tech and innovation — including artificial intelligence and machine learning. One highlight from the bound report is that Seattle has dropped from its No. 1 position last year to No. 16 among PwC's hot real estate markets. The breakfast event begins at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31 at the Sheraton. Details and registration: northwest.uli.org.

Cozen O'Connor

In Seattle, Cozen O'Connor hired attorney Jeremy M. Dukmen to expand its West Coast intellectual property practice. Dukmen comes from BakerHostetler, where he practiced in the IP department. He was a mechanical engineer before becoming an attorney. Cozen O'Connor has 28 offices on two continents.

Marchex

Seattle-based mobile advertising analytics company Marchex named Dr. Junmei Zhong chief artificial intelligence scientist. The company also launched Marchex Innovation Development Lab, a research and development group. Zhong has 18 years of R&D experience in data science, applied math, machine learning, data mining and natural language processing. He was chief data scientist at Inspur, principal data scientist at Pitchbook and assistant professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

Governor's Employer Awards

The Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment recognized six employers for helping people with disabilities. Winners of 2018 Governor's Employer Awards are: Cascade Public Media, Fred Meyer Store 122, Kulshan Brewing Co., Gigglechops Dog Wash, Educational Service District 123 and the city of Bellevue. The committee also honored Don Kay for his commitment to people with disabilities and Paula Bouwer for creating job opportunities for workers with disabilities. Kay works at the DSHS Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and Bouwer is manager of Deaf Services at Washington Vocational Services.