Sep 03, 2020

Big talent exodus from Kinzer to Lee & Assoc.

Lee & Assoc. opened a Seattle office four years ago. Since then, the brokerage has gradually been gaining traction in our market. But on Tuesday, the firm announced its biggest coup to date: Stuart Williams has taken his three-person team from Kinzer Partners and over to Lee. (Williams and his team had previously been at JLL, before joining Kinzer in 2018.) Coming with the industry veteran Williams, one of the region's top brokers, are Adrienne Hunter, Alex Muir and Elizabeth Schalka. Williams said in a statement, “Legitimate and willing buyers are sizing up opportunities to invest in a market that promises to correct once the COVID-19 situation subsides.” Jim Bowles, who leads Lee's Seattle office, said, “When we first opened our office in 2016, we knew that we wanted to focus on all aspects of the commercial real estate brokerage business, including and especially the commercial investment arena.” Williams will lead its Northwest investment division.

Revel adds to senior housing team

Senior housing developer Revel Communities, which is based in Scottsdale but is active in our region, has named two new executives. Ginni Ryan is now senior VP of operations. She makes the move from Milestone Retirement Communities. Industry veteran Danette Opaczewski is now COO and executive VP of resident experience; she was previously with Sydell Group. Revel is a division of Wolff Co., whose Jay Petkunas said in a statement, “Both Danette and Ginni bring the perfect balance of experience to diversify our executive team. We have every confidence they will help us raise the bar in senior living.” Meanwhile, the company expects to open the 146-unit Revel Issaquah this fall (pictured), and another community in Kirkland next year.

KM hires new research director

Kidder Mathews announced a new director of research, Gary Baragona, who'll work out of its San Francisco office. He makes the move from CBRE. Seattle, where KM is headquartered, will of course be part of his remit. He said in a statement, “I have watched the firm rapidly expand into multiple West Coast markets, including the Bay Area and, more recently, Southern California. After I learned about the firm's extensive investment into their research and data platforms, joining Kidder Mathews became a very compelling choice for me to make.”

Alaska Airlines

The Seattle Public Schools Department of Technology Services has supplied tech devices to almost all 53,000 Seattle Public School students in order to support remote learning this fall. An additonal 12,000 devices to support K-2 students was flown from Boston to Seattle by Alaska Airlines at the request of former Gov. Christine Gregoire, CEO of Challenge Seattle. Gregoire contacted Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden, and Alaska used its transportation to get iPads from Apple's Boston warehouse to the airport, and fly the iPads to Seattle in time for instruction and the new 2020-21 school year. Challenge Seattle is committed to public-private partnerships for the benefit of the community. Purchase of the district-provided devices is funded through local education levies.

Fortive

Everett company Fortive announced its intention to separate Vontier through a spin-off of 80.1% of the outstanding shares of Vontier common stock to Fortive shareholders. When completed, the transaction will result in two independent, publicly traded companies: Fortive, an industrial growth company providing products, software, and services in field solutions, product realization, sensing and health; and Vontier, a global industrial technology company delivering market solutions to advance efficiency, safety, security, and environmental compliance for its customers in mobility infrastructure end-markets. The spin-off is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to obtaining final approval from the Fortive Board of Directors and market, regulatory and other customary conditions.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services announced that Indeed, one of the world's largest job sites, has selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider. As part of the multi-year agreement, Indeed will migrate more than 30 petabytes of data to AWS, moving its customer-facing products, business-critical workloads, and legacy databases to AWS. As a result of the move, Indeed expects to reduce its global data center footprint by 40% while streamlining its overall IT operations. Indeed allows job seekers to search millions of jobs in more than 60 countries and 28 languages.

Sep 02, 2020

Art Anderson

Werner

Art Anderson a Bremerton-based multidisciplinary engineering services firm, hired Jeremy Werner as a naval architect/marine engineer in its marine division. He will carry out design efforts as a team member with senior engineers, architects and designers; and will be responsible for the independent execution of engineering design solutions. Assignments include naval architect/marine engineering design services related to supporting projects focusing on vessel stability, structural analysis and vessel constructability.

PACE Engineers

Archibald

Anderson

PACE Engineers promoted Chris Anderson to branch manager in its Lake Oswego, Oregon office and Jonathan Archibald to manager of the Lake Oswego land development group. Anderson has 15 years of experience in structural engineering and project management for public and private organizations. His specialty is designing non-building structures to support large equipment and utilities in high seismic zones. Archibald's 23 years of civil engineering experience includes property development, hydraulic modeling, stormwater management design, dam and flood control systems, and city program management. He specializes in FEMA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water resource permitting and repairs to hydroelectric facilities. PACE is a civil and structural engineering, planning and surveying firm with offices also in Kirkland, Everett and Wenatchee.

Scott | Edwards Architecture

Meuwissen

Corah

Grothen

Portland, Oregon-based Scott | Edwards Architecture hired Kara Grothen as a project architect, Phil Corah as a designer and Alexi Meuwissen as director of marketing and business development. Grothen, an architect, has over 13 years of design experience with a focus in Revit Management and Standards. Most recently, she was a senior associate at a Portland firm where she designed high tech, mixed use, industrial, tenant improvement and hospitality projects. She is working on Rose Villa senior living retirement community in Portland and the new Wilsonville Public Works. Corah has a bachelor of environmental design and a masters of architecture from Montana State University. He has worked in construction design-build and has a portfolio of design-build furniture. He is working on Banfield Pet Hospital clinics. Meuwissen has a decade of marketing and business development experience in the Portland-Metro community. Most recently, she was director of marketing for nine years for an Oregon general contractor. She will direct all marketing efforts for the 90-person S|EA, strategizing project pursuits and building relationships in the industry. Scott | Edwards Architecture provides architecture, planning and interior design.

Dorsey & Whitney

Dorsey & Whitney announced that it has named corporate Partner Jill McLeod as head of the firm's Anchorage office. McLeod succeeds Mike Mills as Office Head. McLeod has more than 20 years of U.S. and international legal experience. Prior to joining Dorsey she was in-house counsel for ConocoPhillips. Before joining ConocoPhillips, McLeod served as in-house counsel for United Companies, an Alaskan Native-owned corporation, and its subsidiaries, which provided electrical and telecommunications services to communities in rural Alaska. Dorsey has locations across the United States and in Canada, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region,

Western Governors University

Western Governors University announced the appointment of Carolyn Douglas as regional manager of communications and outreach. Douglas brings more than 25 years of experience as a broadcast journalist and communications professional to the online, nonprofit institution. Douglas will guide the strategic direction of the university's public relations, social media and local marketing efforts across a nine-state territory, which includes Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. WGU Washington is an online, competency-based university designed to expand access to higher education for Washington residents. In 2011, the Washington State Legislature created WGU Washington in partnership with nationally recognized Western Governors University.

Ossia

Ossia, based in Bellevue, announced a strategic investment by ENEOS Innovation Partners. ENEOS HD is a $94B USD Japanese petroleum, oil and gas exploration, and metals conglomerate that is one of Japan's top ten largest companies. The partnership with Ossia includes a strategic investment in the company to bring Cota Real Wireless Power to market. Ossia and ENEOS HD will work together to explore wireless power opportunities in Japan and Asia. Ossia's flagship Cota technology is a patented smart antenna technology that delivers remote, targeted energy to devices at a distance and automatically keeps multiple devices charged without any user intervention.