Feb 12, 2021

Mason Transit

Trina Gwerder has been named Mason Transit Authority's Employee of the Year. Gwerder has worked at Mason Transit for 14 years, starting out as a shelter monitor. As one of three operations supervisors, she plans, supervises and coordinates transit schedules and services. In addition, she supervises about 34 drivers. Staff nominate fellow employees for Employee of the Year every February. Mason Transit leadership and the Employee Engagement Committee team select the recipient based on employee nominations.

Bellevue Chamber

The Bellevue Chamber has launched the New Executives program for young professionals in the 2-6 year mark in their career. The program builds business skills, connects participants with senior executives and entrepreneurs, and creates long-term relationships with a core group of peers across several industries. This year, in addition to leaders in the community, Seattle University and Tombolo have partnered with the chamber to provide experts and resources. The schedule for the year is as follows: March 9th CEO Day, March 23rd Decision Making, Apr 6th Communication Enhancement, April 20th Financial Wellness, May 4th Relationship Building, May 18th Leading People, June 1st Civic Engagement and June 15th Community Involvement. For applications or more information, see https://bellevuechamber.org/educate/new-execs/.

Feb 11, 2021

Unico completes Austin office project

[enlarge]

[enlarge]

[enlarge]

[enlarge]

Unico Properties announced the recent completion of the five-story, 165,000-square-foot Bouldin Creek office building, which draws its name from that neighborhood in Austin, Texas. The project was a collaboration with landowners Manifold Real Estate and OakPoint Real Estate, which acquired the corner site three years ago. The project was designed by Texas firm Michael Hsu Office of Architecture with Studio8 Architects. White Construction broke ground in March 2019, and Nudge Design was the landscape architect. Bouldin Creek is targeting LEED Gold certification, and features a large amount of WiFi-served outdoor space; it also overlooks 2 acres of green space abutting the actual Bouldin Creek. Green features include a bike room with showers, and electric car stations in the mostly structured parking on the first two levels. Office floor plates average around 50,000 square feet, and CBRE is leasing the space. Unico's Sarajane Goodfellow says of the project, “Bouldin Creek embodies the kind of development the Austin market is responding to right now: ideal location, access to green space and a high-quality design that puts the health of employees first.” The lead commercial tenant is Proud Mary, an Australian cafe chain, with its second U.S. location. Local artists also created murals for the project, which replaced some old restaurant and commercial buildings.

Gaming co. relocates to Kirkland

Maverick Gaming announced it will move from Nevada to a new headquarters building in Kirkland. The site, at 12530 N.E. 144th St., is in the Kingsgate neighborhood, east of Interstate 405, and north of Totem Lake. The building is now home to Caribbean Cardroom, in a 1978 former retail building that's been owned by a local family for decades. Maverick CEO Eric Persson said in a statement, “I grew up in Hoquiam and am humbled and excited to be locating Maverick Gaming's headquarters in my home state.” The company, named for Persson's son, says about 50 jobs will be associated with the new HQ. The larger company has about 2,000 unionized employees in our state. It says it contributes $13 million annually in local tax revenues. Kirkland Mayor Penny Sweet said in a statement, “As we all work together to build a pathway through the impacts of the pandemic, we welcome Maverick Gaming to Kirkland as a partner in supporting family-wage jobs in our state's regulated gaming industry.”

Flex offices respond to pandemic

[enlarge]

[enlarge]

In the Chophouse Row complex on Capitol Hill, developer Liz Dunn has announced the recent addition of private, furnished office suites managed by her related shared office company The Cloud Room, which has operated there for about five years. The private suites aren't co-working spaces per se (which Cloud Room also offers), but are available to tenant-members on a similarly flexible, month-to-month basis. Cloud Room says they feature abundant natural light, operable windows, live greenery, segregated HVAC systems and easy stair access — i.e., no claustrophobic elevators required. Dunn said in a statement, “With the uncertainty around the long-term impact of the pandemic, small- to medium-sized organizations are increasingly looking for flexible leasing options while maintaining a connection with the community. It's part of my personality to double-down when the going seems tough, and changes in the tenant mix in the building allowed us to make an extremely well-timed pivot to bring some of the office space at Chophouse Row under the Cloud Room brand and management.” Suites can be configured for as few as four office workers all the way up to 60. Perks include a private in-house bar, deck and access to bars and restaurants within the complex.

KM to manage VW cloud building in Redmond

[enlarge]

As the DJC first reported in December, Volkswagen Automotive Cloud will be the sole tenant in the former REI store at Redmond Town Center — which Nicola Wealth purchased that month for a bit over $32.5 million. Nicola, of Vancouver, B.C., never announced the tenant, and neither did Kidder Mathews when announcing this month that it'll manage the building at 7500 166th Ave. N.E., aka the former Studio 7500 furniture store, for the new owner. Mike Grainger will lead that KM team. Gensler is designing the renovation of the two-story 35,000-square-foot office building, which was developed circa 1998. The general contractor is Swinerton Builders. The location and overall value of Redmond Town Center will receive a huge boost when Downtown Redmond Station opens across the street in 2024. KM says it now manages almost 1.5 million square feet for Nicola in this state, California and Arizona.

JND Legal Administration

JND Legal Administration, a legal management and administration services provider serving plaintiff and defendant firms, corporations and government entities, hired Shandarese (Shandy) Garr as vice president of operations. Garr has over 25 years of experience in class action administration. Garr served as both vice president of securities and Midwest operations at Garden City Group. Garr is a former administrator for the National Association of Shareholder & Consumer Attorneys and has been a Mobilization for Justice board member since 2016. JND was founded in 2016 by Jennifer Keough, Neil Zola and David Isaac, and has offices in Washington, California, Minnesota, New York and Washington, D.C.

Ekata

Seattle-based Ekata, a provider of digital identity verification data, announced that in 2020 the company grew its global customer base and revenues, gained momentum in the financial services and payments sector, expanded its product portfolio, and drove growth in Europe and Asia-Pacific through its global offices and data infrastructure despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic lead to an increase in demand among global eCommerce providers for customer onboarding and fraud prevention solutions. In addition, a rapidly changing regulatory environment in the financial services and payments industry has led to increased demand for identity verification solutions, particularly in pre-credit-card-authorization use cases in Europe, according to CEO Rob Eleveld.

City of Bellevue

The city of Bellevue is presenting a series of virtual events for Black History Month, including a museum exhibition and panel on the history of racism. Now through March 31 the public is invited to explore a virtual adaptation of the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths. The traveling museum is a collection of artifacts and information detailing elements of the history of racism in the U.S. and the Pacific Northwest, and sharing the experiences and innovations of the Black community. Museum creator Delbert Richardson chose select artifacts from his traveling exhibit to share as part of the virtual museum experience being presented in partnership with the city of Bellevue. On Feb. 18 a panel discussion will feature leaders in the community who will discuss the historical and current impacts of race in our communities. Registration information is available at https://bellevue-blackhistorypanel.eventbrite.com.