May 14, 2021

Edifecs

Edifecs, a global health information technology company, added four executives to accelerate growth across multiple functions of the business. Dan Madden joins as chief financial officer, Lisa Anastos as general counsel, Sundar Shenbagam as senior vice president of engineering, and Scott Davis as associate vice president of product marketing and demand generation. Madden most recently was executive vice president and CFO for Ellie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry. Anastos has over 20 years of legal expertise advising Fortune 100 companies and industry leaders in financial services, health care and technology. Prior to joining Edifecs, she was the general counsel of Prove, Acoustic and Falconhead Capital. Shenbagam joins Edifecs from Oracle, where he spent 24 years building multiple enterprise products and cloud services. Davis most recently was head of marketing for MedeAnalytics, a health care enterprise analytics software-as-a-service provider. Edifecs recently received several awards, including Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare, Puget Sound Business Journal's Fastest-Growing Private Companies, and Best in Biz Awards' Gold winner in the Best Place to Work category. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, with additional offices in Atlanta and Mohali, India, and an engineering center in Moldova.

Spaceflight

Global launch services provider Spaceflight announced it will be launching 36 customer payloads to sun synchronous orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than June. The company purchased three ports on the mission, dubbed ‘SXRS-5' by Spaceflight, and is managing the launch integration and mission management services for the 36 payloads, including six microsatellites, 29 cubesats and one hosted payload. The mission also represents the first time the company will fly two different orbital transportation vehicles and the launch of the industry's first-ever electric propulsion vehicle, Sherpa-LTE1. Spaceflight is managing the launch for 14 organizations' spacecraft from seven countries. Based in Seattle, Spaceflight has successfully launched hundreds of satellites and is part of the Mitsui & Co. portfolio, operating as an independent U.S.-based company.

Alaska Communications

Alaska Communications will participate in the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which will help households struggling financially during the pandemic. The Federal Communications Commission recently established the program using COVID-19 relief funds. It will give eligible Alaska households a discount on broadband service of up to $75 a month. As a participating provider, the company will receive reimbursement for delivering broadband to eligible households. A household is eligible if one member qualifies for the Lifeline program, receives government assistance such as free and reduce-priced school lunch or a Pell Grant, or has experienced a substantial loss of income due to the pandemic. Alaska Communications provides advanced broadband and managed IT services for businesses and consumers in Alaska. Information about the program is at http://www.AlaskaCommunications.com/EBB.

May 13, 2021

Summit Bank

DeVita

Angela DeVita, a 20-year Portland-based banking veteran, has joined Summit Bank as vice president, relationship banking manager for the Portland Metropolitan and Southwest Washington market. DeVita has extensive experience reviewing, analyzing and supporting the ongoing needs of complex deposit account relationships. She is a 2018 graduate of the Executive Leadership program for the Oregon Bankers Association and a member of the Association for Financial Professionals of Oregon and SW Washington. Summit Bank, with offices in Eugene/Springfield, Central Oregon and the Portland Metropolitan area, specializes in providing service to professionals and medium-sized businesses and their owners. Summit was recognized in 2020 as the Top Small Business Administration Community Bank Lender in the state of Oregon.

City of Tacoma

The Tacoma City Council has reappointed Elizabeth Pauli to the position of city manager for a two-year period beginning May 16, 2021 and ending May 15, 2023. Pauli started serving as Tacoma's interim city manager in February 2017, until she was appointed to an initial two-year term as city manager in May 2017 and reappointed to another two-year term as city manager in May 2019. Prior to her appointment as city manager, Pauli served as Tacoma's city attorney. She first joined the city of Tacoma in May 1998 as chief assistant city attorney. Prior to joining the city of Tacoma, she was a partner at Tacoma law firm McGavick Graves.

University of Washington

Jewell

Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Barack Obama and former CEO of REI, has been appointed as the Edward V. Fritzky Endowed Chair in Leadership at the UW Foster School of Business for the 2021-2022 school year. Established in 2002, this faculty position is designed to bring distinguished leaders to campus to share their expertise with faculty and students. Jewell is currently on the boards of Costco, Symetra Financial, Green Diamond Resource and The Nature Conservancy, where she recently served as interim CEO. The Edward V. Fritzky Endowed Chair in Leadership was established by Amgen as a gift honoring the career of Edward Fritzky, retired chairman, president and CEO of Immunex. Previous Fritzky Chairs include: Chris Petersen, former head football coach at the UW and Boise State University; Charles Pigott, former chairman of PACCAR; Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks North America; Dorrit Bern, former CEO of Charming Shoppes; and Paula and Steve Reynolds, former CEO's of Safeco and Puget Sound Energy, respectively.

Columbia Pacific lends $39M for NYC project

[enlarge]

The recently created Columbia Pacific Recovery Fund has deployed a $39.1 million bridge loan to help complete a mixed-use project in New York City, said Columbia Pacific. The fund is intended to help owners and developers complete pandemic-delayed projects. The eight-story mixed-use project is now under construction; it'll have 24,357 square feet, with 10 rental units over retail. Eric Jordan of Columbia Pacific said in a statement, “We are pleased to provide the first loan through the Columbia Pacific Recovery Fund for 68-70 Spring St. in SoHo, which is ideally located near one of the strongest retail corridors in New York City.” The new fund will deploy more bridge loans for periods of two to five years. In SoHo, landowner P. Zaccaro Co. is developing the project for the LLC that took the loan. CNY Group is the builder, and Bialosky + Partners is the architect. Construction began in 2018, replacing an old one-story retail building. (The Zaccaro family is well known in NYC real estate, after a century in that business; John Zaccaro was married to the late vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.)

Tri Pointe shuffles staff

Quadrant recently took the name of its Nevada owner, becoming Tri Pointe Homes – Washington. The firm is growing, too. It recently announced that Jared Knickmeyer has joined the company as VP of land acquisition. Working with him in the company's Eastgate office will be the recently promoted John Potts, now director of land development, and new hire Matthew Grimm. He'll be a director of land acquisition; he makes the move from BMGI, the asset management group for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

PMF pre-leases all of Puyallup retail center

[enlarge]

PMF Investments made news last month by selling the former Sheraton Bellevue property for $152 million to Tishman Speyer, which will develop what's currently called BelleVista Place. Now, returning to its core business, Brian Franklin says that the family company's PMF Real Estate Services will manage all the space it has pre-leased at Pioneer Crossing. That's the 86,000-square-foot, six-building development PMF began in 2019. (BCRA was the architect, and CSI Construction was the builder.) Tenants include Safeway, Taco Bell, Starbucks and MOD Pizza. PMF's leasing agents were Deborah Oswald and Blake Springer-Trybus. Said Franklin in a statement, “We're thrilled by the success of PMF Real Estate Services and look forward to growing this side of our business with new third-party clients.”