Nov 30, 2021

Leafly Holdings

Warner

Leafly Holdings, a cannabis discovery marketplace, announced that Rebecca Warner will join the company as senior vice president of sales. The addition of Warner to the executive team follows several key leadership hires since announcing the company's intent to combine with Merida Merger Corp I earlier this year. Warner has over 14 years of experience designing and executing sales growth strategies at online marketplaces. Most recently, she was director of rental sales at Zillow. Prior to that, Warner held director-level roles at Domain, a real estate marketplace in Australia.

Outstanding Legislator Awards

State Sens. Lynda Wilson, David Frockt, Derek Stanford and Mark Mullet were given Outstanding Legislator Awards for their service during the 2021 session by the Washington Association of Sewer & Water Districts. The award honors significant actions that contributed to the ongoing success of special purpose water and sewer districts. Wilson and Stanford worked together on a bill that made the cost of liens and lien releases more equitable for all water and sewer customers. Mullet has been a consistent supporter of the state's Public Works Assistance Account — a program that provides local governments with affordable, low-interest financing for critical infrastructure projects. Both Frockt and Mullet negotiated to preserve the PWAA as a loan fund that would replenish itself through diverted tax revenue streams. The Washington Association of Sewer & Water Districts advances the work of about 180 water and sewer special purpose districts that provide services throughout Washington through education, advocacy and collaboration.

Strong Tower Consulting

Strong Tower Consulting, a Bellevue-based management consulting firm, has been named one of Washington's “100 Best Companies To Work For” by Seattle Business magazine. The firm was recognized for its recruitment and employee support programs focused on diversity and inclusion. Strong Tower also provides a diversity recruitment and retention service for clients, enabling the hiring and nurturing of employees and contractors composed of personnel more aligned with the diversity of society and the consumer base. Seattle Magazine's list is based on employee satisfaction scores.

ProDims

Christopherson

Dragseth

In Kirkland, ProDims hired George Dragseth as project manager/construction manager and Tammy Christopherson as document control manager. Dragseth is a licensed civil engineer with over 20 years of experience providing construction management services such as inspection, preconstruction and site meetings, schedule evaluation, and comments and change orders. Christopherson has provided document control services for 18 years on large and complex transportation projects. ProDims is a construction management company.

Modern Building Systems

Modern Building Systems next week will commemorate its 50th anniversary. The company was founded by Don Rasmussen in a small Portland shop and is now based in Aumsville, Oregon, with a Seattle-area office in Pacific and another office in West Sacramento, California. Now a third-generation family-owned business led by CEO and President Jim Rasmussen, Modern is one of the few factory-direct manufacturers of prefabricated commercial buildings. It also designs and engineers its products.

ABC of Western Washington

Holbeck Construction & Design of Camano Island and Northern Environmental of Tacoma joined the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington. Holbeck specializes in custom waterfront homes. Northern Environmental provides storm drain and oil/water separator cleaning, as well as waste disposal with vacuum trucks.

Nov 26, 2021

King County

SEATTLE (AP) — King County has named a new interim sheriff as the department moves under the authority of the county executive.

County Executive Dow Constantine announced that Patti Cole-Tindall, currently second in command at the sheriff's department, will be appointed interim sheriff and will start Jan. 1.

The Seattle Times reports that Cole-Tindall, 57, will be the first person of color to serve as sheriff in Washington's largest county.

King County voters authorized the switch atop the county's law enforcement department when they voted last year to make sheriff an appointed, rather than elected, position.

That change goes into effect in 2022, when the term of current Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht, who was elected in 2017, ends.

Cole-Tindall lives in Kent and has been with the sheriff's department for about six years after a long career in public service. She has served as undersheriff, the department's No. 2, for the last year and a half, after serving as the department's chief of technical services for almost five years.

“Patti has both the experience and the temperament to be able to lead her employees forward in a productive way,” Constantine said.

Kasa comes to town

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Extended-stay operator Stay Alfred, of Spokane, folded during the pandemic — as did many others in that space. Among its portfolio of temporarily shuttered hotels was The Oxford, at 1920 First Ave., near Pike Place Market. This month Kasa announced that The Oxford and three other hotels in other markets were now in its portfolio. The six-story building has been owned by local investors for over two decades; its 49 apartments were flipped to hotel rooms two years ago. The ground-floor retail space is also leased to Design Within Reach. The building dates to 1909, and originally operated as a hotel until 1971. Five-year-old Kasa, a privately held startup, now operates in over 35 cities in four countries; it doesn't detail the number of rooms it manages. It's led by Roman Pedan, with headquarters in San Francisco. In a similar nearby deal, Mint House announce last month that it would flip the Atwood entirely to extended-stay units; the previous operator there was Barsala.

Seattle Housing Authority

Seattle Housing Authority announced that Dave Wellings is now director of housing operations. He's been with the authority for a dozen years, and will now oversee some 8,000 housing units — including some of the new buildings at Yesler Terrace. SHA's executive director Rod Brandon, who previously occupied that operations seat, said in a statement, “Dave has a breadth of experience at SHA, and a deep knowledge of the agency and our public housing programs, as well as a deep commitment to SHA's Race and Social Justice Initiative. I'm excited to have Dave stepping into this key leadership role.”

A bit more about Solara

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As the DJC first reported in mid October, the 238-unit Solara in Lake City sold to national investor MIG Real Estate for $84 million. Brokers were not then announced, but CBRE later issued a press release. Its Jon Hallgrimson, Eli Hanacek, Frank Bosl and Kyle Yamamoto represented the seller, Sares Regis Group, which like the buyer is based in California. Hanacek said in a statement, “We received significant interest in Solara due to the highly desirable large floor plans, complete with traditional one-bedroom homes and an abundance of amenity space. Buyer appetite to invest in the Seattle market recovery is at an all-time high.” Down in CBRE's San Diego office, Bill Chiles, Scott Peterson and Brian Cruz arranged the acquisition loan. As reported last month, that over $62 million package came from Forethought Life Insurance.

JLL

Taylor

Early this month, JLL announced that it was expanding its valuation services presence in our market, extending to Portland. Leading that group from our city will be Robert Taylor, who makes the move from Cushman & Wakefield. He'll work at a national level with JLL's Eric Enloe, who said in a statement, “Under Rob's leadership, JLL Valuation Advisory will be the premiere valuation presence in the Pacific Northwest. Based in Seattle, JLL's Joe Smurdon said, “We've seen incredible demand this year for valuation advisory services, and see Rob as a key addition to our team.”

Focus on the South Sound

NAIOP, like most industry groups, is about to go on holiday hiatus. But mark Jan. 31 in your calendar for the annual South Sound Economic Forecast. It'll be held that Monday, beginning at noon, at the Tacoma Convention Center. The lunch event will feature a panel of experts, who'll look at all classes of real estate, mostly in Pierce County. Details and registration: naiopwa.org.