Nov 22, 2022

Low Income Housing Institute

From October 30th to November 14th, The Low Income Housing Institute held its annual Gala & Auction virtually. LIHI raised over $430,000 for Tiny Houses & Urban Rest Stops, a direct service programs to benefit the daily lives of people experiencing homelessness in our region.

LIHI develops, owns and operates housing for the benefit of low-income, homeless and formerly homeless people in Washington state.

Mockingbird Society

The Mockingbird Society board of directors named Natalie Lente its executive director, effective Monday, November 28. As a nonprofit executive with experience in both Washington state community agencies and local government, Lente will work to advance The Mockingbird Society's mission of transforming the foster care system and ending youth homelessness. Most recently, Lente served as the chief external affairs officer at Child Care Resources, leading the agency's policy/advocacy, fundraising, public partnerships, and communications work. She was formerly the health services administrator for the Health Care for the Homeless Network at Public Health – Seattle & King County. Lente succeeds interim executive director Peter Bloch Garcia, who assumed the role in 2021. For over 20 years, Mockingbird has created, supported, and advocated for racially equitable, healthy environments that develop and empower young people who have experienced —or are experiencing—foster care or homelessness.

GOLFTEC

GOLFTEC is opening a new training center located at 3815 S Steele St. Suite H, Tacoma. The new center will feature a vibrant interior, putting green for TECPUTT lessons and the latest teaching technology. The new Tacoma Center will also offer club fitting and sales. GOLFTEC's golf club fitting system matches ideal clubs and shafts to your swing, with equipment available for purchase directly from GOLFTEC. In addition to indoor services, GOLFTEC offers outdoor and on-course golf lessons.

City of Tacoma

The city of Tacoma is accepting Tacoma Artists Initiative Program (TAIP) funding applications from eligible Tacoma artists, working in all artistic disciplines including but not limited to literary, performing, digital, new media, film, visual, and interdisciplinary arts. TAIP funding supports artists in creating new work and growing their skills. Fundees must share their art or artistic practice with the residents of Tacoma through a free public component. Artists selected for funding will each receive $4,000 to support their work and will have until December 31, 2024 to complete their project. Applications must be submitted online by January 23, 2023. Eligibility extends to individual artists who are residents of Tacoma, are practicing artists dedicated to producing artwork on a regular basis, and are at least 18 years of age. Artists who have received TAIP funding in 2021 - 2022 are not eligible to apply. Funding for TAIP is determined through a competitive application process. More details, including all eligibility requirements and instructions on how to apply, are available at cityoftacoma.org/artsopps.

Hermanson Co.

A. Rogers

Ponsler

Howard

Baker

Ammentorp

van der Veen

Thibeau

Stedman

Sinclair

K. Rogers

Hermanson Co.'s ownership group expanded to include 10 new members — all current employees, representing a range of administrative and craft labor leadership across multiple disciplines and services. They are: Neil Ammentorp, chief operations officer; Eddie Baker, Highrise, Hospitality & Office Group construction executive; Chris Howard, sheet metal general superintendent; Scott Ponsler, director of labor; Anthony Rogers, plumbing general superintendent; Kyle Rogers, Tech Campus Group leader; Scott Sinclair, Critical Environments Group leader; Mike Stedman, fitting general superintendent; Matt Thibeau, Tech Major Projects Group leader; and Eric van der Veen, Highrise, Hospitality & Office Group leader. The new partnership members, representing the next generation of leadership at Hermanson, join 12 existing members. Hermanson is a full-service mechanical contractor based out of Kent, with offices in Seattle, Redmond, Portland and Eugene, Oregon.

PCL Construction

PCL Construction's Seattle office is celebrating its 30th year as a general contractor in the Pacific Northwest. In that time, the firm has completed over $7 billion in work, including the IDX Tower, Bell Harbor International Conference Center and Spire condo tower in Seattle, as well as Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett and Bravern Signature Residences in Bellevue. Its first local project was the McNeil Island Correction Facility. Looking ahead, the company was recently awarded the Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse project, Oregon's first county courthouse delivered through a public-private partnership. PCL says it wants to do more of these P3 projects, as well as those using mass timber. Tyler Kautz is the district manager.

ABC of Western Washington

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington has three new members: Tenna LLC of Seattle; NW Cascade/Honey Bucket of Puyallup; and Ryan, Swanson and Cleveland PLLC of Seattle. Tenna provides construction management software, focusing on asset and equipment management, maintenance and dispatching, and dash cams. NW Cascade/Honey Bucket provides portable toilets, comfort stations, fencing, storage containers and portable offices. Ryan, Swanson and Cleveland is a full-service law firm representing businesses and individuals in a range of practice areas including construction law, employment rights, and benefits and labor.

Nov 18, 2022

Accountability Services

Kooper

Fischer

Thomson Reuters, a provider of business information services, announced Accountability Services of Seattle as the winner of their annual Luca Accounting Firm of the Year Award. Dave Fischer is managing director, and Lera Kooper is firm director of Accountability Services.

The award is named after Luca Pacioli, known as the “father of accounting.” Thomson Reuters recognizes the pursuit of innovation within the tax and accounting profession, honoring firms and individuals who combine their technological and accounting expertise to further the profession. Accountability Services has decades of experience in accounting and tax law, and has offices in Seattle and Bellevue.

Stoel Rives

Stoel Rives promoted four attorneys in its Seattle office to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Veronica Keithley is a member of the Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources group and assists clients in navigating environmental regulation for water quality, NPDES permitting, stormwater, wastewater, and wetlands. Keithley works extensively with a wide range of clients in Washington and Alaska, including industrial, transportation, commodity, energy, and resource development companies, as well as ports and dam operators. She earned her J.D, cum laude, from Lewis & Clark Law School. Emily Kelly is a member of the firm's Real Estate Development & Construction group. Her practice focuses on complex commercial real estate transactions, including the acquisition, disposition, leasing, and financing of multifamily mixed-use, retail and office projects. Her clients include private developers, technology and life sciences companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), nonprofit organizations, institutional investors, and government entities. Kelly earned her J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School. Claire Mitchell is a food and beverage regulatory attorney with extensive experience helping businesses navigate the complexities of food and alcohol laws. She counsels grocery chains, national and regional restaurant groups, hotel operators, e-commerce retailers, entertainment venues, alcohol brand owners, and beer, wine and spirits producers on state and federal liquor licensing strategies, tied house compliance, trade practice regulation, promotional advertising and sponsorship assessments. Mitchell earned her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law. Jenna Poligo is a member of the firm's Litigation group. Her practice focuses on business disputes, representing clients in the technology, insurance, manufacturing, and consumer products industries facing class actions, government enforcement actions, antitrust, bad faith and other commercial disputes. She is an experienced trial lawyer, defending clients in individual lawsuits and class actions in state and federal courts across the country and counsels clients through arbitration, trial, and appeals. She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from the William & Mary School of Law. Stoel Rives has offices in seven states and Washington, D.C.

Gravitics

Seattle-based Gravitics announced raising $20 million to build large, next-generation space station modules. The seed round was led by Type One Ventures, and included Tim Draper from Draper Associates, FJ Labs, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, Giant Step Capital (Chicago based), Gaingels, Spectre, Manhattan West, and Mana Ventures. Gravitics is developing the StarMax, a flexible-use space station module. The StarMax module provides up to 400 cubic meters of usable habitable volume - nearly half the volume of the International Space Station in one module. StarMax's family of modules is compatible to launch on any of the next-generation launch vehicles, including SpaceX's Starship, ULA's Vulcan, and Blue Origin's New Glenn. Bill Tandy, former mission architect for Blue Origin's Orbital Reef space station, and Scott Macklin, former head of propulsion at Virgin Orbit, are leading the StarMax development team. The Gravitics team has grown to nearly forty, comprised of both full-time employees and experienced contractors. To support development and early production, Gravitics opened a new 42,000 square foot facility in 2022 north of Seattle. The company has already begun assembly of their first StarMax prototype and is preparing to conduct module pressure tests in early 2023 with plans for an upcoming orbital test mission to be announced soon. Gravitics is taking StarMax pre-orders now for delivery in 2026. Founded in 2021, Gravitics is an aerospace company that designs and manufactures large space structures.