Oct 27, 2023

Symetra

Symetra Life Insurance Company announced that Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work have recognized Symetra on the 2023 Fortune Best Workplaces for Women List. This is Symetra's second consecutive appearance on the list, coming in at No. 41 among the Top 100 organizations in the large workplace category.

To determine the Best Workplaces for Women, Great Place To Work analyzed the survey responses of over 600,000 women who work for Great Place To Work Certified companies that were eligible for the list. Honorees were selected based on their ability to offer positive outcomes for women regardless of job role, race, sexual orientation, work status, or other demographic identifier. Great Place To Work analyzed the gender balance of each workplace compared with Bureau of Labor Statistics industry data. Companies are also assessed on how representation changes as women rise from front-line positions to the board of directors. Led by CEO Margaret Meister and a gender-balanced senior leadership team, Symetra was again Certified by Great Place to Work earlier this year, with 93 percent of surveyed employees saying it's a great place to work. Symetra Life Insurance Company is a subsidiary of Symetra Financial Corporation, a diversified financial services company based in Bellevue.

Teton Ridge

Teton Ridge, an omnichannel company comprised of a portfolio of brands focused on multiple facets of the American West, named Deirdre Lester as its chief executive officer. Previously, Lester was the chief executive officer of Outsider, a lifestyle and media company that celebrates the American outdoors. She joined Outsider from Barstools Sports where she served as chief revenue officer. Before joining Barstool Sports, Lester held senior leadership positions at Major League Baseball, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports. In 2016, she was named one of Forbes' 25 Most Powerful Women in Sports. Investors in Teton Ridge include Thomas Tull, Guggenheim Partners, Jim Breyer and the Lee Bass Family Office. Earlier this month, it was announced that Jillian Share, formerly president of production at eOne, had been named president of Teton Ridge Entertainment, a division of Teton Ridge. Teton Ridge's portfolio of brands is comprised of Western-focused properties in the sports, media, entertainment, lifestyle, and equine spaces. The company's primary office is in Tetonia, Idaho.

Oct 26, 2023

TrueBlue

Netolicky

TrueBlue hired Greg Netolicky as chief people officer. He will report directly to Taryn Owen, president and chief executive officer. Netolicky has more than 20 years of experience across all aspects of human resources, spanning Fortune 500 and privately held organizations. Most recently, he served as the chief human resources officer for Rite-Hite Holding Company, a global manufacturing company. Netolicky also served as vice president of human resources, components and integrated supply chain at Johnson Controls. Tacoma-based TrueBlue is provides specialized workforce solutions. Its PeopleReady segment offers on-demand, industrial, and highly skilled staffing; PeopleScout offers recruitment process outsourcing and managed service provider solutions; and PeopleManagement offers contingent, on-site industrial staffing and commercial driver services.

Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks

True

King County Executive Dow Constantine announced the retirement of Department of Natural Resources and Parks Director Christie True, the longest-serving department director on his Cabinet, after a 39-year career at the agency. Constantine credited True for reinforcing King County's reputation as a trusted environmental steward by producing climate solutions, protecting water quality, restoring habitat, conserving open space, and improving access to parks and trails. The Executive Office will conduct a nationwide recruitment for one of the largest metropolitan natural resource agencies in the country. True started her career at King County in 1984 as a water quality technician, advancing to become director of the Wastewater Treatment Division, the largest of the department's four divisions. Constantine appointed her as the department director in 2010.

Heron's Key

Heron's Key, a Life Plan community located in Gig Harbor, hired Angela Winks as the new wellness program manager. Winks comes to Heron's Key with more than 13 years of experience in the health and wellness industry. As wellness program manager, Winks will be working closely with residents in assisted living and independent living. She will manage the fitness department, life enrichment program and activities programs. Winks spent much of her career working as a personal trainer, fitness director, holistic health coach, and Next STEP program director at various locations throughout Washington. She earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science and kinesiology from Concordia University. Heron's Key, sponsored by Emerald Communities, is a Washington state-based, not-for-profit senior housing and service organization.

Biotech combo to make Bothell its new home

[enlarge]

The Alloy Innovation Center at North Creek has a major new tenant, its owners announced. The publicly traded biotech company Immunome is now based in Pennsylvania. But, this summer it announced a pending merger with our local firm Morphimmune, which closed earlier this month. Alicia Hinds of Alloy said in a statement, “We are thrilled to welcome Immunome to our campus in Bothell, and are confident that our modern facilities will help them achieve their goals. We are delighted that they picked Alloy.” Brokers were not announced. Alloy is the life-science platform for TPG Real Estate Partners, which is based in San Francisco; it co-owns the 13-acre, six-building campus with West Tech Properties. The two purchased the old business park in early 2021 for $62 million, with the announced goal of rebranding and converting it to lab and life-science use. It has about 205,000 square feet, and Alloy didn't say how much space, or on what schedule, Immunome plans to occupy there. The campus has other tenants including Sonic Concepts, Charles River and Athira Pharma.

IPA brokers Portland deal

[enlarge]

Down in Portland, the fairly new 206-unit Sandy28 has changed hands. The Seattle office of Institutional Property Advisors represented the seller, Fairfield Residential, IPA recently announced. The $43 million purchase by Green Leaf Capital Partners had been previously reported. IPA's team consisted of Giovanni Napoli, Philip Assouad, Nick Ruggiero, Ryan Harmon and Anthony Palladino. The latter said in a statement, “The sale of Sandy28 represents one of the only institutional-sized transactions to take place within Portland's urban core in the last 18 months.” Sandy28 is in Kerns neighborhood, east of the Willamette River; it opened in late 2019.

Alexandria to put school in office building

[enlarge]

Alexandria Real Estate Equities is, of course, a big player in the life-science sector. In addition to developing flashy new projects, it's been an active buyer of older buildings up in Bothell. One example is the 143,758-square-foot Canyon Park Heights, which it acquired two years ago, then with a few tenants in place. Soon to displace them, with a nearly whole-building lease first reported by Savills, is a school that's part of the private Basis Independent network. Newmark's Joe Lynch, Dan Harden and Brendan Soelling have been representing the space in the 23-year-old building.

RSIR ventures east of the mountains

[enlarge]

East of the Cascades near Cle Ellum is Suncadia, the resort and residential community with several different components. Newly brokering some of the freshly completed homes, and lots for future development, is Realogics Sotheby's International Realty. That firm and builder Trailside Group recently announced their collaboration. Offerings will be at Suncadia and nearby Tumble Creek, Ederra and Skyline Ridge. The sales effort will be led by Brian Hopper and Dan Redwine under Mountain Haus Properties, an RSIR affiliate. How many homes will be developed and sold? RSIR doesn't say, but values possible future development at $1 billion. Current offerings range from a five-bedroom house at $2.1 million down to a townhouse at $500,000. Some future residents might even be telecommuters or hybrid workers commuting to Seattle, says RSIR. Its Kelly Mann said in a statement, “We have a true affordability crisis in our region, especially within King County — so one way to achieve attainable homeownership is to head over Snoqualmie Pass to Upper Kittitas County.”

Fix your Tesla in Renton?

[enlarge]

Based in Miami, Elion Partners acquired the old Ryerson Metals building in Renton over two years ago. The building, near the junction of Interstate 405 and Highway 167, was then rebranded as Elion Renton 405, with Lee & Associates representing about 115,000 square feet of industrial space, which was vacated early last year. Now there's a tenant, Tesla, according to CBRE, and Tesla already lists the service center on its website. Elion's brokers at Lee were Billy Moultrie, Andrew Hull and Christian Mattson. Tesla has other service centers in Bellevue and SoDo. And, also per CBRE, it recently occupied about 245,000 square feet at the Cascade Business Park in Marysville. Reports of that new-building lease, from developer NorthPoint, emerged in May.

InSite awards lands two WMFHA honors

[enlarge]

The Washington Multifamily Association recently bestowed its annual Emerald awards, and InSite Property Solutions has announced that it took home two prizes. First, in the category of midrise curb appeal was the 130-unit Junction (pictured), in Bothell, which was developed by MainStreet Property Group. Second, for community of the year (up to 150 units), Linq was also so honored. That 94-unit project, also from MainStreet, is in downtown Kenmore.