May 21, 2024

Lease Crutcher Lewis

Callas

Furlan

Testa

Lease Crutcher Lewis (Lewis) announced the promotion of Shannon Testa and James Furlan to vice president of operations and Jeremy Callas to director of operations for the company's corporate market sector.

“We're building on nearly 140 years of tradition by elevating the next generation of Lewis leaders from within,” said Chief Executive Officer Bart Ricketts.

In her new role as vice president, Testa will promote operational excellence in Washington and support the continued growth of the company's commercial market sector as well as the company's self-perform subsidiary, Crutcher Structures. Since joining Lewis' Seattle office in 2007, she's played a major role in delivering Lewis' commercial projects, including high-rise office, residential and hospitality projects. Starting in 2014, she led construction of the Rainier Square Redevelopment, shepherding the project from its initial design to a first-of-its-kind “SpeedCore” structure in what is now among the city's most recognizable buildings.

Furlan brings more than two decades of construction experience to his new role, including the last 10 years at Lewis. He'll oversee strategy and growth for Lewis' corporate, healthcare and life science market sectors in Washington. Furlan will also work to ensure strong alignment between business services groups and the company's market sector teams. Most recently, Furlan oversaw Lewis' corporate market sector, including office space and advanced R&D facilities for many of the Puget Sound's top companies.

As the new director of Lewis' corporate market sector, Callas will lead targeted growth and client engagement for end-user spaces in Washington. In his nine years with Lewis, most recently as a project executive, he specialized in delivering a diverse range of projects and providing strategic guidance to technology and professional services companies seeking to establish, enhance, or rethink their workplace needs.

These organizational changes follow Coriann Presser's promotion to president of Lewis' Washington Division earlier this month.

May 17, 2024

Pacific Earth Works

Brandvold

Mike Brandvold, senior estimator and project manager at Pacific Earth Works WBE, is celebrating his 30th anniversary with the company. Brandvold first day on the job was May 16th 1994. He initially worked in a mix of maintenance and new construction installation, then transitioned to truck driving and eventually became a full-time estimator and project manager. He has seen the industry evolve significantly, becoming more technical. According to Brandvold, “my proudest moments are seeing each project through to completion, overcoming challenges, and maintaining great relationships with clients. Accomplishing projects on time and budget while exceeding expectations is incredibly rewarding.” He lists his favorite projects as the 5th Avenue Garage green roof and the Amazon Spheres. Pacific Earth Works WBE is a second generation,100% woman-owned certified DBE/WBE landscape construction firm serving the Puget Sound since 1979. The company is based in Monroe.

Know Labs

Know Labs, a Seattle-based company providing non-invasive medical diagnostic technology, appointed Chris Somogyi as president, international. With over 40 years of experience in commercializing innovation across related industries, Somogyi brings a wealth of expertise to lead the company's global patent licensing efforts. In his role, Somogyi will focus on identifying new applications of Know Labs' intellectual property portfolio consisting of over 300 patents issued, pending and in-process and covering more than 100 medical and non-medical applications. Somogyi has an extensive background in biomedical engineering and product innovation, with over 20 issued patents to his name. His experience includes managing intellectual property at Stanford University, leading innovation grant funds for the New Zealand government and holding product development and incubation roles at organizations such as SRI International and Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). He has B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane and an MBA from the University of Washington. Somogyi's appointment allows the company to maintain its core focus on bringing the first non-invasive continuous glucose monitor to the marketplace.

Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics announced that it has bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Daniel Diez as chief strategy officer. Additionally, Melonee Wise was named chief product officer and Pras Velagapudi was named chief technology officer. Diez will be responsible for setting Agility's overall business and go-to-market strategy, working closely with CEO Peggy Johnson. Diez most recently served as chief commercial officer at Magic Leap, where he led the company's public transformation from a consumer technology startup to an enterprise technology company and was responsible for the commercial launch of Magic Leap 2. Wise joined Agility as CTO in May 2023. In the expanded role of CPO, Wise will continue to lead Agility's engineering team in addition to the newly-formed product organization. Prior to joining Agility, Wise was the vice president of robotics automation at Zebra Technologies. In the year since he joined Agility as VP of innovation and chief architect, Velagapudi has galvanized the company's AI strategy. Agility is headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon. The company's bipedal Mobile Manipulation Robot Digit is a multi-purpose, human-centric robot that built to augment the human work force.

May 16, 2024

Walker & Dunlop finds $39M for Kirkland refi

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The fairly new 135-unit Bloom, in Kirkland's Rose Hill neighborhood, was developed by Merit Homes. The two-building low-rise complex opened in late 2022. Now that it's up and running, Walker & Dunlop has arranged a $39 million refinancing package, with the money provided by an arm of Bridge Investment Group. (Both firms are based in New York.) W&D's Mark Plenge and Grant Robertson secured the financing, which the firm calls a “maximum-progress, full-term, interest-only, non-recourse debt loan with a flexible prepayment structure.” The new money retired the prior construction loan from Bank of the West. Bloom was designed by Encore Architects, with Pelletier + Schaar as the architect of record. Merit acted as its own builder.

Newmark

Farra

Newmark recently announced that its Charlie Farra has been promoted to executive VP and market leader for Seattle and Bellevue. The 15-year industry veteran has mostly focused on tenant representation. Newmark's Jon Mackey said in a statement, “His proven ability to lead, navigate various market conditions and deliver results for his clients sets him up well to excel in this role.” Said Farra, “We have great momentum to capitalize on in the Puget Sound market and beyond, and I look forward to furthering the connectivity between the West Coast markets while continuing to serve my clients.”

Tarragon

Warren

Satterwhite

Johnson

Janssen

Conrad

The Tarragon executive team has seen a raft of new promotions, the firm recently announced. Nick Conrad rises to development accountant. Noelan Brewington-Janssen becomes development manager. Pete Johnson is now site operations manager. Grahm Satterwhite rise to the rank of senior development manager. And Seth Warren becomes a development accounting supervisor. Tarragon president Dennis Rattie said in a statement, “These promotions reflect Tarragon's commitment to recognizing and promoting talent within our organization.”

Peek inside the Ocean Pavilion

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Come June 12, our local chapter of the Urban Land Institute will conduct a tour of the new LMN-designed Ocean Pavilion, which is nearing final form on the Seattle waterfront. Crews from Turner Construction are in the late stages of work on the 50,000-square-foot aquarium expansion project. It's to feature a 360,000-gallon coral reef ecosystem with about 3,500 tropical fish, invertebrates, sharks and rays. Walk past today, and you can see the translucent tank glowing from within. Next to it, the Overlook Walk is also nearly ready to open this summer. The Seattle Aquarium hasn't yet set an official opening date for the duo. Registration and info: northwest.uli.org.

JPMorgan Chase expands in Seattle

JPMorgan Chase announced the recent hiring of veteran real estate banker Kris Kesterke. He makes the move from US Bank, and his new title is executive director for the Pacific Northwest. JPMorgan's Alex Mast said in a statement, “As a respected leader in the real estate community, I'm thrilled that Kris is joining our strong team; and together, we will continue to bring our industry and local expertise to the Pacific Northwest.”

Digimarc

Quinn

Digimarc Corp. named human capital strategist Carle Quinn as the company's chief people officer. Quinn brings expertise in attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining leading talent to drive organizational and business growth. Quinn's background includes human resource management, global strategy, customer advisory, and go-to-market leadership roles at SAP, Citrix, IBM, GE, and QVC. Quinn served as first CPO at Workato and was instrumental in scaling the company for growth. As Digimarc CPO, Quinn will spearhead the company's global human resource function, driving initiatives that foster organizational resilience and optimize performance globally. Digimarc provides digital watermarking technologies, and is based in Beaverton, Oregon.

SSA Marine

Seattle-based SSA Marine announced the launch of a new, dedicated cruise division, as well as the appointment of cruise industry veteran Stefano Borzone as president. The new business unit builds on SSA Marine's service and partnership capabilities and provides a platform for future growth opportunities to meet the growing needs of cruise lines and their customers. A veteran port operations and development executive, Borzone spent several years in senior vice president roles with Carnival Corp., as well as 13 years with Metro Cruise Services, where he served as president. In his new role, Borzone will oversee all SSA Marine cruise operations, while collaborating closely with all joint venture partners, customers, and port authorities. The new division will focus on expanding the company's long-term partnerships with major cruise lines, as well as developing value generating solutions for its cruise, port, and destination partners. Safety, labor relations, and sustainability initiatives will remain as key priorities for the division. SSA Marine is an independent, privately held marine terminal operator, with activities at more than 250 terminal facilities and rail yards in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, and Asia.

Frazier Healthcare Partners

Frazier Healthcare Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, named Maria Molland to the firm's Growth Buyout team as an executive in residence. Molland will work alongside the firm to develop and execute investment strategies focused on women's health and wellness, with a particular emphasis on tech-enabled products and services supporting women through their reproductive and post-partum journeys. In this role, Molland will focus on the sourcing, diligence, and leadership of a new platform investment for Frazier.

Molland has over 25 years of experience leading businesses in women's health, health and wellness, digital media, e-commerce, marketplaces, and sustainability. She most recently served as the CEO and board member at Thinx, and ultimately, she led its sale to Kimberly Clark in early 2022. Molland was a full-time advisor to eBay's CEO, and was the chief European officer at Fab.com. Molland held global executive roles at corporations including Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones, Yahoo, and Disney. Founded in 1991, Frazier Healthcare Partners is headquartered in Seattle, and invests broadly across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.