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November 20, 1998

Real Estate Buzz

By MARC STILES
Journal real estate editor

It's a chip off the new REI . . . Marquis Property of Seattle has begun turning its existing Peace Arch Factory Outlets into something called Northwest Portal Adventures & Outlet Shops.

The new development looks like something out of "The Jetsons." The portal is a three-level glass dome that will house not just restaurants but waterfalls and a live rain forest. It also will offer indoor rock climbing, rafting, kayaking and horseback riding, off Interstate 5's Exit 270, just south of the Canadian border.

Northwest Portal Adventures & Outlet Shop
Northwest Portal Adventures & Outlet Shops near the Canadian border will have an indoor climbing wall, kayaking, horse-back riding and waterfalls.
"There's nothing at all like this that's ever been done," said Morris Piha Management Group's David Seligman, who is Marquis' leasing agent.

"We got the idea from REI," said Zan Marquis, principal of Marquis Property. "It's an extension of what they did at their flagship store."

Work will begin on the first phase, which includes the portal building, this spring, according to Marquis. Arthur Erickson , one of Canada's best-known architects, designed the project.

WTC North tenant?... Our unnamed sources say the rumor is true: Visio is considering taking all or part of Wright Runstad's World Trade Center North. Visio, a Seattle software company, already has leased all of the World Trade Center East, which Turner Construction is finishing. Speculation began several weeks ago when a Wright Runstad official said construction of the north building could begin by the end of the year. Now it's starting to make sense with this latest news of the possible Visio deal.

The five-story, 134,000-square-foot north building will sit just north of Wall Street, between Elliott Avenue and Alaskan Way. At the base will be a three-level parking garage that the Port of Seattle will own.

Already in the game... The Staubach Co., founded by former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, isn't shy about getting started. In fact, some of its industrial and office brokers apparently have been poking around the Puget Sound region's markets for months.

Earlier this week, officials of the Dallas-based firm opened a branch of Staubach Retail Services in Seattle and confirmed their plans to open a Staubach Corporate Services office somewhere in the Puget Sound region in the next 18 months.

Staubach officials yesterday confirmed they're representing Capital One Financial Services, which is seeking up to 200,000 square feet of space in the Puget Sound region for a call center, credit-card manufacturing space and possibly a financial analysis office. The search is being coordinated out of Staubach's office in Palo Alto, Calif.

Happy birthday... Washington Partners celebrated its first birthday Tuesday by tallying its progress. The brokers' deals for Amazon.com, RealNetworks and Visio were part of almost 1.5 million square feet of space that the firm has brokered.

Since partners Ed Curtis, Doug Hanafin, Steve Hisken and Patrick Pendergast started with Clay Nielsen, Mark Ko and Patti Baker, they've added Lisa McCabe.

Growing confidence... Gary Carpenter, COO of Bentall U.S., told the DJC earlier this week that the Interstate 90 corridor is such a landlord's market that he may start building the 10-story Five Newport without any preleases. He cited Attachmate's taking the rest of Four Newport.

Things are also hopping across the street at Sunset North. The Broderick Group's John Black, who's leasing the three Sunset North buildings that total 462,000 square feet for developers Wright Runstad and Equity Office Properties, wouldn't confirm rumors that Sierra, a software firm, had to pull out of a deal for one building when it was announced the company is being sold. The rumor is they'll be back once the sale is completed. B2, another software firm, is said to be looking to lease three floors of a different Sunset North building, but Black wouldn't talk about that either.

Black did, however, say that leasing is going so well that each building could be 80 percent preleased before they open at various times next year starting in July.

Sold out... If you haven't ordered tickets yet for the Commercial Brokers Association's second-annual Commercial Real Estate Insights Breakfast Dec. 9, forget about it. All the tickets are gone and it's no wonder. CBA is bringing in some heavy-hitter speakers: Equity Office Properties Trust President and CEO Tim Callahan, Westbank Projects President Ian Gillespie, Vulcan Properties Senior Real Estate Adviser Larry Martin, Hines Senior Vice President Colin Shepherd and MIT's Center for Real Estate Chairman Blake Eagle.



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