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March 12, 1999

Real Estate Buzz

By MARC STILES
Journal real estate editor

Tech Tower on for June 1 start ... Three Bellevue Center is underway. Schnitzer and Hines seem on the verge of going with Civica Office Commons and 112th @ 12th, respectively. And Lincoln Square developer Ian Gillespie says he's going to make that monster project go. Meydenbauer Place backers are optimistic but tired of the hype and say they'll talk when there's something to talk about. So what about the Bellevue Technology Tower?

Hardly a peep's been mentioned about the 20-story, parking-rich (2.7 cars per 1,000 rentable square feet) vertical campus that Eugene Horbach's E&H Properties wants to build in downtown Bellevue.

E&H Vice President Bill Albright, who's managing marketing and sales for the project, contends the tower is not off the radar screen. "I don't know whose radar screen that would have fallen off of," he said.

The project is fully entitled but the permits have not been picked up, according to City Hall officials. The tower still needs financing but that little detail should be wrapped up within 60 days, according to Albright, who anticipates breaking ground June 1.

Albright will talk about the project at the Bellevue Downtown Association 7:30 a.m. March 30 meeting at the Bellevue Hilton.

Watch for space at... Maple Street Office Building, Touchstone's 130,000-square-foot project in Issaquah, to go quickly. That's the word from Bill Pollard, a principal at Pacific Real Estate Partners.

It would be easy to dismiss that chatter as sheer boosterism because Pacific Real Estate Partners is marketing the space. But Pollard said there's little else available in the Issaquah area now that Microsoft has tied up at least the first of three buildings planned for Paul Allen's Sammamish Park Place.

Maple Street is the only Class A space in the submarket that can accommodate 20,000 square feet or more, said Pollard. "That project is going to be leased very soon," he added.

A recent visit to Vancouver, B.C... revealed that things are slightly slower up north than in the booming Puget Sound region. Blame it on Asian Contagion, which has put the pinch on the logging and mining industries. The New Democratic Party -- the socialists who have been in power since 1991 -- should share part of the blame, according to a broad spectrum of folks.

Ian Gillespie complained that the NDP is "doing everything in its power to destroy the economy." Developer Mark Shuparski, president and CEO of Bentall, concurred but was not so vehement. A commercial broker cursed the socialists and then asked to strike his vitriol -- as if the DJC would ever publish that word. Environmentalists are mad at the party, too. Even a self-described leftist cab driver said he is dissatisfied.

The latest blow came earlier this month when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Premier Glen Clark's residence as part of a corruption investigation. For comparison purposes, this would be akin to the FBI raiding Gov. Gary Locke's house.

All subjects interviewed predicted a better overall business climate no later than 2001 when they expect voters to toss out the NDP.

In real estate, location is everything... but a good name helps too. Just ask Virginia Mason, a Coldwell Banker Bain residential agent who recently won her company's President Elite Award for placing in the top 1 percent of sales nationally.

Mason, who works in the Lake Union office, said she doesn't mind sharing her name with a well-known Seattle hospital. "People tend to return my phone calls, which comes in handy in my business," said Mason.

The downside comes when strangers call to ask which room so-and-so is in. Those inquiries are merely distractions, unlike the recent call from an elderly East Coast gentleman, who phoned with instructions on where to send the body. Mason dialed up the hospital and said, "I think I better pass this one on."

The truth came out... Thursday at the Commercial Real Estate Women Northwest luncheon. Amazon.com's Director of Global Facilities Julie Benezet, who was moderating a panel discussion, commented on her style of dress. Not everybody at amazon.com is "pierced, tattooed and has a hair color not found in nature," she said.

CB Richard Ellis' Puget Sound-area Senior Managing Director Ann Chamberlin, a panel member, brought down the house when she fessed up that she could be mistaken for a techie because, "I too am pierced, tattooed and have a hair color that does not come from nature." She didn't elaborate.



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