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November 5, 1999

Real Estate Buzz

Investors' impatience with Amazon.com's continued losses do not appear to be slowing down the Seattle e-commerce behemoth's seemingly insatiable appetite for real estate.

First the big rumor: Amazon is looking for an additional 750,000 square feet of office somewhere in the Seattle area or in Portland. No, we didn't put the comma one space too far to the right, and no, we didn't inadvertently insert the word office for industrial.

Our sources on this, by the way, are two (count 'em - two) extremely reliable commercial real estate pros who said they'd rather shrivel up in shame and blow away after slugging us first if their names were tied to the gossip.

This is 750,000 square feet in addition to the scads of office space the seemingly not-for-profit company already has taken. There's the 400,000 square feet in and around the PacMed Tower and the 350,000 square feet at Opus @ Union Station.

It's all reminiscent of the statement attributed to the Silver Throated Socrates, the late U.S. senator from Illinois, Everett Dirksen. But instead of money, we're talking property as in, "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real [space]."

We can't say whether there's any truth to the talk because - guess what - Amazon officials wouldn't comment.

Now the little news: Amazon spokeswoman Kristin Schaefer confirms that - everyone, grip your mouse pads - the company will open in December a customer service center in 7,710 square feet of space (woo-hoo!) in the former US Bank branch in Tacoma at 3408 S. Union Ave.

Where will it all end? Part II: On Thursday the DJC published a story about the crush of commercial real estate information providers coming online in Seattle. The consensus among Puget Sound-area real estate experts is that there are entirely too many providers to even keep track of.

The story continued unfolding about 12 hours after publication when over the wire came news that yet another company, RealEstate4Sale.com of Dallas, has launched its commercial/investment real estate listing site. The company is hiring 400 sales reps in 63 cities, including Seattle.

Then, an hour later, word reached us that CoStar, the big national company that's launching in Seattle next week, is merging with Comps.com. (See story in today's Periscope.)

The frosting came when CoStar offered to install in the DJC office a terminal to keep us up to date on its latest vacancy, absorption and other numbers. Is this a great country, or what?

Vancouver, B.C.-based Bentall, which has extensive holdings in the Puget Sound region, issued its third quarter numbers Thursday and reported $186 million in acquisitions. The company completed $402 million of real estate transactions and strengthened its office portfolio in another core market, Southern California.

The real news comes deep down in the release. In Redmond, Phase I of Millennium Corporate Park is nearing completion. The final two buildings in Phase I are substantially preleased. Site work began in July on Phase II, which has three buildings totaling 271,000 square feet. Here's the interesting part: According to the release, "The company has signed a letter of intent with a major high-tech tenant for most of the remaining space in Phase I and 100 percent of the space in Phase II."

A major high-tech tenant? Renting space in Redmond? Hmmm. Could it be... The Most Important Company in the History of the World? This Microsoft rumor's been out there for weeks, but Bentall's Lisa Rowe has convincingly said the rumor's not true.

Among the other tidbits: Bentall completed the sale of a 50 percent interest in its 921,000-square-foot U.S. Bank Centre (those Canadians - always spelling center with that snooty Brit "re" ending) to Lend Lease Real Estate Investments for $130 million (US).

On the residential front, Bentall's 105-unit Le Chateau Apartments in Bellevue is now under contract for sale with closing expected in late 1999, according to the quarterly report. And the long-stalled construction of Westlake Tower, a 366-unit luxury apartment building in downtown Seattle, is stalled no more. Work is to begin this month.

Now that Bret Jordan has left Colliers International to rejoin Bruce Raskin at Raskin & Associates, who will get the listing at Hines' new 478,000-square-foot 112th @ 12th office project in Bellevue? We wondered too.

Hines' Rob Hollister said he's talking to Colliers International, Raskin & Associates and two or three other brokerage houses about the job. Expect a decision soon. Hollister said last Thursday that he expected to make a decision in a week to 10 days.

Note to I-695 big shot Tim Eyman: May you be stuck in traffic for the rest of your life. Not that we're bitter or anything, but we hear you're responsible for Ken Griffey Jr. leaving town too.



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