homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

Real Estate


print  email to a friend  reprints add to mydjc  

December 17, 1999

Real Estate Buzz

Dr. Leroy Hood's decision to leave the University of Washington to form a private, nonprofit research institute should turn up the frequency and volume of the chatter surrounding development in one Seattle neighborhood.

The noted geneticist, who is forming the Institute for Systems Biology, talks about an eventual team of up to 400 scientists working on a small campus near other research institutions in Seattle, and that of course would be the South Lake Union area. Hood reportedly plans to talk with Paul Allen about some of the 20 acres the Microsoft cofounder owns in the neighborhood.

But nothing has been decided. They are literally looking right now for some short-term space, said an institute spokesperson, who added officials of the nonprofit are talking to various folks about locations in different parts of the city.

In a couple of months discussions will begin regarding long-term space needs, according to the spokesperson. Whether that ends up in the South Lake Union area remains to be seen, he said.

It would be a shocker should the institute settle elsewhere. The neighborhood already is home to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the UW School of Medicine's new research facilities and the biotech companies ZymoGenetics and NeoRx. Plus, the area is in the corridor that leads directly to the UW's main campus.

In a related note: the UW is paying $24 per square foot plus expenses for the School of Medicine's new research facilities in a recently renovated warehouse called the Rosen Building. Allen's asset management company, Vulcan Northwest, owns the approximately 60,000-square-foot building at the northwest corner of Terry Avenue North and Republican Street. Vulcan hired developer Schnitzer Northwest to handle the renovation. A UW official wasn't sure how much the expenses will run but brokers at Officespace.com and Cushman & Wakefield estimate they'll be between $6 and $8 a foot.

"The building is so tech friendly and efficient I would say you aren't looking at a huge cost, perhaps as high as $8," said Officespace.com's Kip Spencer.

At the other end of the lake, the focus is on the identity of prospective new tenants whose move to Quadrant Lake Union Center may trigger plenty of construction activity.

One possibility is a real heart starter: Agilent Technologies' Heartstream. The company manufactures a device called the automatic external defibrillator. Defibril-lation is an electrical shock applied to the heart and is the only treatment that can restore normal rhythm in most cases of sudden cardiac arrest one of the nation's most common medical emergencies.

According to Mary Joyce, Heartstream's facilities manager in Seattle, the growing company has not yet decided whether to move or stay in its current 54,000 square feet in the Fourth & Battery Building downtown. That lease expires in July 2001.

But, she adds, a decision must be made soon because it takes at least 18 months in Seattle for things to get built. So the goal is to decide during the first quarter of 2000.

As for Lake Union Center, Joyce says: It's certainly an option but there's no deal at this point. She declined to talk about other space possibilities.

Quadrant officials said two weeks ago that they would start building the Park View and Waterside buildings next year for Getty Images. Getty, already a Quadrant tenant at Lake Union, has signed a 12-year lease for the 116,400 square feet of office in the Park View. The company also has an option to lease all of the 60,000-square-foot Waterside.

This leaves three more proposed buildings: the Nina, Pinta and the Santa... No wait, make that the Lake View, Evanston and Coast View. Once they're finished, the 20-acre development in the Fremont neighborhood would be complete and total 700,000 square feet in eight buildings. Two weeks ago Ben Conwell, vice president of Quadrant's commercial division, said the company anticipated starting construction of the 100,000-square-foot Lake View Building late next year, and that he soon would have an announcement regarding the Evanston and Canal View buildings, which total 100,000 square feet. So far, though, nothing has come over the wire.

Last week, Opus Corp. President and CEO Mark Rauenhorst was in Seattle to speak at the Commercial Brokers Association's annual Insights Breakfast. After his speech, Rauenhorst talked about what had motivated his family's Minnesota-based company to begin Opus Northwest, a division that has evolved into one of the region's most active developers.

Surprisingly, it was not the start of the high-tech revolution that prompted the move; rather, it was a combination of the region's shortage of developable land and its acclaimed quality of life.

"There's not as great of a capacity to overbuild in this market," he said, citing the dearth of land, which is exacerbated by the fact that the area has an arm of the sea on one side and steep mountains on the other. But this was less important than the other factor: People wanted to live here.

Rauenhorst noted that seven years ago, high-tech was only starting to boom. Opus officials were not sure exactly what impact this trend would have on Seattle, he said. But they did know that strong business leaders are attracted to communities that consistently make those ubiquitous best places to live lists, which, at the time, consistently put Seattle at or near the top. Rauenhorst said a strong sense of community begets strong leadership, which in turn results in long-term growth and plenty of opportunities for a development company.

As everyone knows now, forming Opus Northwest was a smart move. Opus Northwest recently was selected by peers as developer of the year. It has 16 projects totaling more than 6 million square feet under construction or planned in the region.

Before deal makers begin fretting about Y2K, they should think about Dec. 31, according to Peter Ostrander, a vice president for LandAmerica National Commercial Services. The company's family of title insurance underwriters includes Common-wealth Land Title Insurance Co., Lawyers Title Insurance Corp., and Transnation Title Insurance Co.

Says Ostrander: You know the courthouse is going to be closed on the last day of the year, which is traditionally the biggest day of recordings. He worries folks who have to close deals for tax purposes will show up only to find the courthouse itself closed.



Previous columns:



Email or user name:
Password:
 
Forgot password? Click here.