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“Nabbefeld”
Joe Nabbefeld
Real Estate Editor

October 12, 2000

Real Estate Buzz: Dog years versus developer years

Dogs age seven years for each human year. Doug Howe figures the risks developers face makes them age two years for each human year.

Howe, who is a developer, would be 53 by the human calendar. He figures he's 75 in developer years. He started his Seattle-based developing career in 1978, so double those 22 years into 44 and add those 44 to 31 (his age when he started) and you get 75.

Howe is a principal in Touchstone Development. The Target store in Touchstone's Northgate North vertical retail project, just north of Northgate Mall in Seattle, opened last week, with other tenants including Best Buy preparing to open soon. Five years of putting the project together took 10 years of Howe's life, he said.

Now Touchstone is working on a Belltown office project for which the firm filed for city permits earlier this year. The site is at Fifth Avenue and Bell Street.


Microsoft buys seven acres

Microsoft paid hospital supplier Allegiance Healthcare Corp. $11 million for seven acres and a warehouse adjacent to Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, King County property records show.

The 136,765-square-foot warehouse is at the corner of Northeast 36th Street and 148th Avenue Northeast. The one-story structure was built in 1971.

Allegiance spokeswoman Donna Gaidamak said Allegiance operates a distribution plant there and plans to continue doing so for at least the short term.

Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla confirmed that the software company bought the property but said he would provide little other information. "We have no specific plans," he said of the property. He also said the $11 million price listed in county documents isn't correct but he wouldn't elaborate.

Microsoft, which constantly needs more space to accommodate its growth, has purchased other warehouse facilities around the campus in the past few years.

Allegiance, based north of Chicago, makes and distributes hospital supplies such as drapes, gowns and gloves. Gaidamak said that if Allegiance moves out of the Redmond warehouse, the firm would set up elsewhere in the area. "We'll definitely continue to have a distribution center there," she said.


Intracorp inks $17.8M deal

A New York investment group paid the Seattle-based developer Intracorp $17.8 million for the freshly built, 128-unit Belltown apartment building named The Sidney.

The Sidney is located on the northeast corner of Wall Street and Fourth Avenue in the enlarging, high-rise residential district north of downtown Seattle. The building stands six stories over 141 underground parking spaces; it also provides about 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

King County property records disclose the sale from Fourth and Wall LLC to Wallfour Realty Holding Co. Intracorp confirmed it was the seller but declined to name principals in the buyer. A source said the buyer is a New York investment group but also couldn't say more.

Broker Tom Craig represented the buyer but he couldn't be reached to comment.

Intracorp, led by Mike Miller and funded by large international investors, develops a variety of property types throughout the Puget Sound and in other Western states, from a large number of Belltown condo and apartment projects to Kent Valley industrial warehouses to office buildings. Its local portfolio also includes creation of a huge planned community called East Village in Issaquah.


High-end homes on Rattlesnake Ridge

J.M. Allen has left a Seattle brokerage to put together a 41-home gated community adjacent to the Rattlesnake Ridge Management Area on the south side of Interstate 90 near North Bend.

The 550-acre development is called Uplands Reserve. Allen couldn't be reached to comment, but a short written statement from him said construction of the first phase of roads, utilities and the gated entry will finish late this fall. Also, nine of the 41 estate homes are already under contract to buyers, the statement said.

The homes will sit on plots of 2.5 to eight acres each, with the sites selling for between $230,000 and $600,000 each, the statement says.

Upland Reserve residents will collectively own 350 acres that will remain forested and drained by various streams and Clough Creek.

Allen, whose first name is John but prefers "J.M.," recently left as vice president and designated broker for Century Pacific Real Estate Advisors, the brokerage arm of the Seattle law firm Davis Wright Tremaine.

Allen formed Uplands Reserve LLC and Allen & Co. LLC. The statement said Allen & Co. will pursue other development projects and provide consulting and brokerage services.


Seimens sells to itself

Twenty-three acres near Lake Sammamish in Issaquah changed hands for $18 million, but Siemens Medical Systems Inc. says nothing really happened.

Siemens spokeswoman LuJean Smith said the company shifted ownership of the land, and a 133,000-square-foot warehouse on the land, from a subsidiary to the parent company. Siemens will continue producing ultrasound machines there, she said.

King County property records show SI Issaquah Inc. sold the 23 acres at 22010 S.E. 51st St. to SMI Holdings LLC for $18 million. The property is immediately east of Lake Sammamish State Park.



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