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August 6, 1999

Real Estate Buzz

By MARC STILES
Journal Real Estate editor

Former Microsoft President Jon Shirley is seeking a permit from the city of Bellevue to build a 15,200-square-foot office/warehouse building on a vacant 1.32-acre lot at 2050 116th Ave. N.E. Whatever Shirley plans for the space, he's not saying. What I am doing is sort of personal and does not belong in the press, he wrote in an e-mail. It will be a long time before I make it public. This much is known: Real estate sources say it is one of the few vacant commercial parcels left in that area. Nelson Architecture of Bellevue is the designer. Group Four of Bothell is the civil engineer. And Sound Ventures is the developer.

This week's news on the commercial real estate front in Seattle confirms what the experts have been saying all along: High-tech companies are driving the market, and companies are looking to settle not in the central business district but on its fringes and often in formerly funky facilities.

On Tuesday, Go2Net announced it will be the sole office tenant in 80,000 square feet at Triad Developments Pier 70, which is undergoing a $10 million-plus renovation. The next day, F5 Networks said it will take the second building in Koehler McFadyen's three-building 401 Elliott West project.

Now there's word that AtomFilms is the first company to sign up for space in another out-of-the-ordinary office building: JWJ Properties Commuter Building, 815 Western Ave. A formal announcement of this deal and other Commuter Building leases is expected soon, according to Monica ONeill, a Trammell Crow representative who is marketing the project with colleague Lisa Stewart.

AtomFilms, a young company now in about 3,500 square feet at 80 S. Washington St., acquires exclusive licenses to short films, animations and digital media, and secures distribution via TV networks, airlines, theaters, home video and DVD, the Internet and broadband services. Leigh Callaghan of Colliers International is the broker for the company, which has signed up for 14,976 feet of space.

The Commuter Building is being converted into 55,000 square feet of Class A office space. The renovated building is being crafted from two structures along what in the olden days was Produce Row. In addition to the old Commuter Building there is the Turner & Pease Building, which was a butter packaging plant for 85 years. The building had 10 rooms lined with coolant pipes; they had not been turned off for many years and neglecting to defrost them resulted in ice walls 18 inches thick. The walls reportedly took four months to thaw before the renovation could begin in earnest.

Riverbend Commerce Park, Opus Northwest's five-building, 250,000-square-foot project in Kent at 79th Avenue South and South 266th, has landed its first tenant: Truesoups. The manufacturer of soups, sauces and entrees is leasing 52,880 square feet and may take another 2,000, said Truesoups CEO Bruce Roe. The company is experiencing strong growth and is expanding from a total of 15,000 square feet in a couple locations, Roe said. Kidder, Mathews & Segner brokers Chris Corr and Doug Klein represented both sides in the deal.

If it's true that California trends spread north, landlords in the Pacific Northwest may one day be legally obligated to deal with something else that spreads: mold.

Inman News Features reports that a San Francisco official is calling for tough action on the fungus front. City Supervisor Gavin Newman is proposing hefty fines for landlords who don't clean their buildings. Mold and mildew, which create fungi that contribute to asthma and other ailments, would be added to a city list of public nuisances.

Gavin blamed the high rate of asthma in kids on mold and mildew and said the problems is especially acute among apartment dwellers in poor neighborhoods.

"It's stifling, he said. "You walk into these units, and the air quality is terrible. He added that poor ventilation, leaky radiators and permanently sealed windows all contribute to mold, which contributes to asthma.



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