Mar 16, 2000

Port of Bremerton

The Port of Bremerton has added Westech Aerosol Corp. to its Olympic View Industrial Park. The company will occupy a 11,000 sq. ft. building under a five-year lease with the port, with an additional five-year renewal option. Westech, a start-up company, will produce a variety of aerosol products catering to the needs of equipment manufacturers, aftermarket, industrial and maintenance companies.

Mar 13, 2000

McCann-Erickson

McCann-Erickson, a national advertising agency, announced several new hires and a promotion in its Seattle office. Kimi Auty joins the agency as a print production coordinator. Sara Ehinger will work in the agencys' accounting department as a media biller/payer. Adam Thompson brings several years of experience in the mortgage industry to the agency in his new role as an assistant account executive. Mary Sue Humphreys started with the agency two years ago as an account executive and was recently promoted to senior account executive.

Mar 10, 2000

Community Capital Development

The Seattle District Office of the US Small Business Administration has formed a new partnership by certifying Community Capital Development, a Seattle-based not-for-profit community development financial institution, as a 7(a) lender. Under the 7(a) program, lenders issue commercial loans to small businesses, and the Small Business Administration guarantees up to 75 percent of the principal.

Preston Gates & Ellis

Preston Gates & Ellis, a Seattle-based law firm, announced the addition of seven new attorneys. Laura K. Clinton and Joshua Colangelo-Bryan are first-year associates. Paul E. Fogarty joins the firm as an associate and litigation attorney. Sam Z. Haviland, Norman S. Milksis and Susan D. Wray join as of counsel. R. Gibson Masters joins the firm as an associate and real estate and finance attorney.

Cushman & Wakefield

Valerie A. Foster, MAI, has been promoted to director of Cushman & Wakefield's Valuation Advisory Services and Frank J. Rojas has been promoted to associate director of the same group.

Foster has been with Cushman & Wakefield for five years and has been a top producer for the company the last two. She appraised more than 5 million square feet of downtown office space in that time and recently completed an appraisal in support of what the company said is the most successful single-property tax appeal in Pierce County history. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, she was an appraiser and consultant with Shorett & Riley. She is a director of Commercial Real Estate Women Northwest and is past director for the Seattle chapter of the Appraisal Institute. She has an MBA from the University of Washington where she graduated with honors in business.

Rojas has more than 20 years of experience in real estate and consulting. He had been a senior appraiser with Cushman & Wakefield for 10 years. He has appraised a variety of properties, including office, industrial, shopping centers, residential subdivisions, land and mixed-use developments.

Keller Williams

Ten members of Keller Williams Realty Washington have been honored for being in the top 5 percent of agents nationally in sales. They are Kari Collins, Sheryl Knowles, Herbert Holcombe, Philip N. Jones Jr., Carol and John Holmaas, Tova Uddenburg, Karen McKnight, Marcus Smith and Sophie Perkins.

Also, Sage Gayler is a new affiliate with the Bellevue office of Keller Williams. She worked in accounting and regulatory compliance in the oil and gas industry in Denver before moving to Seattle and now will specialize in residential sales in the greater Seattle area.

Keller Williams bills itself as the fastest growing real estate company in North America. Last year it grew from 81 to 120 offices and from 3,500 to 6,000 agents. In the Northwest there are three Keller Williams offices and 10 more are planned for 2000.

Mar 03, 2000

Unico Properties

Alfred R. Glancy III was elected chairman of Unico's board of directors at its recent annual meeting. He assumes the responsibilities from Henry A. Ashforth Jr., who has been chairman since 1992.

Glancy has been a director of Unico since 1975. He is chairman and chief executive officer of the $4.3 billion MCN Energy Group and chairman of its principal subsidiaries, Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., and MCN Investment Corp.

Ashforth recently retired from Ashforth Properties Inc., in Stamford, Conn., as chairman and CEO. Ashforth's leadership allowed Unico to evolve from a downtown Seattle real estate company to a regional real estate operating company, said Unico President and CEO Dale R. Sperling, who credited Ashforth for starting the company on the path it has taken to acquire buildings in Bellevue, Tacoma and Renton. Ashforth will continue to serve on Unico's board.

Unico's portfolio includes 6.5 million square feet of office and retail space throughout the Puget Sound region. The company's services include asset management, property management and leasing, investment brokerage, development and construction.

Pinnacle

Seattle-based Pinnacle Realty Management Co., recently helped Aero Properties LLC close on San Diego's Aero Office Park, and the first order of business was renaming it Aero Tech Center and planning for more than $1 million in renovations.

Aero Properties is a subsidiary of Penco Properties, a West Coast real estate investor based in Anchorage. It bought the five-building, 140,000-square-foot office park for $11.95 million from Trepte Investment Co., which developed the property in 1981. Pinnacle brokers Don Mellon and Jon Boland represented the seller; Tom Mercer, Kevin Craven and Tom Nicholas of Colliers International represented the sellers.

Pinnacle will handle the leasing, property management and renovation. In addition, Aero Properties plans to develop 70,000 square feet of unimproved land connected to the office park.

JPI

Timothy M. McEntee has been promoted to divisional president and managing partner of the central division of JPI, an apartment developer. He is responsible for leading the development of new properties and acquiring existing ones in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Missouri. He previously was senior vice president and regional managing partner for JPI's Rocky Mountain region and has been instrumental in the company's growth there and in the Pacific Northwest, according to company officials.

JPI is based in Dallas and manages and leases more than 24,000 apartment units. It has 17,318 units under development and is pursuing new developments and sales nationwide. The company's plans for 2000 include starting 25 developments and selling 25 apartment communities. The majority of the new developments will be funded through a $470 million investment between JPI and GE Capital.

Last year, the company broke ground on more than 9,153 units, sold, 4,540 and acquired 1,149. Builder magazine listed JPI as the nation's second largest apartment builder in 1998.

Commercial Realty Capital

Dawn Jones and Frank Hornung have formed Commercial Realty Capital LLC, a mortgage banking company that specializes in assisting clients with all phases of the mortgage lending process. Headquartered in Seattle, Commercial Realty Capital services clients primarily in Western Washington. Jones and Hornung have several years' experience in the local mortgage and banking industries. Together they have placed millions of dollars in loans for a variety of local clients, according to Jones.