Jun 21, 2012

Colliers International

Simon

Dylan Simon joined Colliers' Seattle office as an institutional multi-family specialist. He previously managed a real estate investment and development company that he co-founded.

Kidder Mathews

Paul

Vega

Seattle-based Kidder Mathews hired two people to lead new service lines in Bay Area offices. Nanci Vega is vice president of the property management group. Brad Paul is manager of the Valuation Advisory Services Division. Kidder expanded to the Bay Area six years ago, and has three offices and more than 70 employees.

Wright Runstad

Wright Runstad & Co. hired CBRE and the Broderick Group to market the first phase of the Spring District, which will cover 16 blocks in the Bel-Red corridor of Bellevue. CBRE brokers Frank Bosl and Jon Hallgrimson are marketing 3.3 acres for housing development. Three-hundred multi-family units are planned. Broderick brokers Jeff Watson, Grant Yerke and Matt Schreck were hired to find tenants for the first two office and retail buildings, which will total 490,000 square feet. The full first phase calls for 560 housing units and six office buildings with about 1.5 million gross square feet. Seattle-based Wright Runstad and its project partner, Shorenstein Properties of San Francisco, estimate the new space will be completed between 2014 and 2108. The schedule calls for breaking ground in the second quarter of 2013. NBBJ is the architect.

ULI Northwest

Urban Land Institute Northwest is starting a series of classes at the Center for Sustainable Leadership. Participants must apply to the program, which is for current and future executives, government officials and community leaders. Participants will meet with experts to talk about real estate, land use and the environment. There will be eight all-day classes on Thursdays from Sept. 20 through May 9, 2013. Tuition is $2,000, and tuition help is available. Applications are due July 9. For more information see http://tiny.cc/deh4fw, or email northwest@uli.org.

NorthMarq

Stuart Oswalt of NorthMarq's Bellevue office arranged first mortgage refinancing of $3 million for a 14,000-square-foot retail center in Burlington. It was arranged through a CMBS lender. Bob Spiro of NorthMarq arranged first mortgage refinancing with Freddie Mac of nearly $12.5 million for the 200-unit Bentley Apartments in Spokane.

NAREIT

Five real estate investment trusts that operate in Washington won 2012 Investor Care Awards from NAREIT, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. The awards are for communications and reporting. Winners are Kimco, Westfield, AvalonBay Communities, Brookfield Office Properties and Ventas.

NAIOP South Sound meeting

Tacoma city manager T.C. Broadnax and other city officials will talk about commercial real estate and infrastructure projects at NAIOP's South Sound breakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. June 29 in the Hotel Murano. Register at http://tiny.cc/url7fw.

Jun 14, 2012

Rental Housing Association

Hinkle

Bill Hinkle is the new executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound. Hinkle, of Cle Elum, is retiring from the state House of Representatives. He works in RHA's new office at 2414 S.W. Andover. RHA is a 4,700-member not-for-profit group for landlords and others.

Windermere

Corcoran

Mark Corcoran is the new branch manager of Windermere's Green Lake office. He was the broker at the company's Sand Point office. Previously, he managed real estate loans for a local finance company and was a business analyst for Microsoft. Windermere agents from the Wall Street office tomorrow will work in Lower Kinnear Park on Queen Anne to prepare it for an off-leash dog park. It's the agents' annual community service day project.

OfficeSpace.com

Seattle-based OfficeSpace.com yesterday started a free broker and landlord-to-tenant service in Denver. It's part of the company's city-by-city nationwide rollout of the service. OfficeSpace does not have a date for the Seattle rollout. Susie and Alex Algard acquired Officespace.com in 2010. Susie Algard, the company's CEO, said it can be frustrating for entrepreneurs to wait for landlords and brokers to call them back with information about available spaces. Providing details about a space helps business owners do their research. She said the new service will be especially helpful to small business owners because it's difficult for brokers to make small requirements profitable. The service connects tenants and brokers for free. OfficeSpace.com's website offers free viewings and listings and social media tools for sharing. The company recently started a free “tools suite” that brokers can use to make fliers and surveys, and communicate with tenants.

Cairncross & Hempelmann

Seattle law firm Cairncross & Hempelmann started a blog about the food, beverage, restaurant, hotel and retail sectors. Members of the firm write the blog that can be accessed at http://tiny.cc/5wjtfw.

Matrix Real Estate

The 34-unit Queen's Court condo conversion in Seattle sold out. The average price per square foot of the last 13 sales in the historic building at 124 Warren Ave. N. in the Uptown neighborhood was $303 square feet, according to Matrix Real Estate. The converted units were brought to the market in late 2006. When sales slowed, the holder of the secondary debt paid off the primary loan, took over the property and hired Matrix to market the remaining 14 units. Matrix re-priced the units, worked with a new stager and rebranded the property.

Eastside Mayors' Forum

The Bellevue Downtown Association's annual Eastside Mayors' Forum is at noon, June 27 at the Harbor Club in Bellevue. James Whitfield, president of Leadership Eastside, will moderate the discussion among the mayors of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Mercer Island and Redmond. Register at http://tiny.cc/6voufw.