Sep 28, 2000

O'Day merges into Firmani & Associates

Tracy O'Day, the solo Seattle public relations woman who specializes in commercial real estate and construction clients, has dropped the solo. She merged The O'Day Group into Mark Firmani's Belltown-based Firmani & Associates.

O'Day

The deal brings seven-year-old Firmani & Associates to 12 employees. Before adding O'Day's clients, Firmani mostly served high tech companies, law firms and some healthcare clients.

O'Day's client list includes CB Richard Ellis, Commercial Real Estate Women Northwest, Bentall US LLC, Harbor Properties and Kauri Investments. Also, Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington, Construction Associates Inc. and Donald B. Murphy Contractors Inc.

O'Day said that after 16 years of operating solo she welcomed the chance to spend more time on "client service, which is my love," and less on the administrative aspects of keeping the business going.

Mark Firmani said he looks for chances to grow his firm and saw adding "the high priestess of real estate and construction PR" as a good fit. "Mergers work well when the parties bring disparate talents, This is squarely one of those," he said.

O'Day cut her teeth on real estate PR working four years for developer Jack Benaroya before Benaroya's 1984 sale of his entire portfolio freed her to go out on her own.

Having Benaroya on her resume brought exposure, of course.

"Jack is a legend, so when I struck out on my own, all of the development community wanted to talk to me," she recalled. "Not that they wanted to hire me. They just wanted to know about Jack."

The Benaroya years showed her that commercial real estate marketing was more "diverse" than she had assumed.

"I worked on fundraising for the symphony to advertising for business parks," she said. To promote a collection of home furnishing tenants in what was then Benaroya's Parkway Plaza strip shopping center in Tukwila, O'Day had a house built in the plaza's parking lot so the public could see the stores' goods in a home-like setting.

For the developer Prescott's late-1980s topping out ceremony for the U.S. Bank Center high-rise in downtown Seattle, O'Day helped organize a black-tie affair with linens and fine crystal in the middle of a dirty construction site.

"It was a controversial site. To show that not everything is black and white, we made it a black-tie dinner," she said. The planning included rounding up every shoe-buffing machine they could find so the well-heeled attendees could buff off the construction dust as they left the site.

O'Day, an avid horse rider going back to her youth in Montana, has served a range of other types of clients and remembers Washington Mutual's Rodeo Grandmas as among the most fun.

"I didn't invent them, but I worked with them after they became famous with the WaMu ads. I booked them for all sorts of things like TV gigs. For a commercial, I got to ride with them. They were all professional cattlewomen. Loraine Pass, who was 85 then, could outride me." During shooting of the commercial, the Rodeo Grandmas herded cattle. O'Day and other riders would then herd the cattle back so the grandmas could do it again for the next take.

6 win Friends of Housing awards

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission this week gave Friends of Housing awards to honor the efforts of six affordable housing advocates.

The six received the awards at Housing Washington 2000, a statewide affordable housing conference held at the Spokane Convention Center. The recipients were:

• Siobhan Ring of the Tenants Union Statewide Advocate.

• Jack Gallagher, vice president of finance at Fannie Mae, for developing specialized financial investment products to expand affordable housing opportunities.

• The Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing in Yakima, for its dedication to safe and affordable farmworker housing.

• Don Hines, assistant director of the Tacoma Economic Development Department, for championing affordable housing for Tacoma's low-income residents.

• Washington Trust Bank of Spokane for its commitment to providing home-ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income, first-time homebuyers.

• Majken Ryherd, chief of staff for state Rep. Frank Chopp, and formerly with the Washington State Low Income Housing Congress, both for her passionate dedication to advancing the cause of low-income housing and for her roles in passing vital housing legislation.

"Trying to meet the needs of the affordable housing crisis, develop affordable housing, and create solutions is an ominous task," said Kim Herman, executive director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. "I am honored to recognize the achievements of these Friends of Housing, many of whom have devoted their entire careers to ensuring that the low-income, disabled and elderly have a place to live."

Raskin & Associates

Jana Vincent joined Kirkland-based Raskin & Associates as an office leasing and sales broker. Vincent previously worked for Colliers International

Sep 26, 2000

Veber Partners

Veber Partners, a Portland-based investment banking firm specializing in middle-market companies, has promoted Morrie Conway to partner. He will have primary responsibility for advising emerging business, capital raising and mergers and acquisitions. Conway joined the firm in 1998 as an associate partner. He has experience managing equity portfolios for personal and private accounts. He specialized in industrial and technology commercial property services while a real estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield of Oregon.

Sep 21, 2000

HomeSight

HomeSight, a Seattle-based non-profit corporation that builds affordable ownership housing, announced that it has received two grants totaling $95,000 for U.S. Bank. The grants will ultimately help low- and moderate-income households purchase homes in King and Snohomish counties. Funds will go toward operating and down-payment assistance grants for qualifying first-time buyers.

Northwest Suites

Dave Caple was promoted to senior vice president of operations for Northwest Suites Inc., a Redmond-based provider of corporate and extended-stay apartments. Northwest's clients include Microsoft, Washington Mutual, Amazon.com, GE Financial and State Farm Insurance. Caple, who was vice president for operations, is responsible for executive team management and leading the company's growth beyond the Puget Sound region. Before joining Northwest, Caple worked eight years with Cendant Mobility as an operations manager on-site at Microsoft in charge of Microsoft's domestic relocation operations. Caple is also studying for an MBA at Seattle University.

CB Richard Ellis

Scott Davis was promoted to vice president for office and high-tech properties in CB Richard Ellis Seattle-area offices. Davis' clients have included Helly-Hansen USA, AT&T Corp. and L3 Communications.

Fisher Properties

Cathleen Meyer was hired as commercial leasing manager for Seattle-based Fisher Properties. Meyer is responsible for Fisher's commercial real estate portfolio. She starts with focusing on Fisher Industrial Technology Center in Auburn and Fisher Commerce Center and Fisher Industrial Center, both in Kent.

Wells Fargo Bank

Toai Nguyen became a business development officer in charge of generating small business loans on the Eastside for Wells Fargo Bank. Nguyen previously worked in commercial lending at Fremont Investment & Loan and GE Capital, and as an associate client manager at Cornerstone Advisers. He also holds a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwon-Do.

NAIOP spruces up T.T. Minor

Members of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties will spend Saturday helping spruce up T.T. Minor Elementary School in Seattle's Capitol Hill area. NAIOP expects about 200 volunteers to help paint the outside of the main classroom building, build the Children's Gardens and landscape.