May 21, 2002

REI

REI plans to open two 22,000-square-foot stores this fall in Tacoma and Tukwila. The new stores will be near the Tacoma Mall at the Rainier Place shopping center and in Southcenter Mall. REI has 63 stores nationwide.

May 20, 2002

Tacoma Rainiers

A nonprofit group called the Tacoma Baseball Foundation will buy the Tacoma Rainiers in a $9.5 million deal if approved by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues and the Pacific Coast League board of directors. The foundation's steering committee, under executive director A. Colby Parks, an attorney at the firm of Luce, Lombino & Riggio, consists of Herb Simon of Simon Johnson; Jack Connelly of Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell, Malanca, Peterson and Daheim; Jeff Lyon of Insignia/Kidder Mathews; and Brad Cheney of Cheney Capital Investments. The current owner, George Foster, announced his intention to sell the team in August of 2000.

May 16, 2002

CB Richard Ellis

CB Richard Ellis picked up more local commercial brokers let loose by cuts at Trammell Crow Co.'s Seattle-area offices, as well as some from Martin Smith Inc.

Ex-Trammell retail broker Connie Wilde became a CBRE vice president. Dan McGinnis also went into CBRE's retail division from Trammell.

Investment broker Davis Brodin, who had worked on Microsoft's Issaquah Highlands campus deal at Trammell, went to CBRE's Bellevue office. CBRE leaders point to Brodin as a particularly good catch.

Office brokers Dan Stutz and Sally Patterson moved from Martin Smith to CBRE.

Tracking other Trammell departees, retail broker Jim Alexander went to Madison Marquette's Seattle offices, while investment specialist Jim Figel, who was a Trammell senior vice president, moved to ActiveSpace.

Lowe Enterprises

Jack Schwaegler joined Lowe Enterprises Northwest as construction manager for One and Two Union Square in downtown Seattle. Lowe manages the towers for the pension fund that owns them. Schwaegler came from Intracorp. Lowe also hired three managers for Union Square from Unico Properties, which previously managed the two buildings: Arne Gillam as vice president and director of leasing, Tim Holt as general manager and Amanda Boudrie as property manager. Lowe promoted 10-year employee Trina Olsen to property manager.

Marcus & Millichap

Broker Steve Steadele of Marcus & Millichap arranged Joseph Hern's sale of the six-unit Chestnut Street Apartments in Everett for $435,000. The buyers were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Greer. The property is at 1611 Chestnut St.

First Metropolitan Mortgage

Johnson

James J. Johnson was hired by First Metropolitan Mortgage Co. as vice president for branch development in the West, based in the Chicago-based mortgage company's western regional office in McCall, Idaho. Johnson will be responsible for recruiting and managing mortgage branch offices in western states. He was vice president in business development for the Seattle online mortgage information company Lion Inc.

What's cooking in downtown Bellevue?

Maria Royer, Dan Ivanoff, Jennifer Leavitt and Seastar owner John Howie will take on the question of how to draw more top restaurants into downtown Bellevue, at a Wednesday, May 29, breakfast panel by the Bellevue Downtown Association. The event will run from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Bellevue Art Museum. The title is "Dining Downtown: Spotlighting Downtown Bellevue's Restaurant Scene." The announcement describes downtown Bellevue as a "the new hotbed for restaurants." Royer is head of Blatteis Realty's Seattle-area retail brokerage office. Ivanoff is the head of the Eastside development company Schnitzer Northwest. Leavitt works as vice president of marketing for Kemper Development Co., which owns Bellevue Square and Bellevue Place. Howie is owner and executive chef at the Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar. For information, call (425) 453-1223.

May 14, 2002

Golf Savings Bank

Dave Doherty has been named vice president and branch manager of the Golf Savings Bank Everett office.  Doherty began his mortgage career in 1983 with Continental Mortgage (now Home Street Bank) and has been responsible for closing over $400 million in transactions. Golf is a full service bank and mortgage company headquartered in Mountlake Terrace, with eight offices in the state.