Mar 10, 2005

Quadrant Homes

Poirot

Quadrant Homes has promoted Will Poirot to assistant controller of operations and Jennifer Pitts to program development manager. Quadrant hired Jeanie Thoman as residential accounting manager. Poirot will manage all of Quadrant's day-to-day accounting activities. Pitts will work on improving processes in the land development division. Thoman will oversee Quadrant's residential accounting team. She previously worked for Lozier Homes and First Wellington, a real estate development company.

United Systems Integrators

Sweeney

Steele

Jeff Sweeney and Joe Steele, both of the Bellevue office of Connecticut-based United Systems Integrators, have been promoted to partners. USI is a global corporate real estate services company. Sweeney and Steel co-manage the company's Puget Sound regional operations. Sweeney directs the T-Mobile USA account, and Steele handles the Boeing contract.

Davis Property & Investment

Davis Property & Investment has acquired the Sternoff Building, 8240 S. 196th St., and leased the 113,045-square-foot Kent property to Furniture Factory Direct just before closing. The property, purchased from Alburt Investments LLC for $5.05 million, has been renamed Davis 196. Davis Property & Investment is a property management and development company based in Kent and is ranked one of the fastest growing companies in the state, DPI officials say. The acquisition brings DPI's owned/managed portfolio to just over 601,600 square feet.

Cascade Partners

Cascade Partners, whose specialty is representing investors in trading 2- to 20-unit apartment properties, will relocate next month to the 10th floor of Seattle Tower, 1218 Third Ave. President Michael Rooney says the company, which was launched in August 2003, will occupy an additional 8,200 square feet of space. The larger space will accommodate the expanding sales force. The company plans to hire 10 brokers in the next year and a half.

NAIOP

Mixed-use development is the topic of NAIOP's 7 a.m. March 16 breakfast at The Bellevue Club, 11200 S.E. Sixth St. Panelists are Greg Laycock of Cushman & Wakefield, Dwight Jarvis of Parker Smith & Feek, Bob Tindall of Callison Architecture and Don Milliken of Milliken Development. Friday is the registration deadline. It's $25 for members of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties and $40 for others. Register at www.naiopwa.org or call (206) 382-9121.

Sustainable energy presentation

Three Seattle real estate development companies — Vulcan Inc., Gregory Broderick Smith Real Estate and Unico — are among the sponsors of a 7 p.m. March 18 presentation on sustainable energy at Meany Hall on the University of Washington's Seattle campus. Svend Auken, a member of Danish Parliament and former Danish minister for Energy & Environment, will tell how Denmark moved from almost total dependence on foreign oil to energy independence. Tickets are $7 or $10 at the door; see www.i-sustain.com.

REAPS

Georgia-based contractor Pete Youngs will speak about rehabilitating homes and boosting returns by working as your own general contractor at two REAPS events. The first is 7 p.m. March 24 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington's Seattle campus. It's free for Real Estate Association of Puget Sound members and $15 for others. A day-long seminar will be at 9 a.m. March 26 at Kirkland's Lake Washington Technical College, 11605 132 Ave. N.E. It's $49 for REAPS members and $69 for others. For reservations see www.reaps.com or call (425) 828-9564.

Mar 03, 2005

John L. Scott Real Estate

Krigsman

John L. Scott Seattle Center associate broker Edward Krigsman placed in the top 1 percent of the company's 4,000 agents in sales volume for the fourth consecutive year. Of the 41 top agents, Krigsman ranked sixth. He specializes in the downtown market.

First American Title Insurance

Chee

Lloyd Chee has joined the National Commercial Services Division of First American Title Insurance in Seattle as a sales representative. He previously was a real estate attorney with Perkins Coie.

L.J. Melody & Co.

L.J. Melody & Co., has arranged a $128 million long-term loan and $33 million in equity for Lincoln Square. Michal Makar, managing director, and Jack Standeford, director of L.J. Melody's Seattle office, secured the funding for both transactions. The New York State Teachers Retirement System provided the $128 million on behalf of a venture between CIGNA Investments Inc., Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and affiliates of Kemper Development Co., which is developing Lincoln Square.

The $128 million will be secured by the hotel and retail components of the project and will be delivered when they open this fall, according to Makar.

Makar said the $33 million represents a joint venture. It was secured on behalf of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. General Account. CIGNA Investments Inc., has entered the venture with Kemper Development affiliates and Starwood Hotels and Resorts. L.J. Melody is the real estate banking arm of CB Richard Ellis.

Norris, Beggs & Simpson

Chris Johnson, Jack McConnell, Charlie Kleier, Mark Friel and Michael Merino were the top five producers in 2004 at the Portland-based commercial real estate brokerage Norris, Beggs & Simpson. Also honored at the company's annual awards were Ken Griggs, Finance Officer of the Year, and Melody Martinez, Property Manager of the Year. Johnson was the top producer, completing 48 deals valued at more than $71 million.

Merit Financial

Merit Financial, a Kirkland company that provides residential finance and other real estate services, has formed the Merit Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization to help children in the Pacific Northwest. The foundation will raise money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cystic Fibrosis, Habitat for Humanity of East King County and Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Sabey Corp.

Sabey construction crews collected food, sleeping bags and other supplies to support Tent City 3 at the Seattle University campus and delivered the items Friday.

HomeStreet Bank

HomeStreet Bank is accepting applications for its second-annual Community Housing Awards. Seven $10,000 awards will be given to 501(c)(3) organizations that provide housing, or help people move toward owning homes. Groups in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston and Clark counties; the greater Portland and Salem, Ore., areas; and Hawaii can enter. The deadline is May 13. For a form, see http://www.homestreet.com or call (206) 587-5006.

Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound

The board of directors of the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound has elected Cathy Jeney president, Lou Novak vice president, Charlie Spaeth second vice president, Jack Hawes treasurer and Doug Neyhart secretary. New board members are Paul Birkeland, John Hatton, Bill Severson and Ben Wood Jr. They join officers and current board members Chris Benis, Karyn Kuever, Lou Micheli, Vince Mullally, Chakorn Phisuthikol, Wes Uhlman and Bob Wolfe.

CREW

Michael J. Parks of Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter will speak at CREW's third-annual economic forecast luncheon at noon March 10 at the Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave., Seattle. Tickets are $35 for members and $50 for others. Reservations are due by noon March 7 and can be made by calling Commercial Real Estate Women at (206) 417-5580.