Photo courtesy of Opus Northwest Opus’ big project is the Northpointe Corporate Campus in Lynnwood, a 719,000-square-foot high-tech center.

“Last year was in large part a continuation of the completion of a large number of projects that have been part of our pipeline over the past three years,” said Thomas Parsons, vice president of real estate for Opus Northwest.

“It was a very successful year — as we sold industrial buildings in Fife North, Riverbend and Fife East business parks.”

Although industrial leasing activity declined in 2001 and space was given back to the market by large users, “our projects performed well in their niche markets,” Parsons said.

Parsons

Office development for Opus was centered on Seattle’s Union Station, a 570,000-square-foot development, Issaquah’s 160,000-square-foot Eastpointe project and the first phase of its 719,000-square-foot Northpointe office project.

During the year, Opus leased 225,000 square feet of office space in its projects, including 66,528 square feet in Northpointe by Cypress Semiconductor, which will consolidate its Bothell and Woodinville facilities when the new structure is complete later this year.

“As land prices escalated dramatically, from $18 per buildable square foot to more than $40, we found ourselves looking at projects that needed record high rental rates and ultimate investor sales prices to provide an economic return to Opus,” Parsons said.

Uncomfortable with that scenario, Opus became very cautious about starting new office projects, he said, noting that “not moving ahead on good sites was frustrating” but looking back Opus found its “instincts were correct.”

As Opus moves into 2002, Persons said the company is optimistic that industrial markets will strengthen, enabling Opus to begin construction later this year on 500,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in the Kent Valley.

Also, Opus is already building a new flex-tech project in Woodinville and plans to build up to 200,000 square feet of additional development at Northpointe as soon as leases are committed. In the Pacific Northwest, Opus is pursuing design-build construction projects, many of them for third-party public and private clients. Parsons said he expects to land significant work in this area.