Tarragon Development

Specialty: Mixed portfolio of real estate development

Management: Joe Blattner, president

Founded: 1995

Headquarters: Seattle

Current projects: Kent Station urban village; Michael’s distribution center; 360-unit apartment complex Palermo at Lakeland

Photo courtesy Tarragon Development Kent Station is a new urban village with housing, retail and entertainment near the city’s Sounder commuter rail station.

Tarragon Development is having what will likely be its best year since being founded in 1995, according to President Joe Blattner. “The volume far exceeds our busiest year ever,” said Blattner.

Tarragon is involved in developing retail, industrial, mixed-use, residential and office. Industrial and retail have been the leaders this year, Blattner said.

The firm recently opened the first phase of the mixed-use development Kent Station, including 160,000 square feet for Green River Community College, AMC Cinemas and a number of restaurants and retailers. Tarragon also began the second phase of that project.

In addition, the firm broke ground on a 715,000-square-foot Michael’s distribution center in Centralia; a 370,000-square-foot facility at Valley South Corporate Park, an industrial park in Sumner, and began construction on 100,000 square feet of industrial space in the Cloverdale Corporate Park.

‘(The challenge is) finding sites (in the south end) where you can get enough critical mass of retail, that are far enough from direct competition and meet consumers’ demands.’ -- Joe Blattner, Tarragon Development

A strong economy

Blattner attributed the strong year to a stronger regional economy, lifted by increasing activity at the Port of Seattle. Congestion at ports in Oakland and Long Beach will continue to benefit Seattle, he said.

Blattner also said Tarragon’s diversification in asset classes — retail, residential, industrial — has “created a snowball effect in terms of the quantity of work.”

He said retail vacancies are low in the south end of Puget Sound. He said the challenge is “finding sites where you can get enough critical mass of retail, that are far enough from direct competition and meet consumers’ demands.”

Avoiding office space

In 2006, he said Tarragon will continue to pursue retail and industrial opportunities. “The industrial market will only strengthen in this area,” he said.

Blattner said Tarragon will avoid developing office space in the near future. “The office market has a way to go to recover,” he said. “It will be a couple years before it comes back, but like other sectors it will have its day.”