Middle Market Digest: North West

Below is GlobeSt.com's bi-weekly update on the middle markets throughout the North West region. Here's a look at the latest news, announcements and deals that you may have missed from areas including: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Northern California.

NEWS & NOTABLES

EAGLE, ID—LiveRez.com, a cloud-based software for professional vacation rental managers, recently revealed that it is developing a revolutionary new channel management system for professional vacation rental managers. The system includes a game-changing internal marketing network that will allow professional managers using LiveRez (called partners) to advertise their inventory on other managers' websites, create regional co-op listing sites and refer bookings to other partners. This will allow properties to be marketed exponentially across the entire network, which at this time includes more than 1,000 websites.

SEATTLE—Urban Renaissance Group is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, reflecting on a decade of significant expansion and tremendous growth. “URG was founded in 2006 with the core belief that the renaissance of our cities represented a fundamental shift in the American landscape—believing in and capitalizing on that change became our greatest opportunity,” says URG Founder and CEO, Patrick Callahan. Callahan's original vision for URG's unique operating platform incorporated a competitive blend of asset acquisition and repositioning, asset management, property management and construction services, provided by a team with local experience and expertise in both high rise and historic class A office properties across Seattle, Bellevue, Portland, Ore. and Denver, Colo. Looking ahead, as Callahan looks ahead to the next decade, the firm will continue focusing on strategic expansion of its footprint in Seattle, Bellevue, Portland and Denver, and will consider expanding into additional markets over the next five years. “The dichotomy of the city and suburbs continues to shift,” says Callahan. “The evolution of technology has also made the city easier to navigate—and it is becoming more and more accessible because of technology and transit investment.”

SEATTLE—Kidder Mathews chairman and CEO, Jeff Lyon, revealed that Bill Frame will become the firm's president, responsible for all operations in its 17 offices in five states on the West Coast. The move is the result of the firm's two years of succession planning for a strong leadership team who will keep the firm independent for the long term vs. fold into a publicly held company, like many of its regional competitors have done in recent years. Lyon will remain chairman and CEO for the foreseeable future, and will continue to seek out strategic opportunities and lead the firm's aggressive expansion of locations and business lines.

DEALTRACKER

SEATTLE—Griffis Residential, a Denver-based multifamily investment and management firm, recently acquired Bridges at Northcreek Apartments, a 524-unit class-A multifamily community located 23 miles north of downtown Seattle, for $145 million. Effective immediately, Bridges at Northcreek Apartments has been renamed Griffis North Creek Bothell. With the acquisition, Griffis Residential owns and manages approximately 8,000 apartment units in Colorado, Texas, Nevada and Washington. Additional target markets include Portland and the San Francisco metro area.

SEATTLE—Hunt Mortgage Group recently provided two loans totaling $61.5 million through its top Seattle-area correspondent, GP Realty Finance Inc. The first property is called Areté. Located in Kirkland, WA, Areté is a brand-new, LEED Platinum Plus, mid-rise style apartment community comprised of 290-units housed in five, five-story buildings. Hunt Mortgage Group provided a Fannie Mae loan in the amount of $37.5 million to refinance this property. The loan term is 15-years with amortization based on a 30-year schedule with three years of interest only payments. Yield maintenance will apply during the first 10 years. The second property was called Green Leaf at Lakewood. Hunt Mortgage Group provided a $24 million Fannie Mae loan to facilitate the acquisition of Green Leaf at Lakewood, a garden-style multifamily property comprised of 19, two- and three-story buildings and a total of 231 units. Located in Lakewood, Washington, Green Leaf at Lakewood was built in 1990 and the property is situated on 16.84 acres.

BEAVERTON, OR—Trion Properties, a private equity commercial real estate firm that specializes in value-add multifamily investments along the west coast, has acquired Hidden Villas, a 61-unit, value-add apartment community in the Portland submarket of Beaverton, OR, bringing its multifamily portfolio in the area to a total of 215 units.

SEATTLE—600 Wall Street Development LLC has sold a 10,665-square-foot development site on the corner of 6th Avenue between Wall Street and Denny Way in Seattle, WA. The property was purchased by Seattle Realty One LLC, a joint venture between Vanke Holdings USA LLC, the American subsidiary of China Vanke, the largest residential developer in mainland China, and Laconia Development LLC, a Bay Area development firm. Kidder Mathews commercial real estate brokers, Tim Foster, Ross Klinger, and Jim Klinger from the Seattle area, and Clayton Jew and David Wientjes from the Bay Area, represented both the seller and the buyer.

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Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.