The lead developers are Kurt A. Fisher and Gerry G. Pigotti, who are also partners in the commercial brokerage Westlake Associates Inc. The risk is being spread among Fisher and Pigotti, the landowner, a builder and an individual investor who will operate an insurance office out of the ground floor. The firm that will manage the property also will lease office space on the ground floor, leaving the 6,600-sf of professional retail space about 50% preleased. Annual full service asking rates are $18.25 per sf. Monthly rents for the one- and two-bedroom apartments will range from $890 to $1525

Fisher, who also operates an apartment management firm, tells GlobeSt.com the group has yet to decide who will handle lease up of the residential units. Marketwise, he says Northgate has been one of the best appreciating markets in the region as of late, and softness in the apartment market is much more severe in spots like Queene Anne and Belltown and Downtown Bellevue, where there has been significant new construction over the past few years.

"We are starting to see an increase in traffic," says Fisher. "We have a company that operates 350 units around the region and 250,000 sf of commercial space, so we had vacancies and we were sitting on them and now they have been leased." Of course, adds Fisher, "We did have to discount rents."