Brokers Drive Home CAR Awards

PORTLAND-The regional chapter of the Commercial Association of Realtors last week revealed their choices for the city’s most productive brokers of 2003.

The Broker of the Year awards for the Industrial and Office categories went to Grubb & Ellis brokers Bradford Fletcher and Dave Squire, respectively. The largest deal for both of them in 2003 was jointly representing IBM in the sale of its Beaverton campus to Wells REIT for $38.4-million. Considered one of the most significant opportunities in the local marketplace, the campus included: three two-story tilt-up office buildings totaling 220,000 sf that are net leased to IBM; one vacant three-story office building (about 115,000 sf); one small warehouse building (about 30,000 sf) that also is vacant, and; 31.8 acres of developable land that local sources have said could hold another 500,000 sf of flex-office product.

The Bill Naito Award for the most complex real estate transaction went to Norris Beggs & Simpson brokers Ron Kawamoto and Jack McConnell for their representation of The Schuck Corp. of Colorado Springs in the sale of 58 acres to Dollar Tree Stores for a 650,000-sf distribution center at Exit 14 off Interstate 5 that could eventually be expanded to 900,000 sf. Even without the expansion, it is the largest single structure in Clark County. The development is the first phase of an eventual 286-acre mixed-use development called Union Ridge, a $430-million project by Schuck Corp. slated to include office space, industrial space, a destination shopping center, a hotel, apartments and single-family homes. Schuck is taking down the land in stages from landowner Bob Zimmerly.