Plaza at Yarrow Bay Lands 24,000-SF Tenant

KIRKLAND, WA-A growing software firm spread among four buildings in West Seattle is relocating to one-and-a-half floors at the Plaza at Yarrow Bay, 274,000-sf office development here that is owned by HAL Real Estate Investments.Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc. has signed on for half of a vacant 46,000-sf building at 3393 Lake Washington Blvd., which used to house the headquarters for AT&T’s 411 operations. The lease is for about 10,000 sf more than EED is currently occupying in West Seattle. The transaction was completed unusually quickly, with all parties coming to agreement in a few days, culminating in a joint three-hour session from which all parties had committed to leave with a signed lease document.None of the parties involved in the transaction would discuss the negotiated lease rate; however, HAL is likely a motivated land owner. More than half of its 274,000-sf development is being marketed for lease. The asking lease rate at the development is $22.50 per sf per year, down from $33 three years ago. Local brokers familiar with the property tell GlobeSt.com that if HAL didn’t come off its asking rate, then it likely gave back in other ways, such as free tenant improvements and free rent.EED is a forensics consulting firm that has created a software program used by the Top 700 law firms to search and review electronic and imaged paper documents from a central repository. EED chief executive John Jessen tells GlobeSt.com he chose the Plaza at Yarrow Bay for a number of reasons, including its immediate availability, extra power, back-up generators and room for further expansion. Jessen started the company in his basement in West Seattle 16 years ago. A few years later, he began leasing space in Downtown Seattle at $8 per sf. Three years ago, lest he renew his lease at $35 per sf, he opted to purchase a small building in West Seattle. Now, thanks to an average compounded growth rate of 80%, his company is operating out of four buildings in West Seattle.Jessen says he initially began looking to move only half of his operation to new space, but late in the game decided that the “soft savings” of being all in one place outweighed the benefit of being close to home. With regard to his new lease rate Jessen says, “We couldn’t have timed the whole thing better.” The good news for HAL Real Estate Investments is that EED apparently isn’t the only one planning to move to the Plaza at Yarrow Bay. HAL Real Estate Investments president Paul Manheim, who is using Seattle-based GVA Kidder Mathews to market the property, says there will be more announcements in the near future. “We’re starting to see lots of activity,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re currently have a number of transactions in final completion.”