Egis Real Estate Wins Touchstone Assignment

SEATTLE-Locally based Touchstone Corp. has handed the management assignment for its new biomedical development here to Egis Real Estate Services, a new company formed earlier this year. Touchstone’s project is the 215,000-sf 9th & Stewart Life Sciences Building, which will open for its anchor tenant next month.Formed in January, Egis is comprised of the property management team for the real estate arm of Fisher Communications, which recently sold off most of its real estate assets in order to focus on its core business. The former Fisher Properties group offers property management and engineering services to class A office, high tech, retail and industrial projects. The firm’s portfolio is about 1.6 million sf, including Fisher Plaza, a 300,000-sf communications and technology building Downtown that houses Fisher Communications and other companies. Touchstone is a real estate development company specializing in commercial and technology office buildings in urban infill locations in the greater Seattle market. Its 11-story Life Sciences Building will be anchored by Corixa Corp, a locally headquartered biotech company. Corixa will occupy 140,000 sf in the building in July; the rest of the building remains available at an asking net rental rate of $36 per sf per year. Touchstone president Douglas Howe says Corixa had a hand in choosing Egis as the property manager. “It’s a new, innovative way of managing and working together,” says Howe. In addition to the management assignment, Touchstone and Egis have formed a joint venture that could extend beyond the 9th & Stewart Life Sciences Building, though no specific projects have been announced. A source at Egis tells GlobeSt.com there is no certainty with regard to future assignments. “It’s not guaranteed,” says the source. “It may be one or more and it may be none,” she says. “It depends on the situation and the other partners they have as well.”