NEWS & NOTABLES

SEATTLE—Locally based Zillow Group has brought a major feature update to the Premier Agent App, a mobile application designed for real estate professionals to manage all their contacts in one place. Since launch last year, more than 150,000 agents have downloaded or logged into the app, and more than 70% of Premier Agents have downloaded and used the app.

The new feature is the ability to automatically add and manage leads from third party sources. Starting today, agents can integrate more than 25 different third party lead sources into the app. New third party sources include:

DEAL TRACKER

PORTLAND—Ascentris, a Denver-based real estate private equity company, on behalf of one of its public retirement system clients, has sold Cameron Distribution Center, a 321,000-square-foot light industrial building located in the Airport Way submarket of Portland, OR. The property, which features a cross-docked configuration, 32' clear height, and above market trailer parking, was developed by Holland Partner Group in partnership with Ascentris. Soon after construction was completed the property gained significant interest from several potential tenants and in June 2016, Ashley Furniture executed a long term lease for 169,000 square feet of the property. The buyer and sales price were not disclosed.

SEATTLE—GI Partners has acquired KOMO Plaza, a state-of-the-art carrier hotel and data center facility located at 100 and 140 Fourth Avenue North in Seattle for $276 million. The highly resilient and secure facility combines data center, network neutral interconnections and a class A office in a superior, accessible location. A two-building campus, KOMO Plaza offers robust infrastructure across approximately 294,000 square feet.

REDMOND, WA—An affiliate of Equus Capital Partners Ltd. has acquired Quadrant Willows B and D, a 100% leased, two-building class-B office portfolio totaling 118,058 square-feet located in Redmond, WA, a submarket of Seattle, for $22.3 million. The acquisition was made on behalf of Equus Investment Partnership X LP, a discretionary fund managed by Equus.

SEATTLE—The Dow Hotel Co. has been selected to operate the 353-room Hilton Hotel – Bellevue hotel following the property's recent sale to Wig Properties. “Having operated and been a joint venture partner in the Hilton Bellevue since 2005, we are intimately familiar with the marketplace and the wants and needs of its guests,” said Murray L. Dow II, DHC founder and president. “DHC recently oversaw the hotel's all-inclusive, $10 million renovation to bring the hotel to 'like-new' status making it competitive with the marketplace.”

TACOMA, WA—Unico Properties LLC worked directly with the seller and its broker, Jones Lang LaSalle, to make an off-market purchase of the historic 18-story Washington Building at 1019 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Unico will invest in significant capital upgrades to restore the 1925 building and convert it to apartments, bringing residents and vitality back to Tacoma's urban core. Unico is collaborating with the City of Tacoma to ensure a successful conversion of the historic building. For example, the City assisted Unico in understanding the structural and permitting requirements for the conversion project as well as provided guidance on City and community interest about the historic integrity of the building's façade. The Washington Building was the tallest building in Tacoma and the second tallest building in the Pacific Northwest, behind Smith Tower in Seattle's Pioneer Square, when it was completed in 1925. The 124,191-square-foot property is approximately 30% occupied and requires significant upgrades.

SALEM, OR—Cohen Financial, a national real estate capital services firm recently acquired by SunTrust Bank, a subsidiary of SunTrust Banks Inc. has closed a total of $8.825 million to refinance two multifamily properties in Salem, OR. Peter C. Norrie, managing director of Cohen Financial's Portland office, arranged two fixed-rate, 10-year term Fannie Mae loans with 30-year amortizations and 55% loan-to-values through Pillar's multifamily lending program. Both properties were 100% occupied when the loans closed.

PORTLAND, OR—Bixby Land Co., a Newport Beach, California-based investor, has purchased CDK Plaza for $33.4 million from KBS Real Estate Investment Trust, an affiliate of KBS Realty Advisors. The 185,729-square-foot class A office complex, located at 2525 Southwest 1^st Avenue in downtown Portland, OR, is scheduled to undergo significant upgrades in 2017 as Bixby furthers the reach of its value add office strategy into primary Pacific Northwest markets.

PORTLAND, OR—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has closed the $170 million sale of Pacwest Center, an iconic, 30-story, 545,000-square-foot office tower in Portland, OR. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, the Ashforth Co. and an institutional investor, and procured the buyer, LPC Realty Advisors I, LP, on behalf of a pension fund client. The $170 million sale represents the largest commercial office transaction in Portland in 2016. Pacwest Center is located at 1211 SW 5^th Avenue at the epicenter of Portland's 57-block Transit Mall in the city's central business district. The immediate area surrounding the property has more than one million square feet of development currently underway, including Broadway Tower and 1320 Broadway.

SEATTLE—Gemini Rosemont, LLC, a leading real estate investment company with holdings of approximately 13.6 million square feet of commercial office space, has acquired One Twelfth @ Twelfth, a three building office campus in the Seattle submarket of Bellevue, WA. The acquisition of the class A office campus adds 480,389 rentable square feet to the company's portfolio. Gemini Rosemont now owns 67 properties comprised of 109 buildings in 20 U.S. states.

BUILDING BLOCKS

SEATTLE—The Hotel Group has opened the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Northgate located in Seattle, WA. The Hampton Inn & Suites is located in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood close to shopping, business and entertainment including the Woodland Park Zoo as well as Seattle Children's Hospital, NW Hospital and numerous other regional medical facilities. The Northgate Mall with nearby restaurants is within walking distance of the property.

This week in the North West region, most of the deal news seems to be all coming out of Seattle and Portland. Check out all the news you might have missed below.—Natalie Dolce

BY THE NUMBERS

PORTLAND—The Portland office real estate market held its own in the fourth quarter of 2016, while strong economic conditions, diversifying tenant demand, and an appealing investment and development environment indicated considerable growth potential in the new year, according to a recent report from Kidder Mathews. Metro Portland reported 82,794 square feet of positive net absorption, its seventh straight quarter in the black, but vacancies ticked up to 7.9% during the quarter, after the market added 189,051 square feet in construction deliveries, some of which were unoccupied at year's end. Rental rates climbed to a marketwide average of $24.32, fully serviced, with landlords in downtown trophy buildings angling for the high-$30s, triple-net. On the sale front, the report says that Portland-area assets attracted an array of buyers, from foreign institutional investors to local individuals. More inventory is on the way, with 14 office construction projects rising at the end of the quarter, including a future addition to the city's growing skyline.

SEATTLE—As the US housing market nears full recovery, widening gaps along racial, socio-economic, and generational lines are impacting the growth of the housing market and individual cities, according to a growing body of Zillow research. For example, though millennials want to own homes, the share of young people living at home with their parents has increased sharply. Black mortgage applicants are denied loans at a much higher rate than applicants of other races. And housing affordability is twice as bad for those making a low income than those making a high income.

NEWS & NOTABLES

SEATTLE—Locally based Zillow Group has brought a major feature update to the Premier Agent App, a mobile application designed for real estate professionals to manage all their contacts in one place. Since launch last year, more than 150,000 agents have downloaded or logged into the app, and more than 70% of Premier Agents have downloaded and used the app.

The new feature is the ability to automatically add and manage leads from third party sources. Starting today, agents can integrate more than 25 different third party lead sources into the app. New third party sources include:

DEAL TRACKER

PORTLAND—Ascentris, a Denver-based real estate private equity company, on behalf of one of its public retirement system clients, has sold Cameron Distribution Center, a 321,000-square-foot light industrial building located in the Airport Way submarket of Portland, OR. The property, which features a cross-docked configuration, 32' clear height, and above market trailer parking, was developed by Holland Partner Group in partnership with Ascentris. Soon after construction was completed the property gained significant interest from several potential tenants and in June 2016, Ashley Furniture executed a long term lease for 169,000 square feet of the property. The buyer and sales price were not disclosed.

SEATTLE—GI Partners has acquired KOMO Plaza, a state-of-the-art carrier hotel and data center facility located at 100 and 140 Fourth Avenue North in Seattle for $276 million. The highly resilient and secure facility combines data center, network neutral interconnections and a class A office in a superior, accessible location. A two-building campus, KOMO Plaza offers robust infrastructure across approximately 294,000 square feet.

REDMOND, WA—An affiliate of Equus Capital Partners Ltd. has acquired Quadrant Willows B and D, a 100% leased, two-building class-B office portfolio totaling 118,058 square-feet located in Redmond, WA, a submarket of Seattle, for $22.3 million. The acquisition was made on behalf of Equus Investment Partnership X LP, a discretionary fund managed by Equus.

SEATTLE—The Dow Hotel Co. has been selected to operate the 353-room Hilton Hotel – Bellevue hotel following the property's recent sale to Wig Properties. “Having operated and been a joint venture partner in the Hilton Bellevue since 2005, we are intimately familiar with the marketplace and the wants and needs of its guests,” said Murray L. Dow II, DHC founder and president. “DHC recently oversaw the hotel's all-inclusive, $10 million renovation to bring the hotel to 'like-new' status making it competitive with the marketplace.”

TACOMA, WA—Unico Properties LLC worked directly with the seller and its broker, Jones Lang LaSalle, to make an off-market purchase of the historic 18-story Washington Building at 1019 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Unico will invest in significant capital upgrades to restore the 1925 building and convert it to apartments, bringing residents and vitality back to Tacoma's urban core. Unico is collaborating with the City of Tacoma to ensure a successful conversion of the historic building. For example, the City assisted Unico in understanding the structural and permitting requirements for the conversion project as well as provided guidance on City and community interest about the historic integrity of the building's façade. The Washington Building was the tallest building in Tacoma and the second tallest building in the Pacific Northwest, behind Smith Tower in Seattle's Pioneer Square, when it was completed in 1925. The 124,191-square-foot property is approximately 30% occupied and requires significant upgrades.

SALEM, OR—Cohen Financial, a national real estate capital services firm recently acquired by SunTrust Bank, a subsidiary of SunTrust Banks Inc. has closed a total of $8.825 million to refinance two multifamily properties in Salem, OR. Peter C. Norrie, managing director of Cohen Financial's Portland office, arranged two fixed-rate, 10-year term Fannie Mae loans with 30-year amortizations and 55% loan-to-values through Pillar's multifamily lending program. Both properties were 100% occupied when the loans closed.

PORTLAND, OR—Bixby Land Co., a Newport Beach, California-based investor, has purchased CDK Plaza for $33.4 million from KBS Real Estate Investment Trust, an affiliate of KBS Realty Advisors. The 185,729-square-foot class A office complex, located at 2525 Southwest 1^st Avenue in downtown Portland, OR, is scheduled to undergo significant upgrades in 2017 as Bixby furthers the reach of its value add office strategy into primary Pacific Northwest markets.

PORTLAND, OR—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has closed the $170 million sale of Pacwest Center, an iconic, 30-story, 545,000-square-foot office tower in Portland, OR. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, the Ashforth Co. and an institutional investor, and procured the buyer, LPC Realty Advisors I, LP, on behalf of a pension fund client. The $170 million sale represents the largest commercial office transaction in Portland in 2016. Pacwest Center is located at 1211 SW 5^th Avenue at the epicenter of Portland's 57-block Transit Mall in the city's central business district. The immediate area surrounding the property has more than one million square feet of development currently underway, including Broadway Tower and 1320 Broadway.

SEATTLE—Gemini Rosemont, LLC, a leading real estate investment company with holdings of approximately 13.6 million square feet of commercial office space, has acquired One Twelfth @ Twelfth, a three building office campus in the Seattle submarket of Bellevue, WA. The acquisition of the class A office campus adds 480,389 rentable square feet to the company's portfolio. Gemini Rosemont now owns 67 properties comprised of 109 buildings in 20 U.S. states.

BUILDING BLOCKS

SEATTLE—The Hotel Group has opened the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Northgate located in Seattle, WA. The Hampton Inn & Suites is located in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood close to shopping, business and entertainment including the Woodland Park Zoo as well as Seattle Children's Hospital, NW Hospital and numerous other regional medical facilities. The Northgate Mall with nearby restaurants is within walking distance of the property.