inventory, helping to maintain both occupancy and rent levels.

NEWS & NOTABLES

SAN MATEO, CA—Movoto Real Estate is paving a new road where technology and real estate go hand-in-hand. They are now officially licensed in all 50 states. With their North Dakota license recently approved, this makes Movoto the only online brokerage that is fully licensed across the US.

SAN JOSE, CA—Cushman & Wakefield has appointed James Chung to Retail Practice Group Leader for the West Region. In this capacity, Chung will provide leadership and strategic direction for the region's overall retail leasing business and coordinate closely with related service lines including strategic consulting, capital markets, single tenant net leased investments, property management and project management. Chung, Executive Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield, has been with the company for 14 years and currently represents more than 30 national tenants, most of these Fortune 500, and over seven million square feet of retail across the nine Bay Area counties.

SAN FRANCISCO—Helena Geng has joined the San Francisco office of Kidder Mathews as a vice president, and she will work with the firm's China Services, a group that offers advisory, brokerage, and property management services to Chinese companies looking to invest in the US, as well as, US companies looking to do business in China. Prior to joining Kidder Mathews, Geng managed her own consulting firm in San Francisco, AMZA LLC, where she assisted Chinese investors in the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP has hired Eric Kathrein as a director concentrating on retail investment sale transactions throughout Northern California and the Western US. Kathrein joins HFF from Cushman & Wakefield where he worked as a vice president on its Retail Capital Markets team closing more than $1 billion of asset dispositions during his tenure. He is an active member of NAIOP's Young Professionals Group and is on the ICSC Next Gen Planning Committee.

DEAL TRACKER

SEATTLE— HFO Investment Real Estate recently revealed a portfolio sale of 104-Unit Cedar Hollow and 58-Unit Cedar Willow in Spokane, WA. Completed in 1988 and 1990, Cedar Hollow and Cedar Willow are located within three blocks of each other in the South Hill region of Spokane, an area experiencing significant growth. HFO partners Rob Marton, Greg Frick, Cody Hagerman and Tyler Johnson represented seller PTLA Corp. of Walnut Creek, California. The property sold to a private individual investor in Southern California.

SEATTLE—In the second Amazon deal in two months, Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP represented the joint venture led by David Edelstein with RFR partners in the acquisition of another of the Amazon home office buildings, a 293,000 square foot structure in Seattle, WA. The purchase of this $270 million building from Schnitzer West is the second part of a series of exchanges the firm is ​handling for the joint venture.

BUILDING BLOCKS

SEATTLE—LMN Architects, a multidisciplinary design firm with a reputation for distinctive, community-focused projects, revealed that the Cleveland Civic Core and Convention Center Complex has been recognized with a 2017 National AIA Honor Award for Regional & Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects. Designed by LMN Architects in partnership with landscape architects GGN and the design-build team of URS, Robert P. Madison, and Turner Construction, the $465-million project was developed by Merchandise Mart Properties for Cuyahoga County. The project includes the 767,000-square-foot renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Convention Center, the 600,000-square-foot Burnham Mall (a civic space which rests atop the Convention Center), and the 235,000-square-foot Global Center for Health Innovation. The Cleveland Civic Core is one of five urban design and planning projects from around the globe to be recognized by the program this year. The program recognizes the best work in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development, and is widely acknowledged as one of the industry's most prestigious award programs.

This week in the North West region, check out some details about Oakland's retail inventory and some new hires in Northern California. Also, check out all the other news you might have missed below.—Natalie Dolce

BY THE NUMBERS

SEATTLE—Cobbling together a 20% down payment on a home costs more than two thirds of the average annual income—one of the reasons potential home buyers say saving for a down payment is among their top concerns. That is according to the latest report from locally based Zillow. In the US, to buy a median-priced home for $192,500, a buyer must scrape together $38,500 in cash—plus any closing costs and moving expenses—in order to ensure they qualify and get the best terms on their mortgage. Among large housing markets, buyers in the San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles metros must come up with the largest percentage of their income to buy a home—182% of the average annual income to put 20 percent down on the median home. In San Jose, where the median income is $105,455, a down payment on the median $961,600 home is $192,320.

OAKLAND, CA— John Cumbelich & Associates' fourth quarter survey of Oakland retail continues to portray a market with occupancy rates rivaling the East Bay's premiere retail districts. Occupancy rates remained high, while rental rates remain at an all-time high throughout Oakland submarkets. Rockridge, Grand Lake and Montclair Village, have a comparable inventory of retail space, 825,000 square feet, to Walnut Creek's regional mall area. Yet these vibrants streets outperform Walnut Creek with occupancy rates over 98%, a total that is unsurpassed by any other Bay Area submarket, the report says. A powerful mixture of residential density, incomes and growing job creation have pushed Oakland's retail inventory to record occupancy and rent levels. High barriers to entry have constrained the development of new retail

inventory, helping to maintain both occupancy and rent levels.

NEWS & NOTABLES

SAN MATEO, CA—Movoto Real Estate is paving a new road where technology and real estate go hand-in-hand. They are now officially licensed in all 50 states. With their North Dakota license recently approved, this makes Movoto the only online brokerage that is fully licensed across the US.

SAN JOSE, CA—Cushman & Wakefield has appointed James Chung to Retail Practice Group Leader for the West Region. In this capacity, Chung will provide leadership and strategic direction for the region's overall retail leasing business and coordinate closely with related service lines including strategic consulting, capital markets, single tenant net leased investments, property management and project management. Chung, Executive Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield, has been with the company for 14 years and currently represents more than 30 national tenants, most of these Fortune 500, and over seven million square feet of retail across the nine Bay Area counties.

SAN FRANCISCO—Helena Geng has joined the San Francisco office of Kidder Mathews as a vice president, and she will work with the firm's China Services, a group that offers advisory, brokerage, and property management services to Chinese companies looking to invest in the US, as well as, US companies looking to do business in China. Prior to joining Kidder Mathews, Geng managed her own consulting firm in San Francisco, AMZA LLC, where she assisted Chinese investors in the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP has hired Eric Kathrein as a director concentrating on retail investment sale transactions throughout Northern California and the Western US. Kathrein joins HFF from Cushman & Wakefield where he worked as a vice president on its Retail Capital Markets team closing more than $1 billion of asset dispositions during his tenure. He is an active member of NAIOP's Young Professionals Group and is on the ICSC Next Gen Planning Committee.

DEAL TRACKER

SEATTLE— HFO Investment Real Estate recently revealed a portfolio sale of 104-Unit Cedar Hollow and 58-Unit Cedar Willow in Spokane, WA. Completed in 1988 and 1990, Cedar Hollow and Cedar Willow are located within three blocks of each other in the South Hill region of Spokane, an area experiencing significant growth. HFO partners Rob Marton, Greg Frick, Cody Hagerman and Tyler Johnson represented seller PTLA Corp. of Walnut Creek, California. The property sold to a private individual investor in Southern California.

SEATTLE—In the second Amazon deal in two months, Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP represented the joint venture led by David Edelstein with RFR partners in the acquisition of another of the Amazon home office buildings, a 293,000 square foot structure in Seattle, WA. The purchase of this $270 million building from Schnitzer West is the second part of a series of exchanges the firm is ​handling for the joint venture.

BUILDING BLOCKS

SEATTLE—LMN Architects, a multidisciplinary design firm with a reputation for distinctive, community-focused projects, revealed that the Cleveland Civic Core and Convention Center Complex has been recognized with a 2017 National AIA Honor Award for Regional & Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects. Designed by LMN Architects in partnership with landscape architects GGN and the design-build team of URS, Robert P. Madison, and Turner Construction, the $465-million project was developed by Merchandise Mart Properties for Cuyahoga County. The project includes the 767,000-square-foot renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Convention Center, the 600,000-square-foot Burnham Mall (a civic space which rests atop the Convention Center), and the 235,000-square-foot Global Center for Health Innovation. The Cleveland Civic Core is one of five urban design and planning projects from around the globe to be recognized by the program this year. The program recognizes the best work in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development, and is widely acknowledged as one of the industry's most prestigious award programs.