Kamiak's initial residential strategy focuses on providing multifamily housing units with rents targeted those making less than 100% of median income. Kamiak focuses on providing high-quality finishes, sustainable design and amenities with design differentiation to maximize smaller-sized unit livability, along with programming to drive resident interactions.

"Our local expertise gives us the ability to identify desirable and supply-constrained neighborhoods and submarkets in the Seattle area," Garibay tells GlobeSt.com. "We then like to target assets with an identifiable and immediate catalyst to create value through ground-up development or value-add repositioning."

In addition to focusing on residential opportunities, the firm will also carry on the commercial focus honed at Vulcan and EQ Office, with an emphasis on targeting properties in Seattle's urban core and selected suburban markets that need significant renovation, as well as repositioning capital to take advantage of Seattle's strong fundamentals.

"Class-A office development is obviously prevalent in the Bellevue and Seattle core," Garibay adds. "We are focused not only on the urban core, but also on certain submarkets and neighborhoods that are able to provide a relief valve for tenants, given the very tight office market in the urban core. We continue to see growing demand and interest from tenants seeking space outside of downtown. Through conversion of older industrial and office product, and development of neighborhood in-fill projects, we are hoping to fill the demand for office space. It's hard to ignore the spill-over demand that is occurring throughout the region."

After leaving Vulcan Real Estate some three years ago, Lien focused on acquiring development sites across Seattle and, as a result, Kamiak currently has numerous multifamily development projects of more than 600 units in sought-after neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, University District, First Hill, Central District, Fremont and Ballard.