NAIOP Washington State Honored as 2020 Chapter of the Year

Repeat Achievement Signals Continued Strength of Organization

SEATTLE – NAIOP Corporate has honored NAIOP Washington State as Chapter of the Year for its 2019 performance, recognizing the chapter’s advocacy efforts, exceptional diversity and inclusion efforts, member engagement, and organizational growth. NAIOP’s annual merit awards program evaluates chapters on a national basis by chapter size for their education, government affairs involvement, member recruitment and retention, communications, and chapter management. 

“NAIOP Washington State is consistently among our best-performing chapters,” said Thomas J. Bisacquino, NAIOP president and CEO. “This year, it was our honor to recognize them as Chapter of the Year for their significant lobbying efforts, their strong membership recruitment and retention strategies, and their successful education and networking events that raise the profile of NAIOP and commercial real estate in the greater Seattle market. Congratulations to the chapter and its leaders for their commitment to and enthusiasm for our industry and association.”

One critical aspect of sustainability is resiliency, or how we bounce back from natural disasters. A little preparation can go a long way—but a lack of forethought can quickly lead to very difficult situations throughout a city or region. Remember the 2015 New Yorker article about the next big Cascadia earthquake? When the article was published, it prompted seemingly endless, yet interesting, discussions about the inevitability of a very large earthquake in the region, as well as dozens of follow-up stories giving advice on how to prepare. 

Fast-forward four years to Seattle Snowmaggedon 2019. Did you have a week’s supply of food and water in your home when the snow fell last February? Conditions weren’t anywhere near as bad as the name suggests, but empty grocery store shelves made a deep impression, whether you saw them in person like I did or on social media or the news. Those empty-shelf encounters were a fairly common experience. The takeaway is that there is only a few days’ food supply in our grocery stores, which is quickly exacerbated by disaster-inspired hoarding behavior and the breakdown of efficient but lean supply chains.

NAIOPWA is proud to welcome Shaun C. Leiser, owner of SCL Enterprises LLC, as a new member! Shaun is our lucky 1,000th member, receiving a free breakfast meeting ticket and an introduction to the community here in our blog and newsletter.

Did you know? The Washington State Chapter of NAIOP is the fourth-largest in North America, providing new members like Shaun immediate access to a wide, influential network of professional leaders. We also strive to offer networking opportunities—both online via our app and in real life via carefully curated events—that create deeper and longer-lasting relationships within the industry.

It pays to go green!
Sustainability is becoming ever more important in the development of and investment in commercial real estate (CRE) due to several factors:

• Increased attention to Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues at the corporate level.
• Increased interest from the real estate investment community in ESG aspects of development.
• Demographic impact of millennials placing a greater importance on environmental and social issues.

Corporate Interest in Sustainability via the ESG framework

John Torrance inducted to the NAIOP Washington State Hall of Fame in recognition of his visionary work and its impact on the industry and the Seattle community | Double honors laud Microsoft’s Building 121 + 122, which won Redevelopment/Renovation Project of the Year & People’s Choice 2019
 
SEATTLE – Announced on Friday, November 8, at the annual gala event, NAIOP Washington State’s 2019 Night of the Stars Awards highlight how the development community continues to find creative solutions to support the Puget Sound market. For 2019, new categories this year in particular acknowledge growth in multi-family and affordable housing development to serve the fast-growing population and to address housing needs for families at all income levels.
 
Each year, Night of the Stars also honors an individual whose outstanding contributions in the CRE industry have changed the field and the region we call home. Best known for conceiving and promoting the “StarDome” retractable roof stadium concept for the Mariners’ home field, John Torrance, Principal of J.R. Torrance Properties, is this year’s honoree and the newest member of the Hall of Fame. In addition to the development of T-Mobile Park (then Safeco Field), Torrance has been involved in dozens of significant projects over the years, including Microsoft Headquarters, Washington Park Tower, and Insignia Towers, and helped create and build the company now known as CBRE. Click here to watch a video interview with John Torrance. 
 
Finally, each year, our judges recognize projects that make a special impact with the Judges’ Innovation Awards. These honors go to projects that stand out for criteria not strictly required for their category. They are projects make a strong impression on the judges, often transcending categorization. This year, the Judges’ Innovation Award for Regional Impact honors Propeller Airports Paine Field Passenger Terminal, which is enhancing traveler experiences at Paine Field as well as alleviating congestion at Sea-Tac Airport. And the Judges’ Impact Award for Innovation went to 621 Woodland Square Loop SE. The judges appreciated the risks undertaken to revitalize and redevelop a former utility office building into a Class A campus in Lacey, especially in consideration of the potential long-term positive impact on the city.
 
NAIOP Washington State congratulations all nominees, finalists and winners of the 2019 Night of the Stars for achieving tremendous success this year. The association also offers appreciation for the dozens of commercial real estate professionals and firms that participate as sponsors, judges, volunteers, and committee members to make NAIOPWA’s Night of the Stars awards and gala possible each year. Thank you.
 
Visit the Night of the Stars 2019 Project Gallery for project information and photos.
 
Night of the Stars 2019 Winners

Special Honors

Thank you, CREW Seattle and The Registry! On Wednesday night, NAIOP Washington State was honored as the 2019 Association Ally at the second annual Elevate Awards. This honor reflects the work of NAIOPWA’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee to support the objective of providing opportunity and furthering D&I in the CRE industry.

Our Diversity & Inclusion Committee is concluding its second year and has been behind efforts to bring more young and diverse individuals into CRE and NAIOPWA through efforts such as a new D&I internship program, the Hip Hop Architecture program at the UW, and student memberships. The team also hosted chapter events open to anyone involved in CRE interested in learning about increasing opportunities and representation for diverse individuals in our field.

NAIOP WA Announces 2019 Night of the Stars Finalists & First Winner: Best of Industry Honors Projects & Teams that Take Risks & Deliver World-Class Development Results

Third Annual People’s Choice Award with Daily Voting in the NAIOPWA app begins Wednesday, September 18

View the finalists via the NAIOPWA app or click here to open our online project gallery. 

SEATTLE – Announced today, category finalists for NAIOP Washington State’s 2019 Night of the Stars Awards highlight an era of tremendous growth in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest and show how a world-class commercial real estate industry supports the evolution of our region’s businesses, homes, and organizations.

NAIOPWA’s Sustainable Development Committee held its fourth annual Change Makers event on June 27, 2019. The event brings together voices from a diverse group of local change-making organizations making social, environmental, and economic impacts, and establishing Seattle as a leader in sustainable development and beyond. The goal was to pool our collective wisdom, challenge assumptions, reach across boundaries, and explore what's possible when everyone pulls in the same direction.

On June 20, the South Sound Committee, in conjunction with several local, active companies, including Davis Property and Investment, joined in on the Big Invitational, a fundraiser golf/networking event held annually at Washington National Golf Club in Auburn and put on by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound.

Over the years, BBBSPS has worked with the South Sound Committee to keep the tournament specific to commercial real estate, and the excitement in the south-end development market shone strong this year with this twelfth annual Big Invitational selling out more than a month ahead of time and raising over $112,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters!

Most of us know the ports in Washington as little industries within themselves, responsible for Washington’s link to international trade around the globe and the distribution infrastructure of our region. Ports also manage airports and public marinas, and support additional recreational opportunities via parks and open spaces. 

A drought emergency for half of Washington State was declared in April and expanded in May. The drought is expected to impact the Olympic peninsula, the North Cascades, the eastern Cascades and southwest Washington. Seattle, Tacoma and Everett may also experience moderate drought.

The predictions for the year ahead at the annual Broker Forecast were as sunny as the morning itself. The words butterflies and pots of gold, and phrases like riding the top of the wave, were used amid the rising lines of the charts and statistics shared as the three key real estate professionals talked about the aspects driving tenant decisions today and for the year ahead, as well as trends driving the industrial market.

I didn’t think I was surrounded by hockey fans, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

At the March breakfast, we joined the Real Estate Challenge Committee for the culmination of the 16th Annual Challenge with three university teams presenting their proposals for Merlino Properties’ 5th and Bell site, and we heard from four Belltown neighborhood experts on the area’s future growth.

Welcome to the first post of NAIOPWA's new Sustainability Mindset Blog, presented by the Sustainability Committee. The committee would like to further the discussion of sustainability with the greater NAIOPWA community and help nurture a sustainability mindset. We will produce a new post every couple of months, so please check back periodically for your next dose of content. You can also download the NAIOPWA app, follow NAIOPWA on Twitter, and subscribe to NAIOPWA's weekly email updates to be alerted when new posts go live.

Wednesday’s meeting started with the passing of the gavel and official induction of Scott Mathews as the 2019 President of NAIOP Washington State. Scott is the Senior Director, Acquisitions & Residential Development, for Vulcan, Inc. Much gratitude was given to Tony Toppenberg of Turner Construction Company for his service this past year.

Len Psyk is NAIOPWA's lucky 1,000th member! 

Len joined Panattoni Development in October as their Senior Development Manager. Panattoni has developed more than 14 million square feet of industrial, office and build-to-suit projects in the Pacific Northwest, with 4.6 million currently under development. The Seattle office focuses on industrial and office development with 17 active projects from Everett to Portland.  Panattoni was named NAIOP Washington’s Developer of the Year 2017.

Welcome and congratulations to our new members!

NAIOPWA is proud to support more than 1,010 professionals and students in Washington State's commercial real estate community. We provide incomparable membership benefits, more than 40 educational, networking and community support events annually, and supports a beneficial environment for business in the state. 

On Wednesday morning, we heard from three of Seattle’s commercial real estate innovators on their strategies in affordability amid the city’s rapid growth and development.

Who demands multiple mentors, likes working individually and has an attention span of eight seconds? A despondent Gen X’er? Nope. A forgetful Baby Boomer? Nah. Look no further than those born the same year Windows 95 was released. We found out about this generation and their values and expectations at this month’s NAIOPWA breakfast.