Be humble and always be flexible.

Anyone who knows Douglas Howe knows that his charismatic personality, dedication to his craft and keen business sense have made his success what it is today. His passion to develop buildings that make a positive impact on the built environment, his humility and the ardent viewpoint that he’s a student of his field even after forty years are also hallmarks of his tenure—one that’s made a significant difference to the Seattle urban core and the Puget Sound region.

NAIOP Washington State will honor and induct Douglas Howe, founder and former CEO of Touchstone, into its Hall of Fame at the 2017 Night of the Stars awards. The Hall of Fame was created to recognize the people who laid the groundwork for the industry today and have helped shape the character of the region and the great cities in Washington. Under Douglas’ leadership, Touchstone has broken ground on 12 projects comprising nearly three million square feet and is currently developing two million square feet of real estate.

NAIOP WA Announces New App Featuring CRE’s Industry Best with 2017 Night of the Stars Finalists & Hall of Fame Inductee Douglas Howe

New for 2017: People’s Choice Award with Daily Voting Online | Douglas Howe to be honored as 2017 Hall of Fame inductee in recognition of his contributions to the built environment of Seattle and the Puget Sound and to NAIOP

Our June Breakfast Meeting, It’s All About the Experience, explored the design drivers for residential, retail and commercial. The breakfast was sponsored by Juniper Capital, Rushing and Graphite Design. We sincerely thank them for their support.

President Kristin Jensen related information about a NAIOP Washington State PAC fundraiser on June 28. She also spoke about the real estate excise tax potential increase. We had a new member update and heard about the Property Tour that will take place in Bellevue on July 20.

This was a tough one! We have participated in and to a large extent driven the tremendous real estate expansion in Seattle and that’s a good thing! However, there can be unintended consequences and in our May Breakfast we explored one of those consequences: Homelessness. The Breakfast was sponsored by Lake Union Partners, Runberg Architecture Group, and Rushing. We sincerely thank them for their continued support.

President Kristin Jensen related information about the annual NAIOP Washington State PAC fundraiser on June 28. She also welcomed our new members. We heard about the Summer Social on August 14 at The Golf Club at Newcastle and received a presentation on the 2017 Real Estate Challenge, which was held in British Columbia.

Richard Kendall, General Manager, Allison+Partners moderated our panel which included:

In a very highly attended event, the annual Broker’s Forecast was presented to our Breakfast attendees on April 26. The breakfast was sponsored by Rushing, LBA Realty, O’Keefe Development and Sellen Construction - we sincerely thank them for their continued support. President Kristin Jensen began the meeting and gave the assembly an update on new members and introduced Kris Beason who gave some background on Sellen. John Swanson from Umpqua Bank also made a short presentation. We heard about the Community Enhancement Project which will be on September 30 at Farmer Frog in Woodinville.

Rob Swartz, Senior VP of Kilroy Realty, moderated our panel and introduced our esteemed panelists:

On Wednesday, March 15, breakfast meeting attendees were treated to a lively discussion of the Seattle residential real estate market. The breakfast was sponsored by Moss Adams and Pyatt/Broadmark Management - we sincerely thank them for their continued support. President Kristin Jensen gave the assembly an update on the latest economic impact numbers from the commercial real estate industry in Washington State and across the country, and we also met new members. Additionally, we heard an update on the national board of directors from our local liaisons to that board.

Report: Commercial Real Estate in Washington State Supported 43,130 Jobs and $6.3 Billion of GDP in 2016

SEATTLE – In late February, the NAIOP Research Foundation released the NAIOP Economic Impacts of Commercial Real Estate report (2017 Edition). The report is conducted for purposes of estimating the annual economic contribution of commercial real estate development to the U.S. economy. 

National highlights from the 2017 report include:

• Commercial real estate development supported 6.3* million American jobs in 2016 (a measure of both new and existing jobs).
• Commercial real estate development contributed $465 billion to the GDP* in 2016.
• There were 410.1 million square feet of commercial real estate space built in 2016, with capacity to house 1.1 million new workers.

Locally, 2016 economic impacts in Washington State included: 

On Wednesday, February 15, attendees of the monthly Breakfast meeting were treated to the annual Capital Markets Forecast, sponsored by JLL, Andersen Construction, and Umpqua Bank. We sincerely thank our sponsors for their continued support.

We all know that Seattle is booming. In our November breakfast we heard about three neighborhoods that are contributing to that boom—in fact, they’re thriving!

Our sponsors were:

Data met Dickens in our September Breakfast, “A Tale of Two Cities,” dealing with how the haves and have-nots are faring in a changing commercial real estate market.

Teutsch Partners, Holberg Company, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, and GeoEngineers sponsored the meeting and we appreciate their continued support.