NAIOPWA’s Real Estate Challenge Committee is proud to announce the 2021 Site Sponsor, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc! The Real Estate Challenge is a development case competition in which students at three regional universities take on the role of developer. Each year, students focus on a different site and craft creative, innovative development proposals. Teams present their proposals to a panel of notable developers and investors, who adjudicate the winner of the Challenge and recipient of the coveted Bob Filley Cup.

Update & Summary for August 3, 2020: 
The WA Dept. of Ecology's new Expedited VCP, launched on July 1, 2020, is a self-sustaining process with dedicated staff to respond quickly to the needs of developers working under compressed schedules. The time to get through the expedited VCP could be as short as 4 months compared to 18 months (or more) under the regular VCP. The new program also allows moving sites in the regular VCP to the Expedited VCP as long as certain requirements are met.

NAIOP, along with AGC, requested clarification on Governor Inslee's recent “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order as it relates to construction activities. The newly released Construction Guidance Memo is online.

PSU Edges Out UW and UBC for NAIOP Real Estate Challenge Victory

Portland State University won NAIOP Washington’s Real Estate Challenge for the second year in a row, besting both University of British Columbia and University of Washington with a mixed-use multifamily and retail project that featured, among other things, cross laminated timber (CLT). The innovative PSU proposal named The Lighthouse, “pays homage to the history of the Pacific Northwest’s timber industry,” and seeks to cater to the tech innovation playing out in Bellevue.

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.”

Night of the Stars 2018 Winners Include The Spheres, Sanctuary Seattle, Arbora Court and the BLOCK Project

Ada M. Healey inducted to the NAIOP Washington State Hall of Fame inductee in recognition of her contributions to the built environment of Seattle and the Puget Sound 

People’s Choice Award goes to Maritime Building Seismic Upgrade and Renovation

NAIOP WA Announces New App Featuring CRE’s Industry Best with 2018 Night of the Stars Finalists & First Winner

Second Annual People’s Choice Award with Daily Voting Online September 19 - October 12

On July 11, NAIOPWA held our monthly breakfast meeting at the Georgetown Ballroom to learn about the future of urban industrial and take a field trip to the nearby Prologis Georgetown Crossroads, the first multi-level distribution center of its type.

President Tony Toppenberg kicked off the meeting by thanking our breakfast sponsor, Sierra Construction, and our stellar group of annual sponsors. We sincerely thank them for their involvement.

SEATTLE – The NAIOP Research Foundation has released the NAIOP Economic Impacts of Commercial Real Estate report (2018 Edition). The report is conducted for purposes of estimating the annual economic contribution of commercial real estate development to the U.S. economy.

Development and construction of new commercial real estate in the United States – office, industrial, warehouse and retail – generates significant economic growth at the state and national levels. This annual study, “The Economic Impacts of Commercial Real Estate,” published by the NAIOP Research Foundation, measures the contribution to GDP, salaries and wages generated and jobs supported from the development and operations of commercial real estate.

NAIOP Washington State Wins Three National Chapter Merit Awards Honoring Leadership in Government Affairs, Member Growth and Executive Leadership

SEATTLE – At the 2018 NAIOP Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat on February 6, NAIOP Corporate honored NAIOP Washington State with three Chapter Merit Awards, the most awarded to any single large chapter this year. NAIOP’s annual merit awards program evaluates chapter education, government affairs involvement, member recruitment and retention, communications, and chapter management. NAIOP Washington State won recognition for its Legislative/Government Affairs efforts; for membership growth, with the greatest number of new members in 2017; and for leadership, with Executive of the Year going to NAIOPWA Executive Director Peggi Lewis Fu. 

In 2017, NAIOPWA, led by its Government Affairs Committee, made significant impacts on state and local legislation affecting the business environment and commercial real estate; helped elect business-friendly leaders, including Mayor Jenny Durkan; and expanded outreach beyond Seattle with its first eastside mayors and elected officials event, and plans to broaden into Snohomish county as well. 

NAIOP WA's Real Estate Challenge is an annual contest matching teams from real estate programs at Portland State University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Washington in a competition that focuses on a development/redevelopment project in the Puget Sound area. Teams are tasked with forming a proposed investment strategy based on the site sponsor’s needs.

NAIOP WA is pleased to announce the City of Tacoma as the site sponsor for this year’s Real Estate Challenge. The 0.56 acre property, located at 728 Market Street in downtown Tacoma, is zoned Downtown Commercial Core, providing teams with an opportunity to evaluate market-rate urban development consistent with Tacoma’s urban design guidelines.

Night of the Stars 2017 Winners Include Weyerhaeuser Headquarters, UW’s Global Innovation Exchange, Expedia’s 645 Elliot and the Marion West

Inaugural People’s Choice Award voted by the CRE community goes to Atlas Workbase

Douglas Howe is honored as 2017 Hall of Fame inductee in recognition of his contributions to the built environment of Seattle and the Puget Sound 

Visit the Night of the Stars 2017 gallery.

SEATTLE – Announced on Friday, November 3, at the annual gala, NAIOP Washington State’s 2017 Night of the Stars Awards highlight the Northwest’s highly competitive development environment. Seattle tops national crane counts and available land is scarce; tenants require sustainability, from salmon-safe buildings to indoor forests, and the community requires accommodations for increased housing and growing industry. The winners represent how the development community continues to find creative, sustainable solutions to fit the needs of the growing and maturing Puget Sound market.

Each year, NAIOP’s Night of the Stars identifies outstanding real estate developments and activities in a variety of market types and the individuals who conceived of, took risks, sponsored, supported and made the projects happen. The awards aim to honor entire teams, including all who contributed to the project’s success in this annual celebration of the industry. Projects are evaluated for impact on the community, market adaptability, ingenuity and local contributions. All nominations and winners are viewable via the new NAIOP WA app, which is designed to transform how the Northwest commercial real estate community networks.

In addition to nominated projects, each year, an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the industry is selected for induction into the NAIOP Washington State Hall of Fame. This year, Douglas Howe joins the ranks of the vaunted for his contributions to Seattle and the Northwest’s built environment, as well as to the NAIOP organization. As founder and Chief Executive Officer of Touchstone, Douglas built a reputation developing commercial office, biotechnology R & D, retail and hotel properties that make a positive impact on the built environment—whether restoring historical landmark structures or constructing award winning, architecturally distinctive new buildings. Currently, Douglas is Governor of the NAIOP Research Foundation; he served as Chairman of NAIOP in 2009 and as President of NAIOP Washington State in 2004. Read more about Douglas Howe.

Visit the Night of the Stars 2017 gallery.

Lanzi Li is Associate Project Manager with Heartland, a small, Seattle-based commercial real estate advisory firm that has been around for 30 years. Heartland’s portfolio of advisory projects encompasses the full range of economic sectors, real estate product types, geographies and client types. Despite the variety of contexts, we are advisors first and work with our clients from strategy development to analytics and on through implementation.

As NAIOP WA's 900th member, Lanzi received this opportunity to be featured on the NAIOP WA blog and in our newsletter, as well as a season pass to our 2018 breakfast meetings. Who will be our 1,000th member? Join today for your chance to be featured and receive a special event registration bonus.

SEATTLE – In a reflection of Seattle and the Puget Sound region’s strong commercial real estate activity, NAIOP Washington State recently became the fourth-largest chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate association.

NAIOP Washington State is committed to members’ professional success and to an overall, long-term positive environment for business and development in the region.

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

The 2017 session of the Washington State Legislature is now in its second 30-day special session in order to find agreement on the level and sources of funding for the McCleary decision to fully fund K-12 education. The legislature is expected to reach agreement by the end of the special session on June 21, or by June 30, the final day of the current biennium.

The Washington Supreme Court ruled in McCleary that school districts’ reliance on local levies, and the ability of local communities to pay for those levies, varied dramatically around the state and resulted in inequitable funding of K-12 education. The legislature’s challenge has been to equitably fund education statewide.

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:

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: