Middle Market Digest: This Week in the North West

This week in the North West region, the Portland market stayed at the forefront of national trends in retail during the second quarter of 2017. Also in Portland, as part of a neighborhood revitalization initiative, approximately 21 CBRE employees in Portland, Oregon and eight employees from vendor partners teamed up with Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East to help volunteer at Helensview. Check out all the news you might have missed below.—Natalie Dolce

BY THE NUMBERS

PORTLAND—According to a recent report from Kidder Mathews, the Portland market stayed at the forefront of national trends in retail during the second quarter of 2017, enjoying 234,871 square feet of positive net absorption. Vacancies held at 4.1%, as fitness centers, food halls, breweries, and other non-traditional establishments supplanted brick-and- mortar stores to keep vacancies low in the area's retail corridors and shopping centers. Meanwhile, local and national investors reaffirmed the strength of metro Portland's retail assets, trading single-tenant properties with nationally known tenants at cap rates below 6%, while well located shopping centers achieved more than $200/sf. Rental rates have risen by an average of 6.2% year over year, to $19.05 NNN marketwide, with desirable offerings in Portland CBD and the Lloyd District asking over $25 NNN.

NEWS & NOTABLES

SEATTLE—Transwestern has added David Easton as VP in the firm's asset services group. In this role, he will work with Transwestern to expand agency leasing and asset services throughout the Puget Sound market. “David's broad range of experience and extensive contacts in the industry will allow us to continue to expand our full-service platform and add additional brokerage capacity to our operations in the Greater Puget Sound area,” said Senior Vice President Mark Jackson, who leads operations for Transwestern in Seattle. During his 25-year career, Easton has focused on property repositioning and leasing. Most recently, he served as partner at Madison Bay Commercial, where his team secured an IDIQ (Indefinite Duration, Indefinite Quantity) contract with the Port of Seattle to support the Port with all its real estate needs, including leasing, cost analysis, appraisals, sustainability and dispositions. PORTLAND—As part of a neighborhood revitalization initiative, approximately 21 CBRE employees in Portland, Oregon and eight employees from vendor partners teamed up with Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East to help volunteer at Helensview, a new 21-home development in the Cully neighborhood of northeast Portland. This “Build Day,” the second this year, took place on June 9th, with employees from across the Portland market coming together to volunteer. Originally the site of a 40-home project by former nonprofit HOST, Habitat stepped in to complete the project once it became apparent that HOST would be unable to finish the work. Upon completion, Helensview will provide 3-bedroom, low-income home purchase opportunities for residents likely to be displaced by gentrification to continue to live in the neighborhood.

SAN FRANCISCO—Sack Properties, a San Francisco-based real estate investment and management firm with a $500 million portfolio of nearly 1,500 multifamily units throughout California has hired David Feinberg as the firm's director of acquisitions and dispositions. David joins Sack after seven years as vice president of acquisitions with Sares-Regis where he closed on $333 million in apartment transactions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. He is now responsible for all of Sack's acquisition and disposition activities, including hiring an analyst to expand this team.
DEAL TRACKER

PORTLAND—Bixby Land Co. has purchased the Marquam Building, a 75,000-square-foot, five-story office building at 2501 Southwest 1^st Avenue in Portland for $10.8 million. The purchase continues Bixby's investment strategy in the Pacific Northwest, where the Newport Beach, California-based investor and developer has shown increasing interest in acquiring both value add office and fully-leased industrial buildings. Chris Johnson of Colliers International represented Bixby in the transaction, while the seller, OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation, represented itself. The Marquam Building acquisition completes the assemblage of a three-building campus, following Bixby's December 2016 purchase of CDK Plaza for $33.4 million. Bixby is underway with an extensive $8 million redevelopment that will transform the project into a progressive work environment, similar to the manner in which the company has redesigned more than 30 office buildings in West Coast markets since 2010.

BUILDING BLOCKS

SEATTLE—Pastakia + Associates, a Seattle-based property development firm specializing in mixed-use, urban infill projects within the Puget Sound area, recently revealed its newest project in Seattle's lower Queen Anne neighborhood. Located at 429 2^nd Avenue W. on the corner of 2^nd Avenue W. and W. Republican, the seven-story, 114,700-square-foot Zella Apartments building is slated to break ground in July 2017. The building includes 128 apartment homes and 29 floor plans for its mix of one-and-two bedroom apartments About 38 of the units will be live/work spaces.  Zella also features 52 parking stalls on two levels below grade, accessed from the alley, as well as secure space for 33 bicycles.