Seattle 2016 Forecast

Over the past six decades, Martin Selig has turned his two person company into a billion dollar enterprise. He’s built his business (and much of the city) from the ground up, and he’s not stopping anytime soon. So what’s his secret to doing business? Martin won’t tell, but some might say it’s the structure of his company: everything comes back to him. Where some developers have boards, partners, and commissions, Martin and Martin alone is at the helm of his ship. This enables him to make quick decisions and never keep people waiting. His advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs? Do it how he did: Jump in the deep and and see if you can swim. While most people are either creative types or number gurus, Martin is an anomaly: he’s a creative spirit with billionaire business sense. His door is always open, and if his team needs anything, they need only enter his corner office with glass walls and a bird’s eye view of the city he’s built. Compared to other commercial real estate companies, he adds, his team has a lot more fun. Martin’s favorite project is always his current project, and he’s happiest when there’s a hole in the ground, on its way to becoming the next addition to Seattle’s skyline. He’s also an artist and art connoisseur. He’s made many contributions to Seattle’s art scene, from the giant popsicle statue outside his property on 4th and Blanchard, to “Adam” by Fernando Botero outside the old Federal Reserve Building, to the John Henry “Songbird” Sculpture at 5th and Yesler, to the Barbara Hepworth “Three Obliques” at 645 Elliott, and the list goes on. Martin got into the real estate business in 1958 because “he didn’t trust the stock market.” His team likens him to The Wizard of Oz and Walt Disney: someone with unparalleled imagination who’s unafraid to think outside the box. If he has a goal, he won’t stop until he’s achieved it. They say the reason for the company’s success is easy: it’s Martin. There’s only one Martin Selig. Though Martin has called the Emerald City home for his entire life, he wasn’t born here: he and his family escaped Nazi Germany in 1940 by sneaking onto the Trans Siberian Railroad. They travelled through Europe and Asia by train, then boarded a boat bound for San Francisco from Japan. When their ship entered Elliott Bay the mountains were out and the sun was shining, so on a whim, his family ended their journey in Seattle. This place is Martin’s home, and he’s been here ever since. In his spare time, he enjoys riding motorcycles, skiing, and painting.

Yes, Bisnow’s the name of a real person. Right up there with Sol Price starting the Price Club. Don’t think there was a Mr. Sizzler, however. Mark started out very cool, growing up in LA. Even when he went to Stanford and Harvard Law School, he wore jeans and cutoffs. Then he came to DC, where he wore three piece suits. Fortunately no pictures of him exist from this period. He worked for Congressmen and Senators a few years, helped run a presidential campaign (unsuccessful), became a lawyer at Latham & Watkins (perfecting his skill at footnotes), went into the corporate world as Asst. to the CEO of USAir, General Counsel of United Express, Chief of Staff at Microstrategy, and Chief Marketing Officer at WebMethods. He still wouldn’t recognize a piece of software if it hit him over the head. (He doesn’t know if it can even do that.) But armed with a faint understanding of P&Ls, he was emboldened to become an entrepreneur, first doing Bisnow on Business shows on WTOP in the late 1990s and then around 2004 starting the Bisnow daily email newsletters in a variety of industries, finally focusing on commercial real estate. It was the one industry where you could feel productive if you spent your time eating and schmoozing. However, after expanding Bisnow Media into 40 major metros across the country, he found he was spending more time on HR than schmoozing, so he sold the company in 2016. Since then, he has been in training to be a grumpy old man, but he is having trouble with the grumpy part.

With more than 35 years with the City of Seattle – including 13 in the variously-named planning offices and projects, and 11 in a primarily regulatory agency, Diane has come full circle. Since 2002, she has led the agency that combines both – Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development. The department is responsible for the full-range of development activities from long-range and comprehensive planning, to policy and code development, plan review, permit issuance, inspections and enforcement. Diane was named an Honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle in 2005; was a member of the Green Building Advisory Group for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America; was named a finalist for the 2007 BetterBricks “Advocate” Award; 2007 Public Employee of the Year awarded jointly by the local chapters of Master Builders Association and the American Planning Association; named a Living Building Hero and a Cascadia Green Building Council Fellow, both in 2013. Diane has degrees from the University of Washington and Oregon State University. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Seattle, and is on the Board of Trustees for the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. Previous employment includes City of Bellevue and the University of Washington.

NATHAN TORGELSON has dedicated his career in the public sector to improving communities and the built environment. Nathan was appointed to be Director of the City of Seattle’s Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) in January 2016. Nathan leads a staff of 460, with a budget of $109 million, who are responsible for the City’s permitting, code compliance and land use code development work. Previously Nathan was Deputy Director of the City’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD), and led the long range planning and community engagement divisions. Nathan has held a variety of other positions at the City of Seattle, including working on community development issues for former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, working at the Office of Economic Development, and working on Seattle’s waterfront project for Seattle Parks and Recreation. Nathan also served as the Economic Development Director for four years for the City of Kent. A native of Minnesota, Nathan has a Master’s Degree in City Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a graduate of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Northwest Center for Sustainable Leadership and was a ULI Rose Center Fellow. He also is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Certificate Program in Commercial Real Estate.

As Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Callahan drives the vision, strategy and overall direction at Urban Renaissance Group (URG), a full-service commercial real estate operating company with approximately 6.2 million square feet of office space, nearly 80 employees and multiple award-winning acquisitions and redevelopments. With more than twenty years’ experience in the real estate industry, Patrick has been directly involved in numerous multi-million dollar lease transactions, acquisitions, development projects, assimilations, asset repositions and renovations. His firm has placed more than $500 million in capital on behalf of clients in downtown Seattle and Portland in the last 24 months alone. Prior to founding URG in 2006, Patrick held numerous key roles at Equity Office Properties Trust (EOP). As Senior Vice President, he oversaw a business unit of 18 million square feet, 114 buildings, 300 employees and more than $450 million in revenues in Seattle and Bellevue, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; and Denver, Co. He was also directly involved in more than 30 million square feet of acquisitions and 2.5 million square feet of completed development projects across nine markets. He played a significant role in one of the largest transactions in U.S. history when EOP acquired Spieker Properties for $7.2 billion in February 2001.

Mr. McGovern has over 20 years of finance and real estate experience involving high rise commercial development and real estate private equity. While at Security Properties he has syndicated or raised real estate debt and equity funds from high net worth investors, institutions and family offices that contributed to the capitalization of over $1 Billion of multifamily real estate. His career has involved both investment and disposition roles in office, hotel, retail and multifamily real estate for both ground up development and acquisition rehab projects. Prior to joining Security Properties in 2009, Mr. McGovern held real estate development and investment roles with Schnitzer Northwest and Bentall Kennedy, as well positions in investment banking. He has been responsible for the development and leasing of over two million square feet of commercial real estate in the Pacific Northwest. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in History from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MBA from Columbia University and a Certificate in Construction Management from the University of Washington. He currently serves as a Board Member and Adjunct Professor for the University of Washington Runstad Master Science in Real Estate program. He was recently selected to the Corporate Board of Directors for NAIOP.

“My People used to say, when a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he's come from, where he's headed. That way, he'll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you'll be such good friends, you don't care.” Bashar Wali is a founder, a father, and a hotel fanatic. He’s a pragmatist—hungry to experience life not as it is packaged and sold, but as it is. His vested interest in hospitality, culture, and design, is cut with curiosity of what’s possible, beyond the status quo. Bashar is always looking for that spark—that perfect symmetry of an idea and its physical manifestation—to make human experiences as we know them, better. He’s the consummate Host of the Soirée—ever in pursuit of a shared humanity among friends, colleagues, and total strangers. This is perhaps his greatest gift: bringing together a group that’s more inspiring than the sum of its parts. As founder and CEO of This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar draws upon expertise honed over a 30-year career in hospitality. An expert in the lifestyle space, Bashar is known for pushing limits in his philosopher-meets-hotelier kind of way. Whether helming the TEDx stage, hosting a Global YPO event, or collaborating on Clubhouse, Bashar’s message is unwavering: service is what you deliver, hospitality is how you make people feel. Bashar has done every job in a hotel—from frying an egg to negotiating a deal—working for Starwood Hotels before leading acquisitions and development globally at Grand Heritage Hotels. Prior to launching This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar served as President/CEO of Provenance Hotels, where he remains a partner, for 15 years, growing the company from five to 15 hotels, 1,500 team members, and expanding the collection from the Pacific Northwest to an award-winning national brand, with annual revenue in excess of $150 million. When Bashar isn’t traveling to 50+ countries and 45+ states, he’s home in Portland, Oregon with his wife and kids, dreaming up the hotels of tomorrow.

Bart Brynestad has more than 30 years of experience in development, construction and leasing of industrial, office and retail projects. As partner in Seattle, Bart is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the development process, including land acquisition, finance, design, permitting, marketing, leasing and the sale of each project. Bart’s leadership and coaching ability has helped Panattoni quickly become one of the busiest developers in the Pacific Northwest. Projects for which Bart has been responsible have totaled more than 7.5 million square feet.

Lisa LaManna, Senior Vice President of Retail North, brings over 20 years of commercial real estate experience to Harsch Investment Properties. Ms. LaManna has closed more than $875 million in institutional and private client investment and shopping center sales. Formerly a founding member and principal broker of Pate LaManna Commercial, LLC, a boutique commercial real estate firm in Portland, Lisa specialized in investment sales and leasing services of retail properties and shopping centers throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. Prior to that, she led the CBRE Investment Services Group for Portland, worked with Colliers International in the San Francisco Bay Area, and specialized in the valuation of institutional quality retail properties for Cushman & Wakefield in California, where her combined valuations exceeded $3 billion of commercial properties statewide.

In his real estate practice, Matt represents local and national developers, builders and lenders in all aspects of acquisition, development, financing, construction, leasing, and disposition for single and multi-family residential, mixed-use, office, and retail projects—with a focus on creative, cost-efficient results. He creates private equity and debt funds for private regional lenders and other real estate-related companies, and assists them on completing a range of financing transactions. Matt’s work often involves large, complex projects such as assisting Chris Hansen and his affiliates in the assessment, procurement and financing of a property portfolio for development and construction of a new multi-modal use sports arena complex in the SODO district of Seattle, and representing King County in its coordinated sale and ongoing operation of real estate for the expansion of the Washington State Convention Center. As CH&’s Managing Partner, Matt leads the firm’s business success, and has successfully developed and implemented the firm’s strategic plan. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm, including supervision and oversight of the firm’s administrative, financial, technological, and business development functions. Matt cares deeply about Seattle and the Puget Sound region. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels appointed Matt to serve on the Council for Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority (PDA), a public corporation chartered by the City of Seattle in 1973 which owns, operates, and manages the properties in the nine-acre Pike Place Market Historic District. Matt is now the chair of the PDA Council.