Kemper Bares It All

Show it to them, and they’ll lease. (Business is a lot easier than people are making it.) That’s Eastside Bellevue developer extraordinaire Kemper Freeman’s thinking when it comes to attracting tenants to the new expansion of Lincoln Square and Bellevue Square.

Kemper’s known for the volumes of research his company does before undertaking anything new, and that’s certainly the case with the 550 apartments, 700k SF of office, 350k SF of retail and restaurants, and 500 hotel rooms in two properties he’s developing, starting this summer. But he tells us that the goal is to have all of that space leased by the time it’s complete in about three and a half years. How? Allow would-be tenants to visualize their space in great detail. (They should try hypnosis.)

“Nine out of 10 people aren’t very good at visualizing something that isn’t in front of them,” Kemper tells us. To help them visualize, Kemper unveiled plans recently for the 4,100 SF Studio Expansion Experience Center, which he calls an “experiential” sales center with “technology that didn’t exist only a few years ago.” SoCal-based Voyager Group developed custom software for the facility. The studio’s main feature is a model of Kemper Freeman’s 50 acres, which can be lit up by floor or specific space. Near the model are floor-to-ceiling screens that can show the view from anywhere in any of the future buildings, along with how any interior space looks in 3D. (And you thought Minority Report was only a movie.)