Office Set to Sizzle Again
Retail isn’t the only Seattle property type that’s going to have a gangbuster 2015: office will too. Patrick Callahan, now CEO of both Urban Renaissance Group (URG) and Touchstone, tells us that this year, developers will push to get office buildings online faster to meet ongoing demand. Office rents hit record highs in Downtown Bellevue and Seattle last year, and Patrick believes rents will continue to increase "as absorption exceeds new delivery, including all current office projects underway." Just ahead of the holidays, Seattle-based URG acquired Touchstone, which is currently developing office properties including the 300k SF Hill7, the 210k SF NorthEdge, the 300k SF Tilt 49 and the 817k SF Troy Block, as well as a Hilton Garden Inn and the Everett Marriott Courtyard (Touchstone's owners are remaining as URG general partners, seeing these through completion).
