Challenge

Nordstrom, Inc. decided to consolidate their Seattle distribution facilities to Portland, Oregon which created a 162,000 SF building in Tukwila that was considered excess property. The challenge was to achieve the highest value in a relatively soft real estate market and a soft Seattle economy. The building was going to be vacated by Nordstrom. Because of its lack of dock high loading doors, small maneuvering room for trucks, and difficulty in making the building a multi-tenant facility, this property would not be appealing to an institutional buyer.

 

Strategy

By listening well and establishing a range of value that would be acceptable to Nordstrom, we developed a plan to market the building. Our strategy was to market the building to qualified buyers and concurrently market the building to tenants also. Our goal was to find a pre-lease tenant which would make the building more valuable and create a higher value for Nordstrom.

 

Results

With our outstanding market knowledge of the Kent Valley market place, we realized the attractiveness that this building could have to bulk retailers. By marketing, to bulk retail tenants, we were able to successfully pre-lease 75,000 SF of the building to United Furniture Warehouse on a ten-year lease-term. This tenant made the building more attractive to prospective purchasers. By pursuing the most qualified buyer of this project, we were able to procure Hill Raum Pietromonaco as the purchaser of the building at market price. Nordstrom was delighted with the sales price and the timeliness of the transaction.