Bellevue developer sees a Bravern new world of opportunities

Bellevue planners this month approved a 12-story residential project across busy Northeast Eighth Street from the brand-new, four-tower Bravern complex.

Trouble is, that's not what the property's owners want to build anymore. Instead, sparked partly by the posh Bravern project — with Neiman Marcus and Microsoft as major tenants — the developers see bigger opportunities.

Denver-based ProNet Capital, which controls the one-acre vacant lot in the middle of the block on Eighth between 110th and 112th avenues Northeast, is talking about a 23-story, mixed-use tower that could include shops, a hotel, medical offices and condos.

Nothing's for certain yet, say ProNet principals Matt McDonald and Scott Boatman, but the site definitely won't become an apartment complex, the most recent plan.

The property was acquired in 2007 by ProNet, which calls itself a "boutique private-equity firm focusing primarily on real estate and development opportunities," and Tonsing Properties of San Francisco.

They quickly proposed a 12-story, 240-unit condo tower they called Vida, noteworthy largely for the small size — and price — of its units: some as small as 400 square feet, as inexpensive as $275,000.

But then the real-estate market imploded, and Tonsing principal Ray Tonsing said last fall that Vida would be converted to apartments to increase the odds of getting financing.

Since then ProNet has bought out Tonsing, and Boatman and McDonald say mixed-use is the way to go.

The downtown Bellevue apartment market has become somewhat saturated, they say.

And mixed-use projects are easier to finance now than pure residential, says Dean Jones of the Seattle condo-marketing firm Realogics, who is working with ProNet.

Boatman says ProNet has spoken with some downtown Bellevue employers about buying condos in bulk in the new tower to host guests or employees visiting from other cities.

He says they've approached The Bravern's owner, Schnitzer West, and Su Development, which has built apartment towers to the Northeast, about the possibility of skybridges between the buildings.

ProNet hopes to have a plan by early next year, Boatman says.

Whatever that is, he adds, it almost certainly will entail more work with Bellevue's planners.

— Eric Pryne

Forbes ranks state second-best for doing business

Magazines love lists, and we love reading about ourselves, especially when we come out near the top.

Which brings us to Forbes' annual ranking of the best states for business.

The list, which came out last week, pegged Washington as the second-best state in the country in which to do business, behind only Virginia.

The second-place finish came despite Washington's middling ranking (27th) on business costs, including labor, energy and taxes — the category weighted most heavily in Forbes' ranking.

The state also landed in the middle in the "quality-of-life" category, which covers schools, health, crime, poverty rates and cost of living.

But Washington topped the country when it came to projected economic growth, and came in the top five in the magazine's three other categories: labor-force quality and quantity, regulatory environment and general economic climate.

The full set of rankings can be found at http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/23/best-states-for-business-beltway-best-states_table.html.

— Drew DeSilver

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