Big development on lot near Qwest Field could start in next year

Decades-old dreams of building something big on part of the sprawling parking lot north of Qwest Field took a big step forward this month when the Seattle City Council approved zoning changes paving the way for redevelopment.

But developer Kevin Daniels isn't resting on that accomplishment. He says he expects to complete environmental work and receive a land-use permit from the city by early fall.

Nor is the president of development firm Nitze-Stagen content to wait out the recession. "I'd like to move forward with some of it now," Daniels says.

The first phase or two of a proposed 1.5-million square-foot development on the north half of the north lot could break ground next year, he says — if the financing market loosens up.

The project's design still is being fine-tuned. But ultimately, Daniels says, it could include four towers up to 240 feet tall with nearly 700 apartments and condos, 420,000 square feet of office space and 33,000 square feet of retail.

King County, which owns the4-acre property along South King Street between Occidental Avenue South and the railroad tracks, agreed to sell it to partners Nitze-Stagen and Opus Northwest two years ago. Many say its redevelopment is a key to revitalizing Pioneer Square.

Daniels says the first components to get built most likely would be 100 units of "affordable" housing the county has required, and/or the "podiums" beneath the proposed towers, containing parking, shops and some housing.

"The only thing we don't know is the [capital] market," he says. "If it was two or three years ago, we'd be full speed ahead."

The site offers a lot, Daniels says: historic Pioneer Square, the stadiums, views and the best access to transit in the region.

"It's where I'm going to live," he says.

— Eric Pryne

Tracking Dean's penny stocks

After this column last month laid out the pattern of flimsy Ukranian and Russian startup companies taken public by Seattle and Vancouver lawyer Faiyaz Dean, the trail was picked up by The Vancouver Sun's intrepid investigator of stock manipulation, David Baines.

His research bolsters the thesis advanced here that Dean's pipeline of implausible enterprises functions as "an Eastern European assembly line producing shell companies ready-made for penny-stock promoters."

Baines reported that people stepping into top spots at two of the companies are known to British Columbia regulators — and not in a good way.

One of those companies, as reported here, started out as Green Bikes Rental Corp. of Ternopil, Ukraine, and became Affinity Mediaworks, whose shares were touted last month in e-mails suggesting it was on the brink of big movie deals.

Baines recently reported that Scott Cramer, CEO of Affinity, is "a former mutual-fund salesman whose family-owned financial-planning firm, IDF Financial Services, was shut down by the B.C. Securities Commission in 2001 for multiple violations resulting in millions of dollars of investor losses."

Though Cramer was not accused of wrongdoing, his father and two brothers were kicked out of the B.C. securities market for periods ranging from eight to 12 years, Baines reported.

Another of Dean's companies, Plethora Resources, became Sync2 Networks, which says it creates and runs Web sites. Baines reports that Sync2's own Web site listed Piers Van Ziffle as its CEO and acting president, identifying him as a "chartered accountant" — until The Vancouver Sun reported that in 1990 he'd been expelled from the B.C. Institute of Chartered Accountants after he was found to have falsified the books of a publicly traded company, Marathon Minerals. Now he's listed as running a subsidiary.

Why bother putting together these shell companies with Eastern European business plans and executives if they will soon be replaced?

"I believe the real purpose is to create shell companies whose shares are tightly held and, therefore, easily manipulated. This makes them perfect vehicles for future 'pump and dump' stock schemes," Baines writes.

— Rami Grunbaum

Comments? Send them to Rami Grunbaum: rgrunbaum@seattletimes.com or 206-464-8541