2015: Reflecting on an Amazing Year
4 Notable Transactions
- Time of the Essence on this Prime Retail Location Refi in Redmond, WA
- Price Break for Quick Close on High Demand Apartment Building in Beacon Hill (Seattle), WA
- Refi on Non-Income Producing Commercial in High Traffic Location in San Diego, CA
- Renovation of Commercial Building in Honolulu, HI
Trends We Saw
In Seattle, single family home sales were very strong through 2015. The city experienced a pretty substantial population bump, one of the biggest since 2008 according to the Seattle Times. In addition to housing, the tech industry did very well with companies relocating from Silicon Valley. Not to mention places like Bothell, Washington receiving a higher volume of life science companies because of the lower priced lab space there.
2016: Goals Moving Forward into the New Year
SFG Fund 7
First and foremost, we are extremely excited about Fund VII opening this year. It has been an arduous process, but Fund VII will open February of this year. Check out the new site for Fund VII that investors will be able to login, view the status of their account and see all portfolio statistics.
Happenings in Seattle & San Diego, Our Markets
Starting with Seattle, we’re still seeing a lot of tech companies moving to the area. The Bay Area is expensive, so many startups and companies within the technology industry are opting to come to the Pacific Northwest. However, with the ever increasing movers to Seattle, it puts more and more stress on our infrastructure. At least Christmas came early this year with Big Bertha finally getting her blades going. At SFG (Seattle especially) we have seen a much higher volume of International Investors these last couple years–something we expect to continue into the new year. Finally, housing in Seattle continues to surge—Apartments/Multifamily in Seattle is extremely hot right now. It will be interesting to see how the market continues to grow into the new year.
Aside from our friends down at the San Diego office praying to keep their Bolts from leaving town, this is what is keeping spirits high in San Diego for 2016. This past year America’s Finest City had record breaking 9.9 billion in tourism spending, booked a record number of upcoming events at the Convention Center (everything from Comic-Con, to America’s Got Talent Auditions, to the San Diego Quilt Show), and finally got its first De-Sal plant up and running–bringing water to a long California drought. Hopefully all of this will have a very positive effect on the economy moving into this first quarter.
Branching into the Phoenix Marketplace
Lastly, we are really looking forward to working our way into the Phoenix market thus expanding our reach throughout the West Coast. We expect SFG to have a Phoenix office by summer 2016. Back in August we featured a sale in Phoenix, as well as highlighted the development growth in Tempe. It’s no secret we’ve been keeping a close eye on Arizona over the years following the financial crisis, and we are now looking at projects in and around Phoenix. So let us know how Seattle Funding Group can help you in the desert!
